On July 9, 1983 I saw a stadium show in Fresno headlined by Loverboy on the Keep It Up tour. Joan Jett supported on her Album tour and The Fixx played earlier on tour for Reach The Beach. This was an unusual event for Fresno, as Ratcliffe Stadium wasn’t used for concerts any time recently. There is footage of the Rolling Stones out there in the mid-60’s and The Doors headlined a get-out-the-vote concert after Jim Morrison died. So this was quite an event for me and my friends.
Loverboy was on top of the world at the time, touring their third straight multi-platinum album. Joan Jett was one of the big names in rock after her previous album, I Love Rock And Roll. And The Fixx had made a big splash the year before with Shuttered Room and were now MTV darlings with “One Thing Leads To Another” from their Reach The Beach record.
The adventure started the night before as we made the hour-drive up to Fresno and rode around to various places like The Wherehouse record store on Blackstone not far from the stadium. We slept in the parking lot and lined up outside the gates early in the morning to get a spot up front near the stage.
It was blazing hot that day and we spent most of it on the grass about 30-40 feet from the stage. Even as young as I was, it took a lot out of me and when Loverboy took the stage with the sun finally relenting the cool air felt great, but we had moved up into the seats on stage right by that time.
This was a great event, one of just a few stadium shows I have been to over the years. For whatever reason, I don’t really get charged up for something like Aftershock or the Day On The Green events. I’ve seen the Rolling Stones/GnR, The Who and Iron Maiden in outdoor venues but that’s about it except for the Hair Metal Festival and Cathouse Live! at Irvine Meadows before they tore it down.
Here it is, a look back at a great event just before I left for the military: