Concert Reviews
The 2002 Australian Concert Tour
David Cassidy Live in Wollongong
November 7th 2002.
Wollongong Entertainment Centre, Australia
By : Kim
Firstly, apologies for the lateness of the hour posting this. The concert didn't finish until well after ten, then Loretta and I had a bit of a debrief before the hour long drive home.
Wow! Where to begin? The boring stuff first. I was late leaving work and racing for Wollongong, worried that Loretta was going to be left waiting for me. I'd just made it to the freeway and was calculating how long it would take me to get there when my mobile rings and it's Loretta. "Are you there yet" she asks. I confess that I've just passed Sutherland and she tells me she's also late and it turns out she's actually ten minutes behind me. Phew!
I get to Wollongong. Lovely city, but God I hate it when the street signs pointing you in the direction of somewhere run out. I found the Entertainment Centre more by good luck than anything, but poor Loretta was not so lucky, despite me calling her with easy (I thought) directions. But she got lost and had to backtrack. While I waited I "cased" the joint, found somewhere for us to eat and more importantly, where stage door was located.
Loretta arrived and we had champagne - we toasted you all, so that took two glasses of champagne each - the things we do for you all! and we ate, although I have to confess to being almost too excited to eat. Then it was time to go inside and find our seats. Loretta was sitting in the stalls in front of the stage, several rows back, I had a seat front row of one of the side bleachers, behind a low barrier but near the stage with a good view. However I quickly decided that I probably wasn't going to make much use of the seat, I was going to be up dancing and hopefully get near the stage
The auditorium was small but nowhere near full and after the warm up act had finished there was the interval, so I slid under the barrier and went over to talk to Loretta. We sat in some empty seats and waited, thinking we'd definitely go up to the stage.
The lights went down, quite a few determined ladies jockeyed for position in front of the stage, Loretta and I wound up front centre - right in front of the microphone! Despite the relatively small crowd, there was screaming, cheering, clapping and general mayhem when David appeared. He was divine! Just gorgeous, and full of energy. He looked really pleased to be there and the audience responded well to him. He didn't mind photos being taken, and strangely enough neither did the Ent-cent security, so long as it wasn't video (Loretta was told). I don't know if this will be the case in other venues, but it might be worth it to try. I took lots of pictures with my digital camera (without flash) and some turned out okay. Most are really blurry, because, boy, does David move fast on stage!
David sang a lot of old favourites and also a lot of newer material. He seemed to be having a ball, and didn't even lose his cool when his guitar quit working. I stayed near the stage all the way through, close enough that I got sweat sprayed on me! David encouraged us all to sing and dance and clap. No-one fainted to my knowledge! He let some of the women touch his shoe, but stayed far enough back that no-one could pull on him. Then he went along the stage touching hands with anyone he could reach. He did this a lot, only stopping when a couple of girls tried to tug on his hand. I got touched twice! He made eye contact a lot with those close enough for him to really see, and he winked at me once, too.
All too soon it came to an end, but he did come back and do an encore - after leaving us to chant "DA-VID" "DA-VID" and "WE WANT MORE" for about five minutes! We stopped and bought a program, then went around to stage door, but David had come straight off stage and off in the limousine even before the house lights came up. He was being driven straight back to Sydney. So, a cold drink and a few minutes to come back to earth, then Loretta followed me out of Wollongong and the trip home.
Best wishes to all those going to the other concerts!
Kim
Note : this report was shared by Kim on the DCOZ Group.
Please do not use any of the images here without prior permission from Kim. Thank you for respecting this request.
