Christine McVie
Christine Anne McVie (/məkˈviː/ mək-VEE;[1] née Perfect; 12 July 1943 – 30 November 2022) was an English musician and singer. She was the keyboardist and one of the vocalists and songwriters of Fleetwood Mac.
"Christine Perfect" redirects here. For the album, see Christine Perfect (album).
Christine McVie
30 November 2022 (aged 79)
- Musician
- singer
- songwriter
- 1966–1998
- 2003–2004
- 2013–2022
-
Eduardo Quintela(m. 1986; div. 2003)
Birmingham, England
- Vocals
- keyboards
- Sounds Of Blue
- Chicken Shack
- Fleetwood Mac
McVie was a member of several bands, notably Chicken Shack, in the mid-1960s British blues scene. She initially began working with Fleetwood Mac as a session player in 1968, before officially joining the band two years later. Her first compositions with Fleetwood Mac appeared on their fifth album, Future Games. She remained with the band through many changes of line-up, writing songs and performing lead vocals before partially retiring in 1998. McVie was described as "the prime mover behind some of Fleetwood Mac's biggest hits"[2] and eight songs she wrote or co-wrote, including "Don't Stop", "Everywhere" and "Little Lies", appeared on Fleetwood Mac's 1988 Greatest Hits album.[3] She appeared as a session musician on the band's last studio album, Say You Will. McVie also released three solo studio albums and recorded a duet album with Lindsey Buckingham.
As a member of Fleetwood Mac, McVie was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and in 1998 received the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music.[4][5] In the same year, after almost 30 years with Fleetwood Mac, she left the band and lived in semi-retirement, releasing a solo album in 2004. She appeared on stage with Fleetwood Mac at the O2 Arena in London in September 2013 and rejoined the band in 2014 prior to their On with the Show tour.[6]
McVie received a Gold Badge of Merit Award from BASCA, now The Ivors Academy, in 2006.[7] She received the Ivor Novello Award for Lifetime Achievement from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors in 2014 and was honoured with the Trailblazer Award at the UK Americana Awards in 2021.[8][9] She was also the recipient of two Grammy Awards.[10]
Early life[edit]
Christine Anne Perfect was born on 12 July 1943 in the village of Greenodd,[11] in the Furness area of Lancashire. She grew up in the Bearwood area of Smethwick near Birmingham.[12][13] Her father, Cyril Percy Absell Perfect, was a concert violinist and music lecturer at St Peter's College of Education, Saltley, Birmingham, and taught violin at St Philip's Grammar School, Birmingham. Perfect's mother, Beatrice Edith Maud (née Reece), was a medium, psychic, and faith healer. Perfect's grandfather was an organist at Westminster Abbey.[14]
Perfect was introduced to the piano when she was four, but did not study music seriously until the age of 11, when she was reintroduced to it by a local musician who was a friend of her brother John.[15] She continued classical training to the age of 15, but shifted her musical focus to rock and roll when her brother acquired a Fats Domino songbook.[16] Other early influences included the Everly Brothers.[17]
Career[edit]
Early music[edit]
Perfect studied sculpture at Moseley School of Art in Birmingham[18] for five years with the aim of becoming an art teacher, and while at art school, she met budding musicians in Britain's blues scene.[15] Her introduction to performing music came when she met guitarist Stan Webb and bass player Andy Silvester, who were in a band called Sounds of Blue. Knowing that Perfect had musical talent, they invited her to join them.[19] She also sang with Spencer Davis. By the time Perfect graduated from art college, Sounds of Blue had split up. She did not have enough money to launch herself into the art world and moved to London, where she worked briefly as a department-store window dresser.[19]
Chicken Shack[edit]
In 1967, Perfect heard that Silvester and Webb were forming a blues band, to be called Chicken Shack, and were looking for a pianist. She contacted them and was invited to join the band as pianist, keyboard player and backing vocalist. Chicken Shack's debut release was "It's Okay with Me Baby", which was written by and featured Perfect.[19] She stayed with the band for two studio albums, and her genuine feel for the blues became evident in her Sonny Thompson-style piano playing and her authentic "bluesy" voice.[20] Chicken Shack had a hit with a cover of Ellington Jordan's "I'd Rather Go Blind", which featured Perfect on lead vocals.[21] Perfect received a Melody Maker award for UK's best female vocalist in 1969 and again in 1970. She left Chicken Shack in 1969, having married Fleetwood Mac bassist John McVie a year earlier, feeling that she would not see her husband if they were in different bands.[22]
Personal life[edit]
McVie married John McVie in 1968, with Peter Green as best man. Instead of a honeymoon, they celebrated at a hotel in Birmingham with Joe Cocker, who happened to be staying there,[77] before going on the road with their own bands. The couple divorced in 1976, but remained friends and maintained a professional partnership.[78] During the production of Rumours, Christine had an affair with Fleetwood Mac's lighting engineer, Curry Grant, which inspired the song "You Make Loving Fun".[30][79] From 1979 to 1982, she dated Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys.[80] McVie married Portuguese keyboardist and songwriter Eddy Quintela on 18 October 1986. Quintela and McVie collaborated on a number of songs together, including "Little Lies".[81] They divorced in 2003, and Quintela died in 2020.[82]
During the height of Fleetwood Mac's success in the 1970s, McVie resided in Los Angeles. In 1990, she moved to a Grade II-listed Tudor manor house in Wickhambreaux, near Canterbury in Kent, to which she retired after leaving Fleetwood Mac in 1998, and worked on her solo material. For years McVie found inspiration in the home's country setting, not only writing songs there, but also restoring the house. After rejoining Fleetwood Mac in 2014, she began spending more time in London, and put the house on the market in 2015.[83][84]
Death[edit]
McVie died of a stroke in hospital on 30 November 2022, at the age of 79.[85] She had been suffering from metastatic cancer of unknown primary origin.[86][87]
In a statement following her death, Fleetwood Mac said that she was "the best musician anyone could have in their band and the best friend anyone could have in their life". Fellow band member Stevie Nicks said McVie had been her "best friend in the whole world".[88]