Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Future Games’ The First Album With Christine McVie Clocks Up 50th Anniversary

Fleetwood Mac’s fifth album ‘Future Games’ is 50 years old this week. It was the first Fleetwood Mac album to feature Christine McVie as a full member.

‘Future Games’ was released on 3 September 1971.

Christine featured on the previous album as a session musician. She was in the band Chicken Shack prior to Fleetwood Mac under her birth name Christine Perfect. Chicken Shack often played with Fleetwood Mac which was how she met her future husband, the Mac in Fleetwood Mac, John McVie. She married John McVie in 1968.

‘Future Games’ is rarely cited as an important moment in Fleetwood Mac. It is not an album they have sourced for the setlist in decade. The album only reached no 91 on the US chart and was not certified Gold in America for sales of 500,000 until 2000.

However, the album did also introduce Bob Welch to the band. He would stay for the next four albums ‘Bare Trees’ (1972), ‘Penguin’ (1973), ‘Mystery To Me’ (1973) and finally ‘Heroes Are Hard To Find’ (1974) before leaving at the end of 1974 and being replaced by California duo Stephanie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham.

Welch went onto solo Platinum success with his first album ‘French Kiss’ in 1977. It featured the hits ‘Sentimental Lady’ and ‘Ebony Eyes’. He died in 2012.

Noise11.com