News Articles - David's Australian Tour 2002
My View
By : Karen Milliner
My View, 10th November 2002
It was a night for the true believers. A night for women no longer in the flush of youth; those preoccupied with the daily grind and, perhaps, with the appearance of wrinkles and middle-aged spread.
It was a night to remember what it was like to be young again - young and silly - and to squeal and shriek every time the object of their pre-teen and teenage fantasies smiled or winked at them; to proffer flowers and cards as gifts; to press their heaving bosoms to the stage and thrust their arms forward in the hope of a fleeting caress of the hand.
The Partridge Family three decades ago got the chance to swoon over him all over again.
It wasn't a big crowd but what the almost entirely female audience for his concert at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre lacked in number, it more than made up for in volume. From the moment DC bounded on to the stage - no longer with those famous long, shaggy locks, but still thin-hipped with a come-hither grin - women leapt from their seats and dashed to the front to get close to him. They grabbed his legs and his thighs. "Don't hold me there baby," he cautioned. Someone brandished laces stolen from his shoes, which left DC so bemused he stopped the band in the middle of Cherish to share the news.
"We love you David!" the fans shrilled. "You've still got it!"
To which he replied. "Got what?"
Sex appeal, David baby. You might find it strange even un-nerving. You might be vertically challenged, and you'll never see 50 again. But to a generation of women, you'll always be the first boy we loved and wanted to marry.
That's what made the concert on Saturday night such a hoot. Friends had suggested that I pay personal homage by tossing knickers at the stage, but I'm far too inhibited for that. Besides, it's really a Tom Jones thing.
I confess I didn't even have the guts to join the melee at the front to grab DC's out-stretched hands. A voice in my head kept saying, "don't be so pathetic. Don't you realise how ridiculous you'd look?", because age has certainly been kinder to DC than to many of his groupies.
I contented myself with waving at him when he gazed or pointed in my general direction and singing along to all those old hits: I Think I Love You, Could It Be Forever and How Can I Be Sure?
For some of us it was the first time we had seen DC in concert. We were too young, or for other reasons not allowed to go, when he toured Australia in 1974. This time around the souvenir T-shirts read "David Cassidy Rocked My World".
So did he? In a way. His voice might not have the same sexy quality I remember and his interpretations of the songs are a little different, which is understandable given his maturity. But listening to DC brought back every bit of that first-love fantasy. If only he would just consider wearing a long, shaggy wig next time.
Thanks to Alan Jespersen for the scan of this news article.
