1983 September - October

Serious Bar B Que Tour

1983 September Concert Dates

• September 2 - the Meadows - Austin TX
  
• September 3 - AstroWorld - Houston TX
  
• September 4 - Fortworth TX
  
• September 5 - the Omni - Atlanta GA
  
• September 9 - Anaheim Stadium CA
  

Write-Ups, reviews and mentions

• September 14 , 1983 Los Angeles Times - Rock and Sock a Good Mix by Scott Ostler
• October 9, 1983. Los Angeles Times - mention

1983 September

Serious Bar B Que Tour

The Go-go's did a mini-tour in early September of 1983 in the southwest region of the USA.

Former Rockat guitarist Tim Scott filled in for Charlotte Caffey during this tour. She was still recovering from carpal tunnel syndrome in her wrist. However - she was still able to handle keyboard duties.

Set List

• This Town
  
• Vacation
  
• Head Over Heels
  
• I'm With You
  
• Lust To Love
  
• Good for Gone
  
• Yes Or No
• Tonite
  
• Automatic
  
• Fading Fast
  
• Girls of 100 List
  
• I'm The Only One
  
• We Got the Beat
  
• Can't Stop the World
  
• Get up and Go
  
• Out Lips Are Sealed
  
• How Much More
  
• Beatnic Beach
  
• Cool Jerk
  
• Skidmarks On My Heart

September 2, 1983

the Meadows

9604 S I-35

Austin, TX

Austin TX

The Southpark Meadows was once one of Austin's most beloved outdoor venues.

Setting up

for Willie Nelson's show at the Meadows

1997:lightning stage

Many concert were performed here. This is where Willie Nelson held 3 of his annual 4th of July Picnic. The Meadow's was located at 9604 Interstate 34 South.

Today the Meadows is gone. Now it is a 425 acre shopping, dining, entertainment and living place called the Grove at Southpark Meadows. In fact, it is the largest retail development in Austin.

source: inlandgroup

September 3, 1983

Huston, TX

610 Loop South

AstroWorld

AstroWorld was a seasonally operated theme park located between Kirby Drive and Fannin Avenue (directly south of Loop 610) in Houston.

AstroWorld opened in 1968 by local Houston Mayor and philanthropist Judge Roy Hofheinz.

source: houston chronicles archives

Hofheinz on ride

It was Houston's first major theme park. It sat on 57 acres which included the Astrodome.

In 1975 Six Flags purchased the park and transformed it into AstroWorld: A Member of the Six Flags Family - since there was already another Six Flags in Arlington, TX. The park expanded to 100 acres.

source: Houston Chronicles archives

AstroWorld had several major coasters including Excalibur, Greezed Lightnin', Texas Cyclone and the Texas Tornado.

source: mikerobinson.net

AstroWorld had several stages used for entertainment.

• 1974 - Concert stage located at the base of the Skyarama.
  
• 1976 - Airena Theater opens in Coney Island
• 1976 - Horizons Theater opens in the old Orbiter structure
  
• 1977 - Boogie Fog Disco added to Country Fair area
  
• 1978 - Airena Theater was enclosed and renamed Showcase Theater
  

The 1,500 seat domed Coney Island Showcase Theatre housed Astroworld's musical variety and special concert events. (It was nothing but a big dome of air).

• 1981 - Country Fair is remodeled into Nottingham Village themed area
  
• 1982 - Crystal Palace introduces 'The Great Texas Longhorn Revue of Robotic Row shows. Crystal Palace was a 1,200 seat air structured theater
• 1982 - Showcase Theater debuts Here's Hollywood show (later became the Golden Bear Theater)
• 1985 - Southern Star Amphitheater opened

In October 2005 Astroworld was closed. It was demolished between October, 2005 and June 2006.

September 4, 1983

Billy Bob's Country Western Bar

2520 Rodeo Plaza

Fortworth, TX

September 5, 1983

Atlanta, GA

The Omni Coliseum

The Omni was an indoor multi purpose arena in Atlanta Georgia. It was built in 1972 and held approximately 16,000 for basketball and hockey. It had a distinctive looking space frame roof which often leaked.

It hosted many concerts including:

Elvis Presley, Nirvana, Billy Joel, Queen, Led Zepplin, Pink Floyd, The Police, The Who, and the Grateful Dead. The Police's Synchronicity concert was filmed here.

It was demolished in 1997 and the Philips Arena is on the site today.

September 9, 1983

With David Bowie and Madness

This was David Bowie's Serious Moonlight Tour

Anaheim Stadium

Anaheim, CA

source: wiki 1967

The Go-Go's hooked up with David Bowie and played at the final stop of his Serious Moonlight Tour at Anaheim Stadium.

This was the Go-Go's first local show since changing management.
And this was their biggest local show yet. There were more than 65,000 fans at the Anaheim Stadium.

Bowie's Serious Moonlight tour was his longest and most successful concert tour. It had all the exaggerated staging, props and heavy use of musicians as actors. This all made for a larger than life rock performance before the sea of fans.

source: little oogie david bowie site

Setlist:
01 This Town
02 Vacation
03 Head Over Heels (cuts off)
04 Fading Fast
05 Good For Gone
06 Yes Or No
07 Tonite
08 Automatic
09 Lust To Love
10 I'm The Only One
11 We Got The Beat
12 Can't Stop The World
13 Get Up And Go
14 Our Lips Are Sealed
15 Skidmarks On My Heart
16 Cool Jerk

Angel Stadium

Angel Stadium open in 1966 and became home to the California Angels. Anaheim is a city in Orange County just south of Los Angeles County. It is also home to Disneyland.

The Rams played here from 1980 to 1994. However, the stadium struggled for years to get out of the red.

In an effort by the City of Anaheim to bring in more money, in 1970 Angel Stadium started to present summer concert. These concerts became big money makers for the City of Anaheim, especially between 1975 to 1978. The stadium was even expanded from 43,400 seats to 71,000 seats to accommodate rock fest.

Having a concert in a big stadium meant a lot of money. And a stadium was all part of the whole ego rockgod/trip going on in the 70's and early '80's.

In the 1970's, most big concert events in the Los Angeles region were held at:

• Forum, Inglewood. 18,700 seats. This was privately owned and he nation's chief showcase for rock concerts.
  
• Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim. City owned. 9,100 seats.
• Long Beach Arena and Auditorium. Long Beach. City-owned. 14,300/3650 seats.
  
• Olympic Auditorium, Los Angeles. Privately owned. 11,000 seats.
  
• Pasadena Civic Auditorium. Pasadena. City-owned. 2,968 seats.
  
• Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. Santa Monica. City owned. 2,900 seats.
  
• Shrine Auditorium. Los Angeles. Privately owned. 6,500 seats.
  
• Sport Arena. Los Angeles. Joint state-city-county owned, 16,000 seats.
• Anaheim Stadium, Anaheim. City-owned. 43,000 seats. At this time, Orange County had several large concert venues.

In the 1980's came the addition of the 12,000 seat Irvine Meadows Amphitheater (opened 1981) and the 18,765 seat Pacific Amphitheater, billed as the largest out door amphitheater on the West Coast (opened 1983). Suddenly sleepy Orange County became a county to reckon with.

In 1983, the single most important rock event of the year was held at Anaheim Stadium. This was David Bowie's Serious Moonlight Tour. The Anaheim Stadium concert was Bowie's final Southland performance. (He had played earlier in the year at the US Festival in May and the Inglewood Forum in August).

For this concert, the baseball diamond's infield was fenced off to prevent any damage. However the outfield was not covered and was used for lawn seating.

The Go-Go's old friends, Madness, also performed. It was their first local appearance in two years.

Order of the day was:

• Stadium box office opens - 9 a.m.
  
• Parking lot opens - 1 p.m.
  
• Stadium gates open at 3 p.m.
  
• Madness performs - 5 p.m.
  
• Go-Go's perform - 6.30 p.m.
  
• David Bowie performed 8:15 - 10:30

This concert was promoted as a stadium rock extravaganza. There was a large video screen over the stage for those in back to see better. But the screen was not raised until Bowie's appearance. So most in the audience could not see the Go-Go's set in any detail.

Los Angeles Times

Rock and Sock a Good Mix by Scott Ostler

September 14, 1983

As reported in the article...

In 1983, Mike Marshall, 23, was a rookie right fielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers. For about a year, he dated Belinda Carlisle. They lived together in Marina del Rey. This all brought back memories of Joe DiMaggio and Marily Monroe.

They met when the Go-Go's performed at the Hollywood Bowl. Marshall phoned Belinda's record company and left her a note proposing a ticket swap - Go-Go's concert tickets for Dodger game tickets.

She called him about two weeks leter. He went to a concert and afterward there was a nice party. Then she went to a game. They've been together ever since.

They liked to play volleyball, paddle tennis, ride bikes along the beach.

Belinda practiced with the band every day and goes to most Dodger's home games. Mike attends the group's concerts when he can. Belinda sometimes wears his Dodgers jersey on stage.

How romantic is that?

Go-Go's Get New Management

After conducting loads of interviews, the Go-Go's finally signed up with high-power Front

Line Management. At the time Front Line Management was headed by Irving Azoff and Howard Kaufman. The Eagles were the first act handled by Frontline. Frontline also handled Michael McDonald, Stevie Nicks, Dan Fogelberg and Joe Walsh.

Azoff head a reputation as being extemely dedicated and loyal. However, soon after the Go-Go's signed with them, Azoff headed off the MCA Records to work there. So much for loyalty.

Today Azoff is the CEO of Ticketmaster.

Irving Azoff

October

At the end of October, Go-Go's went off to England to record their third album.

The producer was Martin Rushent, best-known for his work with Human League. They had plans to record , I'm the Only One (co-written by Kathy Valentine and Carlene Carter) and Yes or No co-written with Jane Wiedlin and Spark's Ron and Russel Mael.

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