With her naturally smoky low alto vocal style and a knack for writing simple, direct, and memorable songs about the joys and pitfalls of love,
Christine McVie has had a long and productive musical career while seldom insisting on being center stage. Born
Christine Anne Perfect on July 12, 1943, in the small village of Bouth, the daughter of a concert violinist and a faith healer, a combination that just begs for uniqueness,
McVie began playing the piano at the age of four and then found herself seriously studying the instrument at the age of 11, continuing her classical training until she was 15. That’s when she discovered rock & roll. While studying sculpture at an arts college near Birmingham for the next five years, she immersed herself in the local music scene, joining the band Sounds of Blue as a bassist. By the time
McVie graduated with a teaching degree, Sounds of Blue had broken up, and she moved to London. In 1968 she reunited with two of the band’s former members,
Andy Silvester and
Stan Webb, in the British blues band
Chicken Shack, playing piano and contributing vocals. The band released two albums,
40 Blue Fingers, Freshly Packed and Ready to Serve in 1968 and
O.K. Ken? in 1969, and garnered a Top 20 hit in the U.K. with
McVie’s impressive version of
Etta James’ “I’d Rather Go Blind.” She left the band in 1969 after meeting
Fleetwood Mac bassist
John McVie, marrying him a year later, just after the release of her first solo album, the self-titled
Christine Perfect.
Following the marriage, and now known as
Christine McVie, she joined
Fleetwood Mac as a pianist and singer and remained a member for the next 25 years, becoming a superstar in 1975 as part of the
Lindsey Buckingham/
Stevie Nicks version of the band. She and
John McVie divorced in 1978, although both continued as members of
Fleetwood Mac through the albums Tusk (1979) and
Mirage (1982). She recorded and released a second solo album, simply called
Christine McVie, in 1984. She married keyboardist Eddy Quintela in 1986. They would separate four years later in 1990 (and divorce later in the decade), just as the band -- minus
Buckingham -- released
Behind the Mask. Following the tour for that album,
McVie announced to the band that she would no longer go on the road, although she continued to work in the studio with them, contributing five songs to 1995’s
Time. A reunion of the
Buckingham/
Nicks incarnation of the band for 1997’s live
The Dance followed, and
McVie did the resulting tour with the group before officially retiring from
Fleetwood Mac in 1998 after the group’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that year. She then lived quietly out of the music limelight until the release of her third solo album,
In the Meantime, in 2004.
In 2006,
McVie was awarded the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors' Gold Badge of Merit.
During an announcement of
Fleetwood Mac's 2012 world tour,
Nicks downplayed the hope that
McVie would ever rejoin the group. The following year,
Christine performed with the
Mick Fleetwood Blues Band. It was her first appearance on-stage in 15 years. That fall,
McVie joined
Fleetwood Mac on stage in London to play "Don't Stop" and appeared at two subsequent dates.
Early in 2014,
Fleetwood Mac officially announced that
McVie had rejoined the band. The
Rumours edition of the group toured together for the first time since 1998.
McVie and
Buckingham assembled at Village Recorder's Studio D in Los Angeles (the same room where Tusk was cut) in order to re-establish creative chemistry. It worked. After returning to England, an inspired
McVie began sending
Buckingham demos and song snippets. They re-engaged the recording process with
John McVie and
Mick Fleetwood for a new
Fleetwood Mac studio album --
Nicks was to add her parts later. The quartet cut eight songs before breaking off to rehearse for the band's' upcoming On with the Show tour, which began that fall and lasted an entire year. When
Nicks decided to tour her own material in 2016 rather than reconvene with
Fleetwood Mac in the studio,
McVie,
Buckingham,
Fleetwood, and
John McVie went back in and finished the album they'd begun before the tour. The finished project, entitled
Lindsey Buckingham/Christine McVie, was issued in June 2017. ~ Steve Leggett