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"I love to perform, life
on the road is a gruelling and rough thing for me."
Madonna, 1985.
Madonna kicked off her first major live
tour, the Virgin Tour, at the Seattle
Paramount Theatre in April 1985, delighting thousands
of fans in the US and Canada.
The tour climaxed with a sell-out performance at the Radio
City Hall in New York, where Madonna made history
selling 19.000 tickets in 35 minutes.
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Girls attended the concerts dressed up just like Madonna,
wearing dozens of bracelets, crosses and laces, creating
the "wannabe" phenomenon, while
parents and the "moral majority" started questioning
whether the show was too racy for teenagers.
Madonna commented saying: "I get
out there and work. My fans love it, and they come from
a wide range, and all kinds of backgrounds.If they're
happy, I'm happy, so much for all the goofs who wanna
decide if my show deserves an R or an X rating".
One of the parts of the show that were considered too
hot, was the spoken introduction to "Everybody".
Madonna used to bring a "broom box"
(big radio with built in speakers) on stage and then used
to say: "Every girl has a box, but my box is special.
Because mine makes music. But of course it has to be turned
on".
Some parts of the show were probably considered too hot
for home video at the time, as the "Everybody
intro" and songs such as Burning
Up, with a sexually charged Madonna
dancing all over the stage, are missing from the Warner
official video of the Detroit gig of
the tour.
Another two numbers missing from the home video are Borderline
and Angel.
Madonna noted that her Virgin show was
full of self irony:
"If you can't make jokes about yourself, then you're
not going to be happy. You'll be the saddest person that
ever lived. In my concerts there are so many moments when
I just stand there and laugh at myself".
For the show's ending, when "her father" comes
on stage and drags her away, Madonna
might have been inspired by an episode of her early life
in Michigan.
She once told a music magazine that she performed at the
St Andrew's local talent show arriving
on stage, wearing a bikini and covered from head to toe
with fluorescent green paint, looking pratically naked.
Her father was mortified and fuming and wanted to drag
her off stage.
She recalled for Rolling Stone: "I
was pratically naked, but the talent show was my one night
a year to show them who I really was and what I could
really be and I just wanted to do totally outrageous stuff".
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During the Detroit concert of the Virgin
Tour her real father, Silvio Ciccone, came
on stage and dragged her away while the pre-recorded dialogue
played at the end of "Material Girl"
went:
Father: Madonna, come down off that stage
this instant!
Madonna: Daddy is that you?
Father: Come down this instant young lady!
Madonna: But Daddy I'm having a good time!
Father: You heard what I said!
Madonna recorded a special spoken intro for the Vhs
release of the Virgin Tour.
The lines, were a short summary of her strugling days done
in a funny voice.
"I went to New York
I had a dream
I wanted to be a big star
I didn't know anybody
I wanted to dance
I wanted to sing
I wanted to do all those thing
I wanted to make people happy
I wanted to be famous
I wanted everybody to love me
I wanted to be a star
I worked really hard
And my dream came true"
Today, five of the song from the Virgin Tour setlist are
part of Madonna's new re-Invention tour.
She now entertains the audience with new live versions of
"Holiday", "Into The Groove",
"Burning Up", "Crazy For You"
and "Material Girl".
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Giving a look back at this tour's Memorabilia,
the most desirable item by fans today is by far the Tour
Programme.
Being the Virgin Tour a Us/Canada tour only, it
was hard at the time for fans from other parts of the
planet to get this mini book with rare official photos
from her first videos and beautiful images by Herb
Ritts.
Among the other merchandise that was snapped up by fans
at gigs there was a range of Boy Toy
items, from tank tops to belts and T-shirts.
A selection of rosary beads and crucifix earrings
was also available.
The Virgin Tour also sees the first appearance of "Madonna
Money".
Madonna throws to the audience this specially created
$100 bills from a nation called the "Altered
States Of Madonna" during Material Girl,
when she states that she needs love, not money, because
money "it's been nothing but trouble".
"Madonna Money" was later used during the 90's
as merchandise coupon at the official fan club's Boy
Toy catalogue.
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