Some items sold upwards of $100k
Julien’s Auctions’s Fleetwood Mac: From the Lives and Careers of Christine McVie, John McVie & Mick Fleetwood brought huge bucks over the weekend. The two-day auction featured an incredible auction of over 800 lots from three iconic members of the legendary band Fleetwood Mac including personal wardrobe, musical equipment, household furnishings, awards, memorabilia and more. This exclusive collection was sold in front of a live audience at Julien’s Auctions in Beverly Hills and online with thousands of bidders and collectors from around the world. A portion of the auction proceeds will benefit MusiCares, who honored Fleetwood Mac in 2018 as the organization’s Person of the Year, to support the charity’s work providing critical services to underserved members of the music community.
An emotional moment of the auction was the sale of the collection of Christine McVie, who passed away three days before the event took place. The auction and catalog of her most personal and professional items organized by Ms. McVie and her team with Julien’s a year ago represented the Songbird’s lifetime of great performances, recordings and songs as a member of one of the best-selling groups of all time, Fleetwood Mac, and as a legendary solo artist.
Highlights included the Grammy Award-winner’s vintage maxi dress, worn on the back cover of Fleetwood Mac’s legendary 1977 11th studio album Rumours which sold for $56,250, five times its original estimate of $10,000. The green, yellow, red, and cream leaf patterned dress features a scoop neck, butterfly sleeves, zig-zag stitching and two attached white thread belt loops, as well as a slightly ruffled bottom hem. During the album shoot, photographed by Herbert W. Worthington, McVie styled the maxi dress with a black floral headscarf, a chunky belt, and silver chain necklace; her 1976 Rock Music Awards worn Thea Porter designed polka dot chiffon hippie dress sold for $31,250; her American Music Award presented to Fleetwood Mac in 1978 at the Fifth Annual AMA Awards for the Rumours album, which sold for $16,000; her Weltmeister LM-25-12 piano accordion used for live performances of the song “Tusk” sold for $11,517; McVie’s American Music Award presented to Fleetwood Mac in 1978 at the Fifth Annual AMA Awards for the band’s winning of Favorite Pop/Rock Group/Duo/Chorus sold for $12,800; a trio of grotto style carved wood swiveling bar stools brought $11,250 and more.
“We are saddened with the news that Christine McVie passed away today,” the auction house tweeted. “We worked with the legendary Christine McVie and her team for the past year in curating a world class auction set to take place on December 3rd celebrating her amazing life and career and supporting her charity MusiCares. It was important to Christine that MusiCares, a charity close to her heart to help other musicians in need, would greatly benefit from her auction. With fondness we recall seeing Christine perform with Fleetwood Mac at Radio City Music Hall in 2018 as recipients of the MusiCares Person of the Year award. It is now our mission to make this auction a fitting tribute to the legacy of one of the greatest singers and musicians of our time.”
“Julien’s Auctions was honored to be entrusted in the stewardship of this tremendous event this weekend, offering to the public these rock and roll artifacts and personal items from the legendary three members of Fleetwood Mac, John McVie, Mick Fleetwood and Christine McVie, whose extraordinary life and legacy we celebrated in this auction,” states Martin Nolan, Executive Director and CFO of Julien’s Auctions.
The top-selling item of the auction were the iconic wooden balls worn by Mick Fleetwood on the cover of Fleetwood Mac’s album Rumours. The balls, which were lost and found many times over, were originally lavatory chains snatched from a club Fleetwood Mac played during their early years and incorporated to his stage attire in a ribald nod to the blues tradition. This one-of-a-kind item brought an astounding $128,000.
Another highlight was the sale of John McVie’s one-of-a-kind Alembic Series 1 custom fretless electric bass guitar used in studio to record “The Chain” from the iconic album Rumours, and used extensively by him both in studio and on-stage c. 1976-1980, that sold for $100,000, over its estimate of $40,000.
Additional highlights included (winning bids with buyer’s premium): John McVie’s 1982 Mirage Tour Hamer Cruise Electric Bass Guitar ($25,600); John McVie’s 1976 Rumours Tour Prototype Alembic Series 1 Electric Bass Guitar ($28,800); Mick Fleetwood’s DW Collector’s Series Rumours Icon snare drum played at his studio in Maui, Hawaii ($16,000); John McVie’s Three-Tone Sunburst 1962 Fender VI Six-String Electric Bass Guitar Sold for $22,400; John McVie’s 1953 Gibson EB1 violin body electric bass guitar ($10,240);
Mick Fleetwood’s custom collapsible red top hat ($10,240); John McVie’s three-tone fretless Fender electric precision bass guitar ($12,800); John McVie’s early 1970s Ernie Ball Earthwood acoustic bass guitar ($25,600); John McVie’s Kramer Ferrington electroacoustic bass guitar used in the music videos for “Little Lies” and “Seven Wonders” ($15,625); Mick Fleetwood’s 1977 American Music Award presented to Fleetwood Mac for Favorite Album – Pop Rock ‘N’ Roll Music for Rumours ($11,520); John McVie’s Rick Turner Renaissance electric base guitar used throughout the 1990s ($25,600); John McVie’s 21st century reissue of Dan Armstrong’s “see-through” (PMMA) guitar ($16,000); and more.
