JEREMY SPENCER

Jeremy could play slide-guitar just like Elmore James and that is what he was brought into Fleetwood Mac to do, contributing to massive hits like ‘Albatross’ and ‘Black Magic Woman’. His rumbunctuous stage act got Mac banned from some venues and, in turbulent times for the individual players, musical differences saw Jeremy becoming isolated within the band. A  beautifully sensitive player and a spiritual person, Jeremy left Fleetwood Mac hours before a gig in LA in 1971 to join The Children of God, a Christian sect. He issued ‘Jeremy Spencer and the Children’ the following year, but the time for ‘psychedelic Christian music’ had passed. Jeremy remains associated with the organisation, now called The Family International, as a writer and illustrator.

After living for a time in Brazil and Italy, in 1979 Jeremy recorded the ‘Flee’ album in the style of later Mac, but it did not sell well. Jeremy lived in the Phillipines in the 80s and subsequently moved to Ireland then Germany, making no commercial recordings and playing only for his own amusement. In 2006, Jeremy recorded a Blues influenced and largely self-written album ‘Precious Little’ in Norway, and began appearing at various Blues and Gospel Festivals. His latest release, in 2012, is ‘Bend in the Road’ recorded in Detroit with local musicians, and he occasionally plays gigs when it takes his fancy.

Jeremy plays his gentle Blues at a recent Blues Festival;