Today in Madonna History: April 10, 1985

virgin-tour-seattle-1 virgin-tour-seattle-2 virgin-tour-seattle-3 virgin-tour-seattle-4

On April 10 1985, Madonna’s Virgin Tour opened with 3 sold-out concerts at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle, Washington.

During a 2009 interview with Rolling Stone, interviewer Austin Scaggs asked Madonna regarding her feelings and emotions during the tour, since it was the first time she was playing in arenas. Madonna replied saying, “That whole tour was crazy, because I went from playing CBGB and the Mudd Club to playing sporting arenas,” she told the magazine. “I played a small theater in Seattle, and the girls had flap skirts on and the tights cut off below their knees and lace gloves and rosaries and bows in their hair and big hoop earrings. I was like, ‘This is insane!’ After Seattle, all of the shows were moved to arenas.”

Madonna had three shows in Seattle – April 10, 12 and 13 – and all three were sellouts by the time she took the stage that first night. The Beastie Boys opened for Madonna and they weren’t well received by the pro-Madonna crowd. The show was a year before “Licensed to Ill” was released.

Their 30-minute set got off to a bad start when one of the Beastie Boys declared himself King of the Paramount, and generally made the pro-Madonna audience feel like a swarm of hillbillies, P-I pop music critic Gene Stout wrote in his review.

“Dressed in what looked like a Boy George outfit, she looked reluctant, almost scared, and kept her eyes on the ground as she and her small entourage swept past a modest gathering of fans,” Stout wrote.

Madonna started the show with Dress You Up, followed with Holiday, and performed Borderline for the first time live as her seventh song. Madonna ended by debuting Material Girl as her encore.

Today in Madonna History: November 22, 1984

On November 22 1984, Madonna graced the cover of her very first Rolling Stone magazine with issue 435. Playing with the success of Like A Virgin, the headline read: Madonna Goes All The Way. Madonna went on to achieve the most covers of any female between 1984 and 2009.

 

Today in Madonna History: November 13, 1997

On November 13 1997, the Rolling Stone magazine Women of Rock issue, featuring Madonna, Tina Turner and Courtney Love on its cover was released.

The photoshoot took place on October 21, and according to Madonna, the ladies had fun figuring out what music to listen to during the shoot:

“There was a bit of a skirmish over who was going to play what. We finally agreed that every other CD was mine and every other CD was Courtney’s and we sort of went back and forth. But the ultimate song that we ended up dancing to all the time was the MC stereo remix of the Tricky song, which is a very good song to dance to.”

Tina had this to say about working with Madonna and Courtney:

“It was like working with kids. You know I’ve always had Ikettes for dancers, so they were pretending a few times that they were my dancers. They had all kinds of pretence going on, but it was always built around me being the mother of the two in some kind of way. In terms of ‘Tina is this and we are that,’ and I was laughing the whole time, honestly. If the photograph comes out with me really laughing seriously, it was because of their reaction to each other. It was wonderful.”

Madonna was introduced to longtime stylist, Arianne Phillips, at the photoshoot. Phillips had been working as Courtney Love’s personal stylist at the time and ended up styling both Courtney and Madonna during the shoot by photographer Peggy Sirota.

Today in Madonna History: June 5, 1986

rolling-stone-june-5-madonna-1 rolling-stone-june-5-madonna-2 rolling-stone-june-5-madonna-3 rolling-stone-june-5-madonna-4 rolling-stone-june-5-madonna-5 rolling-stone-june-5-madonna-6

On June 5 1986, Madonna appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, with photos by Matthew Rolston.

Here are some outtakes from the clown session:

rolling-stone-june-5-madonna-7 rolling-stone-june-5-madonna-8 rolling-stone-june-5-madonna-9

Today in Madonna History: May 15, 1997

lap-may15-1 lap-may15-2

On May 15 1997, Madonna’s Like A Prayer is named one of  “200 Best Albums Ever Made” by Rolling Stone magazine.

Today in Madonna History: March 5, 1992

madonna-best-dressed-1991

On March 5 1992, Madonna won the title of Best-Dressed Female Artist in Rolling Stone magazine’s 16th annual Readers Poll.

Today in Madonna History: January 7, 2004

madonna-remixed-revisited-january-1 madonna-remixed-revisited-january-2

On January 7 2004, Rolling Stone magazine reviewed Madonna’s Remixed & Revisited EP:

Instead of the twenty-year retrospective originally planned for the holiday season, Madonna fans get a measly half-hour of mishmash marginalia. Of the four remixes from American Life, only one clicks: Headcleanr’s rock mix of Love Profusion, which replaces Mirwais’ electrofolk with Strokes-like guitars and drums that flatter an overlooked but fantastic song. The live medley of Like a Virgin and Hollywood, with Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, falls flat without the infamous kisses, and the Gap commercial with Missy Elliott just sounds cheap and nasty. Your Honesty, an outtake from 1994’s Bedtime Stories, recalls the post-disco funkiness of Madonna’s 1983 debut. Bet it would’ve worked better in a box set. – Barry Walters