QUAKERTOWN, Pa. — When platinum-selling Philadelphia band The Hooters perform Friday in Quakertown, it will be a return — 40 years later — to the setting of one of its biggest hits, and the tragic story that inspired it.
The Hooters, who combined ska and folk-rock on 1980s hits such as “Day By Day” and “And We Danced,” will perform at 8 p.m. at Univest Performance Center, 301 W. Mill St. Gates open at 6, and an opening act will go on at 6:30 p.m.
Only lawn seats, at $40 each, remain available at the Sounds of Summer Concert Series website.
- The Hooters will perform at 8 p.m. Friday at Univest Performance Center, 301 W. Mill St., Quakertown.
- Tickets (only lawn seats remain) at $40 each, remain available at the Sounds of Summer Concert Series website
- One of the group's biggest hits, "Where Do the Children Go," was inspired by several teen suicides in Quakertown in 1983
The Hooters arguably had its finest moment with its 1986 hit “Where Do The Children Go,” a haunting ballad that tells of children being led astray by “a deadly piper” between “the bright night and darkest day.”
In a phone call last week from Boston, where he was taking a few days off from the band’s current tour, The Hooters’ singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Eric Bazilian again told how he was prompted to write the song “based on an article that Stephen Fried wrote for Philadelphia Magazine."
“The lyric opened up to include the theme of childhood loss of innocence. It’s a song with different meanings.”The Hooters singer and songwriter Eric Bazilian, speaking about the song, "Where Do the Children Go"
The article was “about an unfortunate series of events where a number of kids had taken their own lives in the Quakertown area,” Bazilian said.
“The lyric opened up to include the theme of childhood loss of innocence. It’s a song with different meanings.”
The poignant story
Fried’s 1984 article, “Over the Edge” told the story of how the body of Michelle E. Qurashi, 16, was found near a rural road in Richland Township, outside of Quakertown, with a gunshot wound to the chest.
She had been despondent over the death of her boyfriend, Marc Landis, 17, who, along with another Quakertown Community High School student, Daniel Furdock, 16, jumped to their deaths Nov. 19, 1983, into an East Rockhill Township quarry.
In a prior interview, Bazilian said Fried’s story “broke our hearts. The song came from that article and talking about the shock and sadness that went with it.”
“It’s pretty deep. It’s definitely emotional. And then, you know, the song has taken on a deeper meaning since then, especially with war and goings-on in the world. … all the time and everywhere.”The Hooters singer/songwriter Eric Bazilian, regarding the song "Where Do the Children GO"
“It’s pretty deep,” Bazilian said last week. And when the band performed it previously in Quakertown (this is the third year the band has played the Sounds of Summer series), “it’s definitely emotional.
“And then, you know, the song has taken on a deeper meaning since then, especially with war and goings-on in the world. … all the time and everywhere.”
The song was the final single from the band’s double-platinum major label debut album “Nervous Night,” released in 1985.
“Where Do the Children Go” peaked at No. 38 on Billboard’s singles chart — the band’s third highest-charting song behind “Day By Day” and “And We Danced.”
At Billboard's 8th Annual Video Music Conference in 1986, The Hooters won Best Concert Performance for the "Where Do the Children Go" video.
Taking on new meaning
Since then, the song has had a long history of being used as the musical accompaniment for children’s issues. The group once did a benefit concert for Code Blue, a Pottsville, Schuylkill County, program for locating Missing Children.
Before the group embarked on its most recent tour, it posted on its website a video of the song being performed live.
“Together we make our way, passengers on a train…”Lyrics from The Hooters' "Where Do the Children Go"
“Last March we played our first European show in four years in Lucerne, Switzerland,” the post reads. “COVID was still a concern (some of us caught it on the way home), and war in Ukraine had just broken out, barely a month before, in February.
“At the end of the show we played ‘Where Do The Children Go’ in tribute to the millions of refugees who were now fleeing their home country in terror. We then came back to countless and unimaginable shootings in the States.
“As we finally embark on another tour, we have now been singing this song for almost 40 years with many different meanings along the way. And we thank our fans for singing it along with us.
The post ends by quoting the song’s lyrics, “Together we make our way, passengers on a train…”
