By Gregory Adams
Bob Weston, a guitar player for Fleetwood Mac in the early '70s, was found dead in his home in Brent Cross, London (where he lived alone in a flat) on Tuesday, January 3rd. He was 64 years old. He is survived by his younger brother Peter.
A report from Reuters explains that police discovered the body after neighbors had become concerned they hadn't heard from him in a few days. It's unclear at this point exactly when Weston passed away, but officials are not treating the death as suspicious. An autopsy report has since revealed that he died of a gastric intestinal hemorrhage, cirrhosis and throat problems.
A message from Steve Fairhead, who maintains Weston's website, reads, "My family and I have lost a dear friend; the world has lost an enormously talented musician, with unfinished business."
Weston was brought into the Fleetwood Mac fold in 1972 to replace Danny Kirwan, and ended up recording on Penguin and Mystery to Me, both released in 1973. He was noted for injecting slide-style work onto the Penguin's title track, and had written the instrumental closing number ("Caught in the Rain") on the LP as well.
The six-stringer's tenure in the group was short-lived, however. Two years after he joined, he was fired during an American tour by drummer Mick Fleetwood after it was discovered that the guitarist was having an affair with his wife, Jenny Boyd.
Throughout his career, Weston had played on albums by Murray Head, Sandy Denny, Long John Baldry and more. He even played on Danny Kirwan's 1979 Hey There Big Boy!. Weston also released a handful of solo albums, with Fleetwood appearing on 1981's Studio Picks. His last solo set was 1999's “There's a Heaven”.
Robert Joseph "Bob" Weston (1 November 1947 – 3 January 2012) was a British musician best known for his brief role as guitarist and songwriter with the rock band Fleetwood Mac.
Weston was born in Plymouth and moved to London in the mid-1960s. He joined a band called The Kinetic, and supported Jimi Hendrix and Chuck Berry at concerts in France.
Westin’s Career with Fleetwood Mac . . .
Danny Kirwan playing his Gibson Les Paul Standard (photo on right)
Weston was recruited into the Fleetwood Mac line-up in late 1972 as replacement for troubled young guitarist Danny Kirwan. Together with fellow new band member, vocalist Dave Walker, Fleetwood Mac recorded the Penguin album in January 1973. Weston's contribution to the album was mainly as a lead guitarist alongside Bob Welch, but he stood out thanks to his slide guitar, especially on "Remember Me", and his accomplished harmonica and banjo playing. He also sang with Christine McVie on the song "Did You Ever Love Me", and wrote the instrumental that closed the album, "Caught in the Rain".
Later in 1973 Dave Walker was asked to leave the band, and the remaining members of Fleetwood Mac recorded their next album, Mystery to Me. Weston contributed more solid guitar work, for example his slide intro on "Why", a song for which he felt he did not receive the credit he deserved. He also co-wrote one track, "Forever", with Welch and John McVie.
During a tour of the US in late 1973, when the band were beginning to gel particularly well onstage, it emerged that Weston had been having an affair with Mick Fleetwood's wife, Jenny Boyd. Fleetwood tried to carry on regardless, but eventually after a gig in Nebraska, he had had enough. Weston was fired and the rest of the tour was cancelled, the band members each travelling to a different part of the world to gather their thoughts. It was this situation which gave rise to the astonishing "Bogus Fleetwood Mac" affair in which manager Clifford Davis elected to recruit entirely new musicians, pass them off as Fleetwood Mac, and send them out to complete the tour. Although the fake band were quickly rumbled by fans, the subsequent legal battle lasted years, draining the band of most of their creative energy.
Arguably Bob Weston had a very big effect on the Fleetwood Mac story, perhaps greater than his musical legacy, since it was this turmoil which strongly contributed to Welch's disenchantment with life in Fleetwood Mac, and his departure in late 1974 paved the way for the arrival of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, who would help the band on to superstar status.
Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks
Westin’s Solo Career . . .
Weston went on to record with Murray Head, then briefly join, along with bassist Nick South and drummer Ian Wallace, Steve Marriott's newly formed All-Stars Band. When Marriott opted to play lead guitar himself, Weston went on to do a few solo albums, all of which are now quite hard to find. Perhaps proving that there were no hard feelings, Mick Fleetwood contributed drums to one track on Weston's second solo album, Studio Picks.
In January 2008, Weston announced he started working on new recordings, which would be released later in the year and would be recorded at Markant Studios in the Netherlands.
While Frank Baijens, a Dutch singer-songwriter, was recording his own album Odd Man Out, he accidentally met Weston who was doing the same thing, recording his. Frank asked Weston if he would care to play on one of the tracks "Where the Heart Belongs", which he did with an extraordinary result.
Bob Weston was a relatively unknown member of the Fleetwood Mac band, but his musical contributions were astonishing. He is better known for his slide-guitar work but again, his guitar work being what it was, he remained an unknown artist in the band. It wasn’t until he left the band and developed his own solo act that people started recognizing his name and acknowledging his guitar playing abilities.
It often happens that musicians in a band with the name of a solo artist get overlooked, because the studio marketing and basic media hype focuses around the solo artist and not the other musicians in the band. That’s what national media and marketing will do and how they make an artist into a star, leaving the others behind or in the dark.
Well, until next time ~ ~ ~
Musician By Night . . .
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