The David Cassidy Connections

Tony Hadley is one of the most significant singers to emerge from the New Romantic scene in the 1980s. As frontman of Spandau Ballet, the group enjoyed outstanding international success with hits including Gold, True and Through the Barricades.

Tony sat down with broadcaster, Alex Dyke, to talk about growing up a teen in 1970s Britain surrounded by Glam Rock, and how they both became fans of David Cassidy.

Many thanks to Alex and Tony who took time out from recording for their podcast Stars Cars Guitars to share views on David, his music and the price of superstardom.

Later in this episode, British journalist Liz Jones recalls her adoration for David since a teenager, asks what type of girl is attracted to idols and why he will always have a special part of her heart.

You can catch the Stars Cars Guitars podcast on all major leading platforms. Starscarsguitars.co.uk – Podcast series from Tony Hadley, Jim Cregan & Alex Dyke.

Liz Jones's podcast can be found at mailplus.co.uk/lizjones, and all platforms.

More memories of what David Cassidy has meant to female and male fans around the world over the decades, can be found in my book, Cherish David Cassidy A Legacy of Love, available from Amazon and all leading bookstores worldwide. Published by Unicorn Publishing Group, Cherish has been awarded finalist in American Book Fest Best Books 2020.

In this week's episode you will hear from some of David's long term and loyal fans from around the world.

Singer-songwriter, Harriet Schock, pays tribute to David for his recording of her song, That's The Way It Is With You; Barbara Balducci and Ruth Poulding share their poetry; male fans Christopher Jones and Chris Phillips express the influence David had on their lives; Angela Mosley reflects on 50 years of being a fan.

And international recording artist, Roby Di Stefano who has carved out a successful music career inspired by David, talks about his influence.

He explains how David has been so important to him and why touring Australia allowed him to walk in the footsteps of his idol.

Roby does not speak a lot of English so is sharing his story with translation help from his son, Alexis and his friend, Ramiro Touron. Visit my YouTube channel, The David Cassidy Connections to see Roby recording for this episode and singing one of his compositions.

Below, you will find links to Roby's music on social media and streaming platforms.

https://open.spotify.com/artist/5rcvkSGqlIAvjgSMKxdHlK

https://open.spotify.com/artist/3v5YLh9sbnIRIwGpFP7nDS?si=zSkCnMD7Q5q5HbICx-HNEQ

https://music.apple.com/ar/artist/roby-di-stefano/1214868773

https://music.apple.com/tr/artist/roby-solo/321238363

https://www.amazon.com/Solo-Roby-Stefano/dp/B06XJZ13QW

Cherish is my first book, a compilation of fans' memories about what it means to be a David Cassidy fan.

Memories and tributes are from around the world as fans, friends, former colleagues and band-mates share their thoughts on how David influenced them in many different ways, amusing anecdotes and examples of his kindness.

I invited fans to contribute their memories and was overwhelmed at the response which came through in the form of essays, short stories, poetry, diary entries, photographs and open letters to him.

Started in 2016, Cherish is a celebration of David's life through the memories of those who loved and respected him for decades, as well as younger fans who have discovered him and his music.

Every story in Cherish is a singular experience, a thematic journey but when brought together they provide stops on the adventure with David at the heart of everything his fans have ever done.

In being so honest about themselves exposing their emotions and life stories they have made themselves emotionally vulnerable as they opened their hearts to share their life experiences and the role David Cassidy played in them

And every page is full of love, beautiful memories which bring smiles, laughter, happiness and a few tears. These memories, which echo across time, have been written by his fans in their own words.

Now in a celebration of his life his fans and friends explain in their own words how David Cassidy impacted on them, his influence and friendship; the lasting legacy of love and music he left.

We want to remember the good things David did in life, how gracious he was, a kind soul and generous of spirit and ultimately how he made us feel. With these happy memories we can show he is forever in our hearts as we turn the pages and smile remembering a very special man who made the world a better place.

David occupies a special place in the hearts of millions around the world. These are their stories.

Cherish is published by Unicorn Publishing Group www.unicornpublishing.org and available from all major bookstores worldwide

This week on The David Cassidy Connections podcast we make a special visit to a place which forms part of David's legacy.

Located less than 15 miles from Manhatten, West Orange offers a rich history. The first settlers landed in 1666 at what is now Newark Bay.

Town historian, Joseph Fagan, whose family roots go back more than 150 years in the town, gives a tour of the places where David would have played as a young boy, shares photographs which he has uncovered of David's mother, Evelyn, when she was at school, tells the story of the first settlers and the 9/11 Memorial at Eagle Rock which looks across to the New York skyline.

West Orange is where David spent his formative years and years later co-wrote with Kim Carnes and Dave Ellingson, Can't Go Home Again where David brought the musical changes. The track appears on David's album, Dreams Are Nuthin' More Than Wishes.

You can view the images and see pictures behind these stories on a slideshow to be found on The David Cassidy Connections YouTube channel

More history about West Orange can be found here:

www.westorange.org

As a young girl growing up in Liverpool, Ruth McCartney, would sit around the kitchen table with her mother, Angie, helping to deal with millions of fan mail for The Beatles – and earn a little bit of pocket money. It was a matter of keeping it in the family when Paul McCartney is your stepbrother.

Ruth was four years old when she found herself with a front row seat to Beatlemania. Her mother had married Paul's father, Jim, after a short courtship in 1964, and it was just another day when John Lennon would come over to stay or Jimi Hendrix arrive unannounced on the doorstep.

Today, Ruth runs creative digital agency McCartney Multimedia with her husband Martin and mother, Angie.

Their first client was David Cassidy who was a close friend - she set up and ran his first website. She talks passionately about their friendship which started when they met in an elevator and tells how she immediately took him home to meet her mother. Ruth shares wonderful memories of their time together and how David reacted when - out of the blue - Paul phoned him in London.

Although not having direct dialect coaching, when David was preparing for his acclaimed role in Blood Brothers, he would call Ruth adopting a Liverpudlian accent.

Ruth studied piano, guitar and dance before becoming a "pop sensation" in Russia.

https://mccartney-multimedia.com/mccartney-multimedia-inc

https://www.mccartneystudios.com/

You will often have seen David wearing a sweat shirt carrying the name – John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

The college was the venue for his only press conference ahead of the sell-out concert at Madison Square Garden in March 1972.

Pat Ravalgi was Editor of The Individualist literary magazine and music editor of the LEX newspaper at the college – part of the City University of New York system – in the early 1970s.

She was the driving force behind the press conference and worked closely with David's publicists and record company representatives – especially those at RCA – to draw attention to David to an older audience as he pursued his solo career.

In a newspaper article in 1974, Pat observed: "No artist can go wrong when his direction comes from his own audience. Because the artist and audience are all that really does matter."

After graduation, Pat was a publicist at Levinson Associates in New York where her clients included Shaun Cassidy and his record producer Michael Lloyd.

After working in public relations, Pat received her Masters Degree in International Relations from New York University. She spent the next 30 years as a professional staff member in the U.S. House of Representatives and an Intelligence Officer with several agencies within the U.S. government.

In our conversation Pat talks about how, as an ambitious student, she managed to secure an interview with David and the real story behind that t-shirt.

Jim Salamanis has been a decades long fan and has one of the biggest single collections of David Cassidy and Partridge Family memorabilia in the world.

He firmly believes David's solo back catalogue should be remastered and released with previously unheard demos, rarities, alternate versions, concert rehearsals, live recordings and bonus tracks for any configuration in a deluxe boxset.

Jim also leads the battle cry for a deluxe boxset of The Partridge Family music, again adding previously unreleased tracks and alternate versions of their vast catalogue for a similar collection presentation.

In our conversation he offers a passionate, calm and measured argument explaining why the music is so important to David's legacy and why the search for previously unseen vintage concert footage goes on.

You can listen on all podcasting platforms including Apple, Google, Spotify, Amazon Music – anytime, anywhere for all devices.

You can read Jim's life story, his meetings with David and how he influenced his life, in my book Cherish David Cassidy A Legacy of Love available from Amazon and all leading bookstores worldwide.

Here is the link for the ongoing petition requesting David's work is remastered and released.

https://www.gopetition.com/petitions/remaster-and-release-david-cassidys-old-songs-and-vintage-concert-footage.html

Dr. Haley Gienow-McConnell is a cultural historian from Ontario, Canada. A self-described "second generation" David Cassidy fan, Dr. Gienow-McConnell became a fan in the 2000s, long after his heyday in the 1970s.

In this episode, she gives an insight into:

• How with the benefit of distance and hindsight, she became a fan of an international superstar instead of the manufactured image
• The marketing and manipulation of teenage idols
• How he unknowingly helped steer her out of the agony of anorexia
• What makes David Cassidy such a memorable idol and why his legacy should perhaps be about protecting the integrity of artists

When she isn't listening to David Cassidy, Dr. Gienow-McConnell keeps busy carrying out and publishing research on history, culture, and disability.

Dr Gienow-McConnell shared her deeply moving story with me in Cherish David Cassidy A Legacy of Love, available from Amazon and all leading bookstores worldwide.

You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram @haleyanngm

My guest is devoted fan, Clea Mylonas, who won a competition in 1974 to meet David in California. She had to wait until the spring of 1975 to fulfil her ambition, meeting him at the recording studio where he was working with Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys making his first RCA album, The Higher They Climb.

Clea, who was 22 when she won the competition, raised an outstanding £500 to land the first prize. The competition in aid of The Friends of the Children Society, involved following clues around London.

"I worked really hard for it," she explained. "Meeting David was the highlight of my life. He never shattered my dream."

Clea's story is published in my book, Cherish David Cassidy A Legacy of Love, but here she speaks with emotion and enthusiasm about what being a fan means to her, how nervous she was meeting him, recalls the moment she watched David walking towards her and why she believes he is now at peace.

Lucie Fitchett and Victoria Willing have been friends since their schooldays and in 2010 wrote a successful play based around their teenage love for David Cassidy. They are now planning to rework the play.

Could It be Forever? was given its premiere at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival winning 5 star reviews. David was so inspired by their work, he wrote to them saying he was "honoured" to be the subject of their theatrical production.

The original play is based around the reunion of six schoolfriends who revisit what life was like when David visited London in the 1970s, and examine how they and their own lives have changed over the years.

Lucie and Victoria are revisiting their initial idea and reworking the script. In an exclusive interview with me, they are inviting fans to share their memories, explain what David represented to them then and now, what life is like today for women in their 60s revisiting their early teens, and how they have changed.

In this episode they bounce ideas around, speak openly about the feelings they had for David, what he represented, the importance of friendships through fan worship, and explain why they would like the input from fans who also experienced first-hand Cassidymania in the 1970s.

"We want to bring it back because there is an important story to be told," they told me. "It's more about the fans, how they project onto him feelings, how he satisfies those feelings, and what it means years later."

Victoria is an actress and writer. Lucie has worked as an actress, producer, director and writer.

If you would like to contact Victoria and Lucie they can be reached via email [email protected]

Their friendship and the story of how they came to write the original play, is detailed in my book, Cherish David Cassidy A Legacy of Love available from Amazon and all leading bookstores worldwide.

https://amzn.to/2F0d1bl