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cancer on 24th April 1970, at the age of only 40. However, his incredible piano playing
and soulful singing live on in his many recordings.

Fleetwood Mac then carried on their US tour, and amid their heavy schedule Peter
Green found the time to write his beautiful ballad ‘Man Of The World’. An early version

of the song was committed to tape at Tempo Studios, in New York (where the Spann
album was recorded), with the plan to complete it in London later. However, things

fell apart quite suddenly when Richard Vernon received a telephone call from Mac
manager Clifford Davis, informing him that the option to renew the contract with

Blue Horizon had expired, and the band were moving. Mike Vernon, accepting their
own error in not keeping a close eye on things, was somewhat peeved that Davis

should behave like that, especially as he was not even prepared to discuss a possible
renewal of the contract for more money.

Consequently, on their return from the US, the band got on with completing their
final Blue Horizon recording, which

was eagerly awaited after the success
of ‘Albatross’. Then the thing the

Vernon brothers had been very
worried about happened - another

call from Davis, stating that ‘Man Of
The World’ could not be issued on

Blue Horizon, because he had signed
a contract with Immediate. The single
subsequently reached no. 2 on the

charts, and the original version of the
song can now be found on the double

cd “The Vaudeville Years of
Fleetwood Mac”. Virtually every other

studio recording of the period can be
found on the 6 cd box set “The

Complete Blue Horizon Sessions 1967 - 1969”.

In spite of this huge setback work continued, with Chicken Shack going into the

studios in February 1969 to record ‘I’d Rather Go Blind’, backed by a very nice version
of the Willie Nelson classic ‘Night Life’. By the time the single reached no. 9 in the

charts, in May, pianist/vocalist Christine Perfect had left the band, and been replaced
by Paul Raymond. The new line-up recorded tracks for the LP ‘100 Ton Chicken’ in

April and May, plus a follow-up single ‘Tears In The Wind’, which received pretty good
reviews, but did not repeat the top ten success, reaching no. 29.

In the meantime, Christine Perfect had dropped out of the music scene, but was still
voted ‘Top Female Singer’ for 1969, in the Melody Maker.