Peter Green biography - page two

Mayall recalls;

"I knew Peter was going to have to deal with the Clapton comparisons"

Mike Vernon (a Decca producer who later had a big influence on Peter's career) recalls;

As the band walked in the studio I noticed an amplifier which i never saw before, so i said to John Mayall, "Where's Eric Clapton?" Mayall answered, "He's not with us anymore, he left us a few weeks ago." I was in a shock of state but Mayall said, "Don't worry, we got someone better." I said, "Wait a minute, hang on a second, this is ridiculous. You've got someone better??? Then Eric Clapton???" John said, "He might not be better now, but you wait, in a couple of years he's going to be the best." Then he introduced me to Peter Green.

Within months, three members of the future Fleetwood Mac were playing together. Aynsley Dunbar quit to form his own band "Retaliation", leaving the way open for Mick Fleetwood to join the Bluesbreakers with Green and McVie.

Ever generous with his players, John Mayall graciously paid for Peter to have a period of recording time (a present for Peters birthday). Peter chose to cut four songs during the session, including a Green vocal called "First Train Home", and an instrumental homage to his favourite rhythm section - he didn't realise it's implications when he named the track after them - "Fleetwood Mac".

As much as Peter loved and respected John Mayall, he grew restless with the Bluesbreakers (particularly Mayall's penchant for playing more and more free-form jazz). He left on June 15 1967, following Mick Fleetwood's sacking for drunkeness.

Green and Fleetwood immediately teamed up to form a new band with whizz kid slide guitarist Jeremy Spencer and producer Mike Vernon. Fleetwood Mac was born. In fact, it was initially "Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac" - the management insisted on having Peter's name in there to get "bums on seats". Peter, typically reluctantly, went along with it.

The first song Peter wrote for the band was actually something he wrote before leaving Mayall - "Black Magic Woman". Mayall had tutored Green in the art of songwriting. One of his theories was that if you particularly like a song, take its first line and weave a song of your own around it. Green did this with BB King's "Sweet Sixteen" to come up with "Merry Go-Round". "Black Magic Woman" was born in a similar way, inspired by Otis Rush's "All Your Love", although a Peter says, it ending up closely resembling BB King's "Help the Poor". (Peter's first EVER song was "The Same Way" which he cut with Mayall) After "Black Magic Woman", Peter wrote another of his classic's "Albatross" (which was inspired by a phrase that Clapton played on the song "The Last Meal", when he was in the Bluesbreaker's). The idea for "Oh Well" came from Muddy Water's habit of repeating the phrase "Oh Well, Oh Well". 

The only problem with "Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac" was that "Mac" refused to join them! John McVie had found himself a good paying gig with Mayall and wasn't too keen to ditch it. This left Peter's band without a bass player, so adverts were placed in the music papers. One young bassist, Bob Brunning answered the ad. He met at an arranged location, where Peter met him at the door. Brunning immediately shot himself in the foot by telling him

" You've got a great name for a blues player.. Peter Green. Have you ever heard of the Peter Green who used to play with the Bluesbreakers". .....to which Peter, in a typically brusque put-down said "You bloody fool, I AM that Peter Green!!!! "

Around the time that Brunning joined, ace slide player Jeremy Spencer signed up too. He was only 18 when he came into the band, and in its early days, he had his first child "Dicken" with his partner Fiona, the first of eight children. Brunning remembers travelling on tour with Spencer at the time of his childs birth, and remarked to Spencer hopw lovely it must be to have a new child. "What is the baby's name" Brunning asked, to which Spencer bizarrely (but with truth) answered "Y'know, I can't remember!)

Spencer brought his unique ability to mimic into the band's repertoire, particularly his ultra-accurate portrayals of Elmore James and Elvis Presley. He also brought extreme vulgarity to the band, which the other members gleefully joined in with. At one point, the band, each night, had a member of the road crew dress as a butler and walk on stage with a huge dildo on a silver platter. The dildo would be strapped to Fleetwood's drum so that everytime the drum was strucjk, the dildo would rather tastelessly dance all over the place.

Spencer played a major part, sharing the role of front man with Green on the first two Mac albums. However, he refused to write new material, and this left him increasingly marginalised. Although still a full member of Fleetwood Mac, Spencer didn't play anything at all on the third album "Then Play On". .

Initially the band went out billed as"Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac featuring Jeremy Spencer", with their first public performance being very well received at the Windsor Jazz and Blues Festival.

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