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Stevie Nicks with Vanessa Carlton June 24, 2005 Stevie Nicks’ latest concert is even `more witchy’ than some of her previous tours. Nicks shows off `dark side’ Nicks’ “Gold Dust Tour,” making a stop at Borgata on June 30 and July 1, will have a touch of Vegas flash, thanks to the unlikely influence of Celine Dion and Elton John. The Fleetwood Mac frontwoman originally designed her latest solo concert for a four-night stand in May at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace Las Vegas, the 4,100-seat theater where Dion and John each perform on a massive 110-foot-wide stage. “We watched Celine Dion — we don’t have 50 dancers. We watched Elton John — we don’t have 50 years of film … Elton filmed everything he did,” Nicks recalls of her first visits to the theater. “We said, `What in the world are we going to do?'” The singer/songwriter and her team developed elaborate visuals, including images from one of her favorite films, Jean Cocteau’s 1946 version of “Beauty and the Beast,” and her favorite artists, Sulamith Wülfing (for whom she named one of her beloved Yorkshire terriers), to create a “dark” show that’s even “more witchy” than previous efforts. “The show we’ve come out with now is pretty amazing because of all that extra thought that went into putting it all together,” Nicks says. “If we hadn’t had the Vegas show, it would have been good, but it wouldn’t have been like this.” Having warmed up with the Vegas gig, Nicks moved into a tour with Don Henley, with whom she recorded “Leather and Lace” on her 1981 solo debut, “Bella Donna.” The two played sets of their own material and performed several duets. “I sang `Hotel California’ (and I thought) I lived through that,” says Nicks, who kicked off the joint tour on June 3 in Philadelphia. “Don and I went out when he was recording `Hotel California’ at the end of the `Rumours’ recording. We lived those words in `Hotel California.’ “I’m up there singing, going, `Oh my God, here’s my life.’ I couldn’t help but be somewhat groupied out. I was a little stunned every night at the amazing gift to be able to sing that song every night with an Eagle.” When the tour was shortened to 10 dates due to Henley’s commitments with the Eagles, Nicks decided to schedule her own summer outing; originally she planned to take most of this year off after wrapping a two-and-a-half-year, 135-date tour with Fleetwood Mac last fall. “It’s always interesting to leave the Fleetwood Mac world and come back into my own world,” she says. “`Gold Dust Woman’ is different in my world, and so is `Dreams’ and so is `Rhiannon.’ I always feel with these songs that it’s been a blessing for me to be able to go back and forth. “We always go back and start from the original version with Fleetwood Mac and my band. But they always come out slightly different.” In addition to those staples and hits like “Edge of Seventeen,” “The Chain” and “Stand Back,” Nicks has added to her set list some little performed gems, including “Beauty and the Beast” and “Has Anyone Ever Written Anything for You.” “I’ve taken the French movie `Beauty and the Beast’ from the ’40s, which is the reason I wrote the song — we put (footage) behind me,” Nicks says. “It’s just stunning. I can hardly keep from bursting into tears … it’s so poignant when I’m singing it.” Joining Nicks for “Circle Dance,” a Bonnie Raitt cover, will be her opening act, up-and-coming singer/songwriter Vanessa Carlton, who’s touring behind her sophomore release, “Harmonium.” “I’ve been friends with Vanessa for quite a while,” Nicks says. “Really, I think she’s one of the great ones. I want to take her on tour so I can put her in front of a lot of people, so people can see how great she is and remember that amazing first album. “She’s a new artist … in this age of total chaos in the music business, if you don’t sell 10 million copies of your album, you’re just out of luck. It’s so hard. I want to do what I can to help her. I think she’s great. I think she’s one of those people who will still be around in 30 years when I’m dead. I want some of these women to not give up. We need them.” Having survived numerous personal and career ups and downs, including drug addiction and sometimes turbulent relations with Fleetwood Mac, Nicks has been embraced by many female artists who followed her. Her last solo album, 2001’s “Trouble in Shangri-La” featured contributions from Sheryl Crow, who produced some tracks, Macy Gray and Dixie Chick Natalie Maines, who subsequently covered “Landslide,” Nicks’ 1975 Fleetwood Mac hit. “I’m thrilled that I can be some sort of an influence to these women,” Nicks says. “I hope I’ve been a good influence to them, so they’ll totally keep going. “I think the music business is in terrible trouble. They don’t nurture artists. If you have a big hit record and a big hit single and you don’t follow it up, you are s–t out of luck.” Nicks knows of what she speaks. Originally a duo with Lindsay Buckingham, her then-boyfriend, the two were dropped by their label after their 1973 debut didn’t sell well. “Lindsay and I were dropped like a rock,” she recalls. “If it weren’t that we had a great producer who supported us full on for three years, we never would have made it.” They joined Fleetwood Mac in 1975 and helped turn the band into one of the most successful groups of the 1970s and ’80s. The group’s Grammy-winning 1977 release, “Rumours,” sold 17 million copies, making it one of the best sellers of all time. Fleetwood Mac was inducted into the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. Today, the group’s best-known line up, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Buckingham and Nicks (minus Christine McVie), is on hiatus, but still together. Nicks says the Mac probably will tour in 2007. “We get all the rumors that Fleetwood Mac is going to break up,” Nicks says. “Fleetwood Mac is never going to break up. We have our problems. We go away from each other. We spend time with family and and friends and the problems go away, and you get back together and everyone’s excited.” However, Christine McVie, has left the group, much to Nicks’ disappointment. “In my wildest dreams, I would hope Christine would change her mind and come back,” she says. “If there’s anything I could do to change her mind, I would be in London to get her back. “Unless she has a total mind meld and decides she’s ready to rock again, I don’t think she’s every going to come back.” Once Nicks wraps her solo tour in September, she will come full circle to a favorite project: to make a film based on the books of Rhiannon, the mythical character who inspired one of her best known songs. “This would be somewhere between `Braveheart’ and `The Lord of the Rings’ and `Star Wars,'” Nicks says. “It’s generations of gods and goddesses … it’s the stories the Welsh left behind — how to be in love, how to have kids, how not to fight your benefactors, how to run the world basically — told through the eyes of a fairy tale. “I feel like it’s my spiritual path to do this. I wanted to do this in 1980. It was in my original contract with Atlantic Records. I was excited then as I am now. Then my whole solo career was busting. It had to be put on the back burner. I feel like it’s come to the surface in a big way. “People might go, `Oh, I’m so sure.’ But when I get in my head I’m going to do something, I’m never not successful. I feel like when you’re as passionate about something like this as I am, you can make it happen.”
Stevie Nicks with Vanessa Carlton http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/entertainment/casinos/cas_inter.shtml |
Stevie Nicks – Summerfest Review, OnWisconsin.com July 2005
Nicks’ power isn’t fleeting – She makes most of her own show
By GEMMA TARLACH
OnWisconsin.com
July 4, 2005
Who needs Don Henley?
Stevie Nicks performs Monday night at the Marcus Amphitheater. The amphitheater was only half-full, but Nicks gave a full-scale performance in her Summerfest appearance.
Stevie Nicks, originally scheduled to co-headline a Summerfest show with her occasional duet partner, put on a heady “Leather and Lace” show all on her own Monday night at the Marcus Amphitheater. Alternating dreamy power ballads with utter rock-outs – including her first encore, a feisty run-through of Led Zeppelin’s “Rock and Roll” -Nicks was more force of nature than mere front woman during a two-hour set. At a time when the women of pop music are too often stripper wannabes lip-synching to a song someone else wrote, Nicks’ classy and commanding presence felt like a revelation.
With her sleek blond hair and a succession of floaty, sparkly, mostly black outfits, Nicks’ appearance remained timeless, as did her voice. Her distinctive smoky alto was as powerful as ever, particularly on “Landslide,” final encore “Beauty and the Beast” and “Has Anyone Ever Written Anything for You,” a song Nicks dedicated to “all those kids who we’re going to help” after making a pitch to the audience to sign an online petition to end world poverty.
Nicks mixed signature hits from her time in Fleetwood Mac, such as “Rhiannon,” with unexpected gems that included a cover of Bonnie Raitt’s “Circle Dance.”
But it was arguably the chunks of the set from her own successful solo career that packed the most power, including “Fall From Grace” and “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” with longtime guitarist Waddy Wachtel standing in for Tom Petty on the vocal duel with Nicks.
Despite an amphitheater that was barely half-full, Nicks and her nine-piece backing band never lagged in their energy or seemed in a hurry to get back to the tour bus.
Before the encores, the band riffed on “Edge of 17” for several minutes as a gracious Nicks shook fans’ hands and kissed one little girl in the crowd.
Wouldn’t it be nice if that little girl went home realizing chicks can write their own songs and rock out well into their 50s?
Self-possessed beyond her years and downright charming, opening act Vanessa Carlton overcame some early breathiness on set opener “Ordinary Day” to wow the crowd with a half-hour collection of songs, including the new “This Time.” Alone on stage with her piano, Carlton proved she has much more substance to offer than her vanilla hit “Thousand Miles.” Among the highlights was “White Houses,” a thoughtful reflection on losing one’s virginity – and a song deemed too risqué for booty-loving MTV, an irony Carlton noted during her tart introduction of the song.
Stevie Nicks – Nostalgia Is A Good Thing, Cincinnati.Com, June 2005
For Stevie Nicks Nostalgia is a Good Thing
June 29, 2005
By Chris Varias
Cincinnati.Com
Stevie Nicks performed Tuesday night at Riverbend.
At this point in her career, it’s hard not to label Stevie Nicks a nostalgia rocker. This isn’t discrimination. It’s less a case of ageism (the fabled Fleetwood Mac alumna turned 57 last month) than one of no-big-hits-in-a-mighty-long-time-ism. There wasn’t one significant new song performed during her show at Riverbend Tuesday night, probably because she hasn’t recorded a significant song in at least 20 years.
However, as far as the crowd was concerned, the last two decades don’t matter, and nostalgia is a good thing. As long as Nicks’ 2005 singing voice resembles the 1975 version, and the old tunes deliver those bygone chills, she will continue to twirl her way into her fans’ hearts.
Backed by a seven-man band and two singers, Nicks belted her way through a 16-song set that focused on her solo career, with occasional nods to the Mac. The band was outstanding, stacked with lace session players like guitarist Waddy Wachtel and longtime Fleetwood Mac collaborators like multi-instrumentalist Brett Tuggle
The hit parade began with “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” her 1981 duet with Tom Petty. Wachtel helped out on vocals for Petty’s parts.
It was soon followed by the one-two Fleetwood Mac punch of “Dreams” and “Rhiannon.” Nicks played with each number’s phrasing a bit, but never to the point of getting in the way of the song. She knew better than to spoil what was for the crowd a moment of back-to-back, adult-contemporary, yesteryear magic.
The lesser-known “Sorcerer,” with its fanciful imagery, offered Nicks the opportunity to switch into witchy-woman mode, as the video screen flickered with medieval visions of crystals and skeletons and wizards and such.
The next song, “Stand Back,” began with a long percussion intro, which served as the moment for Nicks to fetch her black and gold shawl from backstage. She would need the shawl to accentuate her many twirls (unofficial count: 18 360-degree turns) during the song’s guitar solo and climactic ending.
Other highlights that measured up to repeated spinning included a version of “Gold Dust Woman,” with its tick-tock drum opening immediately setting off cheers; a true-to-the-original acoustic version of “Landslide”; an epic “Edge of Seventeen,” with a lengthy percussion piece starting things off and few great Wachtel guitar solos along the way.
Led Zeppelin’s “Rock and Roll” was an interesting choice for an encore song. “It’s been a long time since I rock and rolled,” she sang, which could be her way of telling the world she’s a nostalgia act and proud of it.
Singer-piano player Vanessa Carlton, a 24-year-old who sings as pretty as she plays, did a 30-minute solo opening set that included familiar songs like “A Thousand Miles” and “Ordinary Day” plus a few new and unreleased tunes.
Stevie Nicks – Long Distance Winner
LONG DISTANCE WINNER – Surviving the 70s
ANDY CAPPER
Viceland.com
May 2005
I’m 56 now, but music still has the same effect on me as when I was 15. Every so often, I’ll hear a couple of songs that will just kill me and make me go instantly to my desk to write, and then straight to the piano to compose. That feeling is something that’s never gone away and I feel really blessed by that.
I know some people say they used to write better when they were younger, but I feel the greatest writing for me is yet to come. I’m always working on new material and I’m always inspired. At the moment, I’m going between preparing for a short residency at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas and composing a series of songs based on the books of Rhiannon, these Welsh legends that I really love. They’re such beautiful stories. It’s what the old Welsh people left behind to teach future generations about how to raise their children and how to deal with relationships—how to run their lives, basically.
Another thing that inspires me in my music at the moment is my niece Jesse. She’s 13 but she’s an inch taller than me, with black hair and blue eyes. Sometimes when I’m running on my treadmill and listening to music on my CD player, I’ll be singing and howling along while Jesse’s in the same room and I’ll make her listen to how the singer is singing. Jesse was with me when I wrote four songs for the last Fleetwood Mac album, and she even got to sing on the title track, “Say You Will.” That was fun. Continue reading Stevie Nicks – Long Distance Winner
Mick and Stevie at the 20th Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Ceremony I Mar 2005
20th Annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony
Modern Guitarist
March 19, 2005
Words by Hugh Ochoa
Photographs by Hugh Ochoa and Sean North
The press room was behind the stage of the ceremony ballroom, and it was to this room the inductees and inductors were brought after an induction for photos and interviews. It was a pleasant surprise when Stevie Nicks and Mick Fleetwood arrived and agreed to a Q&A session and photo op in the press room.
When Nicks was asked about her up-coming “Vegas Tour” she replied, “Well, it’s not really a tour, it’s just four days. I am looking forward to it, because it’s a chance to play and do something where you don’t really have to travel. So for me, as an almost 57-year-old woman, this looks very good, because it means you can put all of your energy into the show as opposed to travelling all over the United States. So it would be a nice thing for me to be able to do till I’m a very old little old lady.”
“Where are you doing the shows?” Nicks was asked.
“I think Caesar’s. I’m not a gambler so I’m not really familiar with all that.”
When queried about her participation in the movie “School Of Rock” she replied, “Well I have to tell you, I actually watched that with a 15-year-old who didn’t know I was in it and I didn’t mention that. And it was so trippy and so much fun because though I’d seen it once it was wonderful to see it with someone that young. I felt very honoured to have been the only woman actually mentioned in that movie. So for me, I have to say, you know, it was the neatest thing ever to happen to me.
Mick Fleetwood stated in regards to the band, “The future of Fleetwood Mac…uhh…”
“We’re resting.” Nicks helps out.
“We’re resting.” Fleetwood concurs. “We had a long recording period and then went out and did the better part of 2 years work all over the world. So having a hiatus…”
“135 shows” Nicks interjects.
“…but there’s always a Fleetwood Mac story somewhere,” continues Fleetwood. “But I’m enjoying being at home to tell you the truth.” [laughs]
Nicks adds, “I think, you know, what happened is that we started “Say You Will”, in uh…I started with everybody on February 2, 2002 ,and then it took over a year to record and then 3 months of rehearsal and then 135 shows in a year-and-a-half of touring so we’re just resting right now because we feel that, as all wonderful things go, you come out, and you know, you make a big show of it, and then you go away for a little bit, and rest, so that when you come back, it’s all wonderful again”.
When asked if there was any chance of Christie ever coming back to perform with FM again, Mick replied in a very slow and solemn tone, “I think very, very slim next to nothing, so I will say, ‘No’. Ah, but we miss her.”
Nicks added when asked if they were going to perform or be on stage or if they are just fans, “We’re just here to watch, because we both feel that being in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame is our greatest honor and if we can possibly be here for whoever is being inducted, then we will be here. Cause it’s important and it’s our club and it’s very very special.”
Mick adds, “I’m overjoyed Mr. Buddy Guy is being inducted tonight. It’s just great to see a gentle man being inducted and I think Eric is gonna play with him, so I’m thrilled. A blues man at heart I am. So there you go.”
Finally, when asked about the most gratifying part of the band, Nicks concludes, “Well, the most gratifying part is to be a member of a band, especially a band that is as good, I think, as my band is probably the best thing that I’ve ever done in my whole life. Fleetwood Mac is the thing that I am most proud of, and I think that this man would agree that it’s something that we love really deeply and it’s wonderful that everybody loves it too, but for us, it’s like the most…it’s like our life, you know. It’s been our life since 1975 and for Mick even way before, when Fleetwood Mac was first formed. So it’s a long, incredible special, yellow brick road.”
Mick Fleetwood: Word Of Mouth (Dec 2004)
Word Magazine
December 2004
MUSIC: I listen to Coldplay a lot. I was playing them in the car today here in Hawaii – I’m out here with my wife and my twin daughters. I’ve got a house out here and it’s great. There’s something about the tempo of life that’s timeless and magical: it’s like Ireland with better weather. Coldplay are fantastic driving music. They’re melodic and really creative, they’ve a very strong emotional connection, especially with the vocals, very cleverly done. They’ve obviously done their listening – The Beatles and Pink Floyd by the sound of it – but they’re enough of their own property to sound individual. Everyone has influences, and it’s appropriate to use them. People look to their mentors whether they realise it or not. Marvin Gaye I love – he started off as a session player drummer in fact. If you were a square white guy – which I wasn’t as it happens – you understood Marvin Gaye a lot easier than the Wilson Picketts and Rufus Thomases. If you heard In The Midnight Hour you were either going to instantly get it or it was going to freak you out, but Marvin Gaye transcended a lot of barriers, his whole demeanour, the way he wrote, the elegance, the way he phrases. He covered so many bases. Incredibly handsome and loved this fairly cracked life but a man of style and taste. It was terribly sad when his father shot him. There was a side to him that was very dark. I met him in the 70s after a Radio City show. I want back to his hotel and was amazed to find him surrounded by security guards at this big old
dining-room table counting the money. I was a little taken aback. I don’t know what I rather foolishly expected to find, but in our world this sort of thing didn’t exist! He had this great big attaché case and was counting all the money. About an hour later he came out in his silk dressing-gown, like a prize fighter, and was thoroughly charming. Fleetwood Mac were Continue reading Mick Fleetwood: Word Of Mouth (Dec 2004)
Fleetwood Mac back on track | USA Today
By Edna Gundersen,
USA TODAY
Posted 2/4/2003 7:21 PM
USA TODAY
Posted 2/4/2003 7:21 PM
Rumours confirmed Fleetwood Mac’s place in rock history. The question now is whether the storied ’70s band has currency in 2003.
Four of the five original members of Fleetwood Mac reunited for the recording of Say You Will, to be released on April 15.
A new Mac attack starts April 15 with Say You Will, the band’s first studio album boasting a quorum of core members since 1987’s Tango in the Night.
Singer/guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, who left after Tango and returned for Mac’s lucrative 1997 reunion, produced the album, which also features singer Stevie Nicks, bassist John McVie and drummer Mick Fleetwood. Singer/keyboardist Christine McVie retired.
The album, recorded in Los Angeles over the past 18 months, contains new songs written by Buckingham and Nicks. It also has a studio version of Bleed to Love Her, which had been included on 1997’s live reunion disc, The Dance.
Snippets of Say You Will can be heard in Fox promos for That ’70s Show.
That decade found Fleetwood Mac in peak form. Rumours, the top-selling album of 1977 and third-best in 1978, spawned hits Go Your Own Way, Dreams, Don’t Stop and You Make Loving Fun, and for a time it reigned as the biggest seller in history. It has sold18 million copies and ranks ninth among U.S. best sellers. The band sustained success in the ’80s when Nicks’ solo career also flowered, but splintered lineups in the ’90s led to decreased sales and airplay.
Although fans rallied for the 1997 reunion tour and chart-topping album, pop’s current climate tends to relegate veteran acts to the oldies circuit.
“It’s difficult to think of Fleetwood Mac making a bad album, but I’m not sure how much difference that would make,” says Anthony DeCurtis, Rolling Stone contributing editor. “The new music is entirely secondary. The best parallel would be Paul McCartney, who made a pretty good record (Driving Rain) in 2001. He had a huge successful tour, but the record didn’t do much.
“That’s the problem Fleetwood Mac faces. Obviously, they’ll do big business on the road. The larger issue is: Will radio play this record? It’s amazing to think that the band that helped invent FM radio may go begging to get airplay. Fleetwood Mac is imprisoned by its own gilded cage.”
Considering the success of tours by the Rolling Stones (three original members) and The Who (two), Christine McVie’s absence shouldn’t impede ticket sales, he says. “The version of Fleetwood Mac that most people know is 80% intact,” says DeCurtis, who predicts a box office gold mine. But in record stores, “these bands almost exist in a vacuum.”
DeCurtis says he doubts that the Dixie Chicks’ current hit cover of Nicks’ Landslide will fuel Mac interest. But Billboard director of charts Geoff Mayfield says, “I put that in the ‘it can’t hurt’ category.”
Recent sales patterns reveal increased interest in vintage rockers, he says. He notes that roughly 30 acts that appeal largely to older audiences, including McCartney, Bruce Springsteen and James Taylor, last year enjoyed their best sales weeks in the 12 years SoundScan has been tabulating data.
“People with gray hair are buying records,” he says. And unlike their younger counterparts, “they’re not burning CDs or file-swapping as much.”
Say You Will may not reach the sales of Rumours, but it could thrive even without much radio support.
“It’s not fair to expect another Rumours,” Mayfield says. “Considering the reunion album was their first No. 1 debut in a long while, the new record has a pretty good chance for a handsome start.”
Lindsey Buckingham – Eyes Of The World newsletter (issue two)
Scroll down to view the pages of the second and final issue of the Lindsey Buckingham ‘Eyes Of The World’ newsletter that was published in August 2001
Eyes-Of-The-World-August-2001If you were the creator of this wonderful newsletter, please get in touch so that we can provide a credit to this awesome work
Lindsey Buckingham – The Gift Of Screws Sessions CD Booklet
Download a lyric booklet for The Gift Of Screws Sessions from Lindsey Buckingham
This lyric booklet was created by this website at the time that the original Gift Of Screws album was pulled from Warner’s release schedule back in 2001
LB-TheGiftOfScrewsSessionsLindsey Buckingham – Eyes Of The World newsletter (issue one)
Scroll down to view the pages of the first issue of the Lindsey Buckingham ‘Eyes Of The World’ newsletter that was published in April 2001
Eyes-Of-The-World-April-2001If you were the creator of this wonderful newsletter, please get in touch so that we can provide a credit to this awesome work
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