Review: The Ageless Allure of Stevie Nicks: A Live Experience

If Taylor Swift is mother mothering, then Stevie Nicks is grandmother grandmothering.

At 76 years old, Stevie looks like she’s in her 40s and sings like she’s still in her 20s. I was lucky enough to see her at the postponed gig in Manchester at the Co-Op Live Arena this July, and oh brother she was worth the wait.

Being born in 1996 is great for playing the ‘but I’m just a baby’ card, but pretty rubbish for someone who longs to have been around to see her favourite 70s bands live and in their heyday. 

Stevie’s songs have always been my favourite Mac tracks - Rhiannon is my siren song, Gold Dust Woman, Sisters of the Moon, Sara - all lyrics I can relate to, empathise with and hold close to my heart.

With the announcement of Christine McVie’s tragic death in 2022, my hopes were also dashed of ever seeing the Rumours five line-up of Fleetwood Mac live. Incredibly selfish, I know, but true.

So, when Stevie announced her UK tour earlier this year, I practically shat myself with excitement. My idol, a totem in my love for music, a woman whose craft I adored and respected so much I have her face tattooed on me, was going to be touring in a city near me(!!!!!). 

I was lucky enough to get tickets and, with my wee mamma on my arm, I saw Stevie Nicks live.

Adorned in ribbons and ruffles, Stevie Nicks was every part the witchy presence I’d imagined her to be. An ethereal being, Stevie’s magic began with the opening vocals of her first song, ‘Outside the Rain’ when she transported us all back to 1981 and no time had passed since then and now. 

‘Let’s get this fabulous party started,’ Stevie commanded us. And girly let me tell you, what a fabulous party it was. 

Stevie spent the evening playing songs from a catalogue of her music, Fleetwood Mac discography and covers of fellow 70s icon, Tom Petty. 

But what most got to me as a long-time Nicks fan, was her audience interaction. We knew the songs, we sang the words, but alongside a magical night of music, Stevie told us her stories. 

I’m currently reading David Hepworth’s ‘A Marvellous Creation’ - a book about the history of the LP - something which has captured my interest greatly. In a cosmic coincidence, Stevie shared with us how Bella Donna was missing a ‘hot record’: “If you didn’t have a single, your record was gonna tank.

“My producer was working on an album with Tom Petty at the time… and he goes ‘Tom has a song for you, it’s really good, and he’s willing to just let you have it.”

The queen of rock referred to her duet with Tom Petty, a man who received many honourable mentions throughout the night, both in Stevie’s setlist choices and in the visuals that accompanied them. 

Before singing Fleetwood Mac's hit ‘Gypsy’, Nicks also took us on a journey which started for her in 1973, where, she told us, she’d moved into her producer’s LA house with then-boyfriend Lyndsey Buckingham. The duo famously recorded their EP ‘Buckingham Nicks’ during this time, Stevie reminisces, which wasn’t received all too well and caused the duo to be dropped from their label. 

To get by and pay their dues, Stevie was the unofficial cook and housemaid of her and Buckingham’s producer, a job she says she wasn’t happiest taking on - although it did afford her face time with ‘many famous people’.

All wasn’t lost though, as an ‘Englishman named Mick Fleetwood’ had heard the couple practising in a studio, and took the pair out for a Mexican meal with fellow musicians John and Christine McVie, where Lyndsey and Stevie were officially inducted into Fleetwood Mac. 

Nicks recalls that after the meal, “Lyndsey wasn’t too thrilled about the idea of being a blues guitarist”, so in a snap of sass that only Stevie could conjure, told her then partner that she ‘didn’t like being a housemaid, so he’d love being a blues musician’.

Hearing this oral history of my favourite band right from the horse’s mouth is an experience I struggle to describe (so I’m going to be a bad writer, and not even try to). 

There were so many pinch-me moments throughout the night, including watching Stevie do her trademark twirl draped in shawls which she proudly announced were originals, straight from the music videos of the songs she was singing. 

Many reviews of this particular gig mention Stevie’s charisma and charm but focus - and rightly so - on the music. However, for me, this surprisingly became secondary, as Nicks herself cast a spell on not just me but the rest of the audience, bonding with tens of thousands of fans, all of whom came away from the arena feeling like they’d made a friend in her that night.