Robert 'Bob' Brunning (born 29 June 1943 in
BournemouthBournemouth is a large coastal resort town in the Borough of Bournemouth, England. The town has a population of 163,444 according to the 2001 Census, making it the largest settlement in Dorset. It is the largest town on the south coast and the largest settlement between Southampton and Plymouth...
,
DorsetDorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town has been Dorchester since at least 1305, situated in the south of the county at . Between its extreme points Dorset measures from east to west and north to south, and has an area of...
) is a
BritishGreat Britain is an island lying to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island. With a population of about 59.6 million people, it is the third most populated island on Earth. Great Britain is surrounded by over 1000 smaller...
musician best known for his role as original
bass guitarThe electric bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a plectrum....
player with the blues rock band
Fleetwood MacFleetwood Mac are a British/American rock band formed in 1967 in London, England.The only member present in the band from the very beginning is its namesake drummer Mick Fleetwood...
.
When
Peter GreenPeter Green is a British blues-rock guitarist and founder of the band Fleetwood Mac.A figurehead in the "second great epoch" of the British blues movement, Green inspired B. B...
left the Bluesbreakers in 1967, he decided to form his own group, naming it Fleetwood Mac after the rhythm section he wanted for the band -
Mick FleetwoodMichael John Kells "Mick" Fleetwood is a British-born musician best known for his role as the drummer and namesake of the blues/rock and roll band Fleetwood Mac...
and
John McVieJohn Graham McVie is a British bass guitarist best known as a member of the rock group Fleetwood Mac. His surname, combined with that of Mick Fleetwood, was the inspiration for the band's name...
. Fleetwood joined up straight away, and
slide guitarSlide guitar or bottleneck guitar is a particular method or technique for playing the guitar. The term slide is in reference to the sliding motion of the slide against the strings, while bottleneck refers to the original material of choice for such slides, which were the necks of glass bottles...
player
Jeremy SpencerJeremy Spencer , is a British musician, best known as one of the first guitarists in Fleetwood Mac.Spencer was born in Hartlepool, County Durham. He grew up in South London and was educated at Strand School, where he became known for hilarious impressions of the headmaster and several of his...
was recruited, but McVie preferred to stay with the Bluesbreakers, where he was earning a regular wage.
Robert 'Bob' Brunning (born 29 June 1943 in
BournemouthBournemouth is a large coastal resort town in the Borough of Bournemouth, England. The town has a population of 163,444 according to the 2001 Census, making it the largest settlement in Dorset. It is the largest town on the south coast and the largest settlement between Southampton and Plymouth...
,
DorsetDorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town has been Dorchester since at least 1305, situated in the south of the county at . Between its extreme points Dorset measures from east to west and north to south, and has an area of...
) is a
BritishGreat Britain is an island lying to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island. With a population of about 59.6 million people, it is the third most populated island on Earth. Great Britain is surrounded by over 1000 smaller...
musician best known for his role as original
bass guitarThe electric bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a plectrum....
player with the blues rock band
Fleetwood MacFleetwood Mac are a British/American rock band formed in 1967 in London, England.The only member present in the band from the very beginning is its namesake drummer Mick Fleetwood...
.
When
Peter GreenPeter Green is a British blues-rock guitarist and founder of the band Fleetwood Mac.A figurehead in the "second great epoch" of the British blues movement, Green inspired B. B...
left the Bluesbreakers in 1967, he decided to form his own group, naming it Fleetwood Mac after the rhythm section he wanted for the band -
Mick FleetwoodMichael John Kells "Mick" Fleetwood is a British-born musician best known for his role as the drummer and namesake of the blues/rock and roll band Fleetwood Mac...
and
John McVieJohn Graham McVie is a British bass guitarist best known as a member of the rock group Fleetwood Mac. His surname, combined with that of Mick Fleetwood, was the inspiration for the band's name...
. Fleetwood joined up straight away, and
slide guitarSlide guitar or bottleneck guitar is a particular method or technique for playing the guitar. The term slide is in reference to the sliding motion of the slide against the strings, while bottleneck refers to the original material of choice for such slides, which were the necks of glass bottles...
player
Jeremy SpencerJeremy Spencer , is a British musician, best known as one of the first guitarists in Fleetwood Mac.Spencer was born in Hartlepool, County Durham. He grew up in South London and was educated at Strand School, where he became known for hilarious impressions of the headmaster and several of his...
was recruited, but McVie preferred to stay with the Bluesbreakers, where he was earning a regular wage. In the meantime, Green hired Bob Brunning on a temporary basis, hoping that McVie would change his mind.
After a few weeks McVie did change his mind, claiming that Bluesbreakers leader
John MayallJohn Mayall, OBE is a pioneering English blues singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. His musical career spans over fifty years but the most notable episode in it occurred during the late '60s...
was turning too far in the direction of
jazzJazz is a musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
for his liking. So McVie was in, and Brunning stood down. Brunning did contribute bass to one track on Fleetwood Mac's debut album
Fleetwood MacFleetwood Mac is the self-titled debut album by the rock group Fleetwood Mac, released in 1968. The album is a mixture of blues covers and originals penned by guitarists Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer, who also share the vocal duties....
, that song being "Long Grey Mare".
After his stint in Fleetwood Mac, he joined
Savoy BrownSavoy Brown, originally known as the Savoy Brown Blues Band, are a British blues band formed in 1966, in Battersea, South West London. Part of the late 1960s blues rock movement, Savoy Brown never achieved as much success in their homeland as they did in the United States, where they promoted their...
before embarking on a career in teaching which lasted 30 years. He did not abandon music however, and played in the Brunning Sunflower Blues Band,
TrampTramp were a British blues band active during the late 1960s and early 1970s on an intermittent basis. This on/off activity and the loose, transient nature of the band's line-up were reflected in the group's name....
, and also the DeLuxe Blues Band, with whom he still plays today.
Brunning has also authored many books. He has written several about Fleetwood Mac, the British Blues scene, and music in general. His works about his former group include
Behind The Masks, published in 1990, 1998's
Fleetwood Mac: The First 30 Years, and
The Fleetwood Mac Story: Rumours and Lies.
External links