Review Stevie Nicks, Hydro, Glasgow **** July 24, 2024

 

Photos Calum Buchan

Stevie Nicks, Glasgow review - ‘dazzled with the evergreen 

wonder of her songwriting gift’

Even though she spent more time introducing some songs than actually singing them, Stevie Nicks still managed to hold her audience’s attention, writes Jay Richardson

By Jay Richardson

The Scotsman

Stevie Nicks, Hydro, Glasgow ****

The creative and romantic psychodrama behind Fleetwood Mac's success is legendary. Yet the enduring rockers' most enduring survivor, Stevie Nicks, belatedly closing her latest tour in Glasgow after medical issues forced her to postpone the original date, still treated her crowd to a lengthy account of how she and Lindsey Buckingham ended up joining the band, transforming them into the world's biggest pop outfit in the 1970s. Indeed, between several changes of cape to emphasise her persona as “the psychic witch that everyone thinks I am” and all the tales behind the songs (both in the band and from her illustrious solo career), with the introductions at times lasting three or four times longer than the tracks themselves, she truly tested the crowd’s love for her, which nevertheless remained strong.

Performed with her vocal coach Steve Real, the timelessly gorgeous ballad Leather And Lace acquired additional depth from Nicks' yarn of how she wrote it for Waylon Jennings and his wife Jessi Colter shortly before their split. But a rather by-the-numbers cover of Stephen Stills' For What It's Worth was insufficient reward for an interminable, decades-spanning explanation of why she loved the song.

Thankfully, the second half of the setlist featured less exposition. And it's a hard heart that would deny Nicks the chance to pay tribute to some of her greatest departed collaborators, including Tom Petty, with a soaring, gutsy rendition of Free Fallin', and her poignant take on Landslide which closed the night, emphasising her sisterhood with her Mac bandmate Christine McVie. Highlights included the white hot rock of Petty composition Stop Draggin' My Heart Around and the anthemic juggernaut of Edge Of Seventeen, its iconic guitar riff propelling almost everyone in the Hydro out of their seats.

Opening her encore with the driving rhythms of Rhiannon, Nicks belied her 76 years for a show that was low on surprises, overburdened with filler but generally dazzled with the evergreen wonder of her and her peers' songwriting gift.

GYPSY

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