Jeremy Spencer

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For the Jeremy Spencer of Computer Shopper (UK magazine) fame, see JJW Spencer.
Jeremy Spencer

Background information
Born July 4, 1948 (1948-07-04) (age 59)
Hartlepool, County Durham, England
Genre(s) Blues
Rock and Roll
Instrument(s) Guitar
Years active 1967 - present
Associated acts Fleetwood Mac

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 July 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 cult called the Children of God, of which he is still a follower (now known as The Family).

Contents

[edit] 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, particularly centred around James' version of "Dust My Broom", 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.[1] Since Spencer's musical contributions to the band were too narrowly focused, 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.[2] 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 often quiet and withdrawn, and other band members recall him often reading the Bible in his hotel room, strongly at odds with his on-stage persona.[3]

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. However, the band held together, and both Spencer and Kirwan worked on new songs, which appeared on the Kiln House album released in the late summer of 1970. For the first time, the defining Elmore James songs were absent on Kiln House, instead 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.[3]

During a tour of the United States in February 1971 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."[2] According to one account, given by Mick Fleetwood, Spencer apparently had difficulty recovering from a mescaline-induced trip he had experienced very early on the US tour. Shortly before a journey of the band from San Francisco to Los Angeles, LA experienced a major earthquake. Being in a fragile mental state and filled with strong negative premonitions, Spencer was very apprehensive about having to travel to LA. He unsuccessfully pleaded with Fleetwood to cancel this leg of the tour.[4] Shortly after arriving in LA, and on the day of a gig the group was scheduled to perform at the Whiskey A Go Go, Spencer left the hotel room he shared with Fleetwood, to visit a bookshop on Hollywood Boulevard. Spencer did not return, however, forcing the cancellation of that evening's concert, while the band and members of their entourage went searching for him. Some days later, he was found to have joined the religious group the Children of God, and he declared that he no longer wanted to be involved with Fleetwood Mac. Despite appeals from the band's Manager, Clifford Davis, to fulfil his artistic obligations to Fleetwood Mac, Spencer could not be persuaded to rejoin the band, and thus they had to struggle on without him, first recalling Peter Green out of retirement as an emergency measure, and later recruiting new guitarist Bob Welch.[4]

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.[5] 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."[6]

[edit] 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.[6]

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.[6] 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.[6] 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.

More recently, Jeremy has been in contact with his former Fleetwood Mac bandmates Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, and according to McVie, the three have been having informal jam sessions with Rick Vito at Fleetwood's home.

[edit] Alleged child sexual abuse

Children of God/The Family International has been at the centre of much controversy over the years, particularly over allegations of child sexual abuse. Mr. Spencer had been accused by a number of people, including his own children, of sexually abusing children. Due to the private nature of the organisation and its members, some of the facts are difficult to uncover. However, some information about these allegations can be found in court documents from Argentina and the United Kingdom, and published statements by his first wife and a woman who was raised in The Family and lived with Spencer when she was a child and alleged that he sexually abused her on a number of occasions.

[edit] Court documents concerning child sexual abuse

While Spencer has not been charged with or convicted of crimes relating to child 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 [1], the result of a 1992-1995 child-custody trial involving The Family in England.

THE ORAL EVIDENCE OF CHILD / ADULT ABUSE

The Family stand condemned by their own experts. Dr Melton agreed that there had been sexual abuse of children and teenagers by adults within The Family to a greater extent than outside it. Dr Millikan agreed. So do I. It is not necessary to burden this judgment with all the oral evidence that was led in this regard. This summary will have to suffice:

1. MB. Her first encounter was with her stepfather in Paris when she was 7. He made her masturbate him. She was sent to Greece to join "Music with Meaning" and from then on it was constant sexual activity. She said: "Paul (now the European CRO) immediately started sexual interaction with us doing everything except penetration. I began to realise I was expected to be "revolutionary", that is to say sexually to service the different men aged 25 to 30 plus." Among the men who abused her there was Jeremy Spencer. From the end of 1983 to August 1987 she was with Berg.

8. MS. Her father is 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 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.[7]

In 1992, Argentine lawyer Hector Walter Navarro was appointed as an expert by Judge Liliana Puccio in Rosario, Argentina to report on literature, documents and other evidence obtained during an investigation of The Family in that city. At their request, he also later submitted written reports to Judge Julio Manuel Cámpora in Mercedes and Judge Robert Jose Marquevich in San Isidro. In one of his reports, he noted that Merry Berg, the granddaughter of Children of God founder David Berg, alleged that Jeremy Spencer sexually abused her when she was 9 years old:

She told me that at 9 years of age she was violated by "all" the men belonging to "Music with Meaning." When I asked her if these men were Simon Black, Simon Peter and Jeremy Spencer, she emphatically answered that it was "all" of them. It was during this time that at this centre which produced music videos and cassettes, Mene was filmed dancing stark naked, the tape of which I already delivered to your Excellency.[8]

[edit] Public statement by adult who was raised in the group

On July 13, 2007, a woman named Celeste Jones (then 32) gave an account of her life as a child in the Children of God to the Daily Mail. Jones, a clinical psychologist, spoke of having been forced to perform suggestive dances on videotape from the age of six, and of being molested through her childhood. Jones said this of Spencer:

The former Fleetwood Mac band member Jeremy Spencer was a member of the cult. On the regular dates we had, he would play a tape of saxophone music. The routine was, by now, familiar - undress, pray, kiss and then perform lewd acts for him.[9]

In a book co-authored with two of her sisters, Jones described the abuse by Spencer in more graphic detail:

Jeremy Spencer worked with Dad on Life with Grandpa as the artist. He lived in the small, detached room in the courtyard that was built for the maid. On our dates he would play a tape of saxophone music. The routine was by now was familiar – undress, pray, kiss and then give him a hand job. Jeremy would try to masturbate me but it just ended up feeling raw and hurting. I would move position so that he would rub a different spot, but I never understood why he – and the other men – kept on rubbing and rubbing. If I said I did not enjoy it they would accuse me of being prudish or proud. I just pretended to have an orgasm to get them to stop.[10]

[edit] Statements by Fiona Spencer

In an article published by The Family in 1982 and republished in a June 1985 book titled "FN Encyclopedia," Spencer's first wife Fiona Spencer described her relationship with Spencer. In her account she stated that Mr. Spencer "could have been put in prison" because she was a minor and he was an adult when they began having sexual relations that resulted in her pregnancy. She also described how her older (described as being between the ages of 10 to 12 and up) children were "fortunate" in that she and her husband had been able to find "loving", "helpful" and "patient" adults to sexually "share" with them:

Jeremy & I had spent a lot of time together & when he was in town he would stay at my house up till 3-4:00 in the morning & then leave, but my mother would always go to bed & leave us downstairs & we were always making love, sometimes 3-5 times a day! When I told my mother I was PG, she said, "I might have known. What are we going to do?" So we went to the doctor & he confirmed it--4 or 5 months, & he asked my mother if she wanted it terminated. At first she said, "Yes", then she said, "Lord forgive me!" I told her I wanted the baby & I wanted to go and live with Jeremy in London. I was just 15 & this type of thing was unheard of, but she considered it & agreed that I could live at home with her until the baby was born & then we would see.

Jeremy's parents were a little more outraged & maybe they felt more responsibility because I was only 15 and under the legal age. Jeremy could have been put in prison by my mother if she had wanted to press charges because I was under legal age.

[...]

Where we live at MWM we do have a lot of fellowship, a lot of sharing, & the children are very fortunate to be able to partake of this. As I said before, it's easy for our little ones to share & stay with one another, even make love if they can, they're all small and they can manage it. But when they get 10, 11, 12, & on, our children like to share with the adults. I found some adults in our Family are very helpful, very loving, & very patient towards our children, & will take time to really help them & love them & even teach them. In fact, I haven't really heard of a bad experience in our Family with our children sharing. I have talked a lot with the children about my own testimony and I treat them as adults, because, although it was a long time ago when I was their age, 12-13, I would have loved to have been in the situation we are now. I feel that almost all of our Family, the brethren are really understanding, very gentle, very loving, & there is no need to fear for the children, & they should be really free to love and share with the other brethren just as we do. When they have sperm, when they start their period, that's the testing time, how much do you trust the Lord, how much do you believe His promises, His blessings, etc? Being worried like our parents, the older generation are watching us, their grandparents; or not caring, only wanting to flow with the spirit, with this love, helping the children to be really free, & helping them to bring forth fruit![11]

[edit] Fleetwood Mac albums featuring Jeremy Spencer

[edit] Additional compilations/outtakes collections

[edit] Live albums

  • Live At The BBC (Castle 1995 - recorded 1967-71)
  • Shrine '69 (Rykodisc 1999 - recorded 25th January 1969)
  • The Blues Collection (Castle, 1989 or 1992)
  • Live at the Boston Tea Party, vols 1-3 (recorded February 5-7, 1970. Comprehensively released 1998 by Snapper Records, having previously been repackaged and bootlegged several times)
  • Jumping at Shadows: The Blues Years (released 2002)

[edit] Jeremy Spencer solo albums

[edit] See also

  • JYNXT UK band formed by three of Spencer's children

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Penguin Q&A with Jeremy Spencer, June 1999
  2. ^ a b Fleetwood Mac - "The Vaudeville Years" (booklet notes), 1998
  3. ^ a b "Insight" - BBC Radio Interview with Mick Fleetwood, John McVie and Christine McVie, November 1976.
  4. ^ a b Mick Fleetwood (1990). Fleetwood--My Life and Adventures with Fleetwood Mac. Sidgwick & Jackson Ltd. ISBN 0 283 06126X. 
  5. ^ Jeremy Spencer interviewed by Steve Clark, NME magazine, October 5, 1974.
  6. ^ a b c d Jeremy Spencer interviewed by Martin Celmins, Classic Rock magazine, March 2006.
  7. ^ Ward, The Rt Hon. Lord Justice Sir Alan Hylton (1995-10-19). "W 42 1992 in the High Court of Justice. Family Division. Principal Registry in the Matter of ST (A Minor) and in the Matter of the Supreme Court Act 1991.. Retrieved on 2007-10-19.
  8. ^ Navarro, Hector Walter. Investigación sobre la bibliografía de Los Niños de Dios: Existencia de correccionales clandestinos. Retrieved on 2007-10-19.
  9. ^ Jones, Celeste. "Enslaved by the cult of sex...for 25 years", Daily Mail, 2007-07-13. Retrieved on 2007-10-19. (English) 
  10. ^ Buhring, Juliana; Celeste Jones, Kristina Jones (2007). Not Without My Sister. Harper Element (HarperCollins), pp. 66. ISBN 0007248067. 
  11. ^ Spencer, Fiona (1985). Testimony of a Child Bride & Young Mother. Retrieved on 2007-10-19.

[edit] Other reference material

[edit] External links

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