If there’s a need to acknowledge how distinctive was the bass delivery of Stuart McDonald, who passed away on August 4th at the age of 75, one has to remember that Paul Rodgers chose him for a trio called PEACE, when FREE had first broken up, to form a rhythm section with Mick Underwood, on the recommendation from Simon Kirke, his former bandmate in HEATWAVE. But of course, Mac, as friends called him, became better known as a member of another band.
Considered today cult classics, both albums by KILLING FLOOR – their self-titled debut from 1969 and “Out Of Uranus” from the following year – featured Stuart as both top-notch instrumentalist, backing singer and, together with guitarist Mick Clarke, songwriter of the highest caliber. The pair’s camaraderie would also manifest itself in the latter half of the ’70s, when the two reunited in SALT to perform not only in small venues but also at the Reading Festival and accompany Muddy Waters, who happened to visit London without a group of their own, although finding a proper record deal proved difficult. That was one of the few regrets Mac had.
His major gripe, though, was not arranging a deal with Rodgers. Stuart always maintained that they co-penned all three tracks PEACE played on BBC and that cropped up on bootlegs later on: “Heartbreaker” and “Seven Angels” which ended on FREE’s “Heartbreaker” and “Like Water” which appeared on BAD COMPANY’s “Burnin’ Sky” – two credited solely to Paul and one to the vocalist and his wife. Mac hoped to settle the issue for years, as he hold this scribe a few times, but all his attempts to contact Rodgers failed. McDonald continued to come up on stage with various collectives until recently, yet he never achieved fame and fortune he deserved. A pity. Still, Mac will be sorely missed by those who knew him.
