Robert Wood, 55, of Glenrothes in Fife, was stunned when the star called to say she wanted to help following a TV appeal he recorded recently.
Mr Wood with his wife, Eleanor, set up Peace Village School and Orphanage Trust following a holiday to Kenya.
Mr Wood said he would visit the school with Cher in December.
Worth every penny
Mr Wood said he had spent his lifesavings of £15,000 sending aid to the school.
He said: "We were on holiday in Ukunda in Kenya in February and decided we had to help these children because they had nothing.
"They sleep on the floor of a mud hut which is also a classroom and have no pencils, paper or food.
"Some people might think we are crazy spending all our lifesavings but it is worth every penny when you see they have no food, clothing and toys.
"But they need a lot more so I recently went on TV asking for help and the next thing I know Cher called me last Wednesday."
Mr Wood said he needs to raise the money for the piece of land worth £18,000 where the mud huts are built on before it is sold to developers.
He added: "Cher said she wanted to buy the land and help build a school after she saw my appeal.
"It brought a tear to my eye. She was calling from Germany and said she had heard I wasn't sleeping at night because I was worrying about the children.
"I agreed and then she said 'Well sweet dreams babe because when I start a project, I finish it, you can start sleeping at night now'."
A UK spokesman for Cher confirmed the star intended to get involved with the project and had spoken to the couple.
He said: "Cher does quite a lot of charity work but keeps her efforts low key."
Complete Drumset from CHER’s Living Proof Tour. The ultimate CHER memorabilia is for sale! Includes CHER personally signed snare drum to Mark, all authentic pieces used on stage, certificate of authenticity.
Equipment includes: Gretsch Drums- 3 Snare drums (10", 14", 14"), 8", 10", 12", 14 ", 16" tom toms, 24" bass drum, custom Gibraltar rack, all pedals (double pedal, single spare pedal, hi-hat, single inverted electronic kick pedal), Sabian Cymbals- 22" ride, 2- 20" crashes, 19" crash, 14" hi-hats, 2- 12" splashes, 12" china, 20" china, 15" china. Electronics include: 3- Roland V-drum pads, drumkat, Kurzweil K-2000 sampler with all the tour samples from the actual recordings, drum throne.
The tour drum tech will actually fly out with the equipment and set it up for you complete with a diagram. This is a chance of a lifetime for the ultimate collector. Please email: Jamminplanet@aol.com for more details…
Note: Proceeds from the sale will benefit Mark Schulman's Inspirational Make It All Happen Seminar Program and The organization "Create Now" which helps troubled children through creative arts mentoring.
Groovy songs, silly skits return on DVD
By Greg Hernandez, Staff Writer
In the 1970s, Tony Orlando and Dawn, the Captain & Tennille, and Sonny and Cher weren't just popular musical acts with hit records - they were network variety show stars who millions of viewers tuned into on television each week.
Now their shows, which had seemingly been locked away inside some sort of '70s time capsule, are being given a long-awaited encore on DVD as part of the nostalgia wave that continues to celebrate the groovy decade of disco balls, lava lamps and the Brady Bunch.
"The cool thing about a lot of these programs is that people did love them," said Brant Berry, vice president of R2 Entertainment, which is releasing the shows on DVD. "They were before music videos and where you saw people do their hits."
Boxed sets of sitcoms and dramas from the decade are already taking up plenty of space on store shelves, helping to fuel the TV-on-DVD boom, which had a growth spurt of nearly 50 percent during a 12-month period ending March 2005.
But these variety hours featuring songs, silly skits and plenty of guest stars are just arriving at the DVD party, which reached $21.1 billion in sales and rental revenue last year, according to the Digital Entertainment Group.
"What is so great about the variety show is that in many cases, it is completely uncorrupted. It hasn't been worn out through syndication," observed Robert Thompson, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University. "Many people haven't seen Captain & Tennille since the first time in the 1970s. With sitcoms and dramas, we don't think of them as being from the '70s because we have seen them thousands of times. Think of how many times you've seen an episode of 'The Brady Bunch."'
Portland, Ore.-based R2 will release "The Captain & Tennille Ultimate Collection" on Tuesday. A Tony Orlando and Dawn collection hit stores last month, while a boxed set of Sonny and Cher's CBS variety hours came out in 2004.
Daryl Dragon and Toni Tennille, the husband-and-wife team who make up the Captain & Tennille, were at the height of their popularity with such hits as "Love Will Keep Us Together," "The Way I Want to Touch You" and "Muskrat Love" when then-ABC President Fred Silverman tapped them for a variety hour in 1976.
"All of these years, people have asked us when the show was going to come out on DVD," Tennille said this week. "The problem was getting all of the music and other legal clearances. It just took forever. Carol Burnett (who also hosted a variety show) just put out the sketches and not the music because it is so difficult to get the rights."
Airing on ABC opposite NBC's "Little House on the Prairie" and CBS' "Rhoda," the variety show still managed to pull in solid ratings with more than 35 million viewers each week.
"There were only three networks back then, so people really knew you," Dragon said. "There was no CNN around."
The Grammy winners hosted such guests as Bob Hope, George Burns, Jackie Gleason, John Travolta and the original "Charlie's Angels" - Farrah Fawcett, Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith. But after a single season, the duo opted to focus on recording and touring again and began doing yearly ABC specials instead.
"We were asked to renew and do another season, but I was worried because we were running out of songs," Dragon recalled.
But the memory of the series has lasted for both the couple and their fans.
"A lot of the music that we put out there was positive," said Tennille. "It had a positive point of view and people liked that. Not everyone is totally bummed out all the time!"
The Captain & Tennille DVD coincides with the release of their six original albums on CD for the first time and the duo has recorded a few new Christmas songs that are included in the DVD package.
For Tony Orlando and Dawn, the DVD revival of their CBS variety show actually led to a reunion of Orlando and his partners, Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent, in the recording studio after a 28-year hiatus. The trio that topped the charts with "Tie A Yellow Ribbon," "Knock Three Times" and "He Don't Love You" will release "Tony Orlando & Dawn - A Christmas Album" on Tuesday.
It was after handling the advertising campaign for "The Johnny Carson Ultimate Collection" that Respond2 Communications launched its R2 Entertainment division. The Carson collection was sold exclusively through infomercials for three years before it became available at retail stores and has now passed 800,000 in sales.
R2 began releasing titles under its own banner starting with a collection of Bob Hope specials before moving on to the '70s variety series.
"I wanted to go after some of the shows I love and the first one was Sonny and Cher, which really paved the way for Tony Orlando and Dawn, Captain & Tennille, Donny and Marie and all the rest of them," said R2's Berry. "It's not the kind of programming that is even on television anymore. The lost art of the variety show - it's gone."
Other variety shows already released by R2 and other companies include "The Brady Bunch Hour," "The Flip Wilson Show" and "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In."
R2 is producing a collective infomercial that will feature all its collections, including Carson, Hope, Sonny and Cher, Tony Orlando and Dawn and the Captain & Tennille. Plans are in the works for several other variety shows to be released next year including, possibly, Donny and Marie Osmond's ABC variety hour.
Original fans already have an appetite for entertainment from their youth, but such shows as VH1's "I Love the '70s" and the sitcom "That '70s Show" have made the era appealing to a younger generation as well.
Thompson said powerful nostalgia waves tend to happen in 20- to 30-year cycles. Shows set in the 1950s, such as "Happy Days" and "M*A*S*H," became big hits in the 1970s. This was followed by a plethora of '60s revivals in the '80s.
"The '70s are interesting in that we had a '70s revival in the '90s, right on schedule, but the '70s thing is hanging on," he said. "It was the last decade where every single one of us shared the same culture. We were all still feeding from the same mass-cultural trough. If you were a kid in the '70s, everyone was watching the same thing and hearing the same music.
"I think it was the last decade that was purely itself. The clothing, the music, the TV shows - you can't mistake it."
Greg Hernandez, (81
713-3758
greg.hernandez@dailynews.com
Cher has helped the Katrina victims by financing food for some of the releif efforts. She has said she Would like to do more and has talked with the people of Habitiat for Humanity about helping in other efforts in the coming weeks.
More details when they become available
I was listening to the radiorecently when the DJ said that Cher was reportedly going to do an engagement an Steve Wynn's new hotel next year. We still haven't heard it from Cher herself, but the talk is still out there. 
Susan
CHER SHARES GET-WELL WISH: A donation from Cher helped a 16-year-old Northport, Ala., boy suffering from muscular dystrophy get vital home health care — at least for a few months.
Joseph Sullivan, who can move his head and fingers but little else, was all but bedridden this summer because his 69-year-old adoptive mother is disabled from two strokes, and home health care was cut off when he lost Medicaid coverage.
The Medicaid money stopped when the boy’s survivor benefits from his father’s death increased his income $13 over the agency’s $599 monthly limit.
Without Medicaid, the family couldn’t afford the $190 weekly cost of home health care to keep Joseph bathed and dressed so he could leave the house and eventually return to school.
After hearing about Joseph’s ordeal from a dentist in nearby Tuscaloosa, Cher sent $550 for two weeks of home health care, with hopes that it would inspire others to pitch in.
“It’s great, isn’t it? Shows there’s still some good people in this world,” said Joseph’s mom, Betty Sullivan, a big fan of Cher in the ’70s.
From Contact Music
CHER is officially the world's top diva - her farewell tour has been confirmed as the top-grossing trek ever for a female artist.
The pop superstar, who wrapped up the tour on 30 April (05) at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, played 280 shows in North America alone, performing to 2,880,726 fans, and grossing $195 million (GBP103 million).
A spokesman for Clear Channel Entertainment, the company who promoted the trek, says, "No other female artist has ever come close to what she did... She outworked them all."
With European and Australian shows included, Cher played a total of 325 dates.
From AP
Cher's farewell tour comes to end at Hollywood Bowl
LOS ANGELES Belly dancers, a dancing elephant and a video montage marked the end of Cher's three-year farewell tour this weekend.
The 58-year-old singer played to a sold-out crowd Saturday at the Hollywood Bowl and insisted the final concert on her 325-stop tour really was the end.
Video clips broadcast on four giant screens showed the Sonny Bono years, shots from her solo career and clips of Cher with Carol Burnett, Ray Charles, Elton John, David Bowie and the Muppets.
The show, which included about a dozen costume changes, ended with fireworks.
LOS ANGELES Belly dancers, a dancing elephant and a video montage marked the end of Cher's three-year farewell tour this weekend.
The 58-year-old singer played to a sold-out crowd Saturday at the Hollywood Bowl and insisted the final concert on her 325-stop tour really was the end. Video clips broadcast on four giant screens showed the Sonny Bono years, shots from her solo career and clips of Cher with Carol Burnett, Ray Charles, Elton John, David Bowie and the Muppets. The show, which included about a dozen costume changes, ended with fireworks..
Story Appears As:
Celine Dion To Perform for UNICEF
by Paul Cashmere
26 April 2005
On Mother's Day, Celine Dion will perform a special
concert in Las Vegas and hopes to raise $1,000,000 for
UNICEF to assist further with Tsunami relief.
The honorary committee backing the event include
Presidents GW Bush and Bill Clinton as well as Sir Elton
John, Bette Midler, Barbara Streisand, Elizabeth Taylor
and Cher.
"Like everyone else in the world, I was devastated by
the loss and suffering of the people of South Asia after
the tsunami and decided we had to do something to make
sure help and awareness would continue for a long time
to come," said Celine Dion in a statement. "Our goal is
to raise one million dollars but we're hoping to go far
beyond that since all the money is going to UNICEF to
help these people get their lives back. It's going to be
a very special night, for a great cause, and the support
we've been getting from our sponsors and the fans has
been amazing."
The show will be held Sunday, May 8 at The Colosseum,
Caesar's Palace.
By Melissa Dribben/Knight Ridder Newspapers
Cherish those wigs, sequins and Barbie dolls — less than 60 days remain until Cher performs for the very last time on tour.
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| Iconic songstress Cher has kicked off the Australasian leg of her world tour, playing to 20,000 fans in Auckland. The 56-year-old singer/actor performed her Farewell Tour, singing her hits from I've Got You Babe of the 1960s to Believe from the `90s. "This is my last tour and I'm really happy that I came here," Cher told the crowd. "I'm not going to give up show business but I'm going to give up touring because you know there are all of these young girls coming out like Britney and J-Lo," to which the crowd boo-ed. "I know," she said, "They are ho's, aren't they?" Sunday night's show was Cher's 299th performance of her Farewell Tour. She will play in Christchurch on Tuesday before her first Australian show in more than 10 years at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne on February 26. But the singer won't be leaving the Kiwis for long. So in love with the South Pacific, Cher said she was looking for a house in New Zealand. She will take a private helicopter trip on Monday over New Zealand's Bay of Islands to check out possible locations. She will arrive in Melbourne on Wednesday and perform three dates there before taking in four shows in Sydney, one in Newcastle, two in Brisbane and two in Adelaide. With seventies music group the Village People supporting, her last ever touring performance will be in Adelaide on March 16. The $US3 million ($A3.8 million) production is now in its fourth year and has been seen by almost three million fans. The show covers Cher's hits from five decades in recording, television, theatre and film with the help of a company of 100 people. It involves 12 costume changes and features the hits Gypsies Tramps and Thieves, Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down), I Found Someone and If I Could Turn Back Time. Cher said The Farewell Tour would be her last because she did not want to go on performing when she would be too old to walk. "My boobs would be down to my kneecaps and I would be toothless coming out (on stage)," Cher said. "So I don't think it is really a good idea | |
Cher looking to buy a tropical paradise in New Zealand
19 February 2005
Between photo shoots and performing for 20,000 fans in Auckland Cher has been busy doing what visiting entertainers do - looking for a piece of New Zealand to buy.
The 58-year-old singer said that she's not after anything too grand: "I just want about 20 acres and a beach."
During an exclusive photo shoot the perfectly groomed Cher said she had engaged a real estate agent to find the right block of land between her two New Zealand performances.
She has already looked at several properties and was meeting the agent to look at pictures of more.
The singer, dubbed the world's sexiest grandmother, was not sure exactly where she wanted to buy, but it had to be "some place tropical".
Wearing pink slingbacks, black cord cargo pants, a white T shirt and black hoodie with pink tinted sunglasses, Cher said she was excited to be in here as part of a farewell tour which started in 2002.
The singer has hired a helicopter so she and her crew - which included a manager, several hair and makeup people and a head bodyguard - can see more of the countryside.
"We have just seen a little bit but so far it's great. We were really excited to come here because we have never been here before."
Cher performs at North Harbour Stadium tonight and at the Westpac Centre in Christchurch on Tuesday night.
Details of her costumes - which have been known to be less than restrained - remain top secret. As for the colour of her ever-changing hair, it's too early to say if it will remain the fluorescent pinky-red-orange that matched her eyeshadow, shoes and sunglasses for Thursday's photo shoot
Cher is saying goodbye to Bus and Truck Touring all over the country. She has not said she will never perform live again. This is not a goodbye from her. This is just a change of format. Still many great things to come I am sure.
Susan 
Talk about it all at Cher Connection!
Pop superstar CHER wants to star in a movie musical, make her feature directorial debut and "do something on TV" after she wraps up her three-year long FAREWELL TOUR in April (05).
The OSCAR winner plans to concentrate on her acting career when she hangs up her stage costumes for good on 30 April (05) at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.
The MASK star says, "I have lots more things I want to do in my career but I'm going to take a moment and maybe start a new album, do a movie musical, direct a small film, do something on TV."
02/02/2005 02:33
http://www.kget.com/entertainment/music/story.aspx?content_id=B0873E1F-8DD6-422B-90D3-C0980F1E3000
The one and the only Cher has decided to throw in the towel, the wigs, the sequins and the tour bus after one last and final appearance at The Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles scheduled for April 30.
After three million tickets sold, 324 shows and three years from the starting gate, the tour -- affectionately termed the "Never Can Say Goodbye" tour and "The Cher-ist Show on Earth" -- will at last come to a close.
The phenomenally successful tour has grossed over $200 million and has visited stages in every state in the continental U.S. (with the exception of Vermont and Delaware, which didn't have large enough venues).
The tour, promoted by Clear Channel Entertainment, will end with 4,731 pizzas consumed backstage, over 3,000 costume changes, 1,200 pairs of false eyelashes used, and over 300 birthday celebration cakes.
The critically acclaimed extravaganza has logged millions of miles in the U.S. as well as Canada and Mexico, and a triumphant sold-out tour of Europe and stopovers in St. Petersburg and the Kremlin in Russia. Next month, the tour heads for Australia and New Zealand before returning home for the finale.
A portion of the money from each ticket sold throughout the tour was donated to several children's charities, and all the proceeds from her recent Bakersfield, California, show were donated to UNICEF and World Vision for tsunami relief.
Published: Thursday, January 27, 2005
Pop diva gives 292nd farewell
EVERETT - There were flashing lights. There were feather boas. There were sequins. There was glitter. And that was just the crowd. Fans didn't arrive late for fear of missing a chance to see the Village People open one of the most interesting tours circling the nation. The arena was full when the cowboy, the Indian, the biker, the soldier and the policeman from Greenwich Village - an "American band," if there ever was one - took the stage. Wasn't there a construction worker in the mix? The band dedicated its hit "In the Navy" to the young men and women who serve the country, a statement that drew a standing ovation from the Navy-town crowd. It wasn't long, though, before the quintet turned the show into the largest wedding reception Everett has seen. They first offered a quick lesson on the "YMCA" - the modern version of the line dance - because although it "should be very easy, a lot of people just don't get it," said Jeff Olson, the cowboy. The "M," by the way, is elbows spiked out to the sides with hands pointed in toward the chest. Who knew? With that, 8,000-plus were on their feet and doing the "YMCA" in the only setting that wouldn't have prompted anyone to simply roll their eyes. But it was Cher they came to see. That much was clear when the house lights went down, sending the crowd into a frenzy as they watched a two-minute video montage that packaged her three decades in music. Through hairstyles, colorful backgrounds and barely-there outfits, her career was framed into album covers that flashed on three screens on and around the stage before she descended while sitting atop a chandelier that swooped down from the rafters, singing U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For." From the start, the pop diva joked about her ongoing tour. She said the Everett stop was the 292nd on the journey, which started in June 2002. "I promise you this is the last time I'm going to see you, I promise you," she told the crowd, drawing a chorus of boos. In the waning days of her performing career, Cher said she's been thinking to herself, "This is last time, you'd better leave them with something fabulous. You want them to remember you as something miraculous." From that moment, she set out to do exactly that. With choreographed dances, including a little taste of Cirque d' Soleil, and a flurry of costume changes that made one wonder how many trucks are required simply for her wardrobe, Cher put on a head-spinning show that thousands of locals won't soon forget, babe. Reporter Victor Balta: 425-339-3455 or vbalta@ heraldnet.com.
Jennifer Buchanan / The Herald
Cher starts off with a cover of U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" in front of a packed Everett Events Center on Wednesday night.
Friday, January 21, 2005
The goodbye may be getting old but Cher's still a sight to see
The goodbye girl is back in town.
Cher's seemingly endless "Never Can Say Goodbye" tour returns to the Northwest for a show with the Village People Tuesday night at the Everett Events Center. The trek is practically on its second generation of fans. Or so it would seem.
What began in 2002 is still going strong in 2005, grossing more than $170 million to date. She made two farewell visits to KeyArena in 2002.
It's one of the longest goodbyes since Tina Turner's last retirement tour. Turner, known for glitzy comebacks, finally gave it up in 2000, performing her last Seattle show at KeyArena in November 2000.
The goodbye tour is a lucrative concept, but when one drags on too long, it's time to drop the goodbyes.
The fare-thee-well outing has been a boon to many touring artists. The Eagles called their 2003 tour "Farewell Tour I," grossing $69 million before it was over. Kiss extended its 2000 goodbye tour through 2002, but returned in 2004 to make a few more bucks, wearing out its welcome in the process.
Nevertheless, Cher wouldn't be out there if fans didn't want to see her. The "Never Can Say Goodbye" tour, with its splashy choreography, multiple costume changes and dozens of hit songs, is definitely worth seeing at least once.
Cher and the Village People perform Tuesday night at 8 at the Everett Events Center, 2000 Hewitt Ave. Tickets are $57.75 and $82.75 at www. everetteventscenter.com or 866-332-8499.
-- Gene Stout
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| January 19, 2005 02:21 PM - Cher's long-running "Never Can Say Goodbye Tour" continued Tuesday (1/1 in Glendale, AZ, with a dazzling career retrospective--and a few words for women following in her footsteps, like Jessica Simpson, Jennifer Lopez and Britney Spears. "I have one thing to say to you girls coming up: follow this, you bitches!" she joked. Based on this show, the gaggle of female followers have big shoes to fill. Arriving on stage after descending from a giant chandelier, Cher opened with a version of U2's "Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," one of a handful of covers sprinkled throughout the set. Dancers dressed as monks stripped the singer of her white-and-silver robe to reveal a sexier outfit. It was one of a dozen costume changes for Cher, who received the most enthusiastic response when she wore elaborate headpieces. To keep the audience occupied during the wardrobe breaks, video retrospectives of Cher's career were beamed onto video screens, and Cirque du Soleil-inspired dancers incorporated long streams of fabric into their routines. Cher touched on most of her hits during her performance--which she said was the 287th show of her farewell tour--including the ballad "After All," as well as "Strong Enough," "The Shoop Shoop Song (It's in His Kiss)" and "All or Nothing." After wrapping up a decidedly metal take of "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)," she performed a medley of hits ranging from "Half Breed" and "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves" to "Dark Lady." Her show ended in a storm of confetti as she sang "Believe." During the two-hour performance, she tackled a few covers as well, notably "Love Hurts" and Marc Cohn's "Walking in Memphis." Perhaps one of the audience's favorites, however, was "If I Could Turn Back Time." For the song, Cher donned a black peek-a-boo number similar to the one she wears in the video. In honor of the U.S. Navy, which appears in the video, fans threw sailors hats on stage. She grabbed one that said "I love Cher" and plopped it on her head. Although the near sold-out crowd indulged in Cher's show, the performer was booed once--when she announced that the "Never Can Say Goodbye Tour" will, in fact, end. "This last time is the last time. ... I have to go where old drag queens go--to Madonna's house," she said, as boos dissolved into laughs. Adding to the campy flavor of the evening, the Village People opened the show. The announcer dubbed the group as the "original" Village People, however, according to its website, one of the members joined in the mid 1990s. The group performed its hits, such as "In the Navy," "Y.M.C.A." and "Macho Man." Taking a nod from Cher's self-deprecating humor, the Village People poked fun at "Y.M.C.A."'s popularity and then taught the audience the "correct" way of doing the song's accompanying dance. While introducing "In the Navy," the Village People's "soldier," Alexander Briley, asked the audience to applaud in support of the troops serving overseas. He received an overwhelming response. Overall, however, the Village People's performance was disappointing. Choreographed dance numbers did not seem to come together as planned, and the group performed to a musical track. | |||||||||||
Thanks To Lisa for this article!
'Farewell' tours really do fare well
By Chris Macias -- Bee Pop Music
Cher just can't say goodbye. She returns to Sacramento tonight for the third time on a prolonged farewell tour that has grossed more than $170 million in the United States alone.
Saying "goodbye" is a popular pop-star move, filling arenas and growing a tidy retirement fund - whether or not the artist truly retires. From rockers like Ozzy Osbourne and Kiss to rappers like Jay-Z and Too Short, saying "goodbye" translates to "I'll be back soon."
"It kind of puts these entertainers in the same class as the store that's telling you, 'This is the last item ever made,' " says Ken Duran, who caught Cher's first "farewell" show in Sacramento. "You buy it, and then they go into the back room and get another one as soon as you leave the store."
Since 2002, the country's three top-grossing concert tours have included either a "farewell tour" or a tour by someone who had once promised retirement and then returned to the stage.
* The first leg of Cher's farewell outing was 2002's No. 3 tour with more than $71 million at the box office.
* The Eagles' cheekily titled "Farewell Tour I" scored $69 million and was the No. 3 tour of 2003.
* Celine Dion, who embarked on a short-lived retirement in 1999, scored 2004's No. 2 tour with $80.4 million.
Locally, fans can't get enough of Cher's long goodbye. Her two previous farewell shows in Sacramento sold out, and fewer than 500 tickets remain for tonight's concert. In all, that's more than 36,000 Cher tickets sold in Sacramento.
Cher's farewell has performed six times in the Bay Area and sold 75,000 tickets.
But there's an inherent risk in the goodbye business. Too many "farewell" tours haven't lived up to their billing, and some Cher fans are feeling like victims of false advertising.
"I went to (Cher's) first farewell in Sacramento and felt like I was going to a one-of-a-kind tour," says Sherry Arnold of Rancho Cordova, who spent more than $100 on the concert. "I even bought a program, thinking that someday it would be worth something. She's just milking money from her fans. Don't get me wrong, it was a great show. But when you call it a farewell tour, you don't keep coming back again and again."
Reneging on retirement plans is especially common in rock 'n' roll. The Who was an early example with its not-quite farewell tour in 1982. The band was back in 1989 and last seen in Sacramento during the summer of 2002.
Osbourne kicked off his "No More Tours" outing in 1992 and returned three years later with a "Retirement Sucks" tour.
Kiss' "farewell" tour stretched from 2000 to 2002 and reaped more than $70 million in the United States. But the band scrapped its retirement plans - and burned itself out with many fans. Its 2004 tour grossed only $13.1 million.
Rappers are also prone to dubious retirement claims. Too Short, the multimillion-selling rapper from Oakland, announced his exit from the music business in 1996. He emerged in 1999 with the album "Can't Stay Away."
Jay-Z declared that 2003's "Black Album" would cap his career. So much for a swan song. He recorded an album with Linkin Park in 2004 and embarked on a short-lived tour with R&B singer R. Kelly in the fall.
Pop stars including Billy Joel and Prince have also done the "goodbye-hello" routine.
"It's tough to tell when (retirement) is purely a marketing gimmick or just the artist's frame of mind at that point," says Gary Bongiovanni, editor of Pollstar, a trade publication that tracks the concert industry. "They might say they're going to retire, then get itchy to go back on stage. They're musicians and have the prerogative to change their mind."
Burnout is often cited as the main factor driving an artist's retirement from the road. Jet lag, late nights and the overall grind of performing show after show especially take a toll on older musicians.
"There comes a time when you should stop doing certain things," Cher said last year. "I don't like being on the road. Sometimes you don't know how you get from place to place each night. I miss freedom - being in my house, walking downstairs to my kitchen. The most basic things."
The simple law of supply and demand can re-energize an artist. As long as fans are willing to open their wallets for their favorite star, it's tough for musicians to resist the concert trail.
"(Announcing) retirement might mean some extra tickets," says Lee Smith, the president of Bill Graham Presents, which is presenting Cher's Northern California concerts. "But there's such a demand for top performers, whether they've announced retirement or not. And when they do go off the road, people don't stop communicating that they want to see them."
So Cher's going out - or at least says she is - while she's on top. Through 40 years in the entertainment business, she's thrived as one of pop culture's defining divas and nabbed an Oscar for best actress in 1988 for "Moostruck." Her music has remained popular on dance floors through such recent hit albums as "Believe" and "Living Proof."
"I say, 'You go, girl,' " says Margie Eisenhower, a Cher fan from Rancho Cordova. "If Cher wasn't a terrifically talented woman, not to mention, still attractive and interesting to watch as she's performing, I'd say, 'Enough, already.' Cher is still right up there."
Talk about it all at Cher Connection!
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