Fleetwood Mac - 1975 King Biscuit Flower Hour (KBFH) Radio Show (CD Source)

Fleetwood Mac was originally an English blues band formed in 1967 in London by Peter Green after working with Mick Fleetwood and John McVie in John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers – although McVie’s spot was temporarily filled on early gigs and the first single by Bob Brunning. After adding talented slide player Jeremy Spencer, the band recorded two no-frills blues albums, Fleetwood Mac and Mr Wonderful. Green soon began to see the limitations of this format and after the addition of third guitarist Danny Kirwan began to move the band towards other styles including blues-rock and hard rock on the third album Then Play On, the recording of which Spencer was largely sidelined from although he remained a member of the band. After Green departed as a result of mental health problems, Spencer and Kirwan lead the band on the next album Kiln House before Spencer departed for religious reasons to be replaced by the band’s first American member, Bob Welch. The band was also officially joined by McVie’s wife Christine, and the trio of Kirwan, Spencer and Mrs McVie would lead the band for two albums, Future Games and Bare Trees, after which Kirwan was asked to leave due to deteriorating mental health related to alcoholism. He was replaced by vocalist Dave Walker who recorded two songs on next album Penguin but was sacked after the following tour due to incompatibility and guitarist Bob Weston who lasted for Penguin and Mystery To Me before being dismissed for allegedly having an affair with Fleetwood’s wife. The quartet of Fleetwood, McVie, McVie and Welch made one further album Heroes Are Hard To Find before Welch departed citing exhaustion. While scouting recording studios in California, Fleetwood was played a track from the virtually unknown self-titled debut by Americans Lindsey Buckingham and Stephanie “Stevie” Nicks. Fleetwood then asked Buckingham to join Fleetwood Mac, which he only agreed to do on the basis that his partner Nicks join as well. This created the most successful and most enduring line-up of the band.

The album presented here is a live recording from the 1975 first tour by the new line-up, sourced from the 1990s CD distributed by King Biscuit Flower Hour for broadcast by radio stations in the US. As they had not yet established themselves let alone reached the mega-stardom that came with their next album Rumours, the band plays a mixture of songs from the current album, which was also entitled Fleetwood Mac, and from earlier line-ups, as well as one from the Buckingham Nicks album. The original uploader has edited out the adverts and announcer breaks that were built in to the original CD so that the version offered for download here plays as an uninterrupted live album.

There has long been a bootleg available claiming to be sourced from a KBFH show from this tour crediting the concert as being recorded at New Haven, Connecticut on 11 November 1975, with artwork from that release included in the download. However, the fairly reliable tour schedule hosted here shows the band as playing Austin, Texas in early November and Birmingham, Alabama on 12 November followed by several gigs in North Carolina, so it is highly unlikely they travelled to Connecticut for one show on 11 November. A number of download sites offering versions of this CD release credit the concert as being recorded at the Capitol Theatre, Passaic, New Jersey on 17 October 1975 (among a range of other dates including May), while the current KBFH website has a concert available for online streaming credited as being recorded at the New Jersey venue on 7 June 1975. Although the concert schedule shows the band played that venue on both of these dates, it would seem that the June date listed on the offical site is most likely to be the correct one.

Files:
Part1 Part2 Part3
Password: None

File Format: APE

Artwork: No

Special Notes: None. The album is ready to burn after downloading.

Credit Where Credit Is Due: Like other links on this site, these links were found through extensive internet searches, sometimes on some fairly dodgy sites. Occasionally the links are found on forums that allow the posting of currently in-print albums, which I do not condone.