Stevie Nicks shatters record for fastest-selling show at Sands Bethlehem Event Center

[Jondalar]

http://www.mcall.com/entertainment/l...912-story.html

You might say it’s the stuff of “Dreams.”

And fans might be saying "Stand Back."

Stevie Nicks, who is among the most influential female singers in the past 40 years, sold out her Nov. 19 concert at Sands Bethlehem Event Center in a record 14 minutes this morning, venue General Manager Matt Salkowski said.

Tickets went on sale at 10 a.m. and all 2,550 -- costing $99-$135 -- were gone by 10:14, Salkowski said.

That broke the record for the fastest sellout set in April when pop-punk band blink 182 sold out 3,700 tickets for a standing show in just 20 minutes. It crushed the record for a seated show – just under 30 minutes for Rod Stewart’s Aug. 26 show, which went on sale in May.

Salkowski said that by 9 a.m., 50 people were waiting at the ticket box, "and the line continued to grow." He said that even though the event center started selling tickets early to those waiting, it had to eventually turn away 30-40 people after tickets were sold out.

Salkowski said many in the line were longtime Nicks fans ages 50-70. The singer is 68.

Of course, the fast sellout for Nicks' show was aided by several pre-sale opportunities. Her fan club and American Express card-holders, for example, have had the chance to buy tickets from Wednesday to Sunday.

By 10:20 a.m., just minutes after the sellout, the Ticketmaster web page for the show had offers by 50 fans to resell their tickets for $225 to $2,577.

It was an impressive showing for a big show at the event center, especially since Nicks will play Philadelphia's Wells Fargo Center, with a capacity more than six times that of the event center, on the following night, Nov. 20. Those tickets went on sale at the same time Monday.

Event center co-owner Jeff Trainer said he told people they could get tickets to Nicks for that show, and they told him, “I don't want to see her there. I want to see her atyour place."

It will be Nicks’ first performance in the Lehigh Valley in more than 20 years, and perhaps her first solo appearance in the area ever.

Nicks is known for such solo hits as "Stand Back" and “Talk to Me” and who with Fleetwood Mac sang “Rhiannon,” “Dreams," “Sara” and “Gypsy.”

The Pretenders, who had the hits "Brass in Pocket," "Don't Get Me Wrong" and "Back on the Chain Gang" in the 1980s, will open the show.

Nicks with Fleetwood Mac and as a solo artist has had more than 40 Top 50 hits.

With Fleetwood Mac she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. With the band she has received five Grammy Award nominations and eight others as a solo artist. Rolling Stone magazine in 2011 included her among its 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.

Nicks played a solo show at Reading’s Sovereign Center (now Santander Center) in 2008, but her most recent area shows played with Rod Stewart at Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center in 2011, and with Fleetwood Mac there in 2009.

Fleetwood Mac with Nicks played at Bethlehem’s Stabler Arena in 1990. That show was the last date on the band’s last tour before breaking up that year. It reunited in 1994.

Nicks joined Fleetwood Mac in 1975 and with it in 1977 released the album “Rumours,” which remained at No. 1 on the Albums chart for 31 weeks, was the year’s best-selling album and won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year.

It produced four Top 10 singles, with "Dreams" being the band's first and only U.S. No. 1 hit. It since has sold nearly 28 million copies, making it the third-best-selling album of all time. With Fleetwood Mac, Nicks has had 11 other gold and platinum albums that sold a combined 56 million albums, putting the band among the Top 15 best-selling ever.

Nicks started her solo career in 1981 with the quadruple-platinum album “Bella Donna,” which hit No. 1 and had the Top 10 songs "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around (with Tom Petty),” “Leather and Lace (With Don Henley)” and "Edge of Seventeen."

Her second solo disc, 1983’s “The Wild Heart,” also was Top 5 and went double-platinum with “Stand Back” and the Top 15 "If Anyone Falls."

In all, Nicks has had six of her eight studio albums hit the Top 10, and sold 10.5 million solo discs. A 1991 compilation, “Timespace – The Best of Stevie Nicks,” also went platinum.

Her most recent album was 2014’s “24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault,” which hit No. 7.

Her song “Landslide,” which also was a gold hit for Fleetwood Mac, became a No. 1 hot for The Dixie Chicks in 2002.

Generations of female singers have cited Nicks as an influence, including Michelle Branch, Belinda Carlisle, Sheryl Crow, Florence Welch, Taylor Swift and more.

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