Concert Reviews
The 2002 Australian Concert Tour
David Cassidy Live in Melbourne
November 11th 2002.
Vodafone Arena, Melbourne, Australia
By : Veronica Cronin
Hi all,
Sorry this has been a bit slow coming, I went to Melbourne with a niggly sore back, and the day after I got home I put it out completely--therefore was not able to sit for more than about 5 minutes at a time. Then the computer got sick (motherboard died) and I've only just got it back.
Well, where do I start. I was due to arrive in Melbourne 5 minutes after Jade, so when my flight was delayed 20 minutes I thought she would be waiting there for me with Sue. Alas Jade's flight was delayed an hour! While waiting for her Sue and I decided that if Jade didn't mind, we would go straight to the Hard Rock where a group of about 20 were waiting for us. That was a great evening, meeting others as obsessed--or even more so--about David as I am. Some were really surprised that Jade and I had flown over from NZ. People started drifting off about 9pm, and after buying the mandatory Hard Rock t-shirt (and got told off by hubby when I got home for not getting him one too) Sue and I dropped Jade and Denise at their hotel on our way home.
Monday morning we went into Jim's to have a look at his collection; Jade, Denise, Glad and Gail were already there. What an amazing amount of stuff Jim has; it would take all day to look through all his scrap books and photo albums. His mother put on a beautiful lunch for us, and after lunch we watched some video clips. Again it would take a whole day to see all that Jim has. We headed home about 3pm to start getting ready for our BIG NIGHT!
Sue and I went back to Jim's, where we met about 16 others and car-pooled into the show. After going through the turnstile to get into the arena, we milled around waiting for some of the others to arrive. Sue and I both bought a t-shirt and programme; the only other thing on sale was the CD, which we both already have. About 5 to 8 we made our way inside and found our seats. Sue and I were in the centre of the second row, right behind Jim and Phil.
The opening act was twin sisters who I thought were really great. Very powerful voices and obviously enjoying themselves. Apparently it was the biggest audience they have ever played before.
During the interval people from the back started moving forwards to the stage, but were sent back by the security staff. We were told they had to keep the area clear during the interval, but once the lights went out they would be staying well out of the way.
Well, when the lights went out it must have looked like a strange form of Mexican wave from up the back. Everybody in the front row got up as one and rushed for the stage; and all of us in the second row were straight over the seats after them. The band came out and it seemed like the intro went on for ages before David appeared. Then he was there; and straight into singing I Can Fell Your Heartbeat. By the end of the song there were so many people up at the stage that those of us in the front couldn't have got out if we wanted to.
Set list (not necessarily in this order--the mind went a bit hazy LOL)
I Can Feel Your Heartbeat
Hush
No Bridge I Wouldn't Cross
Do You Believe In Magic (when David announced this song he said it was on his latest CD, so is possibly not aware that it is the UK version released over here)
Ricky's Tune
Rock Me Baby
Ain't NO Sunshine
Point Me in the Direction of Albuquerque
Last Kiss
I Saw Her Standing There
Summer Days
I Woke Up In Love
I'll Meet You halfway
Cherish
Could It Be Forever
I Think I Love You
Encore;
How Can I Be Sure
Hollywood Nights
David chatted away quite a bit, and also ran up and down the stage as he sang touching outstretched hands. Unfortunately he didn't spend a lot of time in the middle where we were, but I did get to touch him once. There wasn't a lot of room between the speakers, and there was also a silly female right next to me who kept touching his foot then screaming (and I mean SCREAMING) I touched him I touched him I touched him. I think David got a bit sick of her too, as at one stage, he said--that's my shoe, it's only a piece of leather.
A lot of people waved banners and brought along scrap books; he looked at quite a few, and commented on some of the pictures. There was one of him in the shower that showed his gall bladder scar, and he said he couldn't believe he ever let them take that photo. He took it back to show Lisa and Candace.
A bit of underwear was thrown up, and he commented on some of it, especially the very brief g-string. I didn't hear exactly what he said but it was something like do you actually wear these. A pair of men's underpants were thrown up and he just picked them up and shook his head. Screaming Millie beside me took off her knee-hi stockings and threw them up but David didn't seem to know what they were. Denise managed to give him a small bear with Rockstar written on it, and I threw up a baseball cap with Cambridge NZ on it--I figured he needed to know that there were NZers there too. He wore it through the encore, then threw it out into the audience, which upset me a bit, but then I thought, oh well, whoever caught it has a NZ cap as a souvenir of a David Cassidy show.
All too soon it was over and David was gone. I was about to try and grab the set list from the speaker, but Jane you beat me to it. None of us wanted to leave and we stood around talking until the security staff came along and asked us to leave as they wanted to start taking the lights down and dismantling the stage. Lisa stayed on stage a while and chatted to quite a few people.
Sue and I finally got back to her place about midnight, but lay in bed talking for ages. I didn't think I would sleep very well, I was so high, but I did. Sue and I had a quiet day the next day and Sue took me into the airport about 4.30. My flight left on time just after 7, and with the change in time zone I landed back in NZ at 20 to 1 in the morning. Bought Bill a bottle of Baileys at the duty free, and got home just on 2am. Then Bill wanted me to tell him all about it, so the light finally went out at 3 and I was up again at 6 to work the horses. I thought I'd be really tired but wasn't, I guess the adrenalin was still flowing.
It was the most amazing experience of my life, and I would do it all again like a shot. I hope everyone is having a wonderful time at all the other shows.
Roni
New Zealand
