Hearts miss a beat
By Ted Shaw
The Windsor Star - March 19, 1983
It's the garage band of the '80s.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers ripsawed through a set of guitar songs at Cobo Arena Friday that could have been heard screeching through the corner Wurlitzer 15 years ago at your favorite bar.
When Petty twanged away at the McCoys' Hang On Sloopy, it was clear: the Heartbreakers would feel more at home cutting the thickened air of a smokey tavern than playing to a packed basketball palace.
Stage presence is something Petty and the boys leave to Sinatra. When a miscue and a dropped guitar can turn into a crowd-pleasing experience, you know you're dealing with the basics. It was like 10,000 people had been packed into the Riviera for a night, nose-to-navel with a platinum-selling recording artist who knows enough chords to get his way through the set, and that's it.
Tom Petty: A Survivor
By Steve Morse
Boston Globe - March 24, 1983
Rock star says Southern roots taught him how to make music
Tom Petty has never lost sight of his boyhood values. Although he has lived amid the trendy, transient fashions of Los Angeles for the past nine years, he clings to the survival instincts he learned growing up in the small town of Gainesville, Fla.
"I'm still fascinated by the South and I'm really grateful we came from there," Petty says, referring to his band the Heartbreakers. "Down there we learned to really play music for music's sake. One thing about Southern musicians is that they're not into a lot of flamboyance. They're there to play music and if you can't play, they really have no use for you."
Blunt honesty has been Petty's trademark since his band formed in the mid-'70s. And as a result of his uncompromising beliefs, he has had to become a star the hard way - on sheer guts and perseverance - not because he's riding the crest of the latest supercool trend.
DISCussion: Tom Petty in Concert And On Vinyl
Review by Mike E.
The College Chips - March 25, 1983
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers played in Cedar Rapids a couple weekends ago and I was fortunate enough to see the concert. So this week, to add a little variety, I will talk about the concert then review their latest album, "Long After Dark."
I got a call from an old friend last week and he said he had tickets to the Tom Petty concert. Not being a big Tom Petty fan, I asked who the warmup band was. He said that it was Paul Carrack and Nick Lowe and Noise To Go. I decided to go as Nick Lowe is one of my favorites and Paul Carrack ain't bad either.
I was in for a pleasant surprise. It was one of the best concerts I've ever seen.
Paul Carrack and company were a fine band with one problem; their lead guitar player was not very good. Every lead he played sounded like the one before. But they were worth seeing to hear the excellent songs.
Carrack and Lowe basically took turns singing their own songs. Carrack sang "Tempted," "How Long (Has This Been Going On?," "I Need You," a bit from his new album, plus a few more. Nick the Knife sang some of his newer songs but the highlights were two songs from '79, "Cracking Up" and "Switchboard Susan."
Even for a big Nick Lowe fan like me, T.P. and the Heartbreakers was the real highlight. I don't own any of his records but I still could recognize most of the songs from the radio. The band played really tight. Except for a couple songs they stretched out so Petty could have some fun with his audience, the songs sounded almost like records.
Review: Petty Gets to the Core
By Steve Morse
Boston Globe - March 27, 1983
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers | In concert with Nick Lowe at the Centrum | On Thursday
By the end they were coming from everywhere. From the right of the stage, from the left and from wherever they could get a toehold to begin sprinting at him. Tall, short and all sizes in between, they had a single aim in mind - to hug and kiss Tom Petty. Nothing else mattered. They tackled himfrom behind and held on for dear life.
Although he's never encouraged it, the blond and blue-eyed Petty has become a madly sought-after sex symbol. He must have had finger burns on his neck after Thursday's show, a high-energy, two-hour joust which kept the road crew busy pulling females off him for the last frenzied half hour. By that time the crowd was standing and going absolutely bonkers, so it all seemed like a fleeting dream.
A born-and-bred rocker who still plays as if he's in a small club and not an arena, Petty used a special stage with a lower front ramp that allowed close contact with the front rows, sans barricade. It put him right in the thick of the action - the way he's always liked it - but at the same time gave easy access to fans who wanted to jump up and chase him.
What's Doing This Week: A guide to events happening in the metropolitan area
Gannet-Westchester Herald-Statesman - Sunday, March 27, 1983
Tom Petty returns to the metropolitan area for two shows. On Thursday and and his Heartbreakers play the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Long Island and on Friday at the Byrnes Meadowlands Arena in New Jersey.
Tom Petty: On his own terms
By Don McLeese
Herald Statesman - Tuesday, March 29, 1983
Tom Petty's story is a familiar one. It starts with years on the bars, first in his hometown of Gainesville, Fla., then throughout Florida, then across the South There's a cross-country van trip in hopes of a record contract, only to have the band break up before congratulations are completed.
Another band, another shot -- even some success this time around. Then things start to get weird. Because of various business entanglements, years of threats and lawsuits follow. Music is still of paramount importance, but music can seem almost peripheral within the music business. Too much time is spent in court and conference rooms, too little in concert or recording sessions.
Read more: Gannet-Westchester Herald-Statesman - March 29, 1983
Rock: Tom Petty at the Byrne Arena
By Robert Palmer
The New York Times - April 4, 1983
Tom Petty complained that he had a cold at the Brendan Byrne Arena on Friday, but it didn't prevent him from connecting again and again with an affectionate, wildly enthusiastic audience. The word ''affectionate'' is not often appropriate for a loud, celebratory rock crowd, but Mr. Petty has a knack for writing songs that express, in a straightforward manner, his listeners' most basic attitudes and emotions - a dissatisfaction with job and hometown, a deep-seated need to believe that love really can conquer all.
Some rock singer-songwriters who have become arena-rock icons go on stage wearing average-Joe work clothes, they fashion songs that deliberately make such connections, and all too often they simply seem manipulative. Mr. Petty tends to affect a kind of mid-1960's mod look to go with the mid-60's folk-rock flavoring in his music, but he doesn't even seem to try to get audiences to identify with him by making their concerns his own. He simply has the touch.
Petty's Heartbreakers let that sucker rip
The Gateway - April 6, 1983
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers | Long After Dark | Backstreet BSR-5360
Both a consolidation and a confirmation of past efforts, Long After Dark takes all of Tom Petty's usual obsessions (loneliness, misplaced trust, letting go of the past...) and wraps them up in hooks mostly culled from his 1979 "how to make a hit album" best seller, Damn the Torpedoes. More than just a hint of formula is evident here, but even working with the same old building blocks, the pieces sometimes fall together in wondrous new ways (ie: 'Between Two Worlds', 'Finding Out'). You won't impress your trendy friends by listening to Tom Petty anymore, but TP is still a classic American rock 'n' roller in the tradition of Chuck Berry. "We could buy a '57 Cadillac/Put a Fender amplifier in the back," Petty muses. "Drive straight to the heart of America/Turn up to ten/Let that sucker rip!" Meaning? Why, damn the torpedoes ... and full speed ahead!
People in the News: Rock star Tom Petty 'got unlucky'
Eugene Register-Guard - April 18, 1983
Tom Petty's two sold-out Los Angeles performances were postponed -- including tonight's show -- because the rock singer's voice has given out.
Petty developed laryngitis during a show in Fresno, Calif., last Friday and he was ordered by a doctor not to perform until Tuesday night, forcing postponement of shows Sunday night and tonight at the Universal Amphitheater.
Sunday ticketholders will be able to see Petty and his band, the Heartbreakers, Wednesday night at the Amphitheater, and tickets for tonight's performance will be honored April 25.
The band, whose best known hits include "Breakdown," "Refugee" and the current "You Got Lucky," will perform concerts at the Amphitheater Tuesday and Thursday as scheduled, a spokesman said,