David Cassidy in the News
A Partridge in a rare treat
February 2005
By Alan Poole
There have been many teen idols over the years, from Ricky Nelson to McFly, but precious few have made it as big as David Cassidy.
At his peak he boasted more fan-club members than the Beatles and Elvis Presley combined and the millions of singles and albums that he sold were almost a sideline to an all-embracing merchandise machine of Beckhamesque proportions.
It’s more than 30 years since he walked away from that phase of his career and established himself as an across-the-board entertainer, triumphing in the West End and on Broadway and smashing records in Las Vegas.
But this summer he returns to Britain in a show that will rekindle those pre-reality TV days when his Partridge Family character was transformed into a genuine world superstar.
Cassidy tops the bill in the Once in a Lifetime arena tour that takes in Birmingham’s NEC on Friday, June 24 and also features David Essex, The Osmonds (minus Donny) and The Bay City Rollers (the Les McKeown version). And he is relishing the opportunity to perform for those long grown-up teenyboppers that made him an even bigger draw over here than back home.
“It’s very exciting for me,” he explains, “and I think it will be very nostalgic for the audience because for the majority of my UK fans their relationship with me is primarily from the 70s.
“I spend most of my time working in the States - I’ve played more than 2,000 shows in Las Vegas - and when I came over in 2001 it was the first time I’d toured Britain in 17 years. They turned out in their thousands which was amazing for me; it was a wonderful outpouring of support and my tour last spring was like a love letter to those fans, my way of saying thank you.
“This time it will be different because I’ve never performed in a live show with other artists but we’re all from the same era, from the same genre originally, so that should be interesting.
“I don’t know David Essex but our careers have had a lot of parallels and I have great respect for his work. I met Alan Osmond when he came backstage at one of my Las Vegas shows and he’s a lovely guy.”
David counts Donny Osmond as a friend and admires the way that he, too, handled the pressures of fame - unlike their regular chart rival in the early ’70s, Michael Jackson.
“That’s become a freak show, a very sad thing," he reflects, "and I could very well have ended up like that if I had tried to become the eternal teenager.
"For five years I devoted everything to the business of being David Cassidy and I had no life outside that. When you can't walk down the street, can't go to a restaurant, when you're locked in a hotel room with just your security guards for company, you've got no chance to develop real relationships.
"I got up at 6am in the morning, went to work until 7pm at night and then drove over to the recording studio to work on Partridge Family albums, or David Cassidy albums.
"Every lunchtime I'd have photo sessions and interviews and then at the weekend I'd do four shows, travelling all over the States. And during breaks from the TV series I'd be touring the rest of the world. I was making a lot of money, but emotionally I was stunted.
"The fact that I left it, walked away from it at the top, is the reason that I have gone on to have a successful career, a different career.
I didn't end up becoming a sad has-been like so many others because I wasn't trying to stay a pop star."
The hysteria generated among his fans during that period was, he admits, one of the reasons he decided to move on.
"I've never had plastic surgery because getting older has never bothered me - the only time it's a little annoying is when they write something about me and insist on using a picture of me when I was 19 next to a photograph of me as I am now..." l Tickets for the NEC Arena show on Friday, June 24, are £36.50 from www.necgroup.co.uk or the box office on 0870 730 0145.
