In the annals of rock and roll swindles, few schemes can match it for sheer audacity.
In early 1974, American audiences headed to arenas to see the British blues-rock powerhouse Fleetwood Mac. What they saw instead was a group of bewildered session musicians who looked nothing like the band on the album covers. This wasn't a tribute act – this was a legally sanctioned kidnapping of a band’s identity.
Beginnings: Fleetwood Mac collapse, 1973
The seeds of this chaos were sown during the band's 1973 tour. At the time, Fleetwood Mac was a cult favourite led by guitarist Bob Welch. However, the internal atmosphere was toxic. In a theme that would go on to dog the band throughout their ever more successful, ever more combustible 1970s, the band’s ‘internal affairs’ were primarily marital. Namely, in this case, that drummer Mick Fleetwood’s wife, Jenny Boyd, had begun an affair with the band’s lead guitarist, Bob Weston.
When Mick discovered the betrayal mid-tour, the fallout was instantaneous. Weston was fired immediately, and the remaining members – Mick, bassist John McVie, his wife the keyboardist and singer Christine McVie, and Welch – were too emotionally shattered to continue. They retreated to England, cancelled their remaining dates, and effectively went into hiding to lick their wounds.
‘Fake Mac’
The band’s manager, British musician Clifford Davis, was not a man of sentiment; he was a man of contracts. Facing massive financial losses from cancelled bookings, Davis dropped a bombshell: he claimed he legally owned the name ‘Fleetwood Mac’ and that the musicians were merely his ‘property’.
If the real band wouldn't work, he would simply build a new one. Davis recruited a group of hungry musicians, many from the band Legs, to fill the vacuum. The ‘Fake Mac’ lineup consisted of singer Elmer Gantry, formerly of blues/psychedelic rockers Velvet Opera, and guitarist Kirby Gregory, once of Curved Air.
Joiny them were Paul Martinez on bass; John Wilkinson (keyboards); and drummer Craig Collinge, previously in Manfred Mann Chapter Three. To ease their consciences, Davis fed the new recruits a calculated lie: he promised that Mick Fleetwood himself would join the tour after the first few dates to ‘bless’ the transition.
Panic in Pittsburgh
The tour began in January 1974, and the deception was immediately apparent. In Pittsburgh, the promoter, Richie Kaczor, realized something was horribly wrong the moment the band stepped off the plane. Not only were the faces wrong, but the gear didn't match.
When Kaczor confronted Clifford Davis, the argument nearly turned physical. Davis arrogantly insisted this was Fleetwood Mac, but the promoter wasn't buying it. He threatened to pull the plug, leading to a backstage standoff that symbolized the entire doomed enterprise.
The New York gig was even worse. As the audience realized they had been cheated, the atmosphere turned ugly. Desperate to avoid a riot or a vocal performance he couldn't deliver, Elmer Gantry claimed he had ‘lost his voice’. The band was forced to plough through a limp instrumental set while a chorus of boos rained down from a confused, angry crowd.
Onto greater things
The real Fleetwood Mac finally woke up to the theft of their legacy. They filed an injunction, and a protracted legal battle ensued. While the courts eventually ruled in the band’s favour – granting them the exclusive right to their name – the trauma of the ‘Fake Mac’ tour changed them forever.
Disillusioned with the British industry and their treacherous management, the band severed ties with Davis and moved to California to manage themselves. It was during this period of rebuilding in Los Angeles that Mick Fleetwood visited Sound City Studios, heard a track by a duo called Buckingham Nicks, and set the stage for 1977’s Rumours – and the most successful era in rock history.
After the ‘Fake Mac’ crumbled under the weight of lawsuits, the discarded musicians Gantry and Gregory formed a new outfit called Stretch. Their 1975 debut single ‘Why Did You Do It?’ became a massive hit, but its funky groove hid a bitter heart.
The lyrics were a direct, scorched-earth message to Mick Fleetwood. The ‘Fake Mac’ members felt Mick had initially agreed to the tour but chickened out, leaving them to take the fall for Davis’s scam. The song remains a catchy, biting monument to one of rock's strangest betrayals.
Five more times bands squabbled over the name
1. The Beach Boys
Co-vocalist Mike Love licensed the name from the family corporation, leading to years of litigation with Al Jardine and Brian Wilson. For decades, Love toured as The Beach Boys while Wilson, the band’s true creative genius, was legally barred from using the title.
2. Guns N’ Roses
During the band’s notorious mid-90s collapse, Axl Rose reportedly refused to go on stage unless Slash and Duff McKagan signed over the rights to the name. They did, allowing Axl to front a ‘new’ GNR for years while the others were excluded.
3. Pink Floyd
When Roger Waters left Pink Floyd in 1985, he declared the band a ‘spent force’ and went to court to stop David Gilmour and Nick Mason from using the name. Waters lost, famously acknowledging later that he was wrong to think he owned the brand.
4. Queensrÿche
A 2012 internal rift led to two versions of the American prog-metal band touring simultaneously: one fronted by original singer Geoff Tate and another by the remaining founding members. A settlement eventually gave the name to the latter, while Tate kept rights to their hugely successful 1988 LP Operation: Mindcrime.
5. Yes
The prog-rock legends have seen multiple lineups claim the throne. At one point, both the official Yes (led by founding guitarist Steve Howe) and the rival Anderson, Rabin and Wakeman – containing fellow golden-era members Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman, and briefly billed as Yes Featuring ARW – were both active, confusing fans over which was the ‘real’ band.
Pics Getty Images
Top pic Fleetwood Mac (the real one), September 1973. Left to right: Bob Welch, Christine McVie, John McVie, Mick Fleetwood, Bob Weston
