Stevie Nicks at Hyde Park: powerful remembrance and pinch-me memories
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(Credits: Jennifer McCord)
There are certain artists that you never think you’ll get to see live, and BST Hyde Park regularly does a great job of putting them right there in front of you. Looming with the legacy of The Rolling Stones’ 1969 show in celebration of their lost bandmate Brian Jones, it’s hallowed musical ground. So, as Stevie Nicks stepped onto the stage, she paid her respects to its history as she delivered a career-spanning, flawless set powered by the spirit of remembrance.
For so many, this is a surreal experience. From the first second eyes are laid on the artist, there’s a gasp before there’s a cheer. It seems that everyone shares a collective moment of, “Oh my god, that’s Stevie Nicks, and she’s real.” Nicks feels more like a mythical figure, especially to fans beyond her own generation who have grown up with Fleetwood Mac being a distant dream of an age they were born too late to be a part of. There’s plenty of them in the crowd as the masses descend on the park with long white dresses, top hats, and 1970s denim as if there’s a dress code and the uniform is simply their idol through the ages.
Nicks herself plays beautiful homage to that, leaning into her own mythology, as she structures part of her set as a kind of wardrobe tour. After beginning with a powerful opening run, including hits like ‘Gypsy’ and a pinch-me moment as the whole crowd got to sing along to ‘Dreams’, her set found a structure. Disappearing off stage briefly, she reemerged in a beautiful blue velvet cape before singing ‘Wild Heart’ merging into ‘Bella Donna’. Afterwards, she did a signature twirl before revealing that this was, in fact, the cape from the back cover of the 1981 album.
After disappearing again while her incredible band jams on the themes of whatever song is coming next, she appears again in a black and gold shawl for ‘Stand Back’. The 1983 solo track gains one of the loudest singalongs of the day, delivered with the same high energy it has always deserved as Nicks’ aged voice seemed to growl through the anthem, giving it a fresh sense of power and feeling. With another twirl, she tells her crowd of 65,000 the story of this sparkling shawl from the original music video of the song and the various times she’s had it repaired. It’s one of her many rolling, rambling tales, but with someone as legendary as Nicks, she could talk about nothing for hours, and the crowd would still be awash with privilege to hear it.
With another outfit change, a glorious gold sequinned cape signals the start of ‘Gold Dust Woman’, a Rumours track that feels just as emotionally charged for the singer today as it was back in the 1970s. But Nicks isn’t just doing a tour of the hits. As she soars through this beloved track, it’s still exhibits the spirit and energy of a rock song, played by a rock band and sung by one of rock’s most legendary voices. She gives the song space for extended jam moments, letting her band vibe out and allowing herself moments of improvisation to feel her way around these songs that she must have performed thousands of times now. But it’s clear she still isn’t tired of them, nor is she tired of being up here on stage.
But beyond remembering her own career through the display of her various costumes and the performance of her decade-spanning hits, the show is heavy with a sense of grief, responsibility and bittersweet celebration. Nicks gives so much time in her set to the memory of her lost friends, sometimes even showing the faces of passed idols during other tracks, such as flashes of Prince and a final wail of ‘When Doves Cry’ at the end of ‘Edge of Seventeen’.
But in particular, the show is resided over by the memory of Tom Petty and Christine McVie. Nicks covers Petty’s anthemic hit ‘Free Fallin’’ early in the set before returning to his memory later with Harry Styles in tow as a special guest to perform their duet, ‘Stop Dragging My Heart Around’. Holding Styles’ hand, as if for comfort and support, she manages a few short words on the last time she saw her friend, which was right here on this very stage in 2017.
Nicks’ own Hyde Park show lands on July 12th: Christine McVie’s birthday. When all the hits are done, and it seems like the show is over, she returns again, still holding onto Styles, gathering courage, as the two sing ‘Landslide’ underneath a slideshow of photos from Nicks and McVie’s decades-long friendship. Floods of tears threaten to swamp the site. There are photos of them messing around backstage, holidaying together, and sharing laughs in cars only a few short years ago. They were bandmates, but more so, they were best friends. It’s a heavy loss for Nicks, but what is grief if not a sign of pure love? And her enormous love for McVie floods the entire park, from the stage to the very last tree.
“My Mom used to say, ‘Stevie, when you’re hurt, you always run to the stage’, and that’s what I’ve been doing since Christine passed, running to the stage,” Nicks said, thanking her crowd not only for being there for her show but for being there for her, full stop. The rapturous applause in response said, ‘No, Stevie, thank you’.
