Video will appear as you scroll through the story
Fleetwood Mac · S9 E2
Christine Comes Home
After sixteen years away from the spotlight, she walks back into the studio in 2014 like she never left
The O2 Arena, London, September 2013. Christine McVie walks onto a Fleetwood Mac stage for the first time in over fifteen years, sits behind a keyboard, and hits the opening chords of "Don't Stop" like no time has passed at all.
"Family Man" (Fleetwood Mac, official music video, 1987). The last singles era before Christine walked away. This is the full five-piece machine running at commercial peak: Lindsey's layered production, Stevie's harmonies, Christine's keyboards holding the center together. Eleven years after this video was shot, she would walk away for sixteen years.
The Quiet Life
After leaving Fleetwood Mac in 1998, Christine McVie retreated to her Tudor manor house in the village of Wickhambreaux, deep in the Kent countryside, where she had lived since 1990. She planted a garden, collected antique furniture, and largely disappeared from music. A severe fear of flying, triggered by the 1994 Northridge earthquake while she was living in Los Angeles, made the idea of transatlantic touring feel impossible.
Sources
McVie, Christine. Interview with The Guardian, 2014.
Fleetwood, Mick. "Play On: Now, Then, and Fleetwood Mac." Little, Brown, 2014.
Wickhambreaux, Kent, England
The tiny English village where Christine McVie lived in near-total seclusion for over a decade after leaving Fleetwood Mac. She was sixty miles from London but might as well have been on another continent.
Family Man, Fleetwood Mac (1987)
"Family Man" was written by Lindsey Buckingham and Richard Dashut, but it's the full band firing together that makes it work. Christine's keyboards sit right in the pocket, adding warmth to Lindsey's sharp production edges. The track was a top-fifteen hit in the UK and one of six singles pulled from Tango in the Night. Listen for how tight the rhythm section locks in: Mick and John anchoring a song that could easily fly apart without them.
Sources
Official Charts Company. UK Singles Chart History: Fleetwood Mac. 1987.
Tango in the Night, liner notes. Warner Bros. Records, 1987.
TAP TO REVEAL: What finally convinced Christine McVie to come back?
Christine's Comeback
Sleeping Around the Corner, Lindsey Buckingham & Christine McVie (2017)
This track from the Buckingham McVie duo album is Christine doing what she does best: a warm, melodic pop song with clean keyboards and a hook that lodges in your skull. Lindsey's guitar weaves around her vocal without overwhelming it. Proof that after all those years apart, the creative chemistry between the two was completely intact.
Sleeping Around the Corner, Lindsey Buckingham & Christine McVie (2017)
Christine's lyrics are deceptively simple: everyday language wrapped around feelings that are anything but ordinary. Reading them stripped of the production and her voice, you realize how carefully she constructs each line. Nothing wasted, nothing showy. Just precision disguised as casual conversation.
What helped Christine McVie overcome her fear of flying and return to the band?
With Christine back, Fleetwood Mac has all five classic members on stage together for the first time since 1997. But in January 2018, Mick and Stevie make a phone call that tears the lineup apart for good. Next: Lindsey gets fired.
0 XP earned this session