Sydney 1986

[David]

Originally Posted by joe

I've been downloading these tracks from http://www.angelfire.com/mac2/nickslive/TradeSite.htm

and she doesn't sound that f***ed up to me. Didn't Mick say in his book that her drinking worsened when she went to Australia and legend has it that she fell off the stage? She actually sounds pretty normal to me. Maybe it changes later in the show.

???

I saw a bunch of RAL shows in California, & have been listening to dozens of others on tape for almost 20 years. I never saw or heard of any instance of a fall off the stage. Despite my having heard from people who claim they saw such a thing, I'm still inclined to think it's an urban myth.

I don't remember what Mick's book says about her drinking, but I have always maintained that, owing to her bloated, haggard appearance & her general mien, Stevie's "problem" on the '86 tour was alcohol, not coke. But whatever the case may have been, there were many high points on the tour. In fact, I would say that Stevie herself was a lot more tuned in to the music & the presentation than some of the people in her band were, namely Marotta the drummer.

It's all in the chronology: If you encounter tapes of Stevie singing in 1986 after having been introduced to her in later years (especially 1997 to the present), she is liable to strike you as being haggard & even pathetic. But if you had been along for the ride since the beginning of her solo career or even before, the RAL personality & look probably seem a very natural evolution to you. At least that's true in my case.