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Jeremy Spencer

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Jeremy Spencer (born 4 July, 1948, in Hartlepool, County Durham), is a British musician, best known as one of Fleetwood Mac's first guitarists, joining the band in 1967. His speciality was the slide guitar, and he was strongly influenced by blues musician Elmore James. He remained with the band until February 1971, when he joined a religious group called the Children of God, with whom he still works.

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Fleetwood Mac

In the summer of 1967 Spencer came to the attention of ex-Bluesbreakers guitarist Peter Green, who was looking for another musician to join him in his new Fleetwood Mac project. Green had recruited drummer Mick Fleetwood and temporary bassist Bob Brunning, and wanted a second guitar player to fill out the sound onstage. Spencer was then playing with blues trio The Levi Set, and was already an accomplished slide guitarist and pianist. He fitted in well, and soon after his arrival the band's intended bassist John McVie eventually joined.

This line-up of Fleetwood Mac recorded two albums of traditional blues songs, with Spencer contributing many variations on the Elmore James theme, plus a few songs of his own. Green became frustrated because Spencer did not seem willing to contribute to Green's songs, whereas Green always played on Spencer's recordings where necessary. Also aware that Spencer's work with the band was a little one-dimensional, Green and Fleetwood brought in a third guitarist, 18 year-old Danny Kirwan, after 1968's Mr. Wonderful. This album featured several of Spencer's Elmore James tunes, most of them extremely similar to each other.

Green and Kirwan found that they worked well together musically, quickly developing the style that provided hits such as "Albatross", "Man of the World" and "Oh Well", none of which featured Spencer. Spencer found himself slightly isolated within the band, and chose to contribute very little to the band's third album Then Play On. It was intended to complement this album with a separate E.P. of Spencer's work, but this never materialised. In the end, his input amounted to some piano on Green's neo-classical epic "Oh Well Pt. 2".

On stage however, Spencer was certainly an integral part of the band, with a raucous routine of old blues songs which were extremely popular with audiences. Spencer was an incredibly gifted mimic, providing excellent impersonations of Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, John Mayall and whoever else he felt like sending up at the time. He was also often given to occasional suggestive behaviour onstage, particularly at early concerts, which sometimes landed the band in trouble with promoters and venue owners, and got them banned from London's Marquee Club. This wild onstage atmosphere was caught in Spencer's recording "Someone's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonite", which was chosen as the B-side to the gentle "Man of the World" single in 1969.

Away from the stage, Spencer was sometimes quiet and withdrawn, and other band members recall him often reading the Bible in his hotel room, totally at odds with his on-stage persona.

Spencer became the first member of Fleetwood Mac to release a solo album, simply titled Jeremy Spencer, in 1970. This album featured many 1950s parodies and amusing songs but was not a success. It has never been released on CD and is now hard to find and expensive.

When Green left Fleetwood Mac in mid-1970, the band were in a state of flux and there was a possibility of not continuing. But, Spencer and Kirwan worked together on new songs and the results emerged in the late summer of that year as the Kiln House album. Despite the absence of Elmore James songs, this album featured more of Spencer's 1950s parodies, including Buddy Holly tribute "Buddy's Song". Another song, "One Together", touched on the many different personas that Spencer used onstage, perhaps at the expense of his own.

During a tour of the United States with new keyboardist Christine McVie now having joined the band, Spencer grew disillusioned with the situation and often mentions an incident when the band were listening back to a recording of an old concert. When he heard himself singing he said, "That sounds horrible. It sounds like shit." A couple of days later before a gig in San Francisco in February 1971, Spencer went missing whilst on a trip to a bookshop. That evening's concert was cancelled while the band and members of their entourage went searching for Spencer. Some days later, he was found to have joined the religious group the Children of God, and he wanted no further involvement with Fleetwood Mac. He could not be dissuaded and the band had to struggle on without him, first recalling Peter Green as an emergency measure, and later recruiting new guitarist Bob Welch.

Despite many rumours of brainwashing and forced induction into the organisation, Spencer has always maintained that he joined the organisation of his own free will. He had been approached by a young man named Apollos, who engaged Spencer in conversation about God, and invited him to a nearby mission where other members were staying. During the evening, Spencer became convinced that this change of direction was the best course for him to take, and by the time Fleetwood Mac found him, his mind was made up. Despite his continued confidence that he made the right choice, he has said that the manner of his departure from the band was regrettable - "The way I left was wrong and a mistake. I should've told them right away but I was desperate."

After Fleetwood Mac

Spencer and his then-wife Fiona moved to the USA to settle in with the Children of God, and he soon formed a new band within the organisation and played free concerts around the country. An album was recorded, Jeremy Spencer and the Children, although without any commercial success. Relatively little is known about this period of his life, but he travelled the world recording a considerable amount of music for the purposes of the organisation, and spent time living in Brazil and Italy.

In 1979, he recorded the album Flee with the newly-formed Jeremy Spencer Band, again without commercial success. During the 1980s he was living in the Philippines, where he met his current partner, a German woman named Julie. During the 1990s he worked in India doing charity concerts, and some recordings from these gigs were available for download from his website. Spencer now lives in Ireland and still works for the Children of God (now called the Family International), mainly as a book illustrator and story writer. He always continued to play music, often just for his own amusement, but recently he has appeared at various blues and gospel conventions, and in 2006 he released a brand new album, Precious Little, which was recorded in Norway. The album showed a return to the blues and the slide guitar style that he became famous for whilst he was with Fleetwood Mac, albeit with a more gentle touch.

He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998 for his work as part of Fleetwood Mac.

Spencer has many children of various ages, and some of them have formed a band in England called JYNXT. The band members are: Nat, Koa, Tally, and Rick Spencer.

Court documents concerning child abuse

The Family International has been at the centre of much controversy over the years, particularly over allegations of child abuse. However, due to the private nature of the organisation and its members, some of the facts are difficult to uncover. While Spencer has not been charged with or convicted of crimes relating to child sexual abuse, he was identified by senior British judiciary the Rt. Hon. Lord Justice Sir Alan Hylton Ward as a Family leader involved in sexual abuse against his daughter and other minors.

Following are excerpts from the Judgment of Lord Justice Ward [link], the result of a 1992-1995 child-custody trial involving The Family in England.

THE ORAL EVIDENCE OF CHILD / ADULT ABUSE

8. MS. Her father is Jeremy S. [Jeremy Spencer] of Music with Meaning. Her mother is Dawn, a European Shepherd. … She said in her affidavit:

"From my earliest memories until my time in India, sexual activity pervaded The Family. Instances that stand out in my mind are as follows:-
"My mother and my father frequently had sexual intercourse and performed oral sex with each other and with other people in the same room as us children, regardless of whether we were awake or asleep. I distinctly remember my father having sexual intercourse with Faithy Berg when we lived in a caravan in Greece. I was around four years old at the time."
At the age of 6 she had to use both hands to masturbate Timothy in his 20's or 30's, ex-Vietnam veteran. At the same age she had to "help her father [Jeremy Spencer] out" which meant caressing him and mutual masturbation. From the age of 7 her step father made her masturbate him. She later told Mary Malay about her step father but not about her father because she liked him: "at least," she said, "he did not beat me".

…
THE LEADERS' INVOLVEMENT IN SEXUAL ABUSE

8. Jeremy S. [Jeremy Spencer]

His own daughter with understandable reluctance complained that he abused her as I find he did. He also abused MB. Music with Meaning was a particularly corrupt and corrupting organisation. He played a central part in it.

Fleetwood Mac albums featuring Jeremy Spencer

Additional compilations/outtakes collections

Live albums

Jeremy Spencer solo albums

References

External links

 

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