Review - Stevie Nicks really is here!! Hyde Park

Stevie Nicks - British Summertime, Hyde Park 2024

Review and Photos Dawn Osborne

Totalrock.com

(more photos and full day review at link above)

When Stevie Nicks postponed her Glasgow gig everyone with a ticket to see her at British Summertime held their breath, would their dreams be shattered of seeing the legend at Hyde Park. When she postponed Manchester we tried to ignore an impending sense of doom that it was not to be. She issued a press release saying London was definitely going ahead, but still, would she have recovered enough from her recent leg operation to make it? When no cancellation notice arrived by the morning of the event we began to breath easier. On arrival at the event, there are no white notices at the entrance with a stinging message that unfortunately Ms Nicks could not make it, and we could begin to dare to have confidence she was coming. But not until she actually stepped on the stage did people believe their eyes, pinching themselves that this was actually happening.

And the moment has arrived, and the crowd roars, as Stevie Nicks really is here!! She comes on looking fantastic, still beautiful at 76, elegantly dressed in a kind of Victorian mourning outfit emphasizing her still trim figure and sounding better than the Fleetwood Mac records in person. It's like suddenly cleaning a window to hear her live, compared with the dated production of many of her famous records and iconic track 'Dreams' made a very early appearance making everyone's day. She looks happy and well and although still limping a little (although I wonder if I didn't know about her leg operation would I have picked that up). She danced a little for the crowd who gave a huge roar every time she did. Encouraged by others she has brought along the genuine shawls and cloaks from the original Fleetwood Mac records such as 'Bella Donna' and 'Gold Dust Woman' adding to the sense of awe and historical importance when performing these tracks. The sight of her lifting up the black and golden shawl like a butterfly against the dots moving across the stage like the effect of a giant golden glitter ball was the most stunning visual of the day.

She was engaging and chatty telling stories between songs, for example, how she looks back on the days when she was young fondly: constantly touring and with no money, she now calls them the 'halcyon days'. Explaining that when she was young she had been too busy getting fittings, having her hair done, writing poems and doing everything necessary for her music career to ever vote. She implores the crowd not to be like her, but make sure they turn out for a general election.

Her musings turned to those she cared for who had a connection to Hyde Park where she had last seen Tom Petty before he died. She explained that she could feel his presence as she covered one of his best known tracks 'Free Fallin' to a backdrop of huge photos of him on screen. Later she reminds everyone that the actual date of this show is the dearly departed Christine McVie's birthday. She explains that her mother always said that Stevie went on stage when she was hurt to heal, and how her audiences have helped her get over the loss of people she loves.

'Rhiannon' was the first track of the encore and as if that wasn't enough, Harry Styles suddenly arrived to duet on 'Stop Dragging My Heart Around' and 'Landslide'. I didn't tell everyone screaming around me that I was much more excited by Stevie and I couldn't sing a Harry Styles song to save my life, but it added to the special feeling of the occasion to have some more celebrity stardust added. As special as I thought this would be the reality surpassed my expectations by a mile. When you see a legend in concert nothing compares to it as an experience when you are in the moment and actually there. She really came.. and played .. and sang .. and danced. and everything!! (Instant fan girl!) Along with the rest of the crowd I am still pinching myself now and will never forget today!

Review Stevie Nicks Live in Manchester July 10, 2024

Review: Stevie Nicks at Co-op Live, Wednesday 10 July

by HARLEY YOUNG 

Confidentials.com

Photo Nick Flynn

Harley Young is honoured to share a room with the coolest lady on the planet

LET’s face it. When you think of the most beautiful, enchanting, ethereal yet incredibly badass woman in music, your mind instantly goes to The Reigning Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll herself Stevie Nicks.

At 76 years young, the boho beauty is still taking to the stage to grace us all with her unmistakably iconic look and sound and, on Tuesday night at Co-op Live, she did just that to an arena full of adoring fans, blubbing (me included) as she waltzed out onto the stage in her signature garb. 

Her unruly trademark curls flowed freely as she greeted the audience to Tom Petty’s Runnin' Down a Dream before charging right on with Outside The Rain from 1981 solo album Bella Donna. 

Despite having pushed back the gig a week due to minor surgery, Stevie showed no signs of slowing down and put her all into her performance from the off, thanking the crowd for taking time out of their week to come and see her before getting everyone up on their feet with Fleetwood Mac favourite Dreams. 

Stevie then told the audience that, after the show, they could find her in Harrods. “It’s not even in this town, but you can visit me here because I’ll be in the jewellery department,” she joked, adding “Anyway, jewels allowed, I’m so glad to be here. I’m so glad you’re here. So let's get this fabulous party started.”

Party in full swing, Stevie took the packed-out arena on a journey through her discography, both with Fleetwood Mac (Gypsy) and Tom Petty (Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around) and her solo career (Stand Back). 

Between every couple of songs the Arizona-born legend shared tales of how her legacy came to be, including how she was working as a cleaning lady when she and Lindsey Buckingham were discovered by Mick Fleetwood. She’d scamper off every now and then and reappear with a different cape, each more magical than the next - most of which were originals worn by her in music videos.

“We bought and listened to all of their records. Lindsey said they sounded ‘too jazzy’ and he didn’t want to be a jazz guitarist. So, I told him I didn’t want to be a cleaning lady.” 

Both comical and endearing, Nicks has a way of telling stories that make you feel like you’re the only person in the room listening to them. The way she speaks of her past is so sincere and it makes you feel like you’re best friends sharing a secret. We’ve all read the tabloids, but hearing it straight from the lady herself is truly special. 

After covering Tom Petty’s Free Fallin’, Nicks performed a powerful rendition of Gold Dust Woman with help from musician and record producer Waddy Wachtel on guitar. She then brought out her long-time vocal coach, Steve Real, to perform a heartwarming duet of Leather & Lace, a track she originally performed with Don Henley on the Bella Donna album.

Then came the moment we’d all dreamed of; Wachtel and the band erupted into life, performing the most highly anticipated instrumental of the night. The crowd were on tenterhooks as they waited with bated breath, eyes fixed on the door waiting for Stevie to reappear. 

Seconds felt like years until finally Nicks strutted back out onto stage to a roaring applause before serenading us like a white winged dove with Edge of Seventeen.

The lights went down and the crowd begged and pleaded, chanting in unison for “one more song”. Much to our delight, Stevie and the crew came back and graced us with not one but two more Fleetwood favourites; the wonderfully entrancing Rhiannon followed by closing song Landslide, accompanied by photos of keyboardist, vocalist, and Nicks’ dear friend, the late Christine McVie. 

Stevie Nicks delivered a dazzling 15-track set to 60,000 adoring fans

Live Review: Stevie Nicks // Hyde Park, London 12.07.24

By Rosie Brennan

Indiependent.co.uk

12 July 2024 saw the legendary Stevie Nicks headline in London’s Hyde Park to deliver a dazzling 15-track set to 60,000 adoring fans. The 76-year-old Fleetwood Mac singer took to the stage following an incredible number of support artists, including Baby Queen and Paris Paloma.

Many fans were gutted to hear of Nicks cancelling her Glasgow and Manchester dates the previous week due to a leg injury, with some travelling hours to see the iconic rockstar before suddenly hearing the devastating news. Thankfully, after rescheduling these dates and taking time to recover, she came back stronger than ever to perform at Hyde Park. This is the same iconic venue she was last seen performing at with her mentor Tom Petty in 2017, just months following his tragic passing. With so much occurring behind the scenes, it was clear from the get-go that Friday would be an extremely emotional evening. 

Even initially seeing Nicks appear on stage, with the same mythical charisma she has always possessed, felt like an ethereal experience. She still managed to maintain her iconic 70s witchy style and aura decades later. Her signature low rumbling rasp allowed for some interesting key adaptions on many of her hits, but her voice was still just as astounding as always. A few incredibly healthy-sounding vocals hit the audience all the way to the back of the park. 

Many solo and, of course, Fleetwood Mac hits were included in this set, starting off with classics like ‘Dreams’, ‘Bella Donna’ and the bouncy fantastical ‘Gypsy’. An audience favourite was the live rendition of the shimmering Fleetwood track ‘Gold Dust Woman’, dressed up by the stunning gold glistening motion graphics pulsating around the screens on stage. 

One of the most wonderful parts about the gig was the amount of time Nicks spent monologuing stories between songs, almost like an eccentric aunt at the family party you never want to stop hearing anecdotes from. Most of these endearingly long speeches came before subtle yet impactful costume changes, as Nicks transformed between a variety of her iconic vintage shawls. 

Nicks’ beautiful rambles varied from jokes and digs about her long-time complex relationship with fellow Fleetwood star Lindsey Buckingham, to the importance of political awareness in modern times (“Doesn’t matter who for…just vote” she said, following the recent UK General Election). She also included heart-wrenching tales remembering her late Fleetwood Mac bandmate Christine McVie, who passed suddenly in 2022. The electric atmosphere of Nicks’ classics tugged thousands more heartstrings when she announced that it would have been Christine’s 81st birthday. 

Nicks’ vocal coach, Steve Real, appeared as a special guest, joining her on stage for ‘Leather and Lace’. The guest stars did not end here, however. The big reveal (and possibly the loudest scream I have ever let out in my entire life) came as Nicks’ friend and fellow star Harry Styles subtly appeared to perform a duet of ‘Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around’ in a beautiful tribute to Tom Petty. Styles stayed for a performance of ‘Landslide’ (a song the pair performed together back at the very start of his solo career in 2017, which ended in a flood of tears for Fleetwood Mac fan, Styles). Perhaps ‘Landslide’ is one of the most beautifully written songs of all time, but the added ode to Christine left not one single dry eye in the house. 

It would not be a Nicks review without mentioning her biggest hit ‘Edge of Seventeen’. The chart-topping classic was stretched out by the impressive live instrumental keys, as well as the amazingly iconic beginning riff lasting around two minutes. 

Stevie Nicks provided a night to remember. The tributes to her late loved ones were done in such a beautifully tasteful manner, whilst still managing to get the entire audience to twirl and frolic like it’s 1979. A bewitching, euphoric, and incredibly emotional evening was provided by one of rock’s finest. In the words of the legend herself, “You have made me better”. 

Review Stevie Nicks Live in Manchester - more than worth the wait.

Stevie Nicks' Co-op Live - icon treats Manchester to Fleetwood Mac hits

Stevie Nicks performed at Manchester's Co-op Live Tuesday July 16, 2024

By Craig Jones

Manchester Evening News

Photo Kenny Brown

Manchester enjoyed a wonderful evening when music royalty Stevie Nicks paid a visit to the city’s Co-op Live - even if it was a little later than expected.

Fleetwood Mac icon, Nicks, 76, had been due to perform in the city earlier this month before suffering an injury. Quickly rescheduled to Tuesday evening, the speedy turnaround didn’t prove to be a problem for her devotees with the venue packed out.

There was no mention of the postponement from Nicks but she did speak at length about her love of England with American Nicks joking she’d be keen to call it home. She said: “We like it here. We just might stay. You are probably asking yourselves ‘where is she going to live? She’s probably going to live in Harrods?’.

“Oh, that’s not even here in this town but you can visit me there. As I’ll probably just be in the jewellery department.”

Opening with Outside The Rain, howls followed when the easily-recognisable intro to Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams came second in the set. Nicks, dressed in her signature cape, wavy skirt and tassels, tenderly exuded those unforgettable lyrics. Having many thousand Mancunians as backing singers. After, there were numerous cries of ‘we love you, Stevie’.

The setlist consisted of Mac hits accompanied by songs from the Nicks solo back catalogue. The music pioneer also regularly engaged with her audience giving details about how some of the tracks came to be.

Touching on the unmatched if complicated (well, very complicated) dynamic between herself, Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, et al the masses discovered how Gypsy was created. The number soon followed and proved to be one of the evening’s highlights.

The Mac anecdotes were delivered with warmth and an understanding of how important those people and that band have been in Nicks’ life. On Tuesday, there were also dedications to the star’s contemporaries as many greats flashed on the big screens with Tom Petty getting his own moment when Nicks gave a rendition of Free Fallin’. Nicks spoke with much humility when discussing her influences.

The cape changes were plentiful with Bella Donna and Stand Back originals being presented on stage. The attire of many in attendance was clearly inspired by the landmark musical artist.

A mesmeric performance of Edge of Seventeen, featuring emphatic guitar work from Waddy Wachtel, concluded the main set. Stills of Prince flashed up before the humble Nicks thanked the Co-op crowd for their support.

A two-song encore came in the shape of Fleetwood Mac classics Rhiannon and Landslide. At the weekend, in London, the latter saw Harry Styles join Nicks on stage. In Manchester, it was Nicks and her stripped back band who brought the curtain down with the deeply impassioned song - dedicated to Mac bandmate Christine McVie who sadly died in 2022.

There were some tears and much adulation as Nicks took her bow. One thing is for certain, Stevie Nicks’ appearance in Manchester was more than worth the wait.

Setlist

• Outside the Rain
• Dreams
• If Anyone Falls
• Stop Draggin' My Heart Around
• Gypsy
• For What It's Worth
• Free Fallin'
• Bella Donna
• Stand Back
• Gold Dust Woman
• Leather and Lace
• Edge of Seventeen

Encore

• Rhiannon
• Landslide

(Soldiers Angel, dropped from this show)

Outside The Rain / Dreams 

Gold Dust Woman

Stand Back (different opening)

If Anyone Falls In Love

Review Stevie Nicks London, Hyde Park "On stage, Nicks is a consummate entertainer"

Stevie Nicks at BST Hyde Park review: Harry Styles cameo jars in resonant star’s tremendous, throwback-heavy show

The charismatic Nicks is a consummate entertainer, which is why it’s a shame to see her ceding the spotlight to a 30-year-old boyband star

★★★★☆

by Louis Chilton

Independent

Photo Lorne Thomson

There’s no escaping Fleetwood Mac. The final iteration of the seminal band may have disbanded two years ago following the death of Christine McVie, but their music still reverberates around our culture, as if held by some humongous sustain pedal that nobody dares lift.

And yet, if you bought tickets to see Stevie Nicks at London’s Hyde Park expecting some kind of dewy tribute to a bygone pop group, you will have been sorely mistaken. From the moment Tom Petty’s “Runnin’ Down a Dream” pumps out over the speaker, and Nicks walks out – dressed in black, with fingerless gloves and hair that could reasonably be described as Rapunzelesque – it’s obvious you are watching a performer with tremendous resonance in her own right.

On stage, Nicks is a consummate entertainer, a woman whose charisma and husky-voiced gravitas has only ossified with the decades. As she speaks about the wonder of performing at Hyde Park, it has the slight ring of schmoozing, the sense that we are being honeyed with rote (albeit deft) flattery. When she begins talking about playing on this same stage with Petty in 2017, however, this notion dissolves immediately. “I feel his presence and I’m happy he’s here,” she says, with an earnestness that melts your heart, before launching into a vibrant cover of “Free Fallin’” that has most of the crowd crooning along, arms aloft.

The biggest bangers here are, inevitably, the smattering of hits released during Fleetwood Mac’s 13-year peak, including “Gypsy”, “Gold Dust Woman”, and, later in the set, “Rhiannon”. The decision to medley opener “Outside the Rain”, from Nicks’s 1981 solo debut Bella Donna, with Fleetwood Mac’s diamond-tight bop “Dreams”, calls regrettable attention to just how musically similar the two tracks are.

In restricting the setlist’s Fleetwood Mac covers to her own compositions (something she has always done at solo shows), Nicks omits some of the band’s best-loved tracks: there is no “The Chain”, no “Go Your Own Way”. What that does mean is more space for solo cuts, and a couple of savvy covers. Introducing a politically charged version of Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth”, Nicks urges fans to exercise their right to vote, admitting she had not done so herself until she was 70. (“Don’t be me!”)

At 76 years old, Nicks has lost some of the range and diction in her voice, though she has smartly learnt to compensate – shifting down the more quixotic high notes and making the most of the ardent middle register. She’s also girded by a first-rate backing band. For “Leather and Lace”, originally a duet with Don Henley, Nicks shares the stage with her longtime vocal coach Steve Real – the man, she says, responsible for keeping her voice in gig-ready nick well into her eighth decade.

It’s a touching moment, in a set that’s full of them. After a riffy, minutes-long instrumental intro, the band eventually cannons into “Edge of Seventeen”, Nicks’s biggest hit as a solo artist. This too is a song about grief – but the pulsing, electric melodies make it less a eulogy than a defiant celebration.

For a legacy act like this, the audience here is surprisingly young – eyeballing it, I reckon at least a decade or two younger on average than the crowd at Bruce Springsteen’s sensational 2023 Hyde Park set. On one level, it’s a testament to the 2010s Fleetwood Mac resurgence, the shift when Rumours started becoming a cool album again, after years in the “oldies” ghetto.

But more than this, it speaks to Nicks’s towering place in the industry, her role as an inspiration for younger musicians and music fans alike. Performing on stage early in the afternoon as a supporting act, country singer Brandi Carlile said that neither she, nor any of the female acts on the bill, would likely be performing music were it not for Nicks’s influence. This sentiment is palpable, through the crowd and throughout the night.

As a final showstopper, Nicks brings out Harry Styles for encore renditions of “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” and “Landslide” – the latter in tribute to McVie, on what would have been her 81st birthday. The younger members of the crowd go wild. There’s something jarring about Nicks ceding the spotlight to a 30-year-old boyband star, and he seems almost loath to steal the headlines, fanning his hands down into a performative show of worship.

But at the same time, it makes perfect sense. For all the throwbacks, the reminiscences, the sense of culmination, this doesn’t feel like an ending. Pop music will, one day, have to go on without Stevie Nicks. But for now, she gets to live in the future her music built.

Fleetwood Mac may be over, but Stevie Nicks spell will never wane

Stevie Nicks wins landslide of approval at BST Hyde Park, London

The singer smoothly mixed Fleetwood Mac hits with solo material and was boosted by an appearance from Harry Styles

★★★★☆

by David Smyth

Financial Times

Photo: Anthony Pham

As with the arrival of a city-crushing monster, you heard the screams before you saw him. Harry Styles wasn’t announced before he strolled on to the Hyde Park stage to join Stevie Nicks for her encore, but by the forest of rising phone screens and the voices raised in swooning abandon, it was immediately clear something big was afoot.

In hindsight, this stellar duet might have been expected. The 76-year-old face of Fleetwood Mac has called Styles “the son I never had”. He was chosen to induct her into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2019, and that same year she joined him at one of his Los Angeles concerts to sing her tear-stained ballad “Landslide”. Here they shared vocals on the 1975 song again while photographs of Christine McVie flicked past on the big screens. The other female star of Fleetwood Mac, who died two years ago, would have celebrated her 81st birthday on the day of this show.

Styles also played the Tom Petty role on “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around”, a smouldering rocker and Nicks’s debut solo single from 1981. At no point did he take over, however, simply making a “We’re not worthy” gesture in her direction and saying “It’s coming home” as a brief footballing aside.

In April, Nicks popped up on physical copies of Taylor Swift’s latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, as the author of a poem printed on the sleeve. Meanwhile, Fleetwood Mac’s most recent greatest hits collection has been in the UK top 20 almost constantly since its release in 2018. And, last autumn, Mattel unveiled a $55 Stevie Nicks Barbie doll. If she were any closer to the centre of popular culture, she would have been playing left back in Berlin on Sunday night.

Her influence was physically evident in the crowd, too, which included a huge number of women wearing layered, diaphanous skirts, palm-reader shawls and wide-brimmed hats — a female equivalent of the men who sculpt their hair into optimistic tributes to Paul Weller or Morrissey.

Nicks gave no indication that any aspect of her 2024 status came as a surprise. She seemed completely at home in front of this vast crowd, introducing songs with meandering anecdotes, as if at an intimate dinner party. Her singing voice, brittle and mystical, has lost little of its enchantress’s magic. She avoided the high notes in “Dreams”, but did so with a new arrangement that still suited the song.

With McVie gone and Lindsey Buckingham frozen out, it currently looks impossible for a line-up approximating peak Fleetwood Mac to appear on stage again. Solo, Nicks punctuated her set with many of her classic compositions for the band. The timeless melody of “Gypsy” still beguiled, and she threw everything into an epic “Gold Dust Woman”. But more space for her solo 1980s excursions was no bad thing. “If Anyone Falls”, “Stand Back” and the raucous “Edge of Seventeen” traded her haunting presence in Fleetwood Mac for delirious power-pop energy. The band may be over, but her individual spell looks like it will never wane.

Review Stevie Nicks Live in Hyde Park with Harry Styles July 12, 2024

Stevie Nicks: The Fleetwood Mac veteran brings magic to Hyde Park – with help from Harry Styles

It was genuinely special to witness Nicks duet with the young star at BST Hyde Park as a tribute to her late bandmate Christine McVie.

Neil McCormick, CHIEF MUSIC CRITIC

Telegraph

Photos Lorne Thomson

In my career as a music critic, I have heard the ear-shattering screech of teenage girls screaming many times. But I think this may have been the first time I have heard an audience of women of all ages give a kind of joyous approximation of the mass pop scream.

The object of their noisy enthusiasm was not, in fact, the star of the occasion, 76-year-old rock queen Stevie Nicks. The Fleetwood Mac veteran was certainly treated with respect, delight, enthusiasm and a touch of awe throughout an absolutely fantastic performance that put smiles on the faces of everyone on stage and in the crowd. But the screams were reserved for a guest who arrived for the last two songs, looking Hollywood handsome with chopped short hair and a baggy suit: boyband hero turned solo superstar Harry Styles.

When Styles was first charming the nation with One Direction, I don’t think this would have been anyone’s vision of his future: swinging a big orange guitar whilst standing in for Tom Petty on a rocking Stop Dragging My Heart Around and harmonising Christine McVie’s parts on a tender Landslide. As Britain’s premier contemporary pop star, Styles carries a lot of weight, but he showed the deep musical empathy to slip humbly into a supporting role with an all-time great, forging links from pop’s shining present to its glorious past. It was a genuinely special thing to witness, and Nicks was clearly moved as she drew him into a hug.

“The last time I was here in Hyde Park it was with Tom Petty, and that was the last time I saw Tom,” she had noted earlier of the great American rocker who died aged 66 in 2017. At the end, she spoke movingly about late Mac bandmate McVie. “This is Christine’s birthday,” she noted to cheers. (She would have been 81.) “It’s hard to sing a song about your best friend who died so suddenly,” she admitted. “My mom used to say when Stevie gets hurt, she runs to the stage, and that’s what I’ve been doing. And the only people who have helped me get through this are all of you.”

Fleetwood Mac may be no more, but the ladies – and, indeed, many gentlemen – of London came out for the band’s one true star on a cool summer evening in Hyde Park. There was a sense of cos-play about the occasion. Women of all ages bravely sported ballgowns, skimpy diaphanous cloaks and battered top hats in honour of the star’s distinctive look. Nicks dug into her own collection of cloaks, scarves and gowns as she twirled and sang, her voice lower and grittier than in her youth, but full of character and flair as she led us through the poetic narratives of her ethereal brand of magical blues rock. Her well-chosen solo songs sounded fantastic, with the great silver-haired guitarist Waddy Wachtel powering through Edge of Seventeen. The Mac material was transcendent. An extended psychedelic blues romp through Gold Dust Woman was better than I’d ever heard it, as free and wild as Nicks’ persona.

It was a very old-fashioned rock show. There wasn’t much in the way of stage production: some floaty screen imagery and coloured lights. It was all about a virtuoso band playing characterful songs with a charismatic star leading the way with free-flowing singing amidst welters of perfect harmonies. The woman’s got style. And, indeed, on this occasion, she had Harry Styles too.

Stevie Nicks "Edge of Seventeen" Certified 2x Platinum in the UK

 

Stevie Nicks "Edge of Seventeen" was certified 2x Platinum 

in the UK on July 12, 2024.

With Stevie Nicks headlining London’s BST Hyde Park over the weekend, Fleetwood Mac’s timeless "50 Years – Don’t Stop" collection ascends the Top 100 Albums Chart in the UK, up four in a return to the Top 10 at No.8 with 5,168 units sold.

"Rumours" also moves up on the chart to No.27 from No.32 last week. "Rumours" also moves up the vinyl Top 40 from No.10 last week to No.7 this week. On the Album Sales chart, "Rumours" moves up to No.14 from No.22 last week. 

In Scotland "Rumours" moves up the No.13 this week from No.19 last week. "Greatest Hits" moves up to No.75 from No.83 last week. 

In Ireland "50 Years - Don't Stop" moves up to No.11 from No.13 last week. "Rumours" moves up to No.27 from No.31 last week. 

Fleetwood Mac's "Go Your Own Way" Achieves 1 Billion Streams

 

Fleetwood Mac's "Go Your Own Way" has achieved 1 BILLION STREAMS on Spotify.  This is the 3rd track to reach that level following "Dreams" and "The Chain".

Stevie Nicks Live in London "Let’s hope she’ll be back for one last dance"

Stevie Nicks – BST Hyde Park, London, July 12

Harry Styles helps put the seal on an evening of leather, lace and memories

By Piers Martin

Uncut

Photo By laurenfrida on IG

Things were different the last time Stevie Nicks played Hyde Park. That was in 2017, when she opened for her best friend Tom Petty and joined him during his headline set for a run through “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around”, the hit the Heartbreakers wrote for her in 1981.

Petty is no longer with us, and nor is Christine McVie, Nicks’ soulmate in Fleetwood Mac, who’d become a fixture in that band again after years in the wilderness. “Whenever I’ve been hurt in my life, I’ve always run to the stage – and it’s always helped me,” says a visibly moved Nicks at the end of tonight’s set, before gesturing to the crowd: “You’ve always helped me.”

The stage is all Nicks has known for the past 50 years – and this sell-out Friday at British Summer Time is all about her. Her corner of Hyde Park is a sea of tasselled jackets, lace dresses, Stetsons and cowboy boots. A Nicks performance, or one by Fleetwood Mac, has been a rite of passage for millennials in the 21st century, and such occasions are becoming increasingly rare. 

These days, Nicks is a strangely ageless cosmic diva whose look, like her material, has remained unchanged since her mid-’80s prime. At 76, her voice is a little hoarser, and it was touch and go whether this show would even go ahead after she postponed earlier dates in Manchester and Glasgow following minor leg surgery. 

Nicks has been on the road pretty much full-time for two years, playing more or less the same 15-song set each show, but such is her charisma and the mythology of her songbook that you want to believe that she’s not going through the motions. She talks us through her famous shawls, and rambles endearingly about the circumstances that led to Stephen Stills writing “For What It’s Worth”, which she gives a political slant here by urging us to use our vote, maybe unaware the UK had an election last week. 

Her seasoned band, led by her longtime guitarist Waddy Wachtel, who’s flanked by the equally capable Carlos Rios, are well-oiled and more than happy to lay it on thick during a combustible “Gold Dust Woman”. They tear into “Stand Back”, “Edge Of Seventeen” and “Free Fallin’” as if they’re fresh out of college. Nicks’ mystical heartland pop is still best realised in the Mac’s “Dreams” and “Gypsy”, the latter a 1982 love-letter to her nomadic self of the late-’60s. In many ways she’s been chasing that feeling ever since, which explains why the songs she performs span that golden period from 1975 to 1983, when everything went right, and which resonate so deeply with her fans. 

She brings out her voice coach, Steve Real, for “Leather And Lace”. He sings Don Henley’s part beautifully on the Bella Donna ballad, each looking into the other’s eyes, the purity in his voice contrasting with her coarser vocal.

For the encore, it’s genuinely thrilling when Harry Styles walks onstage with a guitar to play rhythm and sing “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” with Nicks, and after that “Landslide” – songs they’ve played together before but which here elevate what would have been a decent run-of-the-mill concert to an event that will be hard to forget. 

Dressed in a loose dark suit and light green shirt, a colourful songbird brooch on his lapel, Styles is a class act and seems a little overwhelmed at first, but helps Nicks deliver an emotional “Landslide” as a montage of images of Christine McVie roll across the huge screens. Today would have been her 81st birthday, Nicks points out. “Time makes you bolder, even children get older – and I’m getting older, too,” she sings in “Landslide”. Let’s hope she’ll be back for one last dance. 

Setlist

• Outside The Rain
• Dreams
• If Anyone Falls
• Gypsy
• For What It’s Worth
• Free Fallin’
• Wild Heart
• Bella Donna
• Stand Back
• Leather And Lace
• Gold Dust Woman
• Edge Of Seventeen

Encore

• Rhiannon
• Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around
• Landslide

Free Fallin'

GYPSY

Stevie Nicks and Harry Styles Hyde Park London July 12, 2024

Harry Styles and Stevie Nicks Duet in Tribute to Christine McVie at BST Hyde Park Concert Christine McVie would have turned 81 on Friday.

By Thania Garcia

Variety

Photo: MJ Hewitt

Harry Styles joined Stevie Nicks‘ headlining set for the BST Hyde Park concert series on Friday for a duet of “Stop Dragging My Heart Around” and “Landslide.” Before he appeared on stage, Nicks told the audience in London that she asked Styles to help her in commemorating what would have been her late Fleetwood Mac bandmate Christine McVie‘s 81st birthday.

“At the end of the show, since the end of last year and since Christine passed away, I would say something about her, and I asked Harry to do this with me and it’s a lot to ask someone to sing a heavy song about a best friend that died so suddenly and so sadly,” she said. “What I want to say to you is that Christine was Harry’s girl, she was my girl, she was your girl, and she loved all of you, and today would’ve been her birthday.”

Styles was wearing an embroidered songbird pin, making a reference to McVie’s vocal performance in “Songbird,” the piano ballad off Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 album “Rumours.”

Styles has not appeared on stage for a performance since the end of his “Love On Tour” on July 22, 2023 in Italy. His last full-length album was 2022’s “Harry’s House,” which won a Grammy for album of the year. He has remained largely out of the spotlight since.

Nicks, meanwhile, told the crowd at BST Hyde Park that she often turns to the stage when she is dealing with something as heavy as the sudden passing of McVie: “One thing that my mom used to say to me when I was little was… When I was hurt, she’d go ‘Stevie when you’re hurt, you always run to the stage.’ And that’s what I’ve been doing since Chris passed away.”

Nicks is a headliner for the concert series that also includes performances by Kings of Leon, Kylie Minogue, the Corrs, Stray Kids, Shania Twain, Robbie Williams and Andrea Bocelli.

Harry Styles joins Stevie Nicks in Hyde Park for tributes to Tom Petty and Christine McVie The pair performed ‘Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around’ and ‘Landslide’

Kevin E G Perry Los Angeles

Independent UK

Photo: Ben Maden

Harry Styles joined Stevie Nicks as a surprise guest during the Fleetwood Mac singer’s headline performance at BST Hyde Park on Friday (July 12).

The former One Direction star, 30, duetted with Nicks, 76, on “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” which she originally released in 1981 with the late Tom Petty and his band The Heartbreakers.

Nicks performed the song with Petty in Hyde Park in 2017, just months before the rock icon’s death at 66.

On stage at tonight’s show, Nicks said of Petty: “This is a special day for a lot of reasons, to be back here because I feel his presence. I know he’s at this event and he’s happy with me here.”

Styles remained on stage to perform the 1975 Fleetwood Mac classic “Landslide,” before Nicks delivered an emotional tribute to her late bandmate Christine McVie. McVie, who died in 2022 at the age of 79, would have turned 81 today.

Nicks told the crowd: “I want you to know that Christine was my girl and she loved all of us and today was her birthday.”

She added: “All of you have helped me get over [her death] and I want you to know how much I appreciate it.”

Nicks also thanked Styles for joining her on stage, saying: “Harry, I thank you - we thank you!”

Elsewhere in the concert, Nicks urged the crowd to be politically active and said she had never voted until she turned 70. “I was too busy,” she said. “Don’t be me; vote.”

Back in 2019, Nicks joked that Styles is the “love child” of her and her bandmate, Mick Fleetwood, after praising him for his eponymous debut album.

“He’s Mick’s and my love child,” Nicks told Rolling Stone. “When Harry came into our lives I said, ‘Oh my God, this is the son I never had.’ So I adopted him.

“I love Harry, and I’m so happy Harry made a rock and roll record – he could have made a pop record and that would have been the easy way for him,” she continued. “But I guess he decided he wanted to be born in 1948 too – he made a record that was more like 1975.”

That same year, Styles inducted Nicks into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame.

“Stevie Nicks is the first female artist to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame a second time,” said Styles during the ceremony. “First, with Fleetwood Mac, and now for her unforgettable solo work. With Stevie, you’re not celebrating music from long ago through the mists of time. She was standing on stage headlining a place doing her best work just three nights ago. She is forever current. She is forever Stevie.”

Harry Styles, Stevie Nicks Duet ‘Landslide’ in Emotional Tribute to Christine McVie The duo also performed "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" at Hyde Park in London

BY ETHAN MILLMAN

Rollingstone

Stevie Nicks brought out longtime friend Harry Styles to join her for hits “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” and “Landslide” during her concert at Hyde Park in London on Friday night, with Nicks taking the time to commemorate Christine McVie on what would’ve been her 81st birthday. McVie died in November of 2022 after suffering a stroke.

The show marks Styles’ first live performance since finishing his Love On Tour last year.

“Christine was Harry’s girl, she was my girl, she was your girl,” Nicks told the crowd in London on Friday. “She loved all of us, today was her birthday. It’s taken me all this time to try and be able to deal with this situation. One thing my mom used to say to me when I was little was when I was hurt, she’d go ‘Stevie when you’re hurt you always run to the stage. That’s what I’ve been doing ever since Chris passed away, is running to the stage. The only people that have been able to help me to get over this has been all of you.”

This isn’t the first time the two have played those songs live together; Nicks joined Styles to play “Landslide” at the Forum in Los Angeles at the end of 2019, and they played “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction ceremony that same year when Styles inducted Nicks into the Hall.

“With Stevie, you’re not celebrating music from long ago through the mists of time,” Styles said in his induction speech that night. “She was standing on stage headlining a place doing her best work just three nights ago. She is forever current. She is forever Stevie.”

STOP DRAGGIN' MY HEART AROUND

RHIANNON

LANDSLIDE

Stevie Nicks Postpones Glasgow and Manchester Shows

Due to a recent leg injury requiring a minor surgical procedure that will need a few days of recovery time, Stevie Nicks’ scheduled performances in Glasgow Saturday 6 July and Manchester Tuesday 9 July have been postponed. More information will be available at point of purchase, ticketholders are advised to hold on to their tickets as rescheduled dates will be announced soon. 

Updated July 11, 2024

The Dates were rescheduled as follows:

• Manchester will now take place on Tuesday, July 16th
• Glasgow will now take place on Wednesday, July 24th

The show in Antwerpen originally scheduled for July 16th has been canceled and won't be rescheduled.  

Stevie Nicks’ show in the Irish capital proves she can still cast plenty of magic

Stevie Nicks Live Review: 

Fleetwood Mac singer flies solo in Dublin.

by Pat Carty

Mojo Magazine

Having announced the end of Fleetwood Mac to MOJO last month, Stevie Nicks’ show in the Irish capital proves she can still cast plenty of magic on her own.

Speaking in the latest issue of MOJO, Stevie Nicks confirmed what many fans had feared. That following the death of Christine McVie in 2022, a rapprochement between her and Lindsey Buckingham was not on the cards and Fleetwood Mac were essentially no more. At the same time, she offered hope for her fans.

“I would rather not be freed up from Fleetwood Mac, because of Christine. But I’m in a place when I can concentrate on my solo work. I can do anything I want now and not have to worry about stopping and going back to Fleetwood Mac,” she told MOJO’s Bob Mehr, before stating that she plans to carry on as she always has, ever since she was little girl: “To get up and dance and put on outfits and sing and tell stories.”

It's precisely what her Dublin fans - who’ve been on Nicks watch ever since she was spotted at last weekend’s Taylor Swift show and joined Swift for a night out in the city -  are here in their droves to see. That many of them have made the effort to dress in imitation of their idol only adds to the joyous atmosphere.

When the lights go down and Tom Petty’s Running Down A Dream comes out of the speakers, the excitement goes up another notch and then there she is, dressed in black, hair almost to her waist and drawers’ worth of scarves tied round her mic stand.

She begins with Outside The Rain, from 1981’s solo debut Bella Donna. As she was on the record, Nicks is joined by Waddy Wachtel (Keith Richards, Warren Zevon, Linda Ronstadt, Randy Newman) on the guitar. The veteran session player is here both to marshal the troops and act as a foil to Nicks and he gives good Lindsey Buckingham during Dreams, which is greeted with a surge of euphoria.

Is it Nick’s greatest song? Possibly. Does it show a certain chutzpah throwing it out this early in the game? Definitely. Even back in the gods, the roar along to the chorus from the floor is deafening. Wachtel throws a few Keith Richards-like shapes as ballet dancers sway on the screens during an equally useful If Anyone Falls In Love from 1983’s The Wild Heart, another million selling solo record, then Nicks pauses to start telling some of those stories.

She recalls how producer Jimmy Iovine came to her at the end of the recording of Bella Donna to say they needed a single. Fortunately, Iovine was also working with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers at the time and they had a song. Nicks went to his house and met Petty for the first time - “way overdressed” she remembers “and we did it.”

With Wachtel taking Petty’s vocal parts, the song in question, Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around, rocks magnificently as images of Nicks and all her fabulous showbiz friends in the 70s play out behind them. Despite being released in 2011, the warm FM radio sound of Nicks’ reading of Crosby Stills And Nash’s For What It’s Worth feels like it could have plucked from the same era.

The crowd sing along so enthusiastically to Gypsy from Fleetwood Mac’s 1982 album Mirage that they stumble ahead on occasion but the three-part vocal from the stage is beautiful. Wild Heart, Bella Donna, and Stand Back (Nicks gives it some trademark twirl during the latter) all land wonderfully, although a surprise Soldier’s Angel from 2011’s In Your Dreams is a more admirable sentiment than it is a song.

They’re all forgotten, however, when an exaggerated version of the intro to Gold Dust Woman is recognised. It’s also given an extended outro here, which transforms it into glorious swirling maelstrom of sound.

She brings out her vocal coach Steve Real, who acquits himself admirably and shows why he got the job, for Leather And Lace (given their past, a Don Henley appearance on the song was always unlikely) but there’s a bit of a misstep at the start of Edge Of Seventeen. The song’s instantly recognisable muffled riff sounds out only for the band to temporarily bury it under some back passing noodling, but once they get that out of their system the place nearly melts down.

While Nicks pauses before the encore, it should be noted that this show is not without its problems. She promised to tell stories and accordingly there are rambling introductions to several songs. Often as long, if not longer than the tunes they precede. For some this is manna from heaven as they hang on every word. Others would prefer Nicks sing more songs (Sara, Silver Springs, Storms, and those are just the S ones) rather than deliver monologues. We overhear one woman wondering if she’d been ripped off, while another beamingly declares she’s loving every second. On balance, it wouldn’t do any harm to rein it in a smidgen as the breaks slow the momentum.

Never mind all that now though, because Nicks is back for an encore that washes away all sins. The high notes might not be all quite there (although it must be acknowledged that, despite the very occasional slip-up, Nicks’ voice is an age-defying wonder throughout the evening), but the sound of Rhiannon, a bewitching meld of drums, guitar and the vocals of both Nicks and her two backing singers, is mesmerising. Even this is surpassed by another song from 1975’s Fleetwood Mac, the beyond beautiful Landslide. Nicks sings it in front of a collage of images of McVie, and it is as moving as it was when she sung it over Lindsey Buckingham’s acoustic guitar during the last full Fleetwood Mac shows in this building in 2015.

Surely everyone in attendance this evening would wish that wasn’t the case, but when Stevie Nicks is on form, as she is for the most part tonight, she doesn’t really need a return to the fold.

Stevie Nicks Live in Dublin July 3, 2024

Stevie Nicks in Dublin review: The singer is not ready to hand over her mantle to Taylor Swift or anyone else

The bona fide legend gives fans at the 3Arena moments they will never forget

Stevie Nicks

3Arena - Dublin

★★★★☆

by Lauren Murphy

Photos: Nick Bradshaw/The Irish Times

The first time that Stevie Nicks played Ireland in November 1989, her fellow musical entertainer Taylor Swift wasn’t even born. Yet just a few days ago, Nicks thrilled the parents in the audience at Swift’s Aviva Stadium gig by making a masked appearance in the VIP tent. Some 50,000 people found themselves in the presence of both rock and pop royalty as Swift, the biggest pop star in the world, paid tribute to her hero’s genius.

Tonight at the 3Arena, there is no sign of the Princess of Pop and friendship bracelets returning the favour, but the Swift Effect is visible nonetheless: there is a decidedly younger faction to the audience, many of them dressed in the boho-style skirts made famous by Nicks in Fleetwood Mac’s 1970s heyday.

Although there had been much (understandable) gnashing of teeth at the eye-watering ticket prices, Nicks’ first solo appearance in Ireland in almost a decade is undoubtedly an event gig. And with little chance of Fleetwood Mac reforming after the death of Christine McVie in 2022 – Nicks recently vowed that “There is no chance…. without [McVie], it just couldn’t work” – fans have flocked to the temple for the opportunity to worship their goddess.

This is no mere run-through of her former band’s songs, though. As Nicks takes the stage just after 8pm, her trademark long blonde tresses easy to spot even from the furthest point of the 3Arena, it is a solo song, Outside the Rain, that she opens with.

It’s followed by the swift canter of Dreams, before she launches into the first of several long and amusing stories about recording Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around with Tom Petty for her 1981 debut solo album Bella Donna.

Indeed, tonight’s show could have been billed as “An Evening with Stevie Nicks”, as her stories are almost as entertaining as her songs. One, which recounted living in poverty with Lindsey Buckingham (“we were so poor that our car didn’t have a reverse gear”) and their first meeting with the members of Fleetwood Mac is particularly enjoyable, and leaves many fans wondering what stories she may yet have up her billowing sleeve if she ever decided to pen a memoir.

Now 76, Nicks is clearly a little less steady on her feet and there are less “whirling dervish” spins around the stage than there used to be, and more between-song breaks as her fine band fills time or she goes to change another of her trademark capes.

Nevertheless, her distinctive voice remains in glorious fettle – whether it’s taking on a cover of Buffalo Springfield’s For What It’s Worth, a duet with her vocal coach Steve Real (standing in for Don Henley) on Leather and Lace, or on a strident Edge of Seventeen, which brings many of the crowd to their feet.

Soldier’s Angel, a turgid ballad that she dedicates to the war-torn people of Ukraine, is the only real mis-hit in a set list largely drawn from her early solo albums – while the stage visuals, although in keeping with Nicks’ mystical aura, are occasionally a little naff.

There’s even an unexpected shout-out to Irish TikTok comedian Garron Noone, whose videos Nicks says she has been enjoying, before launching into a knockout two-song encore of Rhiannon and Landslide. The former is a highlight of the evening, Nicks’ voice swarthy and impassioned as she shakes her trademark scarf-draped tambourine. The latter, however, provides a moment that will undoubtedly live on in many of the audience’s memories as images of Nicks and the late Christine McVie from across the decades are projected behind her. It’s a moving dedication and the line “And I’m getting older too…” seems especially poignant tonight, although Nicks seems adamant that she’ll be back to Dublin soon. Not yet ready to hand over her mantle – to Swift or anyone else, it seems – she tells the crowd that she has been “running to the stage” to try to cope with McVie’s death in recent years. If tonight’s anything to go by, she’ll continue to be met with a welcome embrace by Irish audiences in thrall to a bona fide legend.

Setlist

• Outside the Rain
• Dreams
• If Anyone Falls
• Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around
• For What It’s Worth
• Gypsy
• Wild Heart
• Bella Donna
• Stand Back
• Gold Dust Woman
• Leather and Lace
• Edge of Seventeen

Encore:

• Rhiannon
• Landslide

Stevie Nicks Takes In Taylor Swift Dublin Show

Stevie Nicks was in the VIP tent at Taylor Swifts Eras Tour night 3 in Dublin June 30, 2024.  During the show she performed "Clara Bow" for the first time, a song off her most recent album The Tortured Poets Department. In the song, she references Stevie Nicks.  In the videos below watch Taylor introduce the song mentioning Stevie and Stevie in the VIP tent capturing the moment on her phone!  Julia Roberts was also there, she's the blonde to Stevie's right with the glasses.  

"You look like Stevie Nicks
In '75, the hair and lips
Crowd goes wild at her fingertips
Half moonshine, a full eclipse"

 

“The reason I want to play this tonight is because a friend of mine is here who’s watching the show and who has been one of the reasons why I, or any female artist, get to do what we get to do. She’s become friends with so many female artists just to be a guiding hand. I can’t tell you how rare that is. She’s a hero of mine and also someone that I can tell any secret and she’d never tell anybody. She’s really helped me through so much over the years. I’m talking about Stevie Nicks!”

Mick Fleetwood Confirms New Solo Album In The Works

"LOSING SWEET CHRISTINE WAS CATASTROPHIC" 

Are Fleetwood Mac really finished?

Bob Mehr asked Mick Fleetwood 

Mojo Magazine  - August 2024

FOR MICK FLEETWOOD - the one constant figure and unwavering force during the entire 57-year journey of Fleetwood Mac- the last few years have been, by his own admission, a personal and professional challenge.

When the most recent incarnation of Fleetwood Mac-Fleetwood, John McVie, Christine McVie, and Stevie Nicks, aided by Neil Finn and Mike Campbell-played the last show of a year-long world tour in November 2019, the drummer didn't think it would be a final farewell.

"There was a full intention, without waiting too long, that we'd go and pick things back up." says Fleetwood. "That we'd play stadiums, big shows, and festivals... and then at that point it was heading towards us saying goodbye." 

However, in early 2020- just after Fleetwood led an all-star concert tribute to late Mac founder Peter Green at the London Palladium - lockdown scuttled further touring plans. An even bigger blow to the future of Fleetwood Mac came in November of 2022, with the death of Christine McVie.

Though Fleetwood is open to the idea of adding a final chapter to the band's story, he is mostly resigned to the fact that Fleetwood Mac, or as he puts it "the mothership", may be harboured permanently.

"It's been a strange time for me," admits Fleetwood. "Losing sweet Christine was catastrophic. And then, in my world, sort of losing the band too. And I [split] with my partner as well. I just found myself "licking my wounds."

Then, last summer, Fleetwood's adopted home of Maui, Hawaii-specifically the city of Lahaina - was ravaged by a series of wildfires that killed over 100 people, and destroyed some 80 per cent of its homes and businesses, including his long-running restaurant, Fleetwood's, on Front Street.

“It was a hardcore hit for everyone on this lovely little island," says Fleetwood. "I mean, we're just Lucky to be here, but there was a lot of terrible loss, lots of people without homes, people who were badly affected.”

Nearly a year after the fires, Fleetwood says the residents of Lahaina “are making progress. And people are coming back to the island, which gives us a lot of hope of coming through this. It just takes time. Even I’m starting to think about bringing back my crazy little restaurant. It was a place where people around here would gather and commune.”

More recently, Fleetwood saw solace and found, renewed inspiration and playing music again. “I had to just get off my bottom, “he says. “I was sitting around twiddling my fingers for a long time. I finally plugged into the fact that I’m a drummer, I need to go play.” Fleetwood confirms he’s in the middle of making a new solo record, his first in 20 years. “And believe it or not, I’m actually starting to sing so God help you,” he adds, laughing.

In between work on the project, Fleetwood will spend part of the summer in the UK, where he's planning on attending Nick‘s Hyde Park concert in July, as well as shows by recent bandmate Neil Finns group Crowded House, and his old pal, ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons.

"I'm gonna get myself a vicarious fix," says Fleetwood. "For once, I get to be a punter in the audience and see them do all the work."

Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks delivered 37 songs in brilliant succession June 21, 2024

Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks conquer Soldier Field in crowd-pleasing twin bill

The rock legends delivered their greatest hits and more in a four-hour summer night celebration.

By  Selena Fragassi

Chicago Sun Times 

Photos: Ashlee Rezin

Four hours was barely enough time for the Two Icons, One Night tour at on Friday night at Soldier Field. Commencing at 7:15 p.m. and wrapping at 11:25 p.m., the catalog-busting doubleheader from Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks delivered 37 songs in brilliant succession, but still left fans wanting more.

It’s greedy to even say. The two legends are an incredible 75 and 76 years old, respectively, and the fact they are still performing at this level is a gift. Nicks just returned to the stage after an illness that sidelined her gigs in Michigan and Pennsylvania over the past week and kept apologizing for being hoarse and “not her best” (she could’ve fooled us). Joel kept using throat spray and had his own disclaimers for not being able to hit the high notes in “An Innocent Man” (no one seemed to mind).

Such limitations aside, both performers gave it their all amid a winding summer stadium trek that also marked their first time sharing a stage in our city. The pinnacle came as they joined together to duet on “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” Nicks’s 1981 collaboration with the late Tom Petty.

Even while being able to hear “Gold Dust Woman” on the same night as “We Didn’t Start The Fire” was itself a total rock and roll fantasy, it still was a mere tease of the voluminous songbooks from two music icons who have been performing a collective 118 years.

“If it seems like I’m rushed tonight, I am,” Nicks shared as she opened the festivities, donning her iconic black velvet, witchy ensemble in the near 90-degree heat, and explaining she had to curtail her typically juicy storytelling between songs. She still managed a few gems, like recalling working with Petty, and the tale of hearing Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth” on the radio years ago and desiring to cover it. Nicks did so on this night, using the track’s political overtones to pivot to an endorsement to vote, lamenting she didn’t do so until she was 70 years old.

The 14-song set was almost identical to her headlining date at United Center last June, with the addition of “Leather and Lace” as her gifted vocal coach Steve Real filled in for Don Henley’s parts. But something felt heavier on this night, in the wake of her recent interview with Mojo in which she declared there’s “no chance of putting Fleetwood Mac back together in any way.”

There was a new immediacy to hearing “Rhiannon” and “Dreams” and of course “Landslide.” The latter was flanked by a slideshow of throwback images of Nicks and the late Christine McVie. As their baby faces took over the screens, the lyrical line “even children get older” took on more meaning and became a cornerstone of the entire night. It was hard not to reflect on time passed, how much has changed, and yet how much this music and coming-of-age songs still have a hold on us.

As Billy Joel reigned in the second half of the night, that sentiment carried over. It hit a fever pitch on “Piano Man,” as Joel let the audience take over the last verse. It soon morphed into a spirited acapella singalong, thousands of camera lights held high in the air, as the capacity crowd begged him to “sing us a song tonight.”

Nostalgia waved over the performer during moments like these in the 23-song set delivered from a bare-bones stage. After serenading the crowd with a snippet of “My Kind of Town,” he thanked everyone for “making me a lucky man … I had no idea I’d still be doing this at 75.”

He also recalled a time when he could do flips off the piano, admitting, “I’m a little too long in the tooth now.” And he tore through some of his most gilded works, sticking heavily to cuts from 1977’s “The Stranger,” 1978’s “52nd Street” and 1980’s “Glass Houses.”

Other standouts included the opener “My Life,” in which Joel showed his never-wavering dexterity on the keys, as well as a barbershop rendition of “The Longest Time” featuring four of his multi-talented bandmates, and a rousing edition of “We Didn’t Start The Fire” with Joel on guitar.

Unexpected moments included a cover of The Rolling Stones’ “Start Me Up,” foreshadowing that band’s impending takeover of Soldier Field, and several of Joel’s eight-piece backing ensemble getting moments to shine. Among them was Gary, Indiana, native Crystal Taliefero aceing Ike and Tina Turner’s “River Deep Mountain High,” and Mike DelGuidice offering an unreal operatic turn with Puccini’s “Nessun Dorma.”

Friday night was an incredibly special moment to see Joel live — even if the venue was a big change from his home-away-from-home at Wrigley Field. The gig falls smack dab in his long-running residency at Madison Square Garden and just ahead of his 150th and final show at the legendary New York venue on July 25.