When I met Christine McVie she was still Christine Perfect, the singer and piano player in the band Chicken Shack. I say “met” – this amounted to me plugging in her microphone, bringing her a glass of water and shyly thanking her at the end of the gig at the Juniper Blossom blues club that I helped run when I was 15 and still at school.
The blues boom was in full swing and Chicken Shack, led by guitarist Stan Webb, had a big following at the time: along with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, they were one of the top UK blues bands. The club was in a room above the Red Cow pub in Cambridge and its driving force was Jack Monck, who was older than me but also still at school. It was a small room with a low stage against one wall, and because of the size we could never afford any bands that charged more than £30. One thing we liked about Chicken Shack was that they charged £30, so we booked them several times. (Jack also tried to book what was then Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac but as I recall they wanted £50, which was out of our price range.)
