’80’s Video-of-the-Week: A Flock of Seagulls - “I Ran” (plus a story for Jen) April 22, 2008

As promised in yesterday’s “Marathon Update” post…

I actually saw A Flock of Seagulls (aka AFoS) live in the summer of ‘83, soon after high school graduation. They (along with The Fixx — loved “Saved By Zero” — possible future post) opened for The Police on the “Synchronicity” tour. It was outside in a soccer stadium (Holleder Memorial; torn down in ‘85 for an office park) in Rochester, NY. With all that fun hair & make-up, I really don’t think that AFoS were meant to be seen in the harsh sunlight of a midsummer afternoon, but if I remember correctly they were quite good live. I was with my goody-goody H.S. friends, but I think a few of us (myself included) had found an older kid to buy us beer & I was a little trashed.

Another show I saw around that time was Adam Ant (”Goody Two Shoes” era; after having left the Ants behind), with Scandal featuring Patty Smyth as the opener. WOW! That really takes ya back now doesn’t it?

But the concert I really just HAD to to go to that summer was David Bowie’s “Serious Moonlight” tour (supporting the “Let’s Dance” album — & I do mean album; this was pre-CD’s). My mom had taken me to the record store in the mall to buy me tickets. It was a birthday present, as the show was 3 days before my 18th birthday. My mom was surprised that this was what I wanted for my birthday, as I mostly listened to classical & show tunes. But David Bowie also fit right into my budding-faggot sensibilities. I think that if my mother had any familiarity with Bowie, it was probably his singing “The Little Drummer Boy” as a duet with Bing Crosby on the 1977 Crosby Family Christmas Special (Was Bing really an abusive spouse? I’ll have to do more research — perhaps for another post; but I digress). My mom probably also had a passing awareness of Bowie’s glam-rock, androgyne ‘Ziggy Stardust‘ persona. But that too fit right in with the aformentioned budding sensibilities, as I had spent the previous year going to several midnight showings of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” complete with make-up, costumes and props!

I had my ticket to see his chameleonic greatness in Syracuse @ the Carrier Dome. It was to be the highlight of my post-High School summer. My best friend MaryBeth was going to drive (her acid-orange ‘66 Mustang, which I had christened “Hot Mango Breath”) & we were maybe even going to stay in Syracuse overnight in a motel! It was going to be Bowie’s first North American venue (after touring Europe) that was large enough for the full stage set (at that time the largest set for any touring show ever; they had used a smaller set in the prior, smaller N. American venues). But they couldn’t get the giant set shipped in time so they postponed until the fall — after I had already left for college in Ohio. And to this day, I’ve never seen Bowie live, but I did manage to get most of his back-catalogue on vinyl (since replaced with CDs) & became a huge early-to-mid Bowie afficionado when I was in college & have been since.