Chris Coco's Albatross Finds Fleetwood Mac Original

Chill-out DJ/ producer Chris Coco Mellor has scored an impressive coup by persuading legendary Fleetwood Mac guitarist Peter Green to perform on his remake of the band's 1970 number 1 hit Albatross. Still regarded by many blues afficionadoes as the greatest white blues guitarist of all time, Green left the band the same year after falling ill from taking too much LSD, becoming a recluse for much of the next 30 years.

The track remains a psychedelic classic and was written as Green was descending into serious mental illness, brought on by the drugs. During the same period he also wrote Black Magic Woman, later to become a worldwide hit for Carlos Santana and the haunting classic Green Manalishi. Despite periodically recording during the 70s, often without attribution, by 1994 he told Guitar magazine in a rare interview, he "hardly ever touches the guitar." Coco's track, which amplifies rather than alters the original's ambience, has clearly struck a chord.

"It was always Peter Green's playing that made the track unique; the only way we could touch it was to bring in the original player" said Chris.

The track features on Chris' upcoming artist album Next Wave (out on Distinctive, September 2) and is likely to become a staple component of his notably mature chill-out sets.

"There's that whole generation of people who've been clubbing for 10 years. They want to keep involved with the scene and keep listening to interesting electronic music but not necessarily go clubbing every weekend," Chris told Skrufff recently.

"As a DJ, I'd rather grow old gracefully than carry on banging out hard house to 18 year olds. I think it's a lot cooler really to be playing Chill-out, to be honest."
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• chris coco
• fleetwood mac