Artist:     Mick Fleetwood & Friends

Album:     Celebrate the Music of Peter Green and the Early Years of Fleetwood Mac

Label:     BMG

Release Date:     4.30.21

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For the vast majority of us, a mere mention of the name Fleetwood Mac summons the melody of “Go Your Own Way,” “Rhiannon,” or another of the snappy tunes associated with Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. Fleetwood Mac became a hit-making machine after the California duo joined the band in 1975. But eight years earlier, it was acclaimed British guitarist Peter Green who formed Fleetwood Mac, recruiting drummer Mick Fleetwood, bassist John McVie, and guitarist Jeremy Spencer; players who shared Green’s deep appreciation for American blues music.

Mick Fleetwood has never lost sight of guiding light Green, or the blues. This celebratory concert that Fleetwood hosted last February at the London Palladium showcases music that evolved from the blues into hippy-inspired folk and rock, right to the cusp of what it became with Buckingham and Nicks standing center stage. The cast of disparate stars on hand confirms how far and wide Green’s and Fleetwood Mac’s impact was felt—even in those days. Over a generous, 23-song program of Green’s songs and some of the blues tunes his band cut its teeth on, an overview of the genesis of Fleetwood Mac unfolds with soul-shaking, mesmerizing, and just plain fun results.

Sadly, Green was unable to attend the concert, and passed away five months later. But Spencer sang and played well on Elmore James’ “I Can’t Hold Out,” oddly marking the first time in 50 years that he’d played with Fleetwood. McVie did not attend, but his ex-wife Christine, who joined Fleetwood Mac’s ranks in 1970, did. Her luminous, sultry reading of “Looking for Somebody” provides the one link to what Fleetwood Mac sounds like—with her back in the fold—today.

The show gets off to a punchy, rollicking start with Green’s “Rolling Man,” led by singer/guitarist Rick Vito. Vito, along with Billy Burnette, replaced Buckingham in Fleetwood Mac from 1987 to ’91. He sings and plays here with strength and individuality, and blends into the Mac modus operandi perfectly. It’s a wonder Fleetwood ever let him go. Vito near single-handedly reclaims Green’s “Black Magic Woman” from Santana, and on “Love That Burns,” he slow-burns with an intense heat that Green would more than approve of. But when John Mayall, the godfather of British blues, tears into his Bluesbreakers-circa-1966 take on Otis Rush’s “All Your Love (I Miss Loving),” a connection to the beginning of it all is made with crackling energy. At 87, Mayall summons damn near all the power of that classic rendering from 56 years ago that featured a pre-Mac John McVie, not to mention Eric Clapton.

Johnny Lang’s kinetic, rocky ways way with a blues fits right in here as well, all fired up as he is on Otis Rush’s “Homework,” and when Kirk Hammett takes hold of “The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown),” a tidal wave of the heaviest proportions rolls through the room. For a completely different pace from that, current Mac member Neil Finn conjures kaleidoscopic images of flowers and smoke for “Man of the World.” Green’s infamous “Oh Well” (Pt. 1)” features Steven Tyler and Billy Gibbons taking turns rasping the verses, and on “Oh Well (Pt. 2),” David Gilmour makes quite clear the connection between Peter Green and early Pink Floyd.

Presented in crystal-clear audio and video, this was an extraordinary show, highlighting an important chapter in the history of rock ‘n’ roll.

—Tom Clarke