Love Is All That I Ever Needed. Chapter 11. The First Concerts And The Operation..
David was worried, even scared before that first concert.
What was he going to sing was the
first question. Obviously The Partridge Family’s hits. Some songs he liked? Crosby, Still &
Nash and Buffalo Springfield?
He was so busy that he didn’t have time to think about his act.
What was his performance going to look like?
A lot of important people flew with David for his first concert. Ruth and Wes, the Bell Records’
executives. It didn’t help that the weather was awful. On March 25 and 26, 1971, that area
was hit by a powerful storm, and the flight was a nightmare. For a while, it was not certain
whether they would be able to land in Seattle at all.
We can only admire David Cassidy’s courage. All the attention of the audience focused only
on him. And what an audience. Thousands of screaming girls. One reporter wrote, ‘The
adulation would terrify most men.’
Before the concert, David was worried whether the kids would like him. They loved him from
the start, screaming and fainting before he even opened his mouth. The first song he ever performed live was ‘I Can Feel Your Heartbeat’.
The love and energy they shared at the Seattle concert was an unbelievable experience for
David and for his fans. It wasn’t important that he sang too fast, or his vocals or the band
couldn’t be heard.
‘I rushed through the show. Everything was going 150 miles an hour. I felt
overwhelmed by the strength of the reaction I was getting (..) The audience never stopped
screaming; I never stopped flying.(..) I gave everything I had.’
David was exhausted after the first gig, but he had to play the next day, on March 27, in the
Civic Auditorium in Portland. It was obvious to everybody that David was a great showman
and that hundreds of thousands would love to attend his concerts. There was only one
question: How long would he be able to work at such a pace?
The first signs appeared that his body had enough. One Sunday night after the concert (so
probably it was May 16), he woke up screaming because of horrible pain. He passed a
gallstone. The pain caused by gallstones are rapid, sudden, and hard to endure. David wrote
that he never felt such pain in his life. When an ambulance arrived, he got Demerol.
They put
him on a drastic diet. David already was skinny and after that diet, he got down to 112 pounds (51
kg).
One of the reasons David had problems with his gallbladder was stress, and inadequate diet,
and losing weight too quickly. He didn’t eat well, and was always in a hurry. Young people
normally don’t have gallstones. The doctors said David was one of the youngest patients they
had seen with such a problem.
David on a diet of toast and oatmeal worked harder than ever before and May of 1971 was
especially busy.
He played 3 concerts - May 14, 15, and 16. He recorded a new Partridge
Family’s album, ‘Sound Magazine’ on May 4,5,11, and 13. The production of the new season
of the show started.
Even some journalists noticed that he worked too much.
CashBox
published a pic showing David in the middle of the crowd at the Detroit’s airport and a note about a day of his 'frantic activity. (At the note the date is May 22, but David Cassidy played that concert on May 16, 1971) : ‘Before returning to California early the next morning,
Cassidy drew 17,000 fans to a concert at Edgewater Park, held a press conference and was
a guest of honor at a Bell Records’ cocktail party.’
Jack Willey saw David's concert in Dayton, Ohio (May 14) and later interviewed him. He wrote
a lot about David’s demanding schedule and his tiredness. ‘The 21-year-old star of television’s
Partridge Family relaxed in a pair of faded jeans, a denim shirt and no shoes. He looked ‘like
the picture of the collapse.’
That concert was only the third, and already the security was a
very serious problem. The kids bombarded the stage (and David) with personal notes,
masquotes, coins, pictures. About 50 police officers and ushers guarded the stage. Kim
Carnes and Dave Ellingson sang four songs. Later Brooke Hunnicut performed. At last the
audience saw David on stage, in a white laced-to-the navel jump suit made specially for him.
During 45 minutes he sang 11 songs.
“He danced from one side of the stage to the other and
the screaming, crying, yelling throng of teeny-boppers loved every second on it.’ The audience
loved David.
At the end of May the new album was ready, and David could play more concerts. 11 were
scheduled for June. He played 9.
One concert was at the town which became the most
important place on Earth for David Cassidy. The place he visited every summer for the rest of
his life. He is remembered there. Saratoga Springs, NY. He first performed at Saratoga
Performing Arts Center on June 27, 1971.
Robbie Bird wrote about the concert David played in Salt Lake City on June 12, in an article
called ‘David Cassidy Show Like a First Love Affair’. He wasn’t very impressed by the music
he heard, but was impressed by David. He wrote :’David Cassidy is a showman who knows
exactly how to please his audience (..) He made his audience happy and that’s what counted
at the Salt Palace Arena.”
David was a truly sensational live performer. For the first concert in March, he got $8000, and with each gig, it was
more - $10,000, $12,000, $15,000..He became, for a while, the best paid concert solo artist in
the word. Even $50,000 for bookings. Unbelievable money in the early 70s.
Some reviews appeared in the musical press too. In Billboard, Phil Burrell, who saw David’s
concert at Wildwood Convention Hall on July 10, wrote not only about screaming girls, but
also about the music, and he liked what he’d heard, ‘The evening highlight was the first public
performance of tunes from his new (untitled) album. Backed only by guitarist Steve Ross, he
accompanied himself on ‘Brown Eyes’, a sensitively delivered item with hit potential, and the
upbeat ‘Rainmaker”.
Just 2 days later after that concert, the news that David was rushed to hospital was on the
pages of all newspapers in the country. Everybody could see and read how extremely popular
David was and what hysteria surrounded him.
Already his fanclub was enormous, and he got
up to 25,000 fan mail a week. A real madness started when he had an operation. It was an
emergency, life-saving surgery. It started at 1:25 pm at Mt Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles.
David’s gallbladder was removed.
We know a lot of things about it. There was coverage of that event in many newspapers and
magazines. Interviews with family and doctors, nurses, and others. Fans besieged the
hospital, and although guards were everywhere, some fans managed to break through to
David. He received thousands of letters with best wishes for his recovery and huge amounts
of mascots. He wrote, ’For two weeks I was in the hospital, it was a circus. Fans, family, media,
me on Demerol. Flying. Just flying.’ Only two concerts were canceled, and the filming of Season 2 suspended.
Six weeks after the
operation he returned to work again.
David Cassidy ; ‘Could It Be Forever?’, 2007, p.114-115
David Cassidy ; ‘Could It Be Forever?’, 2007, p.150
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