Those were the days David Cassidy: The calm before the Shawfield storm

DAVID Cassidy was one of the biggest names in pop in the first years of the Seventies.

He was in the sitcom The Partridge Family, which gave rise to five Top 40 UK hits, including I Think I Love You and Breaking Up Is Hard To Do. Solo, he charted with Could It Be Forever/ Cherish, How Can I Be Sure, and

Daydreamer/puppy Song; the last two both reached number one. He also had a number of bestselling albums.

In May 1974, just as his latest single, If I Didn’t Care, was selling well, he played a concert at Glasgow’s Shawfield stadium as part of his British tour. At Glasgow Airport (main image) he was greeted by a handful of fans before being driven to the Albany Hotel (above), where he spoke to journalists.

That night’s concert was a success, though hundreds of teenage girls had to be given firstaid treatment for fainting and hysteria. Over two hours, ambulance crews, female police officers and stewards carried the young girls from the 10,000-strong crowd to treat them.

The Herald’s Alan Macdermid, who was present, had to fight desperately to protect two young women, who were lying unconscious at his feet, from being stampeded by a crowd of girls who were surging towards the stage.

At one point he was accosted by a girl, a huge purple top hat around her neck, who pleaded with him: “Oh, get him for me; get David for me, please, please.” A young man was taken into custody after trying to climb over a screen. Girls broke through a cordon and were dragged back, many kicking and screaming. Others were in tears because their cameras had been lost or broken.

“Rangers and Celtic were never like this,” mused one ambulanceman. “At least you can get through a Rangers and Celtic crowd.”