Fleetwood Mac's original songbird is to rejoin the band, and will bring optimism, beauty and bittersweet melancholia

With Christine McVie back, Fleetwood Mac will return to their magical best
The Guardian
by Tim Jonze

When Mick Fleetwood announced to a Hawaii audience that Christine McVie would be rejoining Fleetwood Mac on a permanent basis, you couldn't really argue with his assertion that it was the "the worst kept secret there is". During an interview in December 2013, McVie surprised me by saying she would be "very delighted" to reclaim her place in the group she left in 1998. Not long after, Steve Nicks responded by telling Billboard that McVie "didn't need to ask". You hardly needed Hercule Poirot's mobile number to work out what "woman wanting to rejoin a band" plus "band happy to let woman rejoin band" might equal.

Still, the fact that McVie, who turned 70 last year, wants to renounce a hermetic life in a mansion in Kent, which seemed to consist largely of cooking, gardening and looking after dogs, in favour of stepping back on the road with one of the best and most dysfunctional bands of all time is cause for celebration.

It's pointless to talk about a "best" member of Fleetwood Mac, for without any of them the band are significantly depleted. But McVie was always my personal favourite. Compared to the other two songwriters – Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham – her songs had a simplicity and clarity to them. This was partly down to the fact her music stemmed from the blues she played growing up: Don't Stop and Say You Love Me, the band's first top 40 hit with the classic 1970s lineup, both get their momentum from what McVie terms "that left-hand boogie bass thing".

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