The Wild Heart Tour: 1983

[David]

Originally Posted by vivfox

the 16th show on The Wild Heart Tour
July 18,1983
Chicago, Illionis
Venue: Rosemont Horizon

This entire show was recorded. Fans always considered it one of the best recordings (soundwise) of the tour. At the very end, Stevie sings a line from the Jackson 5 song "Never Can Say Goodbye."

[michelej1]

Globe and Mail (Canada) July 19, 1983

Those who bought tickets for the Stevie Nicks and Joe Walsh concert that
was to be held tonight should find this week whether they will have the
option of exchanging their seats for a concert later this season. The
show's promoters, Concert Productions International, are to make an
announcement soon.

July 18, 1983

The concert scheduled for Tuesday night at the Canadian National
Exhibition Bandshell, with California rock performers Stevie Nicks and Joe
Walsh, has been cancelled.

A spokesman for the promoters, Concert Productions International, said
that information about refunds for tickets or exchanges for a different
concert will be announced today or tomorrow.

[Sanne2]

What was the reason for the cancellation?

[michelej1]

Boston Globe (MA), July 8, 1983
Section: ARTS/ FILMS


REVIEW MUSIC THE YIN AND YANG OF STEVIE NICKS STEVIE NICKS - IN CONCERT WITH JOE WALSH AT THE WORCESTER CENTRUM, WEDNESDAY.


Susan Wilson Special to The Globe

WORCESTER Understanding the ancient Chinese principle of yin and yang, the universal opposites, provides a clue to a question that has haunted Fleetwood Mac fans for years: Just what is it that makes that mystical and mysterious Stevie Nicks tick?

The talented singer and songwriter - who packed the Centrum Wednesday night in a wonderfully successful solo concert - has admitted her see-saw sensibilities and dual personalities in recent interviews. There is the yin half - passive, light, idle, "feminine." Then the yang - active, dark, dominant, "masculine." Nicks is aware, and in tune, with both these sides of her muse. And with that in mind, the cryptic Nicks image begins to coalesce.

Visually, the yin-yang pull is manifested in outfits like the breezy, white gown she wears on the cover of her 1981 debut solo album, "Bella Donna." The contrast? A dark, velvety cloak - augmented by some double exposure photography - on her newly released "Wild Heart" LP (both on Modern Records). Conceptually, she flaunts it in lyrics that skip from solidly stated love songs to elusively worded, ethereal jaunts into her private Never-Never Land. Spiritually, she admits an affinity for fairy tales like "Beauty and the Beast."

You get the idea.

Balance, of course, is the essence of effective dualism. And balance was the key to Nicks' emotionally moving and exceptionally hard-rocking performance on Wednesday night.

Wafting on to a stage bathed in eerie blue light, the strikingly beautiful vocalist took firm hold front and center, a spot she rarely relinquished in the course of her 90-minute show. The fact that Nicks' active, take-charge side was visible, and that she made regular eye and gesture contact with audience members was compelling and rivetting. It was a far cry from days when her preoccupied personna lay rampant, as in the 1979 Garden appearance which found Nicks fluttering around the stage, wandering and wilting like a lost Isadora Duncan.

Shaking out her golden, lioness locks, then shifting a white shawl over her lacy, black, Gothic-gaudy gown, Nicks and band dived headlong into a rocking opener of her snakey "Gold Dust Woman." Once in control, the sensual and self-assured vocalist never let up. Her voice was strong and soaring, continually expanding and experimenting around the songs' original melody lines. She periodically dipped out to switch outfits - sometimes black, sometimes white, and always wispy and witch-like.

Highlights of her harder-rocking originals included Mac classics "Dreams," "Gypsy" and a poignant, raw-edged re-interpretation of "Rhiannon" that provided a chilling encore. Ace guitarist Waddy Wachtell - accompanied by other top-notch session players including keyboardist Roy Bittan, percussionist Bobbye Hall and drummer Liberty DeVitto - bouyed Nicks' wood- grained vocals from the start. But beginning with two "Bella Donna" hit singles, "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" and "Edge of Seventeen," Wachtell in particular broke loose into the evening's finest, funkiest and most majestic pyrotechnics.

Faster paced numbers from the "Wild Heart" LP fared better in live performance than in their largely lackluster album versions. In fact, only one cut off the new LP - a melodic and melancholy mood piece called "Beauty and the Beast"(!) - had the strength and breathless charm of earlier Nicks ballads like "Sara" and "Leather and Lace."

The unlikely opening act for Nicks' magical evening was former James Gang lead guitarist, Joe Walsh. Backed by a soulful horn line and hard-driving percussion section, Walsh mixed lush harmonies with his trademark heavy driving boogie. Walsh's reputation as an innovative musical artist were proven via his searing guitar work in "Everybody Must Get Stoned" and a bluesy, guitar-vocal duet in "Shadows." Though Walsh's appeal was clearly to a tougher, heavier metal crowd than Nicks' softer rock following, the combination seemed to work, at least in the energies and excitement generated.

[michelej1]

[Sorry, I missed this for June]

Philadelphia Inquirer (PA), June 28, 1983


Section: FEATURES PEOPLE HOME ENTERTAINMENT


ECCENTRIC NICKS GIVES DELICATE CONCERT


Ken Tucker, Inquirer Popular Music Critic

Stevie Nicks , who performed at the Spectrum last night, is a very unusual pop artist: an intensely mannered and eccentric performer whose mannerisms and eccentricity yield good music.

Nicks usually performs as part of the band Fleetwood Mac, but she has just released her second solo album, "The Wild Heart" (Modern), and her show last night concentrated on material from that new disc.

For this tour as a headliner, she has assembled a first-rate band consisting of players from other groups, including keyboardist Roy Bittan, from Bruce Springsteen's E-Street Band; Benmont Tench, keyboardist from Tom Petty's Heartbreakers, and drummer Liberty DeVitto, the best thing that ever happened to Billy Joel. Together with lead guitarist Waddy Wachtel, this band played a lot of harsh, loud rock 'n' roll that was a nice contrast to Nicks' reedy, delicate voice.

Nicks' entire style of performance can, in fact, be described as delicate. In her wispy gowns and in the fluttery, flyaway dance steps she executes onstage, Nicks plays up the dreamy aspects of her music. The songs she writes are full of wise, young witches, bold princes and glowering monsters - this is fairy-tale rock 'n' roll, delivered with roiling melodrama.

What keeps it all from becoming too coy, however, is Nicks' penchant for creating firm, commanding melodies that bolster her woozy lyrics. At the Spectrum, she gave bright, unsentimental readings of hits such as "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around," "Leather and Lace" and the current "Stand Back." In the end, Nicks skittered along the lip of the stage, accepting bouquets and squeezing the hands of gawking admirers, and as always, her apparent sincerity and guilelessness was impressive.

Preceding Nicks this evening was singer-guitarist Joe Walsh, whose billing on this tour is bigger than an opening act but smaller than co-headliner.

Walsh is a man in the midst of change: His old group, the Eagles, has disbanded, and so he's testing his solo wings by touring to promote his new album "You Bought It, You Name It" (Full Moon/Warner Bros.). This record is a desultory affair that doesn't begin to hint at the tough-guy good humor and sharp guitar-playing of which Walsh is capable.

Walsh's performance last night was charming but slight, with one exception - a terrific, extended version of his finest composition, "Life's Been Good," probably the most honest, and certainly the funniest, life-of-a-rock -star saga any musician has recorded.

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by Sanne2

What was the reason for the cancellation?

I don't know, I can't find anything saying why the shows did not go forward.

Michele

[David]

Originally Posted by michelej1

I don't know, I can't find anything saying why the shows did not go forward.

That's very weird. In my tour itinerary, the Toronto gig was originally scheduled for July 19, & the bookend shows (July 18 at Rosemont & July 22 at Blossom) took place as planned.

There were several switcheroos & other scheduling mysteries throughout the tour. The Greensboro NC show at the Greensboro Coliseum was originally scheduled for July 10, but was postponed to the tail end of the tour, in late November. The Tempe AZ Heart Association benefit was originally scheduled for August 28, but that was pushed back to September 25, & she allegedly played Baton Rouge on the 28th. Some gigs in the third week in October were apparently postponed a month.

Originally, the tour was supposed to end November 20 in Ames, but that gig (which took place as scheduled & is on tape) wound up preceding some postponements tacked on afterward.

[AliP]

Originally Posted by David

Originally, the tour was supposed to end November 20 in Ames, but that gig (which took place as scheduled & is on tape) wound up preceding some postponements tacked on afterward.

Ah, the Ames concert...one of my favorites! She is completely and utterly wacked out of her mind during that show...and I love it!

[Musicman408]

Originally Posted by AliP

Ah, the Ames concert...one of my favorites! She is completely and utterly wacked out of her mind during that show...and I love it!

Is there audio of video of this show?

[DeeGeMe]

Originally Posted by David

That's very weird. In my tour itinerary, the Toronto gig was originally scheduled for July 19, & the bookend shows (July 18 at Rosemont & July 22 at Blossom) took place as planned.

There were several switcheroos & other scheduling mysteries throughout the tour. The Greensboro NC show at the Greensboro Coliseum was originally scheduled for July 10, but was postponed to the tail end of the tour, in late November. The Tempe AZ Heart Association benefit was originally scheduled for August 28, but that was pushed back to September 25, & she allegedly played Baton Rouge on the 28th. Some gigs in the third week in October were apparently postponed a month.

Originally, the tour was supposed to end November 20 in Ames, but that gig (which took place as scheduled & is on tape) wound up preceding some postponements tacked on afterward.

That's not correct. I was at the Greensboro NC show--and it was held in the summer. The COLUMBIA, SC show was cancelled (the afternoon of the show as a matter of fact) and then rescheduled for late November, I had tickets for the show and got to Columbia only to find out that it had been cancelled. It was then rescheduled for late November, at the tail end of her tour (and I was there for the rescheduled show.) The story given at the time was that Stevie was suffering from bronchitis or some similar ailment. Urban Legend has it that she actually stayed in Columbia for a couple of weeks, recuperating at the city's nicest hotel at the time, a Marriot if I remember correctly.

[AliP]

Originally Posted by Musicman408

Is there audio of video of this show?

There is an audio but no video. Stevie is in full form and is high as a kite, but she is soo funny.

[David]

Originally Posted by DeeGeMe

That's not correct. I was at the Greensboro NC show--and it was held in the summer. The COLUMBIA, SC show was cancelled (the afternoon of the show as a matter of fact) and then rescheduled for late November, I had tickets for the show and got to Columbia only to find out that it had been cancelled. It was then rescheduled for late November, at the tail end of her tour (and I was there for the rescheduled show.) The story given at the time was that Stevie was suffering from bronchitis or some similar ailment. Urban Legend has it that she actually stayed in Columbia for a couple of weeks, recuperating at the city's nicest hotel at the time, a Marriot if I remember correctly.

Thanks for correction. So what we have is that Greensboro NC took place as scheduled on July 10. But Columbia SC (University of South Carolina) was postponed from October 21 to November 24.

Did you go to the Charlotte NC performance on November 23? I think that's on tape (either that one or Columbia the following night).

[DeeGeMe]

No for some reason I missed out on the Charlotte NC show--but I have great memories from both shows-good times, good times.

[vivfox]

the 17th show on The Wild Heart Tour
July 22,1983
Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
Venue: Blossom Music Center



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[vivfox]

the 18th show on The Wild Heart Tour
July 23,1983
Detroit, Michigan
Venue: Joe Louis Arena



from BILLBOARD Magazine
Boxscores
Headliner: Stevie Nicks
Opening Act: Joe Walsh
Joe Louis Arena, Detroit
Produced by: Brass Ring Productions
Ticket Prices: $11.50 & $12.50
Available Tickets: 13,124
Tickets Sold: 10,378
Concert Gross: $129,712

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