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Christine on the Tusk tour. Christine and Stevie A very young Stevie.

She asked me, "Be my sister...
Sister... of the moon!"

It occurred to me one day that, although the web is full of pages about Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Nicks, Stevie and Lindsey, Christine and John, etc, there was one relationship within the band that no one had ever really given much consideration.... as two women in the nearly all-male field of rock, Chris and Stevie were pretty much on their own. So how were things between them, really?

Um... Chris?  What happened?   These conehead pictures are from Mick's second book.

"Quite simply, the presence of Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie was what separated the men from the boys."
- Marc Elliot.

Chris and Stevie, 1977.  I love Christine's shirt! From Mick's book. The girls, from the Mirage tourbook.

"Fleetwood Mac couldn't go onstage without me or Chris. We've fought hard to be anything but background singers. I think we would rather quit and do something else than be a background singer."
- Stevie, Creem Magazine, 1982.

"Fleetwood Mac's twin sisters of surreality, Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks single-handedly invented the mystic white witch of rock look; lots of layers mixing ancient lace shawls, floor length skirts, long, wild hair, and Indian shirts. It was a look that girlfriends of stoned hippies had to have, and in certain parts of America's mid-West and Britain's Eastern countries, have retained to this day."
- Rock Fashion, Joshua Sims, 1999.

Fashion queens, for sure.

"Mick and John said to me, 'If you don't like the girl then we can't have either of them, because they are a duo. The last thing I was thinking about at that point was to have another girl in the band. I had been so used to being the only girl! We met them both. We all got on really well together. Stevie was a bright, very humorous, very direct, tough little thing. I liked her instantly. And Lindsey too!
 "I liked her. Not because she was like me, quite the contrary, we're totally unalike, complete opposites at either end of the personality spectrum. The one thing we had in common was a good sense of humor. We have a good laugh together, you know! It is, I think, one of the primary reasons for anybody staying together, marriage, band, or whatever it is. The ability to laugh at things, and oneself, is really important and special."
- Christine, The First 30 Years.

They're Halloween costumes... really!  (The picture comes from Mick's second book.)

"...if anything I was like Christine's baby sister. She'd never had a little sister before. In the beginning it was truly just Chris and me. No wardrobe mistresses, no make-up artists, no hairdressers, no nobody. It was just me and her. Lots of times we even shared a room. So we got to know each other real quickly and became good friends because we didn't have anybody else. We had to end up being friends, because, you know, otherwise it was just 'hang out with the guys' all the time!"
- Stevie, The First 30 Years.

I wonder what John was thinking.

"They made me feel wonderful. I fell madly in love with all of them immediately, and even though I knew in my heart that they didn't really need me, I would try to be really good and maybe I would find a way to be needed there. I didn't know what else to do. I liked them all so much that I was willing to realize that logically I was lucky to get asked to join the band at all, so I would have to be so helpful in everything, right? At least I could be a secretary or something, anything, because I wanted to be part of it.
"And they knew it. They understood I felt this way. And they were real careful and never made me feel unwanted. Christine very willingly gave me the stage, which I thought was very cool of a woman to say, 'oh she's five years younger than me, and I've worked for 10 years on the road, killed myself, and here she is, our new frontwoman!' It was incredibly big of Christine to just move out of the way - because I do tend to kind of animate around. I drive Chris nuts. Crazy!
"Chris will tell you that there were times in the last six or seven years when she was a little jealous. And I swear to God I never knew. She never let me know. Never one comment to the effect of 'I could really have done without you'.
"And I'm sure there were times when I'm flying around the stage in my gossamer chiffon where she had to think to herself, 'wow, what's this? Fairy school?' And never once did she make me feel like that. Because she knew from the beginning that I was real sensitive and that I love her so much that anything she'd say to me would cut like a knife. So she was always very careful."
- Stevie, Creem Magazine, 1982.

Spreading rumours.... from the liner of Rumours.

"I was quiet and I didn't come on too strong, I didn't make too many suggestions, and I didn't bug Christine. And I decided I'm just gonna make really good friends with this woman. And that'll settle all these problems.
And Chris I think, from the very beginning, you know - I mean I became sort of the baby of the band, you know, the baby sister for sure. Chris and I spent an awful lot of time together by ourselves, because those were the days when there were no makeup artists, no wardrobe mistresses, again no private planes, no limousines, no - even though there were some limousines! - but there were no other girls. But it was great! Because those were the times when Chris and I really talked. And really - what she was going through, what I was going through... we were both terrific at giving advice, not too terrific at using it ourselves. But we were just very involved in everybody else's relationship... Because we had nobody else to talk to."
-Stevie, In the Studio with Redbeard.

"Time after time I would read, '...the raucous voice of Stevie Nicks and the golden-throated voice of Christine McVie, who's the only saving grace of the band'. When it comes to competition, I won't compete for a man and I won't compete for a place on that stage either. If I'm not wanted, I'll get out. I was bummed."
- Stevie, RS 235.

With promoter Bill Graham in Oakland, CA, 1976.

"Not only were we good friends anyway and had we become close since the band began, but we really didn't have anyone else. So we had each other. And we were very very close! I would like hide in her room some nights, and she would hide in my room some nights and we would hear - and you know, John would be very upset, walking up and down the hallway just screaming her name. It was horrible."
- Stevie, The Making of Rumours.

Glory days.

"[During Rumours] Stevie and Christine had rented like a condo that they were sharing together in Sausalito Harbor or an area of that harbor - I don't think I ever went there. I don't believe I ever went there! It was like off bounds to men or something."
-Mick, The Making of Rumours.

From RS 772.

"Yes, Stevie and me rented a condominium, two condominiums actually, so we had one each, and in the same building. We had already bonded sort of on the road on the first tour, since we didn't have ant money and we could only afford to share rooms at that time. And so when we moved to Sausalito to make Rumours, we were the only ones we knew. We only had each other."
- Christine, The Making of Rumours.

"Trauma," Christine groans, "Trau-ma. The [Sausalito] sessions were like a cocktail party every night - people everywhere. We ended up staying in these weird hospital rooms... and of course John and me were not exactly the best of friends. Stevie and I spent a lot of time together. She was going through a bit of a hard time too because she was the one that axed it. Lindsey was pretty down about it for a while..."
- Christine, RS 235.

Looking lovely as usual.

"Stevie and Christine sort of drifted off into different worlds there [the Rumours tour]. Nothing bad, it was just that their lifestyles were so different. But what they had, especially during those days, they bonded as ladies. Just to get them through these not-so-good times."
- Mick, Goldmine Magazine 452.

"She's been on the road. I couldn't even remember the last time I had seen her: I think it was when she got married. ... She's wonderful. I have a lot of respect for the girl. She went to the Betty Ford Clinic and is now absolutely terrific."
- Christine, The First 30 Years.

On stage on the Tusk tour.