The band’s early albums were heavy blues-rock affairs marked by Green’s fluid, evocative guitar style and gravelly vocals.
The album, which included “Long Grey Mare” and three other songs by Green, stayed on the British charts for 13 months. The three departed the next year, forming the core of the band initially billed as “Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac featuring Jeremy Spencer.”įleetwood Mac made its debut at the British Blues and Jazz festival in the summer of 1967, which led to a recording contract, then an eponymous first album in February 1968. Mayall added bass player McVie soon after.
In the Bluesbreakers he was reunited with Mick Fleetwood, a former colleague in Peter B’s Looners. Clapton quit for good soon after and Green was in. He was barely out of his teens when he got his first big break in 1966, replacing Eric Clapton in John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers - initially for just a week in 1965 after Clapton abruptly took off for a Greek holiday.
