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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 "boom 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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