Rod Stewart & Stevie Nicks at Hyde Park

Hard Rock Calling 2011:

Rod Stewart

Stevie Nicks

Adam Ant

Rumer

Hyde Park, 26 June 2011

I seem to be becoming a Hard Rock Calling regular, this is now my third year in a row. That said I certainly didn't imagine being back with Rod Stewart as the headliner, but when it was announced that Stevie Nicks would be playing her first solo show in the UK for 22 years at this festival of course I couldn't not go. Aside from Stevie, the whole line-up was really not my kind of thing but some I wanted to catch for curiosity's sake and some, such as Train and The Lighthouse Family, I wanted to plain avoid.

With all that in mind I arrived, on a sweltering hot day, just as Rumer was singing. Despite her easy listening sound I must admit I really like Rumer's smooth Karen Carpenter-style voice and was glad to get the opportunity to see her live. But although she has a great, highly accomplished band backing her and that amazing velvet voice of hers is a beautiful thing to behold, to a large festival crowd lounging about in the sun, her music was a little too laid back and mellow to capture people's attention and I wished I could see her in a more intimate atmosphere. Probably the best moment of her set though was a great upbeat cover of Laura Nyro's wonderful anthem Stoned Soul Picnic, which seemed appropriate given the setting.

Next up was one of my brother's childhood heroes, Mr Adam Ant, making his musical comeback. At one point I think he says he hasn't played live since 1985's Live Aid but I must have misheard because his Wikipedia clearly shows he's toured since then but maybe he means the size of the crowd or a festival -type situation. He certainly looks like he's just resumed his career from the mid 80s though, wearing a Jimi Hendrix-style military jacket and a pirate's hat that looks like the one Captain Pugwash used to wear but with additional feathers, I suppose he's what you might expect Adam Ant to look like at 56. The new music though is less the rhythmic punk meets New Romantic for which he's famed and more a less distinctive Goth metal sadly. He does have two drummers though, one of which is a girl, and two scantily-clad females totter on to provide backing vocals on some of the songs, which seems to please the camera man who momentarily forgets the rest of the band. The crowd, on the whole older and there to see Rod, don't seem impressed but they do perk up a little when he brings out the hits: Antmusic, Kings Of The Wild Frontier, Stand And Deliver and Prince Charming. Adam stomps around the stage like he's never been away but the magic is lacking and although the old hits sound pretty good, overall there's something a little boring about his set. Still it was cool to see him live one time at least.

So, onto the main act of the day, for me anyway, Miss Stevie Nicks (who was rather nicely, I thought, introduced by the headliner, Rod Stewart, who she has been touring with in the States). The first concert I ever went to in my early teens was Stevie, my dad took me as a birthday present, and that experience is probably why I still love going to gigs and talking about them here to this very day. Most people who love music have one artist who made a profound effect on their lives and for me that person was Stevie Nicks. For the longest time she could do no wrong for me and, thinking I would never get the chance to see her solo show ever again due to the way she seems to avoid playing in Europe, I even traveled all the way to Las Vegas in 2005 to catch two shows, leaving me tearful and moved by the whole experience. Since then my blind devotion has died down a lot (and maybe transferred a little to Neil Young) but she still holds a special place in my heart, so it was lovely and exciting to finally see her emerge on a UK stage without Fleetwood Mac after all these years. She looked amazing, wearing sunglasses (I'm sure she's not used to playing outside in the sunlight), gloves, many floaty layers and her trademark shawls, I'm sure she must have been melting in the heat but her 63 year old self didn't show it at all, in fact she was the most energetic I've seen her in years. Since I've seen Fleetwood Mac six times over the past decade it was most exciting to finally hear her solo songs again.

Starting out with the high-energy and fun Stand Back, she also treated us to new single Secret Love, Outside The Rain and Fall From Grace, twirling and dancing the whole way through. Of course she also played the old Mac faves too, namely Rhiannon, Dreams, Landslide (which was maybe a little too quiet for a festival audience) and Gold Dust Woman, which I've heard many times live but all got a fantastic reception. It was strange, in fact, to see just how well she was received, especially by the younger members of the audience. The fact that current acts like Bat For Lashes and Florence + The Machine have been citing her influence has obviously had a positive effect and hopefully will convince Stevie she has a devoted audience here, something she obviously didn't believe before which is why she's avoided us for so long. Her set, just an hour long but every second fantastic, ended on an epicly building Edge Of Seventeen, with guitarist Waddy Wachtel (whose long, thinning, curly long hair is now almost completely grey), getting to show off and Stevie really singing with all her passion. It was definitely worth the whole price of the ticket just for Stevie.

I had wondered if I would last Rod Stewart's entire set having never been a big fan but surprisingly I almost watched it all, bowing out just before the end and missing just the last couple of songs including the encore. I'm pleased to say though that Rod definitely puts on a great show and really puts his all into it, having to change his outfit numerous times due to the amount he sweats. Jumping, dancing and strutting around the stage as well as singing his heart out and sounding great, it's pretty impressive stuff considering he's 66 years old and if you're a fan you really can't complain that he doesn't give his performances everything. At first though I really thought this wasn't going to be my thing at all especially when he began the set with the crowd-pleasing but hugely cheesy cover Soul Train, with the word "soul" flashing in huge neon lights behind him just in case we needed reminding.

Thankfully though, it did get better and I found there were a lot of his songs I had forgotten that I knew such as Tonight's The Night, Baby Jane, Handbags And Gladrags, The First Cut Is The Deepest and his Tom Waits cover Downtown Train. But I must admit the best moment for me was when Stevie came out and they performed his hit Young Turks together and looked like they were having a huge amount of fun. The other stand out part of Rod's set was due to another guest, his old Faces cohort Ronnie Wood who ran onstage during Maggie May causing them to restart the song and stayed on to join him on the Faces' hit Stay With Me. It was during these songs in particular that I could see less Rod the showman and star and more Rod the old time rocker and I enjoyed these fantastic raw glimpses into his past the most. He kind of ruined it then by going all karaoke with a cheesy version of Twisting The Night Away, reminding us of the Rod that is most famous, but the crowd loved it and as we worked our way through the crowd aiming to leave I could see people dancing to the music and others ganging together to sing along to this and You're In My Heart. You really can't say the man doesn't know how to put on a show.

So that's it for my one festival experience this year, unexpected but still a treat and I'm still glad I didn't have to wade through the mud in Glastonbury.