Stuart "Mac" McDonald

Mick writes:

Stuart McDonald.. Mac.. was a major part of my life for almost as long as I can remember. As my wife Linda said, he'd been a friend "forever".

He was the bass player in Killing Floor, SALT and Daddy Longlegs as well as other projects in between, and there were frequent social gatherings with him and his wife Jan, often down at his 'ancestral home' of Presteigne in Radnorshire.

As well as the line-ups that I was involved in, Mac was always busy, touring with bands such as Jellybread and notably being part of Paul Rodgers' 'Peace' after Paul had finished working with the band Free.

Mac passed away on Monday 4th August 2025 at Hereford Hospital. He was suffering from a lung infection and other problems, but passed peacefully with his sister Sally at his side.

Killing Floor

When Killing Floor formed in 1968 it was originally just me and Bill. We needed a bass player, and an ad in the Melody Maker music paper brought a response from 'Mac', who had come to London to seek his fortune and was living in his van outside Clapham Common tube station.

Mac was ideally suited for the job. He'd been brought up on all the same British blues stuff that we had .. John Mayall, Yardbirds etc, playing with local bands back in Wales such as 'Heatwave' which also featured a young Simon Kirke on the drums.

And he had gear.. and a van! We were off. After a while Mac settled in with his Auntie Peggy and Uncle Ron in their house in suburban Sutton. A strange combination - the wild Welsh musician and the very conservative London couple, but it seemed to work out. Many times when we were sitting in the van on a motorway somewhere starving, Mac would produce the steak sandwhich that Auntie Peggy had made for him! Auntie Peggy is immortalised in the Killing Floor instrumental 'Auntie Peggy's Handbag'.

And Mac could be wild. He had a volatile temper and could be a righteous pain in the asse at times. He seemed to always have some sort of axe to grind.. as Bill once said 'a rebel without a cause'.

I remember us all going to see BB King at the Albert Hall. Mac spoilt the whole show for me muttering loudly about "what a load of rubbish", and he'd rather be seeing Emerson Lake and Palmer. I think he was just being deliberately awkward, but I could've killed him!

At a gig in Norwich I turned round to find that he'd discarded his bass and was blasting away on a Telecaster. Trying to prove something.. God knows what. So.. volatile.

And in between we got on great, and there was no one more enthusiastic for the music and the road than Mac.

After a while we all went down to his place in Presteigne - the family home where we met Mum, younger sister Sally and Mr McDonald senior - a larger than life character with a Jimmy Edwards moustache and a fund of ribald sayings. So we got an idea of where Mac was really at home - fishing in the rivers and hunting pheasants in the beautiful Mid Wales countryside.

In fact nothing was safe when Mac was out with his shotgun, and there were a few people who had concerns, as well as the wildlife.

Killing Floor achieved a lot in that first 'Blues Boom' era, including touring with Freddie King and playing with many of the big names of the time. However there were a lot of tensions in the band and after a while we split, although the band continued based around myself and Bill. Mac threw himself into other projects - the first being a band that was managed by the Radio One DJ Emperor Roscoe.

I don't know much about this era but I know it was eventful. Mac teamed up with another volatile youngster, Darryl Read, who later died in a motorcycle accident in Vietnam, and had more adventures with the band Krayon Angels. He worked with a Club Med band in Switzerland at one time, playing standards for the tourists, dressed in a George Chisholm style striped bathing costume! But it was all part of 'paying your dues' and all grist to the mill for Mac's musical development.

Mac rejoined Killing Floor for the 'Out of Uranus' album and more touring, largely in Europe including a long residency in the South of France, and an appearance at the Hamburg Easter Festival which also featured a new band called Black Sabbath.

We came back on the overnight ferry from Hamburg with Sabbath, and we got on well.. I particularly remember chatting with the bass player and drummer. Ozzy was very quiet - hardly heard a peep out of him, but it was Mac who freaked out in the bar because he felt he was being overcharged for a Coca Cola, leapt over the bar and started chasing the alarmed barman around the ship. So much for the Wild Man of Rock.. Ozzy learned it all from our Mac!

Peace

At some point Mac left Auntie Peggy's and got a flat, sharing with the singer from a new band that was forming.. one Paul Rodgers. I remember dropping in to the flat one time and meeting Paul, a neat figure sharply dressed in the latest Carnaby Street flares - every inch the rock star to be. In fact Paul was staying with Mac up in Presteigne the very week that 'All Right Now' hit Number One. Mac had the photos of them larking about with the horse which was permanently tethered in Mac's back garden.

And later, when Free split, Mac was invited to be the bass player in Paul's new band 'Peace'. This was a very big deal, and Mac embraced the opportunity totally. The band toured with Mott The Hoople and Mac had a taste of rock stardom.. playing to ecstatic audiences around Britain and flying home in the Island Records plane. Mac was always pround of this episode, and his relationship with Paul. For a while Mac was, indeed, Rock Royalty.

Daddy Longlegs

Around this time Mac was hit by a serious illness - Hodgkinson's Disease - and had to have large amounts of radiation treatment at the Marsden Hospital. I remember him saying that his whole body was like a checkerboard where the treatment had been applied. So it was a tough time for him.

However he came through, and in 1973 when I was working with the band Daddy Longlegs and we needed a new bass player, he was there in a shot, giving it his all as usual.

Daddy Longlegs was formed by an American drummer, Cliff Carrison. They had had major record deals, but this was the tail end of their career.. we were just a hard working on-the-road back of the Transit type band playing all kinds of venues up and down the country.

But the band had had a hit in Holland.. a hippy anthem called 'Getting High Again' where Cliff would leave his drums to play a bicycle pump whistle..(I don't know the right name). So we headed off on a couple of Dutch tours which were a lot of fun, playing to audiences who were so stoned that there were sometimes people literally asleep in front of the stage. We also hit the wilds of Scandinavia.. uncharted gigging territory in those days, but we enjoyed exploring Viking tombs and so on. Mac loved the fact that we played at 'Mr Mac's' Club in Kalmar, Sweden, and kept the poster.

So yes, we had a great time.. but there was still that volatility. I clearly remember an empty whisky bottle smashing against a dressing room wall, having been violently flung at Cliff Carrison who fortunately ducked in time. Mac's wildness was still untamed.

Happily everyone made up and the tour rolled on. Eventually we did find a new bass player although I can't remember the exact circumstances. But Daddy Longlegs with Mac was an eventful year.

SALT

And when we formed SALT a couple of years later and needed a bass player there was only one man for the job. Mac was back in town with Auntie Peggy's as his base and ready to rock.

And SALT suited him down to a tee.. a return to the real hard rock blues of Killing Floor days, and SALT got very successful very quickly. We were soon packing out the Marquee Club as well as other London venues, Dingwalls, The Music Machine and others, and building a strong reputation around the country. In 1977 we played at the Reading Festival, which Mac often referred to as fulfilling a boyhood dream.

And it was a great gig.. we played in the afternoon but the crowd was in and we got a tremendous reception. The compere John Peel said we "set his feet most furiously to tapping". SALT also opened for Muddy Waters at his big London concert at the New Victoria Theatre - another great night. And we even shared the bill at the 100 Club with the Sex Pistols! But that's a whole other story - there are too many.

Ramrod

In fact it was punk that was really the cause of SALT's demise, and after a while it morphed into Ramrod, with Lou Martin and Rod de'Ath who had just left Rory Gallagher's band.

Ramrod was a fine band but the times were against it.. it was hard for a blues rock band to get a deal in late 70s London. We toured Ireland and played some great shows in London, but no deal was forthcoming. I left and went to live in the US for a while, and my place in the band was taken by the excellent Dave Edwards, a fine Les Paul slinger and vocalist. I think they had some great nights (one with Rory Gallagher jamming) but eventually the band came to an end.

Later

So Mac returned to the hills of Wales. I don't know too much about this period in his life, but I know he had a band with his wife Jan, who was a fine blues singer herself. And in time there was cause to get back down to London for more rock'n'roll shenanigans.

First it was a Killing Floor re-union - the album 'Zero Tolerance' and some select festival dates around Europe. Mac was excited to get to fly to gigs rather than taking the van! And he thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience visiting Germany, Belgium and Italy, playing on a rock cruise around the Baltic, and ending at the great Sweden Rock Festival. A fitting climax to Killing Floor's gigging career.

And then a SALT re-union.. hitting the clubs again and re-learning the classics.. 'All Wired Up' - 'The Cobra's Melody'. Some great nights ending with a show at Banbury Mill, remembering the old days of Banbury's 'Blues Attic'.

When I got to play my own show at Sweden Rock in 2018, Mac was there as part of my three piece line-up with Chris Sharley on drums. Mac did a great job.. we were literally competing directly with Iron Maiden in real time! Mac rose to the occasion immaculately, and I know that he looked back on the show as another highlight of his career.

Something I haven't yet mentioned.. Mac was a helluva good bass player. He was really the ultimate blues rock player.. he could play a strong boogie or rock rhythm and was never afraid to throw in a powerful lead lick to push things along. In fact he was also a very good guitarist, playing a sort of Peter Green style on his SG or ES-339, or blasting out wild improvisation on his acoustic.

He played left handed - using a regular strung bass upside down. His preferred instrument back in the Killing Floor / SALT days was always a Fender Precision, and to make it easier to reach the top frets he casually sawed off part of the guitar. Why not? Later he played other makes, including a five string, but towards the end he rediscovered the joys of his Fender.

Mac always worried that he couldn't play slap bass.. as usual a completely unnecessary concern. We loved Mac's playing because he knew how to boogie - he knew how to rock.

A couple of years ago Mac lost his beloved wife Jan, much missed by all of their friends and families. It hit him hard but he soldiered on, walking his dog Jim and playing his acoustic guitar in unlikely landscapes all across Mid Wales. He was a voracious facebook poster.. alternately raging about some perceived injustice or remembering his glory days with affection.

He still felt that he needed to prove something. (He didn't). And he was still planning that big road trip across the USA or a return to gigging.

One last point.. I always felt that Free's song 'Wishing Well' written by Paul Rodgers, was about Mac. Well it's quite possible, and read the lyric.. 'put down your gun you might shoot yourself, or is that what you're trying to do?' Who else could it be? And I have heard that Mac himself told people that the song was about him.

How to sum up Mac? An enigma wrapped in a mystery? A volatile bundle of energy and high intelligence, constantly trying to burst out of his own confines? Always searching for more.. more music, more experience. His last words online were so Mac.. "I'm well and truly stuffed..". Honest, down to earth, to the point, and delivered in his own inimitable style.

So long Mac - see you in that great jam band in the sky. Get a couple of Marshall amps warmed up.



Mac with Killing Floor at Sweden Rock Festival 2012.

Thanks to David Cooper, Chris Sharley, Guy Richards and others for all the great pics.

From Paul Rodgers:

Stuart "Mac" McDonald was a good lad and quite the character. I met him at a Peter Green concert at the marquee in London. We hit it off immediately, so much so that I invited him to join the band I was forming called Peace and he was best man at my wedding to my first wife Machiko he apparently paid for the civil ceremony which I still owe him for. Sorry about that Mac. I'll pay you back in heaven hopefully that's where we're going.Anyway we played and toured a lot of towns in England, Scotland and Wales with Mott The Hoople. He was a good bass player and a good man to have around. I'm glad he got back in touch before he passed via my son Steve. Go in peace Mac and to his family and everyone who loved him my condolences. - Paul Rodgers

From Simon Kirke:

I was sad to hear of the passing of Stuart. I have known him since I was 17 years old when we formed a trio called heat wave. I stayed at his house many times in Knighton. He was a laid-back guy, w a great sense of humor and an extremely good bass player.

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