It was strange enough being in Christine McVie’s flat – high up and hovering over a stretch of the River Thames in Battersea with an upright piano in the corner of the room (oh, to be her neighbour). But it was stranger still hearing what she had to say. As we sat together on her light grey sofa in December 2013, McVie told me how she had left Fleetwood Mac in 1998 thinking that she wanted a quiet life in the Kent countryside with her dogs and Hunter wellies. But that hadn’t been what she had wanted at all. Fifteen years on, McVie was restless, isolated, a little lonely … and wouldn’t it be nice if she could be back playing with the band? “If they were to ask me, I would probably be very delighted,” she ventured nervously.
What was I supposed to say to this? It seemed obvious to me that they would take her back in a flash. Earlier that year, Stevie Nicks had said she’d “beg, borrow and scrape together $5m and give it to her in cash if she would come back. That’s how much I miss her!” And just two months before, McVie had even appeared on stage with Fleetwood Mac to thrill the crowd with a surprise encore of her hit Don’t Stop.
