It’s Party Time
For Rick Springfield lovers, Celebration is Ground Zero

Like thousands of other Central Illinois teen-agers in July 1982, Lori Dillman stood on a chair, screamed and sang along as Rick Springfield rocked the Prairie Capital Convention Center in Springfield.

“I loved the music, the whole ‘General Hospital’ thing back then,” she said of singer and former soap-opera actor.

While the passion in those other fans may have waned in the past 16 years, the 34-year-old Decatur woman’s interest in the singer has grown stronger.

And Dillman plans to be in the front row when Springfield performs Sunday night at Decatur Celebration.

As a member of the singer’s fan club – Rick’s Loyal Supporters – she’s playing host to four friends and fellow fans from across the country at her house this weekend, and making accommodations for as many as 60 more.

Springfield was not the original act scheduled for Sunday night. He replaced original headliner Taylor Dayne, who backed out because of a recording commitment. Dillman received e-mail notification about the show on July 9 – before it was even announced to newspapers and radio stations.

“As soon as it became official, I had e-mail from all over,” she said. “The phone was ringing, ‘How do I get there?’ ‘Where can I stay?’ – things like that.”

Springfield’s performance times were changed on Thursday, to 6 and 8:15 p.m. Sunday on the Show Stage, at Eldorado and Franklin streets.

The other stages have changed their times for concerts.

“A change on the main stage affects everything that’s on the other stages,” Celebration producer Fred Puglia said.

• Freedom, on the Christian music stage, will be 5:15 and 7:15 p.m.
• Skip Banks, on the Civic Center stage, will be at 5 p.m.
• Awesome Power Experience, in the Magna Bank parking lot, will be at 2:30 p.m.

Dillman was going to be the host for a reception for Springfield between his shows, sponsored by her employer, Patterson House, Inc. The company operates homes for the developmentally disabled in Sullivan, Carlinville, Pekin and Canton, and Dillman is a nursing home administrator.

The reception, however, was scrapped this week. A television crew from cable channel VH1 will be at the Celebration on Sunday to tape footage of Springfield, for either its “Where Are They Now?’ or “Behind the Music” series. They were set to interview Springfield between gigs.

“I was kind of disappointed, but it was for a good reason,” Dillman renewed her interest in Springfield after purchasing a home computer 2 1/2 years ago. While searching for subjects of interest, she discovered Rick’s Loyal Supporters and the group’s monthly online chat room.

“I’ve met a lot of interesting people,” she said.

They informed her of some members-only shows Springfield performed in connection with the Ronald McDonald House and Cystic Fibrosis Foundation charities.

She’s followed Springfield to Los Angeles, Tucson, Ariz.; and Dubuque, Iowa. She’s bringing in newfound friends in the club from New York, Massachusetts, and California to stay with her, and knows of other fans coming from several states.

“It’s not like a teen-age thing,” she said. “We have more in common. We’re professionals.”

Springfield said he was “amazed and humbled” by the devotion of fans like Dillman.

“I know there’s some online clubs and things, and I know the people that do this are incredible,” he said. “I wasn’t sure to what degree of energy there’d be, but it’s amazing.”

Dillman estimates she’s seen Springfield on a half-dozen different occasions. At one of the charity events, a celebrity auction, she and her friends pooled their money for a chance to sing along with him.

“That’s my moment of fame,” she said. “I sang ‘Don’t Talk to Strangers’ with him. It’s my new favorite song.”

Her experiences have filled four oversize photo scrapbooks, with pictures taken by herself and other club members.

Dillman, a divorced mother, has her 4-year-old son, Jason Carlton, hooked on Springfield as well.

She and her friends will stake out their lawn chairs on the front row of the Show Stage at Franklin and Eldorado streets early Sunday afternoon for close seats to Springfield that night.

But Dillman said her enjoyment of Springfield isn’t an obsession.

“I go to the concerts and scream like the rest of them,” she said. “But since I’ve met him and sat down and talked to him, it’s different. I’m not like ‘Let’s chase him, let’s buy everything.’

“But I do have a towel he signed.”