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Home » RECAP: Toronto, ON – Air Canada Centre

RECAP: Toronto, ON – Air Canada Centre

Scroll down for photos, videos, reviews, and fan reaction!

On Tuesday, Stevie Nicks performed at Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario — the 18th show of the 24 Karat Gold Tour. It was the first of two shows in Canada (Stevie performs in Vancouver on December 9).

The current tour is proving to feature her most diverse set list to date, with yet another set list change this evening. Stevie treated Toronto fans to Fleetwood Mac classic “Landslide,” the second encore and show’s closing number. Though it replaced another classic — the 1981 hit “Leather and Lace,” which was retired from the set at last Friday’s Uncasville, CT show — fans were thrilled with the “Landslide” addition. (Stevie ended the following Auburn Hills, MI show with “Rhiannon.”)

Twitter was abuzz with overwhelming praise and accolades. Kelly Ryan, a fan attending the Toronto show, summed up the evening in the following tweet: “Stevie Nicks was amazing and still can kick ass at 68. Wow just wow!”

Stevie Nicks
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(Ashley Tredenick)
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(Victoria)
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Videos

Thanks and much love to Steve Gallow, Ken Lyons, Darin Parest, and The Concert Junkie for filming and sharing these wonderful videos.

Gold and Braid / If Anyone Falls / Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around / Belle Fleur (Darin Parest)

“Welcome, Toronto! Well, we are very glad to be here. We just came in from somewhere in the United States last night. And uh, I know, who remembers? But anyway, we’re really glad to be here.

“So I want to tell you that this set, this set is not the same set that you saw probably…100 times over the last 20 years. This is a different set. I went back into, I call ’em,  the black, gothic trunk of mysterious and fantastical things to pull out songs that were not done, not because they were not good enough, but because I just didn’t like the way that they were done. So I pulled them. So never knowing  whether or not they would be ever used or heard again from that point. So anyway, I put them into a set. I tried to intertwine everything together and make it something that you’ll really like. It’s really fun for me, something different to do for my own musical love of music.

“So anyway, I hope you enjoy it. We’re awful glad to be here and very glad that you are here. So, let’s go!”

Gold and Braid / If Anyone Falls (Ken Lyons)

Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around feat. Chrissie Hynde (Ken Lyons)

“Thank you. So this next song has kind of a great story. When we did Bella Donna in 1981, it was produced by Jimmy Iovine, who had produced many people by then, even though he was five years younger than me. He would like that, that I said that. Anyway, Jimmy came to me and said, ‘OK, we’ve made the record. It’s really good.’ It took three months. We were very organized, very together and he said, ‘But there is a problem. And I’m like, ‘So what is the problem?’ And he says, ‘There is not a single on this record.’ I’ve only been in the business for like five years at that point. I don’t know a lot about all this, even then.

“So I’m like, ‘What do you exactly mean by that?’ And he says, ‘It means you don’t have a single on your record. And you need to have a single or it’s possible that your record will tank and then you won’t have a solo career.’ [put her finger on her cheek] Hmm.  No, yes, he said that to me. And I’m like, ‘Well…so what am I supposed to do, go and home and try to write a single?’ I tried to write a single, there’s 12 of them, and he said, ‘No. This is what we’re gonna do. The reason you hired me was because you actually wanted to be in Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, right?’ And I’m going, ‘Yes! Yes!’ He said, ‘Well, I couldn’t help you with that,’ but he said, ‘But what I did is Tom Petty has offered to give you a great song that was supposed to be on the record he’s doing right now and not only is he going to give you this song, but he’s gonna sing it with you.’ And I’m like, ‘OK!’ I throw the arrogance out the window and go like, ‘I’m so happy. What can I say?

“So anyway, that song — thank you, Tom Petty — was probably the reason why we are standing here today because it became a huge single, and it’s called ‘Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.'”

After ‘Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around’

“So much fun. It’s like it’s my…it’s my destiny to almost always be a part of a duo. And it’s fantastic since I was this big with my granddad. It’s like I always find my way back to singing with another person so now I have a new person to sing with, Chrissie Hynde, and it’s just so great.”

Belle Fleur story

“So this next song could have actually well, it is written about me. But it could have been written about her also. In the beginning — in the beginning — like you know, like 1978, let’s say. I don’t remember, but somewhere back then. I wrote this song and it was about having relationships when you’re in a rock and roll band, and you’re a girl and you’re in the band, and you really can’t take your boyfriends on the stage. Well, you definitely can’t take them on the stage. But you absolutely can’t take them on the road either because they don’t have anything to do. And everybody starts walking around going like, ‘Who is that, and why are they here?’ So it ends up not being a good thing so the rule is pretty much: Don’t bring your boyfriend. Now it’s not the same for the guys, if they want to bring their girlfriends, it’s fine. But, not fine.

“So I wrote a song about when you leave and you’re going on a tour, you can’t really say how it’s gonna last because you don’t really know, and so you’re walking down your little path to the long, black limousine that I personally loved, not the SUV, the real limousine. And you’re turning around and you’re waving goodbye to that person and you don’t know when you’re gonna be back, and it pretty much means that the relationship is over. You know it, he knows it, it’s just the way it is. So anyway, this is my picture painting, and it’s called ‘Belle Fleur.'”

Gypsy (Ken Lyons)

Stand Back / Crying in the Night (Ken Lyons)

“Thank you. Yes, that was Prince, and yes, we did know each other and we were actually very good friends. And we wrote that song together. We didn’t really write it in the same room together, but I wrote it along to his track ‘Little Red Corvette.’ And then I called him and told him the truth: ‘I have written a song to your song from another one of my, you know, ferocious, long poems.’ And he said, ‘Great!’ And I said, ‘So, I’m at Sunset Sound Recording Studio right now in Los Angeles. I don’t have any idea where you are, but if you’re here, could you come over?’ He said, ‘I’m in Los Angeles. I’ll be over in 15 minutes.’ And he was, and played a little guitar, he played keyboards, he said he loved it, and then he like whooshed into a purple haze and was gone. And really, that is a fact of who he was. He was like came to get his work. He was really nice and he left. And then for the rest of his life, that’s how I would see him every once in a while. It would just be like woosh! and then he was just like gone.

“So he will always be a part of us because he will always be a part of…every time you hear ‘Stand Back,’ you can think about ‘The Purple One’ making it possible for me to write that song.”

Crying in the Night story

“So anyway… OK, next song… Do you feel like you’re in school yet? If this hadn’t all worked out for me, that’s what I would have been, a teacher. And I would have taken all my music into my classes and made people sit there and listen to it! And I’d be fine.

“So the next song is the oldest song we have ever performed here onstage because it was a song on the Buckingham Nicks album. And it was probably written…hard to remember, but it was probably written before Lindsey and I drove to Los Angeles in 1971 because we had our 12 Buckingham Nicks songs demoed really beautifully. So that’s probably when I wrote it, like in even 1970.

“Anyway, we came to Los Angeles. We moved in with our producer and the first thing that happened was we met Waddy Wachtel. And he was already a very well-known session musician, who had a job and was doing well. And so the three of us became really good friends. When I look back on it, it was like, you talk about like ‘the best times of your life.’ It was like, this is the best times of our life.

“Anyway, this song that I wrote, I don’t know, it just turned into this great song. And it’s like we don’t know what it was about — we can’t figure these words out. It was about some girl that none of us knew. And anyway, we recorded and it came out great, and it was gonna be the single on the Buckingham Nicks record, but it never really made it to that place because the Buckingham Nicks album was put out and dropped by the record company in like a couple of weeks.

“So anyway, we have often thought about doing this song and I’ve said, ‘No, you know, maybe this isn’t…’ And so Waddy said, ‘Why not? Let’s just do it.’ So I said, ‘OK! Let’s do.’ So anyway, this song from the 1973 record is called ‘Cryin’ in the Night,’ and we’re gonna play it for you now.'”

After ‘Crying in the Night’

“…a dream come true that we never actually thought would come true, bringing something actually to the forefront that was lost forever. And so this only means that it is a testament to… I hate to see people not go after their dreams because you can have them. You just have to fight for them, and you just have to remember to not listen to anybody else, that you have to say: ‘This is what I really want! It’s not your life. You don’t live here. It’s me. Go away!’ And stick to it because you can have it. The stars are there, just like ‘Bella Donna’ says, you know, ‘Come in out of the darkness.’ Anyway, I have to say that. That’s my little preaching moment, so thank you.”

If You Were My Love (Ken Lyons)

“I’m back! I need a pulpit, I do. I need something to put my hands on.

“OK, so this next song… Oh yes, it goes way back too. It is the only other song that I honestly don’t remember who it was about. But it was a very important song to me because I pulled it off Bella Donna because I didn’t like the way it was recorded. So I think it was about a heartbroken person somewhere. Someday, it’ll come to me, but it hasn’t yet. And it’s one of my very favorite songs. It’s called ‘If You Were My Love.'”

Gold Dust Woman (Ken Lyons)

Edge of Seventeen (Ken Lyons)

“Thank you, Toronto! What a beautiful city you have here! We could all be moving here soon. I love it here.

“You have been an awesome audience. I appreciate so much you listening to all my, my dark, gothic trunk of magical, mystical…’Mrs. Peregrine’s Place for Curious Children and Song.’ I know that it’s a lot, and I appreciate the fact that you are kind and sweet and listen as if we were in like our house, our living room. And we are just missing refreshments — that’s the only thing!

“So that’s what I actually came here for is to make you feel like we’re all in our house of music, and this is the good place. This is where it all happened. So I thank you for making me feel like my little way I wanted to go goes right. And we will see you next time. Stay well and safe. Love each other. I love you so much. Thank you very much.”

Rhiannon (Ken Lyons)

Landslide (Steve Gallow)

Landslide (The Concert Junkie)

“So this last song… We actually just decided to do… We usually don’t do this song, but we decided to do this song tonight because, when we left on this tour, I said, ‘You know, we’re not working for anybody else, so if we wanna just change a song, do a different song, it’s like we’re not going to get thrown in jail or anything. We can actually do whatever we want.’ So tonight we’re doing a different song…I think. I haven’t sung this song in a while so I hope, I hope I even… Of course, I remember it. It’s the other song besides ‘Rhiannon’ that’s been done every single time I’ve ever gone on the stage, except this time. But now it’s gonna be this time too. Take it away, George!”

Reviews

Nothing beats a night with Stevie Nicks and Chrissie Hynde (Chaka V. Grier / Now Toronto)

https://twitter.com/Ashleytredenick/status/803823290825449472

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