Candy Girl Tour

The Candy Girl Tour was a concert tour by the boy band New Edition, launched to support their first album Candy Girl.

Background

New edition dropped their first single Candy Girl in February 1983. The song was played by local radio stations around Boston and later became a smash hit, this marked an opportunity for them to perform professionally.

In the beginning, they started doing track dates in nightclubs and Skating rink parties in the Northeastern region on weekends performing few minute sets on a pre-recorded tape. When summer came, they performed at some festivals, the Indiana Black Expo^[1] and by august became an opening act for Rick James on his four-month Cold Blooded Tour.^[2] It is on this tour in Prividence that Rick James thought it would be better for them to perform their set with a live band, providing them with his own musicians, the Stone City Band.^[3][4]

August also marked their first trip oversea, as the group appeared on TV Show performing live version of their hits "Popcorn Love" and "Candy Girl" on Switch in England^[5] and Vorsicht, Musik! on August 15 in Germany lip-synching "Candy Girl".^[6] During the trip in London, they shot the videos for Popcorn Love and "She Gives Me a Bang" on the same day.^[7] Coming back to the United States, New edition received their first royalty check for an amount of $1.87 each. Frustrated by this situation, they acquired new management in September and parted ways with Streetwise by November. Two months later, they crossed paths with Jerhyl Busby who signed them on MCA Records.^[8] They spent the rest of the year opening for Rick James and other R&B acts like the Gap Band and Stacy Lattisaw.

In 1984, the group was headlining 45-minute concert backed by the Q-Band in theaters around the country. While the group was performing in the Bahamas in February, Jheryl Busby invited Ray Parker Jr. to attend one of their concert, Parker met the group members who explained to him that they were already including the cover of "Mr. Telephone Man" by Junior Tucker on their show and wanted to record a studio version of it.^[9] In the spring, New Edition were part of the line-up of the "Kool Jazz Festival" with Luther Vandross, Patti LaBelle, and others artists.^[10]

Setlist

Songs are not in order:

December 1983 - 1984^[11]

• Popcorn Love
• Should Have Never Told Me^[12]
• The Jackson 5 Medley: I Want You Back/ABC/The Love You Save
• Jealous Girl
• Is This the End
• Mr. Telephone Man (by Junior Tucker)
• Pass the Beat
• Candy Girl

Personnel

Musicians

The Q-Band (Questarr Band):^[13]

• Drexel "BOOTS" Anderson – guitar/MD/Bkrd vocals
• Robert "Suave Bob" Cepeda – percussions
• Ralph "Da Phunky Drumma" Vargas – drums,Bkrd vocals
• Anthony "T-Bone" McEwan – bass and keyboards, Bkrd vocals
• Carl T. "The Smooth" Smith – keyboards
• John Steiner – keyboards
• Rick Roberts – band manager

Tour dates

1983

1984

References