Oh, the picture is of Mitchel Reed, found by googling "disc jockey WMCA"

I know. I was referring to when Kirshner introduced the band on Rock Concert.

Agreed, but I was thinking more of Danny in the sense that they were happy having Jeremy there, but had no problem "adding" to the core but didn't want to go lower than a certain amount (apart from playing as a trio during PG's songs when they were a quartet).

Also, it would be strange to add Graves or Hunt as member(s) at that point since that would've confused matters in terms of getting people to understand who the real FM was at that time (something they clearly wanted to establish with HAHTF) as new fans would say "this guy (Graves/Hunt) isn't on the older albums" whereas it would be easily understandable to new fans if just Welch/MF/JM/CM were the only ones there since they had been in the band for a while by that time etc. so maybe Mick meant if things worked out they could be officially added later?

I wonder if Mick thought Christine was going to leave soon since she was the last person to agree to move to the US and even if things did go well she might leave anyway as it was well known by then that she didn't like that lifestyle to begin with so he wanted to have 2 keyboard candidates in the wings in case she left. Not that this answers the vacant guitar slot after Welch left issue but you could be right on the possible conversations between Dec '74-Feb '75).

John

I had read somewhere recently that Doug Graves (and probably Bobby Hunt) were secured for the tour because the band decided Christine should be more visible and upfront onstage, rather than stuck behind a large bank of keyboards. This makes some sense. Up to that pint she was pretty much in the semi-background.

But it also seems the lack of a second guitarist--a first for the band in 1974--necessitated filling out the sound.

I found something that looks like Bobby Hunt's old website at

http://archive.is/90Tu

On it it says Upon returning to Los Angeles Bobby was invited by Bob Welch
to work with Fleetwood Mac. Following these tours Bobby
resumed working with his organ trio. so "work with" would appear to not be a claim for membership.

I haven't found anything out about any recent activities from Bobby as the site is now defunct, but I've emailed him, just to ask if he has any memories from that time that he may care to share with us. It's worth a try. I'll let you know if anything transpires.

I believe Bobby Hunt was a member of (possibly the leader of) the band Head West, with which Bob Welch played before joining Fleetwood Mac. They were a soul/funk band if I remember correctly.

I find the idea of putting Christine more "upfront" to be a little surprising. Did they actually do that during the Heroes tour? It doesn't seem she would have wanted to abandon her post behind the keyboards. I think the bootlegs from that tour sound weirdly non-Fleetwood-Mac-ish with the aggressive, funky piano (nothing at all like any of the keyboard sounds previously created by any Fleetwood Mac keyboardist).

Both Bobby Hunt & Doug Graves were specifically hired to play organ & synthesizers. Christine stayed strictly on piano & electric piano.

I think Mick has the chronology backwards...Doug Graves started the tour, but Bobby Hunt finished the tour. I saw them on one of their last shows of the tour in December '74 Hunt was there. When I was in the audience for the Don Kirshner taping (which was in late August/early September), Doug Graves was playing (complete with his sparkly silver sports coat).


RIP Doug Graves.

That is very interesting to hear, ChiliD, thanks. Maybe Doug was hired as a member (artistically, at least) and was then fired over some reason that we'll never find out about. It would explain his comments about expecting to work on a post-Heroes album. And of course, Doug was an engineer on Heroes so logically, the band would have asked him to join for the tour first. Don Kirshner and Mitchel Reed announcing the five of them as members at that point would make sense in that context. Then Bob Welch called up his old friend Bobby Hunt to finish the tour as a backing keyboardist to fill in for what Doug had been doing. How's that for a theory?

Maybe we should start an unofficial campaign to get Doug Graves posthumously recognised as a 17th member of the Mac.

By that logic, doesn't that mean that Brett Tuggle, and all the rest of the FM orchestra, are members?

Well, Neale DID co-write "Come" with Lindsey...

No, I don't think so. The point I was trying to explore was whether Doug Graves was actually a part of the band rather than just one of the many backing musicians that have toured with them over the years. The Melody Maker quote mentioned earlier in the thread- It came to me as a shock when Mick asked me to join but I am enjoying playing live with the band, and hopefully will start a new studio album with the band soon, illustrates that he at least may have thought he was a member of Fleetwood Mac at the time. OK, he never appeared on an album as a credited member and obviously something happened in 1974 to prevent that occurring, but that doesn't mean he wasn't a member of the band per se.

I can't think of anyone else (bar Sheryl Crow, pardon me while I have a quick chortle, and the fake Mac) who claimed to have joined the band but who hadn't.

No.

Make that, HELL NO.

Although, it does lead to an interesting "What if..."

What if Bob stayed, Doug became an official member, AND Stevie and Lindsey were brought in?

WHAT is the difference? They've all played live with FM, so I don't see how he is ranked above any of the other auxiliary players....

This.

I think it just came down to interpretation (that Doug saw it as a slam dunk and I think Mick at that time thought it was more if Christine left then Doug/Hunt would've been offered the keyboard position in the band, as a member, and all that, but that didn't happen so...).

John