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Stevie Nicks in Dublin
There are some artists you adore, but resign yourself to accepting you’ll never see them live. Some because they’ve passed on, some because they don’t perform anymore, and some because their performances are too few and far between, too far away, and/or too expensive to realistically make.
It’s a reality that was cemented for Fleetwood Mac fans following the death of band member Christine McVie in 2022, with frontwoman Stevie Nicks recently confirming the reality many had already assumed (and feared) to be the case – that “there is no chance” of the rest of the band reforming: “Without [McVie], it just couldn’t work”.
And yet, on Wednesday of last week in the 3Arena, there were moments you would’ve been unsure; as the same woman, Stevie Nicks, gave a performance featuring renditions of her former band’s hits that echoed with the same intensity and passion that characterised the original recordings.
The 70’s icon, now in her 70s herself, delivered a timeless performance (albeit perhaps with less trademark twirling than in her heyday); her voice, charm, and stage presence all as captivating in 2024 as they were 50 years ago.
Naturally though, it was not just Fleetwood Mac’s discography that those of us lucky enough to attend were treated to; a cherry-picked selection from across Nicks’ solo career formed the bulk of the setlist, with the iconic musician stepping out to raucous applause to open with a track from her debut solo album ‘Bella Donna’ – Outside the Rain.
Excitement was already reaching a fever pitch in the lead-up to Nicks’ onstage arrival, as the opening act (Nina Nesbitt, who I’d not listened to before, but who delivered a lovely performance) wrapped up, and there was nothing left to placate fans’ anticipation. But even before doors opened, while in the Green Room Bar around the corner, you got a taste for just how much attendees were looking forward to the show; giddily sharing their favourite tracks, what they thought/hoped she’d play, whether they’d been lucky enough to see her or the band live before – only taking breaks to launch into the chorus of whatever Fleetwood Mac/Nicks song was playing over the speakers at the time.
The profile of an average Nicks fan (at least judging from last week’s audience) is hard to pin down: fans of all ages – from long-term fans who followed the artist throughout her storied career, to newer, younger fans whose first connotations of Nicks arose from her already-cemented legendary status – filled the arena on the night, many adhering to the flow-y, bohemian styles made famous by the singer, as if we’d all unspoken-ly agreed on the same dress code.
It was an aesthetic that bled all the way back onto the stage itself, with Nicks’ mic-stand sort of looking like an artful interpretation of that one chair in your room you throw unfolded clothes on; purple ribbons and moody-coloured scarfs draping the length of, and almost obscuring, it.
And of course, Nicks herself was not to be outdone at her own game, sporting a long black dress that fit perfectly into her signature gothic Americana style, with her trademark long, blonde hair worn down to match. Around her shoulders, she donned what she later confirmed as being the iconic purple cape that featured on Bella Donna’s cover.
From Outside the Rain, Nicks launched straight into Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams. An early highlight, the captivating performance of the ‘Rumours’ classic set the standard for the night before Nicks even paused to greet the crowd.
“Welcome Dublin! I’m so happy to see all of you!”, she exclaimed afterwards. “We’re going to get this Irish Dublin party started now!”, returning to her solo catalogue to perform If Anyone Falls.
Nicks’ famous penchant for storytelling mid-concert was as true on the night as it was ever – following If Anyone Falls by prefacing the iconic Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around with the story behind it.
“This song was a present really”, she said, explaining that with no lead single in place for the debut solo album, her manager had devised the collaboration with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
“He said he’d love to sing it with you, and I said I’d love to sing it with him!” she laughed, adding that she’d been such a fan of Petty for such a long time that she was extremely nervous to meet him: “I walked in there and I was so overdressed; I was dressed like I was going to the rock and roll ballet, and he was very much… not!”
After performing the iconic song, Nicks began another story, about being a freshly-graduated 18-year-old hearing Buffalo Springfield’s For What It’s Worth on the radio, and thinking to herself, “some day I’m gonna record that song – and I did!”
“People think it’s a political song”, she comments, “but it’s not. It’s just a story about something that happened in Los Angeles” – going on to give a brief (almost cheeky) recount of the famous clash between police and youth counterculture that inspired the song: “I wasn’t there so I don’t know what happened, but they called it the Sunset riots”.
She continued, addressing her Irish fans directly: “It seems like you’re having a lot of elections. I’m going to tell you the same thing I was telling the Americans I live with: we should all vote” – quipping “Don’t be like me, I was busy!”
Her cover of the 1966 hit was followed by perhaps her most entertaining story of the night – especially for those whose admiration of Nicks stems from their love for all things Fleetwood Mac.
Here, Nicks recounted working multiple jobs as a waitress and cleaning lady to support her then-partner Lindsey Buckingham, before the pair’s first meeting with the rest of the band.
She remarked the couple were “so poor” that they were scraping by in several respects. But she took a positive spin: “Our car, my Toyota, had no reverse – we could only go forward!”
Nicks remembers her producer calling to say he knew of an English band that needed a guitar player, and how, after buying “all their records”, she badly wanted to meet them, even though she was advised ‘they already had a girl’.
“I was incredibly snappy in those days”, she laughed. “Lindsey said, I really don’t want to be a blues guitar player, and I said, well I don’t really want to be a cleaning lady – we are going to have dinner with them tomorrow night! And we did!”
The loss of McVie is hit upon here too as Nicks reminisces on the band’s first meeting: “Christine and me were just arm-in-arm, we were like sisters of the moon immediately… I miss those days”.
Nicks launches into another hit, Gypsy, after some more reminiscing about McVie, and follows up by dedicating her next song, Soldier’s Angel – a pull from her later discography – to the people of Ukraine and “all the soldiers out there fighting for freedom and a better life”.
The band kept the fire burning as Nicks departed briefly to fetch a new cape – this time, a shimmery gold number to fit her next tune: another fan favourite and Fleetwood Mac classic, Gold Dust Woman. The rendition is a slightly longer and reimagined version – feeling fresh and special, while simultaneously recognisable as the beloved song fans have cherished for decades.
But it’s not to be outdone by the next performance, which sees Nicks enlist her long-time vocal coach Stephen Real to fill in for Don Henley on the eagerly-anticipated Leather and Lace. The substitution takes nothing from the performance, with Real making a wonderful match with Nicks on the song.
The last of the pre-encore setlist is no doubt one every fan in the crowd has been itching to hear since they entered the 3Arena – another Bella Donna standout, Edge of Seventeen. The anthemic song brings anyone who’d managed to avoid doing so already to their feet, and Nicks sounds every bit as captivating as she did on the original recording, forty-three years ago.
The enduring talent of Nicks carried through into her first encore, one of the biggest songs to feature not just on Fleetwood Mac’s 1975 album, but in their entire discography – Rhiannon. In the Dublin arena last Wednesday week, it was one of those goose-bump moments, as Nicks belted out the track with a bewildering ease, before slowing things down at the very end, in preparation for the final song of the night.
The last song in question was the reflective, melancholic, and intrinsically heartfelt Landslide – another pull from the band’s eponymous 1975 album. The full emotionality of the song was cemented further by the dedication Nicks gave along with it:
“It’s been really hard for me losing Christine,” Nicks admitted. “I haven’t gotten over it, I don’t think I ever want to get over it”.
She said her mother often told her ‘when you’re hurt, you run to the stage’ – “and that’s what I’ve been doing”.
The weight of McVie’s passing, in addition to the people it affected, brought a finality to Fleetwood Mac’s journey – or at least the possibility of the band performing together again. For Nicks, it appears to have meant almost the opposite – pushing her to return to the comfort of performance, and opening up fans’ opportunity to see her live, and indeed to experience an authentic taste of the band through her.
Last week’s concert was one consistently permeated by nostalgia – from Nicks’ dedications to the throwback capes, the endless stories, the images of 60’s and 70’s icons that flashed across the screen throughout, and even the wide-ranging timeframe of the songs themselves.
Nicks finished by telling the crowd something we were all probably already thinking: “I won’t forget this night” – and though it sounds like something an artist might say at every concert, judging by the level of detail in her decades-old stories (and not because I am very biased), that may well be as true for her as it was for everyone else there.
