Watch Stevie Nicks play 'Edge of Seventeen' on Saturday Night Live

14 October 2024, 10:22

The Fleetwood Mac icon returns to the show for the first time in four decades.

Saturday Night Live's musical guests often win more plaudits than its sketches, and that was definitely the case at the weekend just gone when Stevie Nicks rocked up for a very special performance.

The ex-Fleetwood Mac superstar not only played her new single 'The Lighthouse', but also performed her absolutely massive 'Edge of Seventeen'.

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'Edge of Seventeen' was first released as a single way back in 1981 as the third single from Stevie's solo debut Bella Donna.

It stalled just outside the top ten at the time but has since become one of her best-known and best-loved songs, eventually going double platinum in the UK.

'The Lighthouse' was released last month and was a response to the US Supreme Court's decision to overturn the 1973 landmark Roe vs Wade decision on abortion.

Stevie Nicks: Edge of Seventeen (Live) - SNL

"It seemed like overnight, people were saying, 'What can we, as a collective force, do about this…'. For me, it was to write a song," she said.

The performance marked Stevie's first on SNL since 1983 when she played 'Stand Back' and 'Night Bird'.

Despite SNL and Fleetwood Mac crossing over for several decades, the band never played on the show.

Stevie Nicks: The Lighthouse (Live) - SNL

Saturday night's programme was presented by one of Stevie's thousands of spiritual successors in Ariana Grande.

Away from Stevie's stellar performance, the episode grabbed plenty of less-positive attention for its Oasis sketch, with Sarah Sherman and James Austin Johnson playing frequently feuding brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher.

As well as the jokes not exactly hitting the mark, a lot has been made of the accents, which rather than the Gallagher brothers' Mancunian, seemed to drift alarmingly somewhere between Liverpudlian, Colchester and Dick Van Dyke's Mary Poppins cockney.

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While Stevie Nicks continues to wow audiences and release new material, she has firmly closed the door on the possibility of any new live or recorded work from Fleetwood Mac.

"Without Christine, no can do," Nicks said about the chance of a return after the passing of Christie McVie in 2022.

"There is no chance of putting Fleetwood Mac back together in any way. Without her, it just couldn't work."

Nevertheless, her ex-bandmate Mick Fleetwood has pushed for a reconciliation between Nicks and her ex-partner Lindsey Buckingham, who was forced from the lineup for the final time in 2018.

"Stevie's able to speak clearly about how she feels and doesn't feel, as does Lindsey," said Mick.

"But I'll say, personally, I would love to see a healing between them – and that doesn't have to take the shape of a tour, necessarily."