Stevie Nicks at Hyde Park
Brandi Carlile
Anna Calvi
Hyde Park, 12 July 2024
It seems the only way you can see Stevie Nicks live in London these days is to take a trip to Hyde Park in the summer, as this is now her third time playing here, only this time she has made her way up the bill to headliner finally. So, once again, was it worth standing all day in a crowded park for?
I must admit, my heart sank when I saw her sole London show was a festival-type gig in Hyde Park, especially since, unlike years ago, it costs an arm and a leg to get tickets anyway near the stage (before all the tickets were the same price and dedication was the only factor in whether you were able to brave the barrier) but I faithfully bought tickets anyway. Stevie then announced her first full UK tour since 1989 and Glasgow, Manchester and Dublin were treated to arena gigs, which I would have jumped at, especially having seen her twice now at Hyde Park but, since Stevie is now in her mid 70s and rarely comes to these shores, I knew this may be my last chance to see her live, even if it wasn't an ideal (for me) venue, and besides, in the past, she's always been great at Hyde Park.
The full line-up for the show was rather nicely all women but I wasn't able to get there in time to see most (and I admit I hadn't heard of many of them). I had hoped to catch Anna Calvi, who was third on the bill, and she was playing just as we arrived, so as we weaved our way through the huge crowds (it was completely sold out), I did get to hear her belting out Love Won't Be Leaving, Desire, Don't Beat The Girl Out Of My Boy and witness her blonde curls bouncing on the big screen as she wailed on the guitar on her Suicide cover Ghost Rider (never thought I'd hear a Suicide song at a Stevie gig). I've seen Calvi before in much smaller venues so I wasn't too disappointed not to catch her full set.
Wearing a striking embroidered turquoise suit, Carlile beams throughout her whole set, and seems stunned she is playing such a big show in London. She rarely comes to the UK (in fact I'm not even sure she has been back since I saw her in 2007 at the Borderline) and she even says, that especially given her wife is from London, it's one of her big regrets that she hasn't played here more. In the States Carlile has been experiencing her biggest ever success in the past few years so maybe she will finally find her audience here as well, and if this show is anything to go by, she certainly deserves it.
Beginning with the anthemic Wild Horses, she gave a rousing set that drew mainly from her last two albums, In These Silent Days and By The Way, I Forgive You, she chatted to the crowd and was so sunny and charming, it was an absolute delight. When she sang The Story, one of her early tracks (and maybe her best), I was surprised that two girls behind me sang every word.
She wanted to do something special and so sang a beautiful version of her song The Mother about finding a connection with her daughter Evangeline who her wife gave birth to, it was a very touching moment. Probably because of the festival-like setting, she also gave us a rather rocking cover of Joni Mitchell's Woodstock, which seemed fitting particularly as she's been instrumental in getting Joni to record again and play live in the past few years (what I wouldn't do for a ticket to one of her and Mitchell's Joni Jams!).
Finally, she asked if we would indulge her getting a little cheesy as she couldn't resist playing such a big crowd in London and indeed it was incredibly cheesy when she started singing Queen's We Are The Champions but it went down really well the crowd (it didn't hurt that England was in the World Cup Finals that weekend too) and had the audience singing along as Brandi lived out her Freddie Mercury dreams. Funnily enough, when I last saw her she tried to get the small audience in the Borderline singing Bohemian Rhapsody with her so obviously this was a big moment for her. Brandi Carlile though is a treasure herself and it was a pleasure to see her winning new fans today.
So onto the headliner and it was clear Stevie has become a much bigger deal in the UK, not just in the years since I first saw her live (my first ever concert was Stevie at Wembley Arena in 1989) but even since the last time she played here in 2017. There were lots of women, and even some guys, dressed in gypsy/hippie/goth attire, with top hats, chiffon, scarves and moon & stars decoration aplenty, and there was noticeable excitement about seeing Stevie tonight. It was weird though, there was also a slightly unpleasant atmosphere that I suppose you always get at festival-style shows, that is more interested in partying and drinking and is very unfriendly to other concert-goers, that I don't remember being as prevalent at the Rod Stewart and Tom Petty shows where Stevie also played and it left me feeling uneasy.
For years, as a Stevie fan in the UK, I did feel almost like I had a little secret, as she was no where near the household name she is in the States, but suddenly in the last ten years she's suddenly become equally beloved here perhaps in part to artists like Florence & The Machine, Lana Del Rey, Taylor Swift and Harry Styles (just to name the most famous ones) paying tribute to her and even singing with her. I was told later that this concert even made the news (mostly because of a special guest who later made an appearance, but still unheard of happening here even ten years ago).
We knew she was about to come on because suddenly Tom Petty's Running Down A Dream started playing. Behind me two young guys seemed confused, "I think this is Tom Petty? I don't know though." The other guy had no clue but his friend thought maybe Tom Petty had a connection to Stevie. It was clear a lot of this new audience had much to learn about Stevie. I must say she certainly played to this side of the audience that wasn't longing for deep cuts, because she played a predictable set of hits and old favourites that was also surprisingly short (only 14 songs in all).
Dressed entirely in black (and even black gloves, I remember when I went to the Stevie signing at HMV years back it was the hottest day of the year and Stevie was wearing UGG boots, she's always ready for winter these days!), and sporting her recent curly hair look (I hate it by the way, I wish the straight locks would make a comeback), she launched into her usual opener, Outside The Rain, and I must say her voice still sounds incredible. Many have tried to imitate her but when you hear the real thing, it's unmistakably her and no one compares. As usual, Outside The Rain morphed into Dreams and not surprisingly the crowd went crazy and sang along to every word. 
If Anyone Falls was accompanied by a strange edit of her 1983 video for that song. As I could barely see the stage it would have been nice if the enormous screen behind her instead showed Stevie instead of these visuals, as it did with Brandi Carlile and Anna Calvi), and, for me, at least, it did hamper my enjoyment of the show. I know I'm spoiled as I've often got front row at previous Fleetwood Mac and Stevie shows, so it was a different less enjoyable experience being so far back in the crowd where I couldn't see much and surrounded by a lot of drunk and not very nice girls who were pissing in bottles on the ground (that certainly didn't live up to my childhood fantasy of Stevie being all paper flowers and chiffon and fairytale loveliness) and drunkenly singing along and being generally unpleasant.We moved back and could see slightly better, if albeit further away, but I did feel slightly removed from the magic of it all.
After Gypsy, another crowd pleaser, Stevie then did two covers, the first her version of Buffalo Springfield's For What It's Worth, which to be fair was one of her last singles (she also has a song called this, how exciting it would have been if she had played this too) and then, predictably given the last time she played in London was with Tom Petty, a cover of Free Fallin', which was quite touching (she said the last time she ever saw him was at that concert).
There was the Wild Heart/Bella Donna mash-up that I was so excited to hear the last time she played Hyde Park that has now become a regular in her set, but the rest was super predictable, with Stand Back, Edge Of Seventeen and Leather And Lace, for which she brought out her longtime vocal coach Steve Real to sing it with her. He sounded great but I did really like the older live versions that she used to sing with her backing singers (her old friend and longtime back-up singer Sharon Celani was there tonight, as well as Marilyn Martin, so it could have happened!).
Inbetween songs she told rambling and funny stories, as she often does, and talked about how she can now tell people she headlined at Hyde Park, said how people encouraged her to bring back the famous shawls she wears and encouraged everyone to vote ("I was too busy to vote and only started when I was like 70. Don't be like me, vote!"), which is funny because, although the US elections are looming, the UK have already had ours, but still the sentiment was a good one.
Again, she returned with the song she has been doing for the encore since the Bella Donna days, Rhiannon, and of course, the crowd went wild. What happened next I have to admit I had already read rumours of on the internet, so I wasn't surprised when Harry Styles walked out (she didn't even introduce him but the screams made it clear even before we saw him on the screen) and they sang Stop Draggin' My Heart Around, and I can't deny he did a good job.
She then acknowledged that today would have been Christine McVie's 81st birthday, her friend and Fleetwood Mac bandmate who passed away suddenly in 2022, dedicating the song Landslide to her (she always dedicates this song to someone but lately she always dedicates to to Chris) and Styles remained on stage to sing it with her. On the screen it showed lots of photos of Stevie and Chris, which was more touching than the fake Prince and Stevie ones that she used to show during Stand Back (that seriously happened).
At the end Styles held her hand and looked adoringly at her as she emotionally told the crowd "One thing that my mom used to say to me when I was little was that, when I
was hurt, she’d go 'Stevie when you’re hurt, you always run to the
stage.' And that’s what I’ve been doing since Chris passed away."
It was certainly a nice way to end the show and there were definitely a lot of people there who were equally as excited at seeing Styles make an appearance as seeing Stevie doing her first UK headline show since 1989 but I was underwhelmed by the whole thing. Maybe if I had a better spot and was among nicer people this would have been as special for me as it seemed to be for others attending, but it was without doubt the worst Stevie show I've been to, not so much because of her performance (although the setlist was undeniably uninspired) but because of the venue and the unpleasant, rather aggressive people around me. I know it's unlikely, since she's 76 years old now and has never played solo outside of the States much, but I hope Stevie comes back one day so I get a better final experience as she has been one of my musical loves of my life.
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