David Cassidy on the Web
Fans Get A lose-up Of Cassidy
August 14, 2009
By: JAMES MCGINNIS
Bucks County Courier Times
www.phillyburbs.com
The ex-star of "The Partridge Family" preformed at the TD Bank Amphitheater.
Five hours before the show started, the women were already lining up.
When the gates finally opened at 5:30 p.m., some ran screaming across the grass of the TD Bank Amphitheater in Bensalem, hoping to get a front row seat.
At 59 years old, David Cassidy still has a way with the women of Bucks County - and others who traveled hundreds of miles to see him play here Friday night.
"Hello Pennsylvania!" the former teen idol and Partridge Family guitarist screamed, as hundreds of females of a certain age waved and jumped excitedly.
Four Bensalem patrol officers and a metal gate was all that stood between Cassidy and Annette Schimpf of Hamilton, N.J.
Schimpf, who has a four-foot poster of Cassidy on her office wall, said her goal for the evening was simple: "To see him as close-up as I can."
"This is close enough, I guess," she later said. Before her, Cassidy gyrated his hips, beat his chest and strummed a tomato red electric guitar.
Not far away, Maria Fioravanti of Falls Township was hoping to touch Cassidy one more time.
"He shook my hand," she said, relating an experience from 2008. "It was surreal."
Fioravanti clutched an old Cassidy album she hoped he would sign. "I play his albums at home all the time," she said. With a wry smile, she added: "My children have learned to accept it."
Among the approximately 2,000 concert-goers was Bristol Township's Mary Carmello who brought friends from New York state.
"I had a ticket to see him 37 years ago and my mother said 'no' because I was 10," Carmello said. "I remember I didn't talk to my mom for several weeks after that."
Janice Jedlinski of Bensalem said the concert was "a trip back in time." She remembered fondly her childhood dreams of being a member of the Partridge Family.
"It was the family that you wanted to have," Jedlinski said. "They traveled. At the end of every episode, they seemed to solve any problem with a song."
Marie Guglielmo of North Jersey also said she felt "as though I am 4 years old again, sitting in front of the television."
Like many concerts at the township-owned TD Bank Amphitheater, Cassidy's live show was free. On Aug. 26 at 7 p.m., the amphitheatre hosts "Beatlemania," a former Broadway show once advertised as "Not the Beatles, But an Incredible Simulation." The amphitheater is located at 2400 Byberry Road. For more information and a schedule of events, visit www.tdbaevents.com.
