The Virgin Tour

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Virgin Tour
Tour by Madonna
Supporting album	Like a Virgin, Madonna
Start date	April 10, 1985
End date	June 11, 1985
Legs	1
Shows	40
Madonna tour chronology
	The Virgin Tour (1985)	Who's That Girl World Tour (1987)

The Virgin Tour 1985 is the debut concert tour by American singer-songwriter Madonna, which visited major United States and Canadian cities. All 17,162 tickets for her three shows at New York City's Radio City Music Hall sold out in a record-breaking 34 minutes. All other concert dates sold out, many within hours of going on sale. The Beastie Boys were Madonna's supporting act. The tour grossed $17.8 million USD.^[1]

[edit] Set list

This is the official setlist: ^[2]

1. "Dress You Up"
2. "Holiday"
3. "Into the Groove"
4. "Everybody"
5. "Angel" ¹
6. "Gambler"
7. "Borderline" ¹
8. "Lucky Star"
9. "Crazy for You"
10. "Over and Over"
11. "Burning Up" ¹
12. "Like a Virgin" ²
13. "Material Girl"

¹ these songs were not included on the tracklisting for the VHS release Live - The Virgin Tour
² Sung with a few lines of "Billie Jean"

[edit] Tour reviews

Music critics were not enthused:

• Robert Palmer, The New York Times — "Madonna... simply didn't sing very well. Her intonation was atrocious; she sang sharp and she sang flat, and the combination of her unsure pitch and thin, quavery vocal timbre made the held notes at the end of her phrases sound like they were crawling off somewhere to die." ^[3]
• Paul Grein, Billboard — "Cyndi Lauper will be around for a long time. Madonna will be out of business in six months. Her image has completely overshadowed her music." ^[4]
• Paul Evans, Record — "Perhaps every generation needs reminding that rock and sex are sometimes indistinguishable. At the moment, Madonna's the apostle of the body gospel, and, as her show makes apparent, it's hard to recall a more fetching zealot." ^[5]

In response, Madonna said: "I ignored the critics because I knew deep down in my heart that it was good and ... I always will meet up with a certain amount of controversy, a certain amount of opposition to what I'm doing." ^[6]

[edit] Broadcasts and recordings

The 1985 Live - The Virgin Tour VHS documents a Detroit, Michigan stop on the tour. "Angel", "Borderline" and "Burning Up" were part of the tour set list but were not included on the official VHS release. In addition, bootleg video of the Dallas and New York dates have surfaced over the years, primarily on the internet.

The complete audio from a Los Angeles date was professionally recorded directly off the soundboard and soon leaked as a bootleg LP in the United States. It has been speculated that this recording was originally meant to be an official live album for The Virgin Tour that never materialized.

[edit] Tour dates

The Virgin Tour was strictly a tour of the US and Canada, never crossing over to Europe. Early on there were plans to schedule dates in England and Japan due to Madonna's large fanbase in both countries, however the final schedule didn't reflect the idea. In the end several US dates were added and moved to larger concert venues due to overwhelmingly strong ticket sales.

Madonna notably performed every date on the tour with no cancellations. ^[7]

[edit] Personnel

• Vocals: Madonna
• Set Designer: Ian Knight
• Choreographed / Staged by: Brad Jeffries
• Keyboards: Patrick Leonard and Billy Meyers
• Drums: Jonathan P. Moffet
• Bass: Bill Lanphier
• Guitars: James Harrah and Paul Pesco
• Dancers: Michael Perea and Lyndon B. Johnson
• Personal Management: Freddy DeMann for Weisner-DeMann Entertainment
• Show Mix: Dave Kob
• Music Produced by: Madonna and Patrick Leonard

[edit] References