Vegas article and photo

[SandyMac]

Images from Vegas have been lacking because of the tight security at Caesar's Palace, so I thought I would scan in the photo of Stevie that was in one of the weekly Vegas magazines.



BY ALAN KATZ

PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRIS MCKAY

SOME KIND OF WOMAN

Surprising as it sounds, when Stevie Nicks branched out as a solo performer in 1981, most critics doubted she could successfully carve out her own career independent of Fleetwood Mac, the band she helped immortalize and vice versa. But with the release of her smash-hit Bella Donna album, it became clear that the critics had badly underestimated this diminutive but inexhaustible American rock singer. ~ Today everyone recognizes that Nicks is that rare performer with a mystical hold on audiences. Although she stands just 5-foot-l without her trademark 6-inch platform shoes, Nicks rocks as
hard and sings wIth as much passion as anyone in the business-man or woman-and the louder the band screams the better she sounds. ~ Like Grace Slick and Janis Joplin, the two Bay Area belters who inspired her, Nicks is an unabashed eccentric. The stories of her love affairs and breakups, her fascination with witchcraft and battles with demons are legion-and often they're chronicled in her music. A fearless performer, she loves to twirl like a whirling dervish onstage and her wild imagination is evident in her lyric writing, with its many far-out fantasies. ~ Over the years her wardrobe and stage mannerisms have been the subject of much imitation. An annual New York ballroom spectacle, Night of a Thousand Stevies, which the organizers describe as "a riot of shawls, baby's breath, twirling and tambourines," grows bigger every year. ~ Nobody remains a star for 30 years without enduring a few career dips. Ill health and undisciplined habits brought about a quiet period in the 1990S, but Nicks' career has been on an upswing since the release of her acclaimed Trouble in Shangri-La album in 2001, which reached NO.5 on the Billboard charts. Fresh on the heels of last month's Super Bowl appearance before 94 million television viewers, Nicks is in town for a return engagement at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace. Built for a staggering $95 million, the 4,000-seat Colosseum is an intimate theater with a vast 111 foot-wide stage. ~ It's the Las Vegas home of Celine Dion and Elton John, and only a giant performer can fill it.