Corey Hart has young girls screaming and fainting as his Boy in the Box Tour hits Vancouver

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON JAN. 31, 1986

By Steve Newton

Two years ago Corey Hart came to Vancouver on a promotional tour for his newly released debut album, First Offense. That was just before radio stations across the country started going heavy on the Toronto rocker’s first single, “Sunglasses at Night”.

There were no frantic teenage girls screaming outside his hotel door, or jamming the phone lines with lovesick calls. Back then it was like “Corey who?”, and as he sat there fiddling with a pair of shades, it was obvious the soft-spoken 21-year-old wasn’t used to the limelight–or the press interviews that came with it.

“Do you really wear those at night?” I asked, trying to break the ice. “You bet,” he replied quickly, “do you?” I told him I would if I had a pair, so would he give me his? “No way, Steve,” he chuckled. “Sixty bucks.”

I never took him up on that offer–but you can bet he’d have found plenty of takers at the Pacific Coliseum last Saturday night (January 25). The enthusiasm shown there for the “Boy in the Box” was startling–rivalling even that given Bryan Adams at his homecoming show. And it didn’t die down after the concert either.

“Monica touched him! Monica touched him!,” one flustered youth told a gang of friends gathered outside. Fifty feet away a girl screamed at a long black limousine–and in no time a large crowd was buzzing around the vehicle, spreading out onto Renfrew Street and causing havoc with the already congested traffic.

Luckily for Corey it wasn’t his limo; he’s taken off long ago. He would have lost more than just his shades with that crazy mob.

Earlier on, the 12,000 or so fans inside the Coliseum roared whenever Hart started into a run, or slid across the stage on his knees. Dressed in a black jacket, black slacks, black shoes–and the obligatory black studded wristbands–he treated them to such tunes as “Never Surrender” (his big Juno-winning hit from last year), “She Got the Radio”, and “Sunny Place, Shady People”. During the latter song one girl fainted and had to be lifted over the barricade at the foot of the stage and carried away.

Hart nearly made another young fan swoon by pulling a Springsteen trick and inviting her onstage to cavort with him on “Jailhouse Rock”. Last summer when he played the Coliseum Hart tried this, and the girl ended up tossing her cookies in the corner. This time the one he chose, named Rene, kept control of herself. “You gotta promise you won’t cry or scream,” he told her, “just dance your ass off.”

After an hour and a quarter Hart left the stage, returning for an encore that included his recent hit ballad “Everything in My Heart”, the Christmas single “Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer”, and the show closer, “Sunglasses at Night”.

To hear the audio of my 1984 interview with Corey Hart subscribe to my Patreon page, where you can eavesdrop on over 700 of my uncut, one-on-one conversations with musicians since 1982.