The Wild Heart Tour: 1983

[michelej1]

Lexington Herald-Leader (KY)

July 5, 1983


STEVIE NICKS' NEWEST ALBUM IS FILLED WITH ROMANTIC SPIRIT
Ken Tucker Knight-Ridder News Service

Knight-Ridder News Service

Stevie Nicks inhabits a world of sprites, gnomes, fairies and handsome princes. The songs she writes and sings all seem to be set in an evergreen glade where unicorns peep around trees and rainbows shade the sky.

To say that Nicks is a romantic is putting it mildly. She's the Swinburne of rock, and her music is laden with the thick, melodramatic beauty that effective romanticism can convey.

Her detractors think she's a flake, while many of her admirers seem to worship the platform boots she teeters upon. Nicks inspires strong feelings, which is one sure indication that she's not a fake or a sham.

As one-fifth of the superstar group Fleetwood Mac, Nicks has often had her engaging spaciness held in check by the verve and pop-song discipline of the rest of the band. Anyone who has attended a Fleetwood Mac performance knows that Nicks is both essential to this group and totally disconnected from it.

Her cool, reedy voice complements the hot, dense guitar-and-drum sound of the band perfectly, but it often seems as if the band's tales of difficult love affairs fly over Nicks' head. In the midst of Fleetwood Mac's realism, she twirls around the stage in wispy dresses and pulls at a stray lock of hair, listening to the voices in her head.

Two years ago Nicks released a solo album, Bella Donna, that surprised many people both for its resolute levelheadedness and its spectacular commercial success. Bella Donna sold millions of records and contained one of the strongest, angriest pop songs in years, Stop Draggin' My Heart Around," a
duet with rocker Tom Petty.

Now comes Nicks' long-awaited second album, The Wild Heart (Modern), and it's a very pleasurable, if more problematic, piece of work. Working again with producer Jimmy Iovine, Nicks has fashioned a dense, lustrous sound that is an apt metaphor for her lyrics. Sandy Stewart on synthesizer and Roy Bittan, pianist for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, provide Nicks with icy sheets of keyboards that drench the music in the kind of splashy emotion the singer revels in.

By contrast, however, old-pro Los Angeles guitarists Waddy Wachtel and Toto's Steve Lukather play terse, ringing melody lines that prevent the songs
from becoming unduly sentimental. This tension between keyboards and guitars gives The Wild Heart the sort of stormy, crackling background that suits Nicks' tales of dark romance -the musical equivalent of the misty, moody atmospherics of Wuthering Heights.

A recent review of The Wild Heart in Rolling Stone magazine condemned the album for the incoherence of its lyrics, but that's silly. The whole point of Nicks' act is that she has become completely addled by love, left gibbering about how her wild heart has been broken beyond repair.

To look for clear-eyed lucidity in her lyrics is as foolish as hoping to find feminist polemic in the words of Ozzy Ozbourne's songs. It's much more rewarding to listen to Nicks' songs without pondering the lyric sheet that accompanies the album. That way, odd fragments of phrases float up out of the musical ether, and you are left free to appreciate her voice, which can sound hoarse and plaintive one moment, ethereal and commanding the next.

If the best songs on The Wild Heart are the tough-sounding ones -- the snappish hit single Stand Back" and her duet with Tom Petty, I Will Run to You" -- the album also builds to a logically grandiose climax, Beauty and the Beast," a seven-minute epic dedicated to the surreal Jean Cocteau film classic of the same name.

Backed by a 22-piece string section and featuring her most delirious vocals, Beauty and the Beast" is a triumph of campy pop in its woozy, excessive, decadent fun.

Anyone who can plan an album as cagily as Nicks has overseen The Wild Heart isn't the flibbertigibbet she likes to seem; she's crazy like a fox.

[michelej1]

Philadelphia Daily News (PA),
June 24, 1983

Section: FEATURES

NONA HENDRYX/ROBERT PALMER/STEVIE NICKS/JOE WALSH/ AMY GRANT/CHICAGO/KOOL AND THE GANG

JONATHAN TAKIFF, Daily News Music Writer


Stevie Nicked

Stevie Nicks, the wispy sprite of Fleetwood Mac, will make her solo concert debut at the Spectrum Monday, backed up by a stellar cast of L.A. studio musicians and sharing the bill with Joe Walsh.

With her haunting, crystal visions of gypsies and white witches, and her ''seduced and abandoned'' sagas of disllusioned love, Nicks surely has pumped lots of life into the Big Mac, lo these past eight years. And her growly voice and hypnotic, jazz-flavored incantations surely have sparked adult rock to grow in sophistication.

I've been entranced by Nicks' sound and look (the best nose in rock) ever since stumbling upon her largely ignored debut album with (future ex-husband) Lindsey Buckingham, ''Buckingham Nicks.'' One of my proudest picks-to-click as a weekend disc jockey was a song called ''Rhiannon,'' which became Nicks' first hit for Fleetwood Mac six months after I introduced it on the Philly airwaves.

And yet, in the same breath, I must confess a growing disillusionment with Nicks' numbing sameness. Her perpetual fascination with her own reflection is her biggest shortcoming. Introspection does fit her self-image as a white witch and translates into some useful stage theatrics: Check out the shadowy lighting effects and the tracks of her tears that involuntarily pour forth during Stevie's readings of ''Sara,'' ''Dreams'' and ''Edge of Seventeen.''

But a little confessional melodrama goes a long way. Isn't there a world outside her own to explore? Moreover, Nicks' self-absorption inadvertently causes a very serious problem in communication. She has absolutely horrendous, mushmouthed pronunciation that makes her lyrics impossible to grasp in totality. And from what I've seen, the woman is such an emotional prima donna, that no one close to her dares point out the flaws.

[WatchChain]

The May 27, 1983 Wild Heart Tour Show at the Aladdin Theater in Las Vegas did happen. I attended this show on my 12th birthday as a gift from my cousin. I was visiting my family who lived in Las Vegas at the time. I'm assuming that it must have been some kind of "warm up" show for The US Festival which would take place a few days later.
It was a fantastic show, basically the same set as the US FEST. At one point in the set, someone tried to jump onstage to hug Stevie. A security guard pulled the crazed fan back, which resulted in a mini scuffle. After the song, Stevie scolded the security guard and told the audience that if anyone tried to mess with them to tell them to "F**K off". She stated sometime to the effect that she was on stage for the fans.....etc.....
I couldn't believe my eyes, as I had never heard Stevie use curse words before. Then again, I was only 12.

[Macfanforever]

Originally Posted by WatchChain

The May 27, 1983 Wild Heart Tour Show at the Aladdin Theater in Las Vegas did happen. I attended this show on my 12th birthday as a gift from my cousin. I was visiting my family who lived in Las Vegas at the time. I'm assuming that it must have been some kind of "warm up" show for The US Festival which would take place a few days later.
It was a fantastic show, basically the same set as the US FEST. At one point in the set, someone tried to jump onstage to hug Stevie. A security guard pulled the crazed fan back, which resulted in a mini scuffle. After the song, Stevie scolded the security guard and told the audience that if anyone tried to mess with them to tell them to "F**K off". She stated sometime to the effect that she was on stage for the fans.....etc.....
I couldn't believe my eyes, as I had never heard Stevie use curse words before. Then again, I was only 12.

She also scolded the security at the Bristol CT show in 1989 for harassing the fans.

[rockalilcutie25]

I do not usually post much! But i thought this was one of the greatest threads ever. What would b even cooler, in my stevie obsession.....like all the paper clippings, pollstar data, but also post the audio to each concert...if available. Im so excited for Rock A Little Tour! The person that started this did a wonderful job, i love you.....thank you!

[olive]

I think people are confused on the September 9, 1983: Bristol, RI - Colt State Park , not Connecticut I remember it was so cool to see her on the Water , and the Tickets and Backstage passes were a gift from my employer....there was an altercation She was higher than Jesus and someone started to fling Pineapple at her ( it was cool back then to bring coolers and stuff /alcohol in to the Park ) and she started to climb off the stage and security got involved and a few guys kicked the $4!+
out of the Pineapple flinging A hole

http://www.amazon.com/wiki/The_Wild_Heart_Tour


1983: September 9 Colt State Park Bristol, Rhode Island (Stevie solo)--outdoors, hey, I was there too, Stevie stopped Rhiannon mid-song to throw a pineapple at an unruly security guard!

http://ledge.fleetwoodmac.net/showthread.php?t=18313

[vivfox]

Originally Posted by rockalilcutie25

I do not usually post much! But i thought this was one of the greatest threads ever. What would b even cooler, in my stevie obsession.....like all the paper clippings, pollstar data, but also post the audio to each concert...if available. Im so excited for Rock A Little Tour! The person that started this did a wonderful job, i love you.....thank you!

You are mos def welcome!!! I love you too!

[vivfox]

Originally Posted by olive

1983: September 9 Colt State Park Bristol, Rhode Island (Stevie solo)--outdoors, hey, I was there too, Stevie stopped Rhiannon mid-song to throw a pineapple at an unruly security guard!

Even after all this time it feels good to have someone else confirm what other fans were disputing of my friend's recall of the events from that show.

[olive]

Originally Posted by vivfox

Even after all this time it feels good to have someone else confirm what other fans were disputing of my friend's recall of the events from that show.

some stoner made a bootleg and put ct on it .. and everyone t takes it as the truth

[Nathan]

Originally Posted by olive

I think people are confused on the September 9, 1983: Bristol, RI - Colt State Park , not Connecticut I remember it was so cool to see her on the Water , and the Tickets and Backstage passes were a gift from my employer....there was an altercation She was higher than Jesus and someone started to fling Pineapple at her ( it was cool back then to bring coolers and stuff /alcohol in to the Park ) and she started to climb off the stage and security got involved and a few guys kicked the $4!+
out of the Pineapple flinging A hole

http://www.amazon.com/wiki/The_Wild_Heart_Tour


1983: September 9 Colt State Park Bristol, Rhode Island (Stevie solo)--outdoors, hey, I was there too, Stevie stopped Rhiannon mid-song to throw a pineapple at an unruly security guard!

http://ledge.fleetwoodmac.net/showthread.php?t=18313

I didn't know she played Portland in '83. Cool, thanks.

[vivfox]

Originally Posted by olive

some stoner made a bootleg and put ct on it .. and everyone t takes it as the truth

What was the date the stoner lists the show as?

[olive]

same date ,wrong state.

[vivfox]

Originally Posted by olive

same date ,wrong state.

Could you possible describe how the pineapple incident is heard on the tape?

[Richard B]

Originally Posted by vivfox

the 5th show on The Wild Heart Tour
June 24,1983
East Rutherford, New Jersey
Venue: Brendan Byrne Arena aka Medowlands



from BILLBOARD Magazine
Boxscores
Headliner: Stevie Nicks
Opening Act: Joe Walsh
Venue: Byrne Medowlands Arena
E. Rutherford, N.J.
Produced by: Monarch Entertainment Bureau
Ticket Prices: $11.50 & $13.50
Available Tickets: 20,037
Tickets Sold: Sellout
Concert Gross: $274,348

Anyone here go to this show? I heard something about Stevie getting knocked down by a fan and literally stopped singing. is this true? Any details. I have a great audio concert of this show....it is such a great show.

[David]

Originally Posted by Richard B

Anyone here go to this show? I heard something about Stevie getting knocked down by a fan and literally stopped singing. is this true? Any details. I have a great audio concert of this show....it is such a great show.

Did you download that audio from ConcertVault, Richard?

http://www.concertvault.com/stevie-n...e-24-1983.html

Spectacular audio quality. Such a shame it always seems to be the weaker nights for Stevie that surface with spectacular audio. Imagine if that year's Dallas or Los Angeles concert showed up on ConcertVault.