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Concert Reviews - Pre Confessions Tour
Topic Started: Jun 5 2006, 09:12 PM (3,007 Views)
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Rock Star From Mars

Yes, this does mention the Confessions Tour, but I intend for this thread to mostly focus on tours before the Confessions one. :)

Confessions Time
  • By Chris Hansen Orf, Jess Harter and Sam Mittelsteadt
    June 4, 2006

    21 years and six tours later, Madonna — always reinventing herself musically and stylistically — finally returns to the Valley this weekend

    THE VIRGIN TOUR (1985)

    Shows: 40 (all in North America, including April 30 show at ASU Activity Center)

    Opening act: The Beastie Boys

    Memorable for: Critics’ harsh reviews. Robert Palmer of The New York Times remarked that Madonna “simply didn’t sing very well,” and Billboard’s Paul Grein declared, “Madonna will be out of business in six months.”

    Music Critique: Still very much in her Material Girl mode, Madonna was at the height of her early popularity on this tour, when her hits were ubiquitous on pop radio. Still, she looked like a passing fad — Cyndi Lauper was big around this time, too.

    Style Critique: Sure, it looks a bit ridiculous 20 years later, but back then, Madonna wannabes everywhere were mimicking the haphazard multilayered look of a Michigan-born New York art school girl, immortalized in “Desperately Seeking Susan.” Lots of lace, lots of eye makeup, lots of flesh . . . and lots of imitators.

    WHO’S THAT GIRL TOUR (1987)

    Shows: 41 North (five in Japan, 21 in America, 15 in Europe)

    Memorable for: The largest and highest-grossing musical concert tour ever at the time, approximately $20 million.

    Music critique: Hardly anybody remembers the film “Who’s That Girl,” a Madonna vehicle that proved that while she could carry a tune, her dialogue was more wooden than Pinocchio. The title track from the film was a decent pop song, and Madonna stirred up controversy with the pro-life “Papa Don’t Preach,” displaying a deeper lyrical quality than her first few records.

    Style critique: What in looked great Herb Ritts press photographs didn’t work so well in a world without airbrush action: Madonna’s crispy-platinum hair, oversize dark brows, vermilion lips and exaggerated mole turned her into a live-action peroxided Betty Boop.

    It was the first look at a newly toned Madonna, though — her bodysuits (including the gold-nippled black velvet corset from the “Open Your Heart” video) and figure-hugging outfits hinted at the physicality to come in later tours.

    BLOND AMBITION TOUR (1990)

    Shows 57 (nine in Japan, 31 in North America, 17 in Europe)

    Opening act: Technotronic

    Memorable for: Featuring five a religious-themed set of songs in which Madonna shocked the world with her simulated masturbation on a crimson-sheathed bed during “Like a Virgin.”

    Music Critique: This tour was launched following Madonna’s best disc up to this point, “Like a Prayer” (1989), on which she stirred up more controversy with the video for the title cut, got a funky groove on with the smash “Express Yourself” and got deeper lyrically with “Oh Father.” This disc showed Madonna was not going to be a flash in the pan.

    Style Critique: Intimidating femininity. The Jean Paul Gaultier pointy-bra bodysuit turned what should have been curves into aggressively sharp points, and let the singer flaunt her impressive lats and biceps. Hair morphed from a high, tight “I Dream of Jeannie” ponytail fall to a a Shirley-Temple-style moptop of platinum curls.

    THE GIRLIE SHOW (1993)

    Shows: 38 (five in Europe, two in Middle East, seven in North America, eight in South America, eight in Australia, eight in Japan)

    Opening acts: UNV (some U.S. shows), Yonca Evcimik and Kenan Dogulu (Istanbul), Peter Andre (Australia)

    Memorable for: In Puerto Rico, Madonna caused an uproar by rubbing the Puerto Rican flag between her legs onstage. Politicians in Germany Israel boycotts called for because of onstage nudity and pornographic content.

    Music Critique: After a releasing the lackluster disc “Erotica” in 1992, Madonna hit the road with a racy stage show to coincide with the album’s title cut. Madonna performs newer hits such as “Deeper and Deeper” and “Erotica,” but still brings out the older hits.

    Style Critique: Sexual but unfocused. Bejeweled bra tops and hot pants, with Mia Farrow-style hair; the “Boogie Knights”-style exaggerated disco, including oversize Afro (from the “Deeper and Deeper” video); Dietrich-style dominatrix.

    DROWNED WORLD TOUR (2001)

    Shows: 46 (19 in Europe, 27 in U.S.)

    Memorable for: After Sept. 11, Madonna wore an American flag kilt during the opening segment as a show of patriotism. She also surprised many of her fans and critics by proving herself a talented guitarist while singing live.

    Music Critique: Now in her 40s and without an ounce of her baby fat remaining, Madonna is a house music dance diva with pulsating tunes like “Ray of Light” and “Music,” making full use of synthesizers and sequencers, but the catchy pop melodies are still there.

    Style Critique: Probably best remembered for the opening-set reconstructed designer punk, with plaid kilts, dog collars and artfully ripped net sleeves. Other costumes included the designer-cowboy look popularized on the “Music” CD cover and in the “Don’t Tell Me” video, and for the ending, the ghetto-fabulous white coat and hat from the “Music” video.

    THE RE-INVENTION TOUR (2004)

    Shows: 56 (39 in North America, 17 in Europe)

    Memorable for: Madonna reportedly refused to perform any song that contained the word “goodbye” to dispel rumors this was a farewell tour. She also did not play any Friday gigs because the teachings of the kabbalah forbid it. At least one song from every Madonna album was in the set list.

    Music Critique: With a two-decade career and countless smash singles behind her, Madonna has a back catalog that any touring artist would envy, but the disc that launched this tour, “American Life” (2003), is the most critically panned album of her long career.

    Style Critique: True clothing to the tour name, the updated classic looks seen in years past: In promotional photos she wore a powdered wig and outfit designed to evoke Marie Antoinette-style gown worn during her live performance of “Vogue” at the 1990 MTV Music Awards, and stage costumes included an ornate corset-style top and hot pants that still allowed her to perform yoga poses.

    CONFESSIONS TOUR (2006)

    Shows: 52 (34 in North America, 18 in Europe)

    Memorable for: Madonna dons a thorny crown, takes a Christlike position on a huge cross and sings “Live to Tell.”

    Music critique: “Lucky Star” and “Like a Virgin” are the only tunes Madonna hauls out from her early work, with the set concentrating on her new dance diva show.

    Style critique: Sure , there’s the mandatory omnipresent purple leotard, with knee-length tights and heels, but perhaps in a nod to her horseback riding accident, her most memorable outfit — well, except the crown of thorns — evokes a not-so-proper English country gentlewoman: Riding hat and boots, velvet breeches and flouncy black blouse with spider-web-lace sleeves. (And thankfully, no sign of those flipped bangs, a la Valerie Cherish.)

    MADONNA
    When: 8 p.m. Thursday and Saturday
    Where: Arena, 9400 W. Maryland Ave.
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The original review is filled with question marks where quotes should be. I have attempted to replace some of the question marks.

I posted this at the old board, and at one time it was on the anti-Manny site. I want to re-post it for posterity's sake. I've highlighted the negative parts (well, the one about her show not being sold out, at least)

Madonna: Ciao Italia: Live From Italy (1988)
  • Reviewed by Colin Jacobson

    In honor of her current 'Drowned World' tour - her first concert trek since 1993 - I figured it was time to formally cover another Madonna show, one that took place in 1987. I'd already reviewed the only additional Madonna live footage found on DVD.

    1991's Truth or Dare is mainly a behind the scenes documentary, but it includes some performances from her 1990 'Blonde Ambition' tour, while 1994's The Girlie Show Live Down Under provides a full example of her 1993 concert.

    From 1988, Ciao Italia - Live From Italy offers another complete show, this one from her 1987 'Who's That Girl' outing.

    This was only Madonna�s second trek, as it followed her initial appearances in 1985 via the 'Virgin' tour, and it was her first actual world tour; the 'Virgin' shows took place only in the US.

    Though she was already a big star in mid-1985, by 1987 she'd solidified her hold on the public, and the scale of the 'Girl' show demonstrated that point. In 1985, she played at arenas and amphitheaters, but by 1987, Madonna graduated to stadiums.

    Actually, that commencement may have been a little premature. While shows sold well, Madonna lacked the power to fill all of the seats at all of the shows, and some concerts - such as the Washington DC performance I attended - featured quite a few empty stools.

    This was Madonna's first and last stadium-exclusive tour; as documented during the Girlie Show DVD, she would indeed continue to play some huge venues overseas - at least until the 'Drowned World' tour, which offers only indoor shows - but she hasn't performed at a US stadium since 1987.


    1987 also marked the last appearance of the semi-innocent Madonna.

    While this may sound like an odd statement considering the fact that her material and persona always displayed a rather sexual tone, if you compare Italia with any of her later performances, you'll see a distinct difference in her attitudes.

    In her earlier shows, Madonna came across more as a kid who wants to put on a big show and make everybody happy.

    The Madonna of 1990 and later seems much more self-assured and in touch with herself, and the concerts benefit from this. I won't say that she lacked confidence during the 'Virgin' and 'Girl' tours, but the Madonna of 'Ambition', 'Girlie' and 'Drowned' looks like a very different person; more-modern Madonna shows the strength, self-control and composure the earlier version wishes she could display.

    This doesn't mean that Italia doesn't offer an entertaining performance; for what it is, the show actually seems quite lively and fun. However, it clearly doesn't compare with later tours, and it suffers a bit from excessive ambition.

    'Virgin' was a fairly low-key affair in regard to staging. It offered a simple set and only a couple of costume changes. By contrast, 'Girl' blew up the stage to stadium proportions, and Madonna tried desperately to take advantage of that space. She's do so much more effectively with the stunning sets of 'Ambition' and 'Girlie', but during 'Girl', the stage looked more like a busy place with little meaning.

    One constant for all Madonna tours regarded her on-stage accompaniment. From the very start, she added male dancers, and 'Girl' expanded this roster past the two minor players seen during 'Virgin'.

    The number only increased by one, but the performers were more notable, at least at the time. 'Girl' featured then-famous breakdancer Shabba-Doo, and it also included Angel Ferreira, the boy who appeared in Madonna's 'Open Your Heart' video.

    Though their work seems terribly dated by modern standards, those two plus Chris Finch added a dimensionality lacking from the generic 'Virgin' dancers, though I honestly could have lived without them as part of the show.

    All told, �Girl� was a much slicker performance. 'Virgin' functioned as a fairly standard rock show that offered a few theatrical moments, but �Girl� worked from a grand scale throughout its run.

    Happily, it also marked the first collaboration between Madonna and backup singers Donna DeLory and Niki Haris; those two didn�t appear during the �Virgin� tour, but they've been a mainstay of every tour since then, and they add immeasurably to the experience.

    Donna and Niki stayed in the background for much of �Girl� - indeed, they worked with a third singer, Debra Parsons, who wouldn't show up during subsequent shows - but for �Ambition� and the concerts since that time, they've become an active and effective component of Madonna�s troupe.

    They contribute a personal interaction with Madonna that her revolving roster of dancers can't match. I�d still see Madonna without Niki and Donna, but the experience wouldn't be the same.

    Perhaps the biggest problem with 'Girl' stems from the fairly generic nature of the performance. As much as Madonna tried to spice up the show with theatrics, it all seems the same for the most part.

    I've watched the show at least 20 times over the last 14 years, but I have great trouble conjuring any particularly memorable images from it.


    I liked the gloomy transition between 'True Blue' and 'Papa Don�t Preach', and the latter remains the show's high point, but very few indelible impressions otherwise stemmed from the performance.

    For all of its dazzle, the visual look stayed pretty similar throughout, and it did little to make many of the tunes stand out from the rest.

    To be certain, that wouldn't be a problem during later shows; name any of those songs and immediately I can recollect the performance. Still, even though �Girl� could be a somewhat lackluster show at times, it still remained consistently entertaining.

    The should didn't deliver the grit and personality of later Madonna, but it seemed rather charming to watch her in her younger days when she still had to work hard to satisfy a crowd.

    Personally, I prefer attitude-laden Madonna to this more chipper and eager-to-please version; the wicked tone suits her better. Nonetheless, it was fun to see the earlier edition, and that one still put on an entertaining and lively show.

    Possibly the biggest problem with Italia regarded the sloppy manner in which the program was assembled.

    I can't recall if Italia appeared as a TV special that aired live or if it was taped and edited specifically for future broadcast screenings, but it certainly looked like something that was created on the fly.

    Sloppy camerawork and editing abound, as those two factors don't flow together terribly well. It felt as though they tried their best to get appropriate material at the time but that they failed to massage it after the fact.

    As such, Ciao Italia will always be a reasonably entertaining artifact of Madonna's earlier days, but it remains too messy a program to be a classic. The show itself doesn't compare with her three subsequent tours, though it offers some fun on its own.

    Essentially this is a decent remnant of a less mature Madonna, and it probably will be of most value to her biggest fans or those who primarily feel interested in her older material. ....
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Immaterial Girl - from Orlando Weekly - review of Drowned World Tour
  • 8/30/2001
    By Billy Manes

    "Wow, Madonna's a Rock Star!" grumbles a friend to my right, with only an applique of irony. She's playing a guitar these days, you know.

    We're once again traveling the distance from anticipation to realization with our favorite heroine of image control, Miss M, as she racks up high-ticket ratings with the Sunday night HBO simulcast of her all-the-rage Drowned World tour.

    Most of us are not new to the controversy here. High ticket prices in smaller venues meant that virtually nobody you know -- except the gayest of gay, really -- obtained tickets, and must now be forced to gather in far more random (even smaller) venues for the consolation prize of televised Material vainglory. After all, we couldn't not watch.

    .... "My substitute for love ...," coos our princess in bondage-pants as she [Madonna] opens the set, and already the cat calls have deepened into doe eyes. Seems Madonna's acquired a big strum Bowie face in her 40s, and she's working a somber pout to its glam rock apex. But as with most things Madonna, the substance isn't there. Merely the substitute.

    .... Now, thanks to HBO, I couldn't be any closer to Madonna, practically climbing up her schoolgirl skirt for a glimpse into her true artistry. Only, there isn't any self here to find. Just a void of shock graphics and Seigfried and Roy bombast laced together by latter-era Madonna drivel.

    She's not even being nice about it. Following her recent hit Don't Tell Me, in which she assumes some sort of "Urban Cowboy" line-dance tribute, Madonna assumed yet another accent (the first since her half-there British snootery). This time it's a redneck drawl -- to goad her hometown crowd.

    "Y'all don't think I forget where I'm from, now, do ya?"

    Except the southern drawl doesn't really travel to Michigan, does it dear? Whatever. "Don't tell me to stop," and so on. Stop!

    She doesn't. For a good half-hour, Madonna pops around the stage in her "Memoirs of a Geisha" garb, slapping around her wacked out dance troupe and promoting Japaname rape scenes behind her. It's all standard shock fare by now, but just the same ... Why are we watching?

    "I love her," offers one girl toy.

    "I hate her," offers another.

    I don't really care, I grimace.

    Neither does she. Her previously controversial interracial paean, Secret, is dramatically backed by images of the distended bellies of famine. My baby's got a secret? My baby's got malaria.
This was on a site that gives financial advice to homosexuals, and it's discussing the Reinvention Tour. -
Immaterial Girl - from Pink Finance
  • July 21, 2006
    Do you believe in the power of Madonna? Judging by the lukewarm response to her last album, ‘American Life’, the general public isn’t quite as bewitched by the Ambitious Blonde as it once was.

    Still, that’s what fags are for. Tickets for her London shows sold out in minutes, and you can bet your bottom dollar that a large portion of the audience will be gay boys in cowboy hats, happy to cough up £150 for the privilege of seeing ‘Our Glorious Leader’ perform some of her greatest hits in the flesh.

    .... She’s called it ‘The Reinvention Tour’, and early reports suggest that it’s a bit of a production number. According to a mysterious unidentified source (let’s take a wild guess and assume it’s someone on her payroll), the show ‘will make people’s hair stand on end.

    Madonna has pulled out all the stops to make it her most controversial yet. The concerts are going to cause a stir on the same level as her “Sex” book and “Erotica” album’.

    Personally, I doubt very much if anyone is going to be seriously shocked by Madonna’s latest stage antics. We’ve already seen her flashing her tits, trussed up in bondage gear, masturbating to the tune of ‘Like A Virgin’ and snogging Britney Spears.

    Short of showing us the internal workings of her vagina, there’s really nowhere left for her to go.

    The only truly shocking thing Madonna has done in recent years is publish a series of children’s storybooks, and they weren’t particularly shocking, just shockingly bad. She also changed her name to Esther, but again that wasn’t really shocking, just silly.

    No, the really shocking thing about ‘The Reinvention Tour’ is the price of the tickets. The last time Madonna performed in London, as part of her ‘Drowned World Tour’, tickets weren’t particularly cheap.

    At the time, most people assumed that it was probably the last tour she’d do. She wasn’t getting any younger, and marriage to Guy Ritchie seemed to bring new priorities like bringing up babies and killing his film career stone dead with the steaming pile of pig sh** that was ‘Swept Away’.

    Even so, £85 for a ticket seemed a bit steep.

    .... It’s only been a few years, but blow me if Madge isn’t already ‘Doing A Barbra’. £150 for a ticket is pretty outrageous; especially when you consider that a fair portion of her audience already has expensive drug habits to feed.

    The lifestyle of the urban homosexual doesn’t come cheap, and if there’s one thing a Glorious Leader ought to remember it’s to spare a thought for the people who helped put her where she is today. After ‘Evita’ you’d think Madonna would know a thing or two about these things.
Immaterial Girl - from New York Metro, Review of Drowned World Tour
  • Madonna's tours have always had a method to their madcap spectacle, but "Drowned World" makes the singer seem smaller than life.
    By Ethan Brown

    .... Yet if that was Madonna's nod to punk rock's antipathy toward the audience -- complete with a bondage outfit and a T-shirt that read mother on the front and f***er on the back -- limp ballads like "I Deserve It" and "Nobody's Perfect" didn't live up to her attitude.

    And that was only the first of four sections, dubbed "Rock 'n' Roll Punk Girl," "Geisha Girl," "Cyber Cowgirl," and "Spanish Girl/ Ghetto Girl."

    All aimed for highbrow abstraction with obtuse choreography but conveyed their sources (in order, Vivienne Westwood, Ang Lee, J. G. Ballard by way of Dolly Parton, and a flamenco-crazy Jennifer Lopez) without much reinterpretation.

    And the cowgirl skit soured into contempt with "The Funny Song," a Hee Haw-crude country-and-western send-up about domestic violence.

    .... Madonna is a frustratingly small stage presence, too, mostly standing motionless or strumming rudimentary chords on an acoustic guitar; she was overshadowed by acrobatic dancers and clips from her own videos.

    The music was equally airless, a shock given that the show's musical director is Stuart Price, a British electronica wunderkind known for upending dance-music conventions.
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Madonna's Mixed Reception
  • ... but sales for other [Who's That Girl] shows have been slower, including a July 11 show at Philadelphia's 90,000-seat Veterans Stadium, a July 18 show at California's Anaheim Stadium and a June 27 show at Miami's Orange Bowl.

    Author: By Richard Harrington Washington Post Staff Writer
    Date: Jun 10, 1987
Notice that this Who's That Girl performance was not sold out:
Madonna's Star Turn at RFK
  • The Washington Post (pre-1997 Fulltext) - Washington, D.C.
    Author: Richard Harrington
    Date: Jul 3, 1987
    Start Page: b.01
    Section: STYLE
    Text Word Count: 950

    That was the tour that proved [Madonna]'s pop tart image was media hype, not career definition.

    This tour, dubbed "Who's That Girl" after an upcoming movie, may on occasion disappoint at the box office- and it probably would have played better to a full house at the Capital Centre or Merriweather Post Pavilion.

    But to her credit, Madonna performed last night as if the house were full
    , and the show is splendid pop theater. Madonna has described it as "Broadway in a stadium," and with her nonstop dancing, costume changes, mini-dramas and dynamic pacing, it is sort of a "Liza With an M."
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From the May 27th, 2004 issue of Popbitch, about the Reinvention Tour:

Quote:
 
>> Pass the sick bucket <<
Will the real Madonna please stand up?

Madonna has spent the last two decades interweaving high fashion with live shows, pushing the limits of sexual expression and challenging political and religious prejudices. So what the hell has happened on this tour?

Not only were all VIP guests at the first night given caps to wear saying, "Madonna is my Homegirl" but the highlight of the show was a cover of Imagine, accompanied by cringeworthy video of poor and starving children.

So far the tour has only lasted one day, as the second show was cancelled, due to the star's "stomach bug". Maybe Madonna made herself sick.

(FYI: Be thankful for small mercies, Madonna had been planning on incorporating her poetry into the show too.)
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Madonna's debut concert tour started here

Here's the part I found interesting:
  • "Dressed in what looked like a Boy George outfit, she looked reluctant, almost scared, and kept her eyes on the ground as she and her small entourage swept past a modest gathering of fans," Stout wrote.
So, she came off as a Boy George clone or rip off (not as an original), and this says she appeared to be scared. (We've heard for years that she's this very brave person who doesn't take nothing off nobody.)

Here's the PDF version of the Man-donna tour review (for the "Virgin Tour"). The review is dated April 11, 1985.

Here are some more interesting comments from the review by John Marshall

(This review is from a scan of a news paper article, and as such, it has creases, smudges, and wrinkles, which means I cannot make out all the text):
  • Madonna's own entrance proved to be far less ceremonial. She, too, arrived, by black Cadillac limo, but was bustled into the stage surrounded by burly security men. Madonna walked grimly in, as if she was on her way to an IRS audit, and she did not look up or otherwise acknowledge the small crowd of fans gathered on the sidewalk.

    This snooty star left 21 year old John Mosher of Seattle surprised and disappointed. He walked off slowly, still carrying the daffodil bouquet he had brought for rock star love.

    Madonna was suffering from a case of pre-concert jitters and admitted as much from the stage after her show had warmed to its hurricane pace.

    Madonna may seem to be everywhere these April days. Madonna is on the cover of "People." Madonna is featured in the hit movie "Desperately Seeking Susan." Madonna has turned Music Television (MTV) into Madonna Television. Madonna's "Like A Virgin" album has sold [cannot make out the number] million albums in just [cannot make out the number] weeks.

    But Madonna was truly a concert virgin and seldom has an instant supernova risked quite so much as she was doing on stage last night in Seattle a city she'd never even visited before.

    Before yesterday, Madonna's only concert experience was a single concert experience on stage with Prince in Los Angeles, plus a few number of songs in assorted New York City discos accompanied not by a band but by recorded tapes.

    Madonna was a creation of rock videos, saucy photos and uptempo songs. But would her ever visible charms and her rather limited vocal range still dazzle people seated hundreds of feet from the stage?

    So Madonna had approached this Paramount concert like some personal Super Bowl, going into intense stage training while her manager Freddy DeMann, who is Michael Jackson's former manager, cranked up the hype in deafening levels.

    Madonna had rehearsed in Los Angeles for six weeks. Madonna had rehearsed in Seattle two more nights. For nothing could be left to chance or happenstance, when the Madonna doubters awaited her first misstep.

    It came, rock historians would later note, at the conclusion of her very first number, "Dress You Up," Madonna's spiked bootlets caught on something on the stage and she stumbled slightly, but it would prove to be about her only misstep of the night.

    Madonna's tightly choreographed show had all the spontaneity of a chess match, but oh, did [she] move. There were clouds of smoke and there were Day Glo lights. There were Madonna pin ups, Marilyn Monroe style, projected on giant screens. There was synthesizer sound strong enough to levitate the Paramount stage.

    Madonna was a stage presence that pulsed all the way to the balcony and maybe beyond. Never mind that her voice tended toward screechy, never mind that her songs all sounded remarkably similar.

    Madonna mesmerized by her sheer force of gonna take it to [over?] drive. Whether go-going atop the speakers or lying supine atop the steps Madonna's every move said, "This is my night and this is my concert and none of you are gonna forget it."
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This is not a review (obviously), but I don't feel like making a new thread for generic tour stories.

Madonna world tour document 'faked'

Madonna's Adelaide AAMI gig a hoax
  • The Advertiser
    October 14, 2011 12:00AM

    A "leaked" itinerary sent to drownedmadonna.com suggested Madonna was headed for her first visit since 1993.

    Sent by an "anonymous music industry insider", the email contained a photo of her 2012 world tour schedule, which features five dates in Australia including a concert in Adelaide at AAMI Stadium on April 15.

    News of the tour sent fans of the 53-year-old music legend into a frenzy, with online forums and social networking sites swamped with excited Madge devotees.

    But AAMI Stadium management says Madonna hasn't been booked to perform at the venue and they have yet to be contacted by the singer's promoter, Live Nation.

    Live Nation's Australian office declined to make an official comment but suggested they knew nothing about the proposed world tour.

    It's not the first time a "leaked" Madonna Australian tour announcement has proved to be a hoax.

    Early last year, an email citing a 10-date Aussie tour in mid-2010 was circulated without coming to fruition.

    Rumours the American pop icon is planning a long overdue trip to Australia have been doing the rounds this year.

    Madonna was scheduled to undertake an Aussie tour in January 2009 but the visit was scrapped because of the global financial crisis.


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I like Vintage Madonna bashing. :)

30 years ago: Madonna at Hofheinz Pavilion

  • By J.R. GonzalesMay 4, 2015

    If you had cable TV back in 1985, and if you were young enough to have baby boomers for parents, you knew who Madonna was. All you had to do was watch just a few minutes of MTV.

    But no matter what you thought of her sensual image or even her music, you couldn't deny the fact that she sold records. By the truckload.

    So it should be no surprise that -- 30 years ago tonight -- a mass of fans clad in lace, fishnets and crucifixes filled Hofheinz Pavilion to see her in person.

    But did she live up to the hype? Here's how the Houston Chronicle's Michael Spies described it:

    "In the movie 'Desperately Seeking Susan,' she at least had a certain sensual arrogance. On stage Saturday at the Hofheinz Pavilion, for a sold-out Houston appearance during her first-ever U.S. tour, she displayed a tempting midriff and sang her hits, but the voice is puny and the material punier.

    "The traces of ego are not appetizing, either. She is already wanting to know if one side of the audience loves her more than the other because she can't go on unless everybody loves her."

    Jerome Weeks of the Houston Post wasn't any more complimentary.

    "She's trained in dance, and she danced Saturday night much better than the usual rock show hops and struts. And there was plenty of lascivious crawling and writhing, especially during 'Everybody' and 'Burning Up.'

    "But Madonna's voice is on the thin side, reedy and cold, despite all the heated panting. The problem with her image is not the dumb sexual easiness implied by her 'Boy Toy' belt that causes many to dismiss her as a bimbo, but quite the opposite: sexual utility. Madonna implies that she enjoys sex, but as in 'Material Girl,' she's also cooly determined to use it to get what she wants.

    "All of which only heightened the concert's feeling of a rather unfeeling, flashy manipulation and of an act that, at best, is still practicing."

    Ah well. So-so reviews like these didn't matter much in the grand scheme of things. Madonna would return in 1987 on the "Who's That Girl" tour. That time, she appeared a few miles away at the Astrodome.

    Both reviewers, though, saved their worst for the opening act, a heretofore unknown white rap group from New York called the Beastie Boys.
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Marilynrules62
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I love how they criticized her ego.

Some fans are so delusional they thought that she only began to get a big ego starting with Blonde Ambition or something.
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Realist84
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She's had a massive ego since childhood. There's a clip before she performs "Holiday" in 1983 where she says "I'm gonna do what I want and you're gonna like it." It wasn't a "I hope you like it" type comment, it was a demand, a'la Effie White in "Dreamgirls" ("you're gonna love me!" type of comment). So she's always been egotistical, it's just multiplied the more famous she got.
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Marilynrules62
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^ ^

Yup!
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Realist84
May 4 2015, 05:02 PM
She's had a massive ego since childhood. There's a clip before she performs "Holiday" in 1983 where she says "I'm gonna do what I want and you're gonna like it." It wasn't a "I hope you like it" type comment, it was a demand, a'la Effie White in "Dreamgirls" ("you're gonna love me!" type of comment). So she's always been egotistical, it's just multiplied the more famous she got.
Most definitely.

She herself describes incidents of obnoxious things she did as a kid. Maybe she thought those episodes make her sound cooler.

Interviews with friends who knew her before she became famous tell stories with examples of how arrogant and rude she was.

Her public interviews in the early / mid 80s showed her to be arrogant.

One of the reasons I disliked her in the mid 80s was not just her skanky sleaze ball persona and that she was always copying other people, but she was so arrogant in interviews.

I'm fine with women (or men) having self confidence and being determined, but she came across as being way more than that.
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oceanlover998
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...the thing that bothered me most about her in early interviews was that she clearly did not have the talent to justify such an ego so she betrayed a certain bullying streak that I have always loathed...

...and speaking of early concerts, I'll never forget a 'Who's That Girl' concert they televised from Rome...she had that straw blonde hair with the black furry caterpillar eyebrows...and her singing was AWFUL...trampsing across the stage trying to croak out Material Girl while gasping for air...

...she really always was a hack...all bully and ego and marketing...she's living proof of P.T. Barnum's dictum that you will never go broke under estimating the public's taste...or something like that...
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Julia Griggs
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I wonder whatever happened to that toddler little Nonni pushed over because all that baby wanted to do was cheer the brat up with a dandelion ...

Maybe the littler girl turned out just fine, but I'm amazed little Madge thought she was entitled to get better flowers. For all we know, M probably made that story up to bring on a dark side to her image ... don't get me started on those contradictory claims of whether or not she was a bully or was bullied herself.
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The following has been cross posted to other threads.
-------------
The SMH has republished a concert review from 1993:

Madonna shows her flat spots: Sydney Morning Herald review of Madonna in 1993


  • As Madonna announces her first Australian tour in 23 years, we look back at her last Sydney show, way back in November 1993. And according to Sydney Morning Herald music critic Bruce Elder, it was 'nothing special'.
    -------------------
    MADONNA SHOWS HER FLAT SPOTS

    Sydney Cricket Ground, November 20, 1993

    Given the hyperbole which had preceded the arrival of Madonna, it was almost certain that her live performance would not equal her incredibly overpowering sales pitch and media profile.

    Thus, the best that could be said about this two-hour performance was that it was an event, an occasion, a place to be seen at, but as pure dance, pop or rock entertainment it was nothing special.

    The rain, which had been threatening to turn the evening into a total disaster, managed to hold off for the duration of the concert.

    The audience of about 45,000 behaved themselves in an exemplary manner and Madonna delivered her Girlie Show, which has now been seen around the world.

    The central question raised by the concert is whether Madonna is really committed to celebrating sexual liberation or whether she has simply hijacked sadomasochism and homosexuality in the name of good old American capitalism.

    The evidence would seem to suggest the latter.

    Although she dedicated In This Life to people with AIDS, offered lots of homo-erotic dance routines and generally seemed to be celebrating sexual liberation, there was a kind of coldness and distance to her whole performance which did little to produce a feeling that she was really committed to the issues in anything other than a mercenary, "what can I get out of this particular scam" kind of way.

    In spite of her reputation for outrage, this was ultimately a rather tame performance.

    At times she dressed like a Berlin cabaret singer, a military officer, a habitue of a sadomasochistic brothel and an elegant Victorian woman.

    She went through her paces, performing an interesting and unusual version of Like A Virgin, which was delivered with a Marlene Dietrich huskiness, while Holiday was performed as a circus band composition.

    In the end, there were too many flat spots (the whole central hour sagged terribly) to make this a truly memorable concert.

    The vast audience seemed to love what they saw but there was a real feeling that they were in love with the idea of being able to say they had seen Madonna.

    There was little evidence, either from on stage or off, that Madonna had offered something special and extraordinary. An entertainment it was, but it never became an inspiring occasion.
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oceanlover998
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...very thoughtful and well written review - thanks for posting...

...I remember watching chunks of this concert on 'much' back in the day - in fact, I think they filmed this very concert in Sydney - and even back then I was struck by how lame and banal the whole thing was...especially a section where she donned a blonde afro...lame-o...
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copied to another thread

This was written by someone who is a Madonna fan. They are excited about Madonna's new tour (Rebel Heart tour) going to Australia.

What I find funny is even in the midst of all that, this person complains about Madonna's previous tour:

DEAR MADONNA: AFTER 23 LONG YEARS, PLEASE GIVE US A BIT OF EVERYTHING AT YOUR NEXT AUSSIE TOUR
  • CREATED ON // SUNDAY, 26 JULY 2015
    AUTHOR // Colleen Windsor

    ... Sydney went absolutely mad leading up to her visit and we spoke of nothing else for weeks in readiness. Finally, the day arrived and on the evening of 19 November 1993, we headed off to the Sydney Cricket Ground – the same time huge rain clouds circled overhead.

    The weather had been very wet in the week preceding the show and the papers were full of copy about the precious cricket oval coping under the stomps of wild Madonna fans.

    The show began and the 50,000 crowd went crazy. Unfortunately for us, we could barely hear it with the strong wind blowing across the oval was wiping the sound out of the place.

    Only the people in the expensive front rows and those in the cheapest seats at the very back of the stands could hear anything.

    A friend of mine had a week-long love affair with one of her dancers and when I was introduced to him at the old Gilligan’s a few nights later, he told us Madonna was furious for getting such a poor reception after coming all this way.

    But sorry, really, after all the hype, people couldn’t see and couldn’t hear.

    Thankfully, the Rebel Heart tour will wipe all that from our memories as Madge moves indoors and plays arenas.

    The last hurdle to this dream is, of course, the playlist. Madonna always builds her shows around the album du jour with just a tad of back catalogue. Despite hitting number one, Rebel Heart has been her lowest-selling album to date, with none of the singles so far – ‘Living For Love’, ‘Ghost Town’ or ‘b***h I’m Madonna’ – denting the Australian chart.

    So after all these years, dear showgirl – I want a bit of everything.

    To top it off there was a long catwalk that extended eight steps down from the main stage, and when she and the cast descended on it, we could only see them from the shoulders up. It was a total disaster.
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