Jeremy Spencer

Jeremy Cedric Spencer, born 4th July 1948. is an English singer, songwriter, guitarist and pianist who was a member of Fleetwood Mac from their inception in 1967 to 1971.

Early years[]

Spencer was born in Hartlepool, Co Durham. He took up piano at the age of nine, switching to guitar in his teens. By now he was heavily influenced by blues music, especially Elmore James whose style of slide guitar playing he would adopt and whose songs he would cover during his time in Fleetwood Mac.

Fleetwood Mac[]

Spencer's involvement in the band began when founding guitarist/singer Peter Green was looking for someone to share the spotlight with him as he did not want to be the sole frontman. At the time Spencer was playing in a band called The Levi Set. He brought to the band his talents as a pianist and playing slide guitar.

At Fleetwood Mac's live shows, Spencer would add character to the performances by having milk-filled condoms on the tuning pegs of his guitar and even turning in uncannilly accurate impersonations of Elvis Presley. His contributions in the studio, however, were somewhat minimal. For some years he did not play on songs he wasn't singing. It was however his take on Robert Johnson's I Believe My Time Ain't Long that was chosen as the band's first single. Although he played on none of the subsequent A-sides, the second single Black Magic Woman was backed with his cover of Elmore James' The Sun is Shining and the No 2 hit Man of the World with his own Someone's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonite which the band performed under the alias of Earl Vince and the Valiants. The band's first two albums Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac and Mr. Wonderful each featured three original numbers from Spencer although these were mostly Elmore James take-offs.

Spencer contributed nothing to the third album Then Play On but featured on piano on the lengthy instrumental second part of the hit single Oh Well. This was made up for somewhat by the release of his self-titled solo debut in 1970 on which he was backed by his Fleetwood Mac colleagues, Danny Kirwan (guitar), John McVie (bass) and Mick Fleetwood (drums). Peter Green also played banjo on one track.

The departure of Peter Green in the spring of 1970 put Spencer in the position of having to step up to the plate more. He shared vocal and songwriting duties with Kirwan on the fourth album Kiln House (1970). In addition to contributing three songs of his own, he co-wrote Station Man with Kirwan and McVie and featured on covers of songs by Big Joe Turner and Gene Pitney.

But Spencer was becoming more and more uncomfortable within the group. When the band were flying to America to play shows in 1971 he turned to John McVie and said "Why do I gotta be here if I don't want to be here." It also disturbed Spencer deeply that an earthquake had struck Los Angeles not long before they were due to arrive there for gigs.

Departure from Fleetwood Mac[]

It was when the band reached LA in February 1971 that on the day of a planned gig at the Whisky-a-Go-Go, Spencer left the hotel room he shared with Fleetwood to visit a bookshop on Hollywood Boulevard. He did not return, forcing the cancellation of that evening's concert while the band and members of their entourage went searching for him. Some days later, he was found to have joined the religious group the Children of God, and he declared that he no longer wanted to be involved with Fleetwood Mac. Despite appeals from the band's manager, Clifford Davis, to fulfil his obligations to Fleetwood Mac, Spencer could not be persuaded to rejoin the band, and thus they had to struggle on without him, first recalling Peter Green out of retirement as an emergency measure to help complete the tour, and later recruiting new guitarist Bob Welch.

After Fleetwood Mac[]

Spencer stayed with the Children of God (later renamed The Family International). He travelled a lot with the organisation, composing music for them as well as illustrating cartoon tracts. His interaction with the world outside the sect went little beyond two albums Jeremy Spencer and the Children (1972) and Flee (1979).

As the Family exercised less control over their members with time, Spencer began to appear in public more. He joined Fleetwood Mac onstage in Tokyo in 1995 and began appearing at blues festivals. He released a live CD in 1999 and since 2006 has returned to studio recording for general release. Precious Little (2006) received favourable comment from Mick Fleetwood and John McVie while Bend in the Road (2012) featured different track listings between its CD, download and vinyl editions. More recent releases have been entirely instrumental and released only in digital format. Homebrewed Blues (2016) showcased Spencer's slide guitar playing while Treading Softly (2018) and Latina Nights (2019) focused on music inspired by Ireland and Latin America respectively.