JOHN MCVIE.... PLEASE MEET JOHN MCVIE

Shared name ticket to Fleetwood Mac concert
BY JUDITH LAVOIE, TIMES COLONIST

Victoria real estate agent John McVie knows exactly what's in a name.

Five free tickets to the sold-out Fleetwood Mac concert at GM Place in Vancouver Friday, backstage passes for the entire family, $700 raised for charity from auctioning signed Fleetwood Mac CDs and a series of phone calls and e-mails from the famous John McVie -- the bassist with Fleetwood Mac.

The Victoria McVie was still over the moon yesterday after meeting the musician.

"He's a really nice guy -- genuine and real," said McVie, who is considering wearing his Fleetwood Mac T-shirt to work next week.

The connection started about eight years ago when McVie wanted the JohnMcVie.com web address for marketing, but found it had been reserved by the musician.

Since it was not being used, McVie fired off an e-mail asking if he could have it, without any expectation of receiving a reply.

About three weeks later, he answered the phone with his name, as usual, only to hear someone with a British accent saying, "I am not used to someone using my name."

"I said I am John McVie and he said, 'I am John McVie.' Then we chatted for about 15 minutes and compared notes on where our grandparents had come from," said McVie, who settled for the web address JohnMcVie.ca, but wangled the signed CDs for a charity auction he was doing.

Strangely, the two men had something else in common -- both were tax inspectors when they were younger.

The Victoria McVie asked for the musician's forgiveness for the many times he had impersonated him.

"And he said, 'Milk it for all it's worth,'" McVie said.

Over the years, there were intermittent exchanges and a commitment to meet if Fleetwood Mac was in the area.

The opportunity came with the band's North American tour and, true to his word, Fleetwood Mac McVie came through with the tickets.

"Afterwards, we had a good chat and he had his picture taken with all of us," McVie said. "It was a lot of fun."