Legendary Fleetwood Mac guitarist Peter Green passed away, peacefully in his sleep, on July 25th 2020.

For the past 4 years Peter worked directly with Rufus Publications to produce a huge, illustrated visual book of his life and career. Mark Smith at Rufus has been travelling down to Canvey Island on a regular basis to talk to Peter about his life, look through his personal archive and discuss his love for fishing, drawing and listening to a wide range of music on a daily basis. During this time a book of rare images, memorabilia, lyrics and notes from his time in Fleetwood Mac has been assembled with Peter having full control over the book’s direction and details. Peter also played guitar for Mark on occasion, delicately going back through a lifetime of influential music. The resulting book, “The Albatross Man” by Peter Green, will be shipping in October 2021 on what would be his 75th birthday.

During the evolution of the book, it was decided to include some unique music as part of the project. A newly discovered vocal take by Peter, recorded in the mid sixties in his mother’s attic on a tape recorder, of “Need Your Love So Bad” formed the basis of the first song with guitars provided by Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour, a huge fan of Peter’s work. The track was produced by Laurie Latham. Peter heard and approved mixes of the track and the short promotional video created for “Need Your Love So Bad”. The second track chosen was “Man of the World” and Kirk Hammett of Metallica, another huge Peter Green fan and current owner of the legendary Greeny guitar, was approached and quickly joined the project. He flew into London and on January 6th 2020 he went into London’s Abbey Road with producer Rob Cass to record the guitar parts for his revised vision of the song, all using Greeny. The following day Kirk went down to Canvey Island to meet with Peter and hand him Greeny once more, but also to play him the guitar parts to “Man of the World”. Again Peter approved the music and approach. The track has now been mixed and finished in LA and also features Mick Fleetwood on drums. The bass and production were handled by legendary producer Bob Rock. Both tracks have been recorded for the book project and offer widely different interpretations of Peter’s work.

At over 450 pages the large, coffee table book, “The Albatross Man” is a perfect celebration of one of the UK’s leading guitarists, songwriters and performers. Not only does it feature Peter’s personal pictures, Fleetwood Mac notes and essays and a stunning array of photography (many previously unpublished) it also includes written contributions from Mike and Richard Vernon, Neil Slaven, Dinky Dawson, Kirk Hammett, Bernie Marsden and many others.

Three editions of the book are available:

EDITION 1 – The Ultra Limited Personally Signed Peter Green edition 50 numbered copies only.
Leather case bound and presented in a special clamshell box and comes with two single-sided 7” vinyl singles (also on CD) of the two recordings and a unique piece of hand drawn Peter Green art. Each book is personally signed by Peter Green either with his full name or PG. Also includes a unique Peter Green T-shirt.  £2000 per copy
Edition 1 is a physically bigger book than the other editions and measures 420mm x 330mm wide, the entire package weighs in at around 11kilos.

EDITION 2 – The Deluxe Man of the World edition 500 numbered copies only.
Beautifully quarter bound  in a slipcase with a vinyl single of the “Man of the World” track plus both tracks on CD. Includes a limited and numbered “litho” print of one of Peter’s own artworks. Also includes a unique Peter Green T-shirt. £295 per copy.
Personally signed by Kirk Hammett
This edition measures 355mm x 280mm

EDITION 3 – The Standard Edition
Hardback book, printed, laminated cover, supplied in a slipcase. £95 per copy
This edition measures 355mm x 280mm

Pre-orders for the book from www.rufuspublications

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