In fall of 1981, rock group Hall and Oates released their Private Eyes album. I was not a fan of this band. They weren’t bad, but their sound was a little too pop for my tastes at the time. Their music got a lot of play at the college parties that I attended, and we watched a lot of MTV at the time. Their videos were in heavy rotation on that channel. Because of all this, I got to hear a lot of their music. They did a tour supporting this album in September with a stop in Memphis. FM 100 was the radio station sponsoring the show and they were selling tickets for a dollar. I had been dating my now wife Andrea for almost a year at the time. Her mother enjoyed going to concerts and bought tickets for the three of us to go see the show.
I wasn’t excited about the show. Most of the rock concerts that came to Memphis were sponsored by radio station Rock 103. This was my go-to radio station. The music that they played was more rock and almost no pop. The fact that Hall and Oates were being sponsored by FM 100 told me that the show would be less hip. Probably more teenage and pre-teen girls would be there more likely to be screaming. But I’m generally game for any concert and would enjoy spending time with Andrea so we were all on go for the concert.
I imagine it didn’t take long to sell out a concert with dollar tickets, but Andrea’s mom must have picked this up at the last possible minute. Our seats were on the next to top row of the Mid-South Coliseum. That wouldn’t matter because I didn’t care to have good seats. Soon I decided that I might have the best seat in the house. Just around the upper rim of the arena on the top row was a group of pre-teen girls who were excited to be there. I don’t think they could have been more excited if they had been on the front row. They made noise and danced to all the songs. The most memorable moment was during the song Private Eyes. The lyrics of the chorus include the phrase:
“Private eyes
Are watching you
They see your every move”
They were singing and dancing along with precision choreography. When they said the word “eyes,” they pointed to their eyes. When they said “you,” they pointed forward. I’m sure there were other motions that were included, but these are the only ones I specifically remember. I remember motions choreographed for other songs too. I imagine Kiss On My List had it’s own motions but I don’t remember what they were.
I did enjoy the music and liked getting to see guitarist G. E. Smith, who was married to Gilda Radner at the time. But the girls on the top row of the Coliseum stole the show.