CALIFORNIA GOLD

With Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham on board, Fleetwood Mac's 1975 self-titled White Album was the first record by what became the band's most beloved and successful line-up. "It was where all the planets aligned for us," said Christine McVie.

- Bill DeMain

One evening in January 1975, at El Carmen, a Mexican restaurant in West Hollywood, John and Christine McVie were sitting at a table, with their margaritas, waiting for their bandmate Mick Fleetwood. Nervous anticipation was in the air, as they were all about to conduct what Fleetwood called a “chemistry test”. It was part one of an audition for two prospective new members of the band. A few months after hearing some tracks on this duo’s album, Buckingham Nicks, Fleetwood had invited the guitarist to join Fleetwood Mac, to replace the departing Bob Welch. But Lindsey Buckingham made it clear that he wouldn’t go anywhere without his musical partner and girlfriend, Stephanie Nicks.

Fleetwood drove them both to the restaurant. Christine McVie would later recall to Rolling Stone: “Mick said to me before the meeting: ‘Chris, if you don’t like the girl, then it’s not going to happen.’ I had never been in a band with another girl before, so it was important.” As Buckingham and Nicks entered the restaurant, Christine was first struck by their physical appearances. “When Lindsey walked in I said to myself: ‘Wow, this guy is a god.’ And then Stevie walked in, laughing, so cute and so tiny, and I took an instant liking to her. She had this wonderful laugh and a fantastic sense of humour.” At the end of a drunken evening, Christine leaned over to Fleetwood and said: “Let’s do this.”

“Lindsey and Stevie were asked to play with us without ever playing a note,” Fleetwood said in the sleeve notes of Fleetwood Mac Deluxe. “It’s almost insane in retrospect considering the high risk, but somehow Christine and all of us just knew.”