Can you tell me about the Rumours album

A.� The Rumours album was the second record put out by the 'revitalised' version of�a Sixties British blues band who had virtually re-invented themselves as an American radio soft-rock operation.

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Q.� It sounds like Fleetwood Mac either sold out, or gave up.

A.� The reality is, they did neither. Having witnessed some of the more bizarre aspects of rock�'n' roll excess, losing founder member Peter Green and guitarist Danny Kirwan to the effects of drugs and alcohol respectively, the band was no stranger to unusual behaviour. During Fleetwood Mac's�1971 American tour, guitarist Jeremy Spencer left the hotel to visit a bookshop, and never returned. He was later found to have joined a religious sect, The Children Of God, who had recruited him on the street. Spencer remains a cult member to this day, but is happy recording and touring with a band made up of fellow COG members. But the Rumours album encapsulates the emotional claustrophobia and romantic turmoil that enveloped the band during its writing and recording.

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Q.� How did all this come about

A.� Having relocated to the US in 1975 to (literally) re-group and try to move the band on to its next incarnation, founder members bassist John McVie, drummer Mick Fleetwood, and McVie's wife Christine, who was vocalist and keyboard player in the band, were in limbo, pondering their options. As McVie and Fleetwood auditioned engineers for the proposed recording sessions, they heard an album, Buckingham Nicks recorded by an American duo, Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. The duo were contacted, and offered a chance to join Fleetwood Mac. They accepted, and the entirely new sounding Fleetwood Mac recorded an eponymously titled album, which was a hit. That was when the problems started.

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Q.� What sort of problems

A.� Basically romantic, personal and emotional, in no particular order. Any member of a band will tell you that being in a band is like being in a relationship, or even a marriage, but it has all the bad aspects and none of the good. The bands that survive are the ones who manage to either climb over their personal differences, or use them as a creative catalyst to produce work of sufficient quality to make the personal differences worth living with.

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Q.� Is that what happened with Rumours

A.� That just about covers it. During the writing and recording of the album, Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks split, John and Christine McVie were divorced, and Mick Fleetwood and his wife (thankfully not connected to the band!) also divorced It was a time of terrific personal tension for the musicians, but it led to the making of one of the best-selling albums ever recorded.

Q.� How did they manage that

A.� As the various band members have all observed over the passing of time, breaking up with a loved one is difficult, but at least you have your daily routine of work to keep you occupied. In the case of the Fleetwood Mac musicians, their 'daily work' consisted of anything up to�16 hours a day cooped up in a studio together, working on songs which were all written with the express intention of either a) dealing with emotional pain the writer was feeling or b) attempting to annoy the hell out of the writer's partner -�and occasionally both at the same time!

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Q.� It sounds like utter hell on earth!

A.� Apparently it was. Because of the massive creative talent that Lindsay Buckingham brought to the band, he was able to take material brought to him by his estranged girlfriend, usually songs written about them and their departed relationship, and fashion it into the sound of the overall album, without losing the impulse or emotion that led to its composition. Equally, he would take his own work, written from a similar perspective, and weave the same magic into it, to add to the massive impact that the album enjoyed on its release.

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Q.� What about some examples of the songs, and the meanings behind them

A.� The songs make it pretty clear which perspective the writer is taking, and it's that clear message - and the empathy that the listening public found - that makes Rumours the massive selling album it has been, and continues to be today. The album starts with the apparently jaunty Second Hand News, which nails Buckingham's emotional colours to the mast from the off. It cannot be coincidence that the following song is Nicks's Dreams, clearly addressed to Buckingham:� the "Players only love you when they're playing." line referring to the fact that the band have to look happy and together on stage, regardless of what may be going on in other areas. There is real�anger and power�both in Go Your Own Way, in which Buckingham transmits his pain both through his vocal, and even more through his guitar solo, and in�I Don't Want To Know to which he adds his emotional vocal to Nicks's caustic words.

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Q.� It sounds a pretty intense musical experience.

A.� It is, but that's not to say it's doomy or depressing. Rather there is a feeling of emotions expressed and released, not hidden or bottled up, and that may be due to the circumstances surrounding the musicians while they were writing and recording it. The leavening effect is produced by Christine McVie, who obviously took a more pragmatic approach to her own marriage problems. Don't Stop, which was considered optimistic and up-beat enough to be Bill Clinton's Presidential campaign theme, is one of her compositions. McVie's only wistful offerings, which are perfectly suited to her own vocal style, are Songbird -�a tribute to her musicianship, as it was recorded live in one take using a theatre grand piano rather than in the studio -�and Oh Daddy, which is actually written about Mick Fleetwood, the 'daddy' of the band, and his own emotional problems. which he endured along with the rest of them.

Q.� Did the band get over all their problems

A.� They did, and survive to this day, having undergone even more line-up changes and a degree of style alterations.�The 'classic Rumours line-up' as the press love to call it, is back together having resolved their personal differences with their ex-partners, and each other, and are recording prior to touring again. It may be an exercise in pure nostalgia for an album that was released nearly 25 years ago, but great songs are still great songs, and if the original musicians are there to play them, it has to be a tour the Rumours owners will want to see�- all 25 million plus of them!

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