Clay Aiken is touring....v2007

Clay Aiken likes to tour. Since 2003, he's toured eight times and, in less than a week, is about to embark on his ninth tour:

2003 American Idol Tour
2003 Jingle Bell Balls
2004 Independent Tour
2004 Not a Tour
2004 Joyful Noise Tour
2005 Jukebox Tour
2005 Joyful Noise Tour II
2006 Joyful noise Tour III
2007 Hard Rock and a Soft Place Tour

Clay's a tourin' fool! And why not? His fans love him, he makes a lot of money on tour, he's one of the best live entertainers in the world, and, in his own words, "Singing is the single most joyous thing a person can do".

Before the tour starts, I thought I'd take a look back at Clay's previous tours. Let's take a trip down memory lane.

2003. The American Idol Tour. The excitement in the venues was like this giant ball of energy. As we enjoyed the other performers, it was Clay that we were waiting to see. As it came closer to his first song, the energy started in the back of the venue and rolled forward, gathering momentum from the fans until we were bursting with excitement. It was almost like the venue was rumbling or vibrating. Clay was so excited to be returning home to Raleigh he just about jumped out of his skin. Then that spikey head arose from the floor....



In December, 2003, Clay was a part of the Jingle Ball, a traveling minstrel show of pop stars and wanna-be's. He sang only a few songs to a backing track. Listen to 'Invisible' from Tacoma by Olyrose.....




Clay's very first solo tour, wasn't. It was a co-headlining tour with Kelly Clarkson. When both fandoms heard about it, none were too happy, they wanted their idol to share the stage with no one, but, in the end, it worked out very well. They sold out almost all the venues and each played an hour, alternating who opened and who closed. Clay choose 'Kyrie' to open his portion of the show, and what a freaking entrance it was!





Summer of 2004. Clay's FIRST Solo tour. The fandom named it two different names, The Solitour, combining 'Solitaire', Solo, and Tour, but the one that stuck, and the one that the Official Fan Club used was, 'NaT', ot Not-a-Tour. Why that? A few dates were picked, but Clay's publicist, when asked about a tour, said, this is not a tour, just a few dates. Which turned into a full-fledged tour. Go figure. This is his opening song, U2's 'Where the streets have no Name', courtesy of Aflack and Scarlett.




December, 2004 gave us Clay's first Christmas Tour. He called it the 'Joyfuol Noise' Tour, after that Bible verse, 'Make a joyful noise unto the Lord'. Don't take that literally, I'm not up on the Bible, but you get the picture. This is a partial video by Scarlett of 'Good News'. The Clackgatherers practiced stealth video'ing that tour and trying to find a really good video was very hard, but this is a beautiful close-up of Clay's face. You can really see the reverence he has for this song.





During the Spring of 2005, when we heard that Clay was doing covers through the decades, a lot of us thought the cheese would be melting all over the place, but Clay surprised us. Boy, did he EVER surprise us! What a tour-de-force that concert turned out to be. Song after song after song, most sung in 90-100 degree heat. It was a wall of sound that slapped us upside the head.

The 50's (thanks Tsunamimommy & DiamondJake)





Elvis





The 60's




The 70's






The 80's





The 90's



Current




Stump the Band, part I





Stump the Band, part II





December of 2005 brought us Clay's second Joyful Noise Tour. When he played Raleigh, his 'Papa' was in the audience and Clay sang a song just for him, and, by doing so, gave the fandom this very, very, very special treat. 'Oh, Beautiful Star of Bethlehem'.






In December of 2006, Clay did his Christmas show, but this time, he sang with an orchestra. He grew his hair long, sometimes grew a beard, but he entertained us with the songs and with his stand-up comedy routine. Clay? A comic? What? You don't believe me? Seeing is believing!







So.....what will Clay sing this summer? We don't know. We do know that he is singing with an orchestra, touring his CD, A Thousand Different Ways and it starts on July 4th in Frisco, TX.

All across the nation, through-out the Clay boards, the fans are stirring. There is a palpable energy surging from one message board to the other. Like a game of telephone, we are starting to hear rumblings from the Giant. And it is good. So we wait and we wonder and we speculate. The Giant is awakening from a long slumber and the fans are stirring.

It's going to be a terrific summer of Clay, version 2007.


Thanks to all the Clackgatherers, without whom this fandom would not be what it is.


Related Tags: Clay Aiken, Tour, 2003 American Idol Tour, 2003 Jingle Bell Balls, 2004 Independent Tour, 2004 Not a Tour, 2004 Joyful Noise Tour, 2005 Jukebox Tour, 2005 Joyful Noise Tour II, 2006 Joyful noise Tour III, 2007 Hard Rock and a Soft Place Tour, YouTube