Legendary super group Fleetwood Mac will be embarking on their first concert tour in five years on March 1st at Pittsburgh's Mellon Arena and will include all the Mac's many greatest hits from over the course of one of rock's most enduring and influential bands of our time

Few bands have undergone as thorough a metamorphosis as Fleetwood Mac. The group has survived into its fourth decade in the music business with two original members, dozens of albums, and a continued ability to remake itself. What started as an all male, British blues band from the sixties has transformed into a transatlantic pop group. The band produced smooth harmonies and made a super star of Stevie Nicks, one of the strongest women in rock, who is considered by many the 'Queen of Rock and Roll'. Fleetwood Mac has sold over 100 million albums, making them one of the most popular bands in rock history.

Begun in 1967 as part of the British blues explosion, the band formed when Peter Green left Eric Clapton's Bluesbreakers, taking drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie with him. The group took its name, and the name of its first album, from these founding members - Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac.

While most bands undergo a number of changes over the course of their careers, few groups experienced such radical stylistic changes as Fleetwood Mac. Initially conceived as a hard-edged British blues combo in the late '60s, the band gradually evolved into a polished pop/rock act over the course of a decade. Throughout all of their incarnations, the only consistent members of Fleetwood Mac were drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie -- the rhythm section that provided the band with its name. Ironically, they had the least influence over the musical direction of the band.

Originally, guitarists Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer provided the band with its gutsy, eo-psychedelic lues-rock sound, but as both guitarists descended into mental illness, the group began moving toward pop/rock with the songwriting of pianist Christine McVie. By the mid-'70s, Fleetwood Mac had relocated to California, where they added the soft rock duo of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks to their lineup. Obsessed with the meticulously arranged pop of the Beach Boys and the Beatles, Buckingham helped the band become one of the most popular groups of the late '70s.

Combining soft rock with the confessional introspection of singer/songwriters, Fleetwood Mac created a slick but emotional sound that helped 1977's Rumours become one of the biggest-selling albums of all time. The band retained its popularity through the early '80s, when Buckingham, Nicks, and Christine McVie all began pursuing solo careers. The band reunited for one album, 1987's Tango in the Night, before splintering in the late '80s. Buckingham left the group initially, but the band decided to soldier on, releasing one other album before Nicks and McVie left the band in the early '90s, hastening the group's commercial decline.

The roots of Fleetwood Mac lie in John Mayall's legendary British blues outfit, the Bluesbreakers. Bassist John McVie was one of the charter members of the Bluesbreakers, joining the group in 1963. In 1966 Peter Green replaced Eric Clapton, and a year later drummer Mick Fleetwood joined. Inspired by the success of Cream, the Yardbirds, and Jimi Hendrix, the trio decided to break away from Mayall in 1967.

At their debut at the British Jazz and Blues Festival in August, Bob Brunning was playing bass in the group, since McVie was still under contract to Mayall. He joined the band a few weeks after their debut; by that time, slide guitarist Jeremy Spencer had joined the band. Fleetwood Mac soon signed with Blue Horizon, releasing their eponymous debut the following year. Fleetwood Mac was an enormous hit in the U.K., spending over a year in the Top Ten. Despite its British success, the album was virtually ignored in America. During 1968, the band added guitarist Danny Kirwan. The following year, they recorded Fleetwood Mac in Chicago with a variety of bluesmen, including Willie Dixon and Otis Spann. The set was released later that year, after the band had left Blue Horizon for a one-album deal with Immediate Records; in the U.S., they signed with Reprise/Warner Bros., and by 1970, Warner began releasing the band's British records as well.

Although Fleetwood Mac was initially conceived as a hard-edged British blues combo in 1966, over the course of the next decade, the band gradually evolved into a polished pop/rock act. Through the years, drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie were the only consistent members of Fleetwood Mac, and they provided the band with its name. Ironically, they had the least influence over the musical direction of the band. Originally, guitarists Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer gave the band its neo-psychedelic blues-rock sound; later pianist Christine McVie wrote many of the songs that moved the group toward its pop/rock sound. By the mid-'70s, Fleetwood Mac had relocated to California, where they added the soft-rock duo of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks to their lineup. Now more a soft-rock band, Fleetwood Mac recorded the 1977 album "Rumours," which would become one of the biggest-selling albums of all time.

The band was one of the most popular of the '70's, and retained their popularity through the early '80s, when Buckingham, Nicks, and Christine McVie all went on to pursue solo careers. They reunited for one album, 1987's "Tango in the Night," before beaking up in the late '80s. The band made more albums during the 1990's, with a variety of guitarists, with the core group of Fleetwood, the McVies, Buckingham and Nicks reuniting to play at President Bill Clinton's inauguration in 1993. Later that year Nicks and Christine McVie left the group, and a new lineup began touring in 1994, but it wasn't very successful, commercially. In 1997, there was a brief reunion of the core group, and Fleetwood, John McVie and Buckingham played together from 1999-2002. Fleetwood, John McVie, Nicks and Buckingham got back together for another reunion tour in July, 2003.

This first album hit big in the UK, but it wasn't until the third album, English Rose, that the foursome made a dent stateside, most notably with 'Black Magic Woman.' 1969 saw their first US major label release, Then Play On, and some changes in line-up. Front man Peter Green left the band, and Christine McVie, wife of John McVie, joined on keyboards and back up vocals. Over the next five years the band went through four guitarists - Jeremy Spencer, Bob Welch, Danny Kirwan and Bob Weston and released five albums - Future Games, Bare Trees, Penguin, Mystery to Me, and Heroes Are Hard to Find.