Concert Review
Red Robinson Show Theatre. Coquitlam, BC
October 9, 2009
Friday October 9th 2009 - Vancouver, Canada - and my first DC concert outside of the UK! Was I excited? You bet!! And to top it all we had front row seats!
The day of the concert we decided to go over in plenty of time and when we arrived we were told that David was ill and had not shown up yet! Now we were a bit sceptical about this as we all know how that he's not supposed to be too keen on doing soundchecks but we hoped it was nothing serious as the show being cancelled would have been truly awful for us!!!We went back to the casino and had a drink and then played the slot machines and I came out with a profit of..................2 cents!!!! Then it was time for THE CONCERT!!!
Walked into the theatre and had a moment of complete panic as they told us to go upstairs to the balcony!!!!! Luckily this was just the way in and we had to walk down some really steep steps to get to the front row! It got to 8.10 and there was no sign of David and we were starting to worry but then 2 people came on stage, one was the Chairman of the Casino and the other was Kim Seale from Jack FM the radio station that was promoting the show (she had sung on stage with David the last time he was in Vancouver). The guy explained that David was really poorly, that he'd only arrived that afternoon and had missed an interview and that he had had to cancel the M&G but that he was going to do the show! Huge cheers all round! He then said that there were 3 girls from the UK and 1 from Europe in the audience and asked where Wendy was because it was her 50th birthday!!!!!! I had to stand up and everyone clapped (so embarrassing) and he said 'look at her, she can't be that old'!!! (obviously not because I am still 49!!!!!). They left the stage, the band intro started, the lights dimmed, my friend and I ran to the stage............and EVERYONE else stayed in their seats!!!!!!!!!!!!Talk about feeling foolish!!!! We didn't know what to do and then Security made us go and sit down! Good job this was Canada and we were never going to see these people again!
David came out to huge cheers and he really did look rough! He had a sort of grey sheen to his face and looked very wobbly! He explained that he'd spent the previous day with his head down the toilet and had had an intravenous drip in - his journey had been a nightmare (wouldn't elaborate but we think he meant being sick) but that he was determined to do the show! He explained that he would probably be sitting down a lot more and that he was pumped full of drugs! And you could tell, he'd sort of drift off in the middle of a song and then pull himself up.................he said that one minute he felt 'like shit' and the next he was like 'hey, this is nice!!!' LOL He started singing and I have to admit that I was pretty amazed - he hit some incredible notes! In some ways it was one of the best shows I've been to because he wasn't 'being' David Cassidy he just 'was' David Cassidy, so he sang the songs just like they should be sung. Once he went really funny in the middle of a song and said that he felt like he was going to faint! He did most of the usuals and then that amazing 'Back in the USSR' which was just brilliant! Did his usual not really knowing the words but managed to carry it off - and so good to hear something new. He changed a lot of the words of the songs to make them more personal to this particular concert, like in 'Summer Days' when he sang 'Don't hold my hand..' and for "Echo Valley' he said that he wasn't feeling 'spry' enough to leap up and get someone's cell phone so we had to imagine that he was using one and also, just before Cherish (I think) he did his bit about what we all mean to him and then said 'and I know we have 3 girls from the UK and one from Europe here tonight as well'...................which we loved because we knew that he knew we were there (even if he didn't realise that the UK is in Europe too!).
Then he was off the stage and home - no encore.
So there you are - it was a different concert but like I said, in a way it really was one of the best ones. There were no handholds whatsoever. One lady got an original T shirt signed and then another, who was wearing a T shirt walked up to the stage and presented her chest for David to sign.........he didn't do it but it did make him laugh. People stood up very rarely and it was only at the end (ITILY) that we chanced the stage again and this time everyone followed and security gave up and let us stay there, but there was no hand slapping from David, he did walk up and down for that one but kept his distance - most of the rest of the show, as he'd said, was actually done with him sitting down. He had the usual band with him, except this time he had Ryan Bull on guitar. He was asked about Ruby & The Rockits and joked that we wanted to see him in spandex, but that wasn't going to happen tonight! There was no news on any future plans!
Set list (in no particular order and as far as I can remember)
I Can Feel Your Heartbeat
Crossroads
Point Me in the Direction of Albuquerque
Echo Valley
Summer Days
I'll Meet You Halfway (Remix)
Ricky's Tune
Cherish (Remix)
You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
Hush
Back In The USSR
I Woke Up In Love This Morning
Ain't No Sunshine
I Think I Love You
Editor: Thank you to Wendy for sharing her pictures and writing her review.
