News Articles - David's Australian Tour 2002
Women wide-eyed with Wonder
By: Janet Fife-Yeomans
The Australian, 11th November 2002
picture : Matthew Vasilescu
It was like a night out with a few thousand girlfriends. We'd never met before but you wouldn't have guessed. All we had in common was the man in the black pants and satin shirt on stage - but we all had a lot of memories to thank him for.
At WIN Entertainment Centre in Wollongong, David Cassidy opened his first Australian tour in 28 years on Thursday night. Call me biased, but I had a ball.
I first saw Cassidy in concert a couple of times back at the height of all the Partridge Family-inspired madness in the early 1970s in England, then in 1985 on his British "comeback" tour. I saw him on Broadway in New York in 1994, in Willy Russell's biting play Blood Brothers, then went to Las Vegas to see him in the special effects extravaganza, EFX, at the MGM Grand.
I'd have no defence if he charged me with stalking.
But the most fun has been at his latest concerts, both in England earlier this year - where he hadn't played for 15 years - and at Wollongong. He seems to be at ease with himself and to have accepted the legacy of his teen idol image, playing the old Partridge Family songs that along with his own music provided the soundtrack to the youth of every woman in the audience. The average age must have been, oh, early fortyish.
He opened with The Partridge Family's I'll Meet You Halfway, included I Woke Up In Love This Morning, Summer Days, and went through the obligatory I Think I Love You, Cherish and Could it Be Forever.
It is only this year that he has included the haunting Tony Romeo-written Point Me in the Direction of Albuquerque from The Partridge Family Album in his set. It has always been one of my favourites.
He finished with a great version of Bob Seger's Hollywood Nights.
Age may have tempered that terrible heart-wrenching longing that we had for Cassidy as young girls, but not the wide-eyed wonder, which was still there on the faces of the women gazing up at the stage.
The sea of outstretched arms at the front of the stage was only slightly more sedate than 30 years ago but as well as wanting to shake his hand, this time the consensus was that we wanted to mess up that hair. All that hairspray is probably a legacy of his Las Vegas days.
Cassidy's other concerts around Australia will no doubt be just as much of a party night as Wollongong. I know there are groups of fans who are attending every concert.
But if you miss Wollongong and Newcastle, you will miss Sharron Bowman. More usually seen in piano bars, the western Sydney singer isn't opening at any other venues. She gauged the age of the audience well with her choice of ' 70s cover songs and had the aisles full of dancing.
And if you miss all the concerts, there's always the reruns of The Partridge Family on TV1.
The Downunder David Cassidy Fansite thanks Janet Fife-Yeomans for the priviledge of putting up this article.
