The night Stevie Nicks first appeared on stage with Fleetwood Mac
It was May 15th, 1975. The world’s infatuation with rock and roll was roaring on, with the bands that broke out in the 1960s now packing out huge stadiums full of young faces staring up, eager to hear some live music. The hippie culture had morphed into something different, darker and edgier, still just as hypnotic but now somewhat aimless with Woodstock long over and the communes soured into cults. Rock fans wanted a new leader to follow, and suddenly, Fleetwood Mac presented them with one – Stevie Nicks.
Make no mistake, Fleetwood Mac had been established for a long time. The band began way back in 1967 as a blues troupe helmed by Peter Green. Long before they were California’s new favourite act, they were a British group creating sleazy tunes with only one member that would endure as the unit morphed: Mick Fleetwood.
Slowly, as the band’s early lineup slipped away, the members the world knows best joined. John McVie was brought in on bass, and Christine McVie, who happened to be his wife, joined on keys, too. They moved to California in the hopes of shaking things up and reviving the act after Green’s departure, but still, something was missing.
In the autumn of 1974, the band were at Sound City studios checking out the space when they heard a song. It was ‘Frozen Love’, a track from Buckingham Nicks’ debut album. They were hooked and intrigued, eager to meet the musicians behind the song, so they were introduced to Lindsey Buckingham. They invited him to join the band almost instantly, but he had one condition: he came as a package deal.
Though initially Stevie Nicks came into the group as one half of a duo or as a kind of two-for-one deal with Buckingham, she immediately proved that her value far exceeded simply being the guitarist’s girlfriend. Instantly, it was clear that Nicks was something special and a true secret weapon for the band, as her voice and songwriting gave Fleetwood Mac the shake-up they needed.
In 1975, they released ‘Rhiannon’, the first Nicks-led and Nicks-penned Fleetwood Mac track that had a decidedly different sound and energy to anything else they’d released. It’s Nicks down to a tee; witchy, hypnotic, swelling and storytelling. As radios picked it up, it left rock fans in a trance across the airwaves. Then, the moment came for it to be played live.
It was May 15th, 1975. The band were billed to play at the El Paso County Coliseum in Texas as the first date of their Fleetwood Mac tour and their first show as a new lineup, with Nicks primed to step up to the mic. They gave her some time to get into it, starting the set with some older tracks. But then, for the fourth song in the 18-track set list, Nicks stepped into the spotlight to sing ‘Rhiannon’ to an incredible reaction for her live debut with the group.
In the setlist, the band also demanded that Buckingham and Nicks sing ‘Frozen Love’ as a way to honour the song that brought them into the band. However, by the time the 1975 tour was still rolling on in 1976, the setlist went through some changes as the band’s most tumultuous period began. ‘Frozen Love’ was replaced by ‘Silver Springs’ as a sad symbol for the split of the Buckingham and Nicks’ relationship as their optimistic debut with the group quickly turned into the emotional chaos of Rumours.
