All For Love

On By StevenIn Life At Home

I was clicking around today, when I learned that Bell Biv Devoe has released “Run,” their first new song in fifteen years.  I watched the video, and then I fell down the Wiki-hole.  It started with an idle curiosity about just how old Ricky Bell, Michael Bivens, and Ronnie DeVoe are.    I also thought that Bobby Brown was dead, for some reason, but I was mistaken about that.

Thirteen year old me.

For me, those names, along with Ralph Tresvant, are still forever-linked with New Edition, the band they all shared throughout most of the 1980s.    I used to have their first singles (Cool It Now, Mr. Telephone Man) on 45 rpm vinyl, the cassette singles of my youth.    In late 1985, thirteen year old me played the hell out of my All For Love cassette.  I still occasionally hum their song about staying in school.

There’s a verse in one of the songs, where the band members are listed off: “Ronnie, Bobbie, Ricky and Mike,” says Ralph Tresvant, and “Hey Ralph!” says one of the others.  I’m not actually sure who has the line, but that little back-and-forth has been stuck in my head on and off for thirty years.

Fast forward to April of 1986.  I was in the eighth grade, and my father had secured tickets to the two of us to see the “All For Love” tour in the West Palm Beach auditorium!   This was my first ever concert, although I’ve seen at least 128 other musical acts since then.  I didn’t know it at the time, but Bobby Brown had just left the group, so he wasn’t part of the 1986 tour.

Dad was a very good sport to take me, because this entire event was way outside of his comfort zone.   The general admission system wasn’t very well organized for this show, and getting into a seat involved a fair amount of pushing through a crush of people.  I was a small kid at that point in my life, so it was extra crazy for me.

I still have the ticket stub for this show.  I still have almost all of my ticket stubs.  This one is kind of amazing because it was printed by a ticketing company that no longer exists (Bass Ticket Outlets), for a concert venue that no longer exists (the West Palm Beach Auditorium).

What was your first concert?  What was your favorite?

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16 thoughts on “All For Love”

  1. Lorrie

    I’m not so sure what’s more impressive: that you still have a 30 year old ticket stub or that tickets only cost $11.93 once upon a time…. 🙂

    My first concert was with Big Sis to see Rick Springfield in Orlando in 1984 for his Living in Oz tour. I actually made a sign. Big Sis had a lot of fun at my expense over that one.

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  2. Amelie

    Green Day! It was the spring of 1996 at Bayfront. It was very hot, and I got eaten by mosquitoes like, whoa! However, not as hot as in any of the concerts we’ve been to at Bayfront. And all backpacks made it back. *sniff* 😛

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    1. I bet that was a great show! They were touring for Insomniac, yes? I think Bayfront was a very different place in the 1990s. I’m a little jealous you got to experience that.

      (And I’m sure my backpack has gone on to lead a very interesting second life as some sort of adventurous archeologist’s nap-sack.)

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  3. Amelie

    My friends and I lived at Bayfront in those days. And South Beach, when it was weird and awesome. And this was the Insomniac tour, yes. It was piles of fun!

    (But he was our backpack friend! We gave up on him too soon! 😜)

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  4. jennnanigans

    Holy old tickets, Batman! That’s amazing!

    My first was Michael Jackson! I was 5, so it must have been about 1984 or so. My folks took me down to Miami to see him. My dad refused to pay more to park closer, so we parked and walked two miles through 1980s-era Miami. Between that walk and doing the wave I was exhausted, so I fell asleep halfway through the show.

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    1. I have all my old tickets in one of those ticket-diary things. I’m still not sure how I managed to hold on to the oldest stubs for so long, but I’m glad I have.

      I bet that was a great show… I never got to see MJ live. I had friends who went to the Jacksons Victory tour, and I was so, so jealous. Giant mechanical spiders!

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  5. Umm… I’m not sure I want to admit to this… but I’m fairly sure my first concert was Boyzone. I was about 14 and clearly had not developed musical taste yet. They were supported by Ultimate Kaos.

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  6. tormuc

    Eurythmics
    Tour: “We Too Are One”
    Date: 24.Oct.1989
    Venue: Sporthalle, Cologne
    Ticket: I do not have it anymore, but it was given to me as a birthday present by my older sister.
    Thank you, sister!!

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      1. tormuc

        It was a great show! And the seed for my love of live music. Like your West Palm Beach Auditorium, the Sporthalle no longer exists, it was torn down in the late 90s. As the name “Sporthalle” might suggest, it never had the best reputation as a venue for music. But I have fond memories :-). The main venue in Cologne for major concerts today is Köln-Arena, now officially called Lanxess-Arena. (As the Internet opened up so much possibilities to get to know music not promoted by big labels, I now prefer smaller venues.)

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  7. My first “real” concert: Manfred Mann’s Earth Band in my hometown Menden (not Minden!) in Germany.
    My favorite ones: a) Deep Purple together with Uriah Heep (!) in 1993 in Dortmund, Westfalenhallen
    b) Rush (ProgRock from Canada), 30th anniversary tour, Oberhausen (Germany)
    c) ‘Wir Sind Helden’ (German Band), Gelsenkirchen (Germany), Open air, 2007 (?)

    Greetings from Europe

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