David Cassidy on the Web
David Cassidy finds fans in St. Charles
Friday July 6, 2007
800 come out to see TV star
BY Nancy Gier
www.dailyherald.com
They came from Evanston, from Oak Creek, Wis., from Waterloo, Iowa, and three generations came from St. Charles to see David Cassidy, who became famous as Keith Partridge, perform songs from his new CD Friday at the Arcada Theater in St. Charles.The audience of about 800, mostly women, stood up and clapped and shouted when Cassidy finally took the stage at 9:20 p.m., following an intermission after an hour of music by his opening band The Pond Hawks.
The average age of Friday's audience may have been around 45, but you didn't have to be alive during the 1970s to become a fan. It was during that decade that Cassidy, now 57, became a teen icon when he starred with his stepmother, Shirley Jones, on the Partridge Family TV show.
Maggie Rairdon, 25, of St. Charles, caught a rerun at age 11 and was hooked.
"She's been a fan ever since then," said her mother Kathi O'Brien, also of St. Charles. "Her room was a shrine to him. We went to Toronto to see him and happened to meet him there."
Rairdon, who was also with her grandmother, Donna Mauntel of St. Charles, was passing the Arcada when she saw Cassidy's name on the marquee and knew she had to get tickets.
Right: David Cassidy gets up close and personal with fans while he performs Friday at the Arcada in St. Charles. (Laura Stoecker/lstoecker@dailyherald.com)
Autumn Bonner, 41, and her sister Penny Postel, 35, made the five-hour drive from Waterloo to catch the concert.
"This is the 11th time I've seen him," said Bonner. "He takes you back in time and you can forget your troubles. He brings light into people's lives. He's an amazing person."
Although a fan, Bonner doesn't like his new CD "David Cassidy, Part II, The Remix," which offers a heavier rock sound than when he performed with his TV family.
Julie Goldstein, 43, made the trip from Evanston with her husband, Scott. She bought her tickets over a month ago.
"I was 6 or 7 when I watched the TV show," she recalled. "I loved the music. I would put on white go-go boots and pretend I was Shirley Jones."
Kris Weik, 52, of Oak Creek decided Friday morning she would make the trip to St. Charles to see Cassidy.
"He's talented and a great musician," Weik said. "I love his song, 'Lying to Myself' which is on an album he did in the 1980s."Looking much younger than 57 in a white shirt which was open to reveal quite a bit of skin, and black jeans, Cassidy played the electric guitar for his opening number, "I Thought I Heard Her Calling my Name."
He was accompanied by a four-piece band and proved to his audience he can still sing.
