Chicken Shack

This British blues-rock group is remembered mostly for their keyboard player, <a href="spotify:artist:1YTLOHyyXnaj7W1g1oSS56">Christine Perfect</a>, who would join <a href="spotify:artist:08GQAI4eElDnROBrJRGE0X">Fleetwood Mac</a> after marrying <a href="spotify:artist:3IuIXQGupZ89qG162Y5sZ6">John McVie</a> and changing her last name. Although they were one of the more pedestrian acts of the British blues boom, Chicken Shack were quite popular for a time in the late '60s, placing two albums in the British Top 20. The frontperson of Chicken was not <a href="spotify:artist:73dvkZpXgk9Sen68s7URbf">Perfect</a>/<a href="spotify:artist:6RCsx4p5smZHYz2P5HLcL2">McVie</a> but guitarist <a href="spotify:artist:5q92HD24UWdGpV7pUU0ZlF">Stan Webb</a>, who would excite British audiences by entering the crowds at performances, courtesy of his 100-meter-long guitar lead. They were signed to <a href="spotify:artist:3LFDPNxxv2lWmfdwgABupl">Mike Vernon</a>'s <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Blue+Horizon%22">Blue Horizon</a> label, a British blues pillar that had its biggest success with early <a href="spotify:artist:08GQAI4eElDnROBrJRGE0X">Fleetwood Mac</a>.

Chicken Shack was actually not far behind <a href="spotify:artist:08GQAI4eElDnROBrJRGE0X">Mac</a> in popularity in the late '60s, purveying a more traditional brand of Chicago blues, heavily influenced by <a href="spotify:artist:5dCuFngSPyOOnTAvrC7v2s">Freddie King</a>. Although <a href="spotify:artist:5q92HD24UWdGpV7pUU0ZlF">Webb</a> took most of the songwriting and vocal duties, <a href="spotify:artist:1YTLOHyyXnaj7W1g1oSS56">Christine Perfect</a> also chipped in with occasional compositions and lead singing. In fact, she sang lead on their only British Top 20 single, "I'd Rather Go Blind" (1969). But around that time, she quit the music business to marry <a href="spotify:artist:3IuIXQGupZ89qG162Y5sZ6">John McVie</a> and become a housewife, although, as the world knows, that didn't last too long. Chicken Shack never recovered from <a href="spotify:artist:1YTLOHyyXnaj7W1g1oSS56">Christine</a>'s loss, commercially or musically. <a href="spotify:artist:5q92HD24UWdGpV7pUU0ZlF">Stan Webb</a> kept Chicken Shack going, with a revolving door of other musicians, all the way into the 1980s, though he briefly disbanded the group to join <a href="spotify:artist:17obwOahRWI121iMUZznh2">Savoy Brown</a> for a while in the mid-'70s. <a href="spotify:artist:1YTLOHyyXnaj7W1g1oSS56">Christine Perfect</a>, aka <a href="spotify:artist:6RCsx4p5smZHYz2P5HLcL2">Christine McVie</a>, died on November 30, 2022, after a brief illness. She was 79 years of age. ~ Richie Unterberger, Rovi