Madonna’s ‘Light’ Tour Goes Dark

Madonna fans are a patient bunch. At least they’d better be.

After hinting about her first full U.S. concert tour since 1990’s “Blond Ambition” production to support the new “Ray of Light” album this year, the singer has now pushed that plan back at least to 1999 in order to concentrate on her film career.

She’s booked to do the movie of the musical “Chicago” soon, co-starring with Goldie Hawn, and has reportedly just signed to co-star with Rupert Everett (“My Best Friend’s Wedding”) in a romantic comedy titled “The Next Best Thing.”

Conventional music business wisdom would have it unwise to wait so long. The excitement generated by a new album can often boost a tour, and vice versa.

But conventional wisdom has rarely applied to Madonna.

“The world is waiting for a Madonna tour, whether it’s while a track from a new album is hot, or it’s between tracks or even between albums,” says Cliff Burnstein, the singer’s co-manager. “She’s under-toured and is one of the top touring attractions in the world. She can play any time and have massive impact.”

That confidence is justified, say industry observers.

“Her fans have not had a chance to see her in years,” says Gary Bongiovanni, editor-in-chief of concert trade magazine Pollstar. “If she maintains her star status in film or music, and there’s no reason to think she won’t, I expect she’ll do just fine next year or whenever she tours.”

On the flip-side, though, the delay means that “Ray of Light” will not have the benefit of a tour and its associated media blitz. If she tours next year, it would be a similar situation to “Blond Ambition,” which came a full year after “Like a Prayer.” The tour, though, helped keep that album alive, selling more than three million in the U.S. None of her albums since then has reached that level.

“Certainly a tour would generate enormous excitement,” says Bob Bell, new-release buyer for the Wherehouse retail chain. “But fortunately this album has done extremely well even without a tour.”

In fact, while media coverage has been somewhat quiet after the initial flurry of interviews and reviews in March, “Ray of Light” has proved a steady seller, reaching 1.3 million copies in the U.S. and about 6.5 million worldwide on only the first single, the ballad “Frozen.” A second single, the upbeat, dance-oriented title song, is expected to gain even more interest, and the planned third single, “Power of Goodbye,” is expected to keep the momentum going.

“I certainly expect this album to be around through the end of the year,” Bell says. “And if she were to tour next year, that would be a big enough event that it could keep the album going into next year. But tour or not, the album has already exceeded expectations that just about anyone had for it.”

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MONSTER MASH: Godzilla may take Manhattan, but the Sunset Strip is bracing for Rodzilla.

To mark the release of his “When We Were the New Boys” album and its return to his rocker roots, Rod Stewart is planning a Strip trifecta on June 2, with performances at the Tower Records parking lot, the Roxy and the Whisky. It will start with a two-hour album-signing session at Tower at 6 p.m., followed by a 40-minute set there at 8:30, then a quick dash to the Roxy for a 9:30 show and back to the Whisky for a 10:30 gig. Capping it off, in the tradition of the old rock decadence days, will be a private party at the Sky Bar.

Stewart hasn’t played such small settings since the early ‘70s when he fronted the Faces--and that’s just the idea. The new album is very much a return to that band’s aesthetic, with the lead single being Oasis’ rocker “Cigarettes and Alcohol.”

“When Rod finished making the album, he commented on how much he would like to play the music in a small club, like when he first started out, when he played the Whisky with the Faces,” says Stewart’s manager, Arnold Stiefel. “Since I live to serve, I said, ‘Let’s do the Roxy, the Whisky and Tower Records’ parking lot.’ If I had left it up to Rod, he would have added the Viper Room, the Rainbow and the Coconut Teaszer.”

Tickets for the Roxy and Whisky shows will go on sale June 1 at the clubs’ box offices, with further details of the events to be announced. The Tower signing and show will be free.

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VINTAGE WEIN: Another new festival-style show is about to join the concert circuit, but this is no latecomer wannabe jumping on the post-Lollapalooza bandwagon. The Newport Folk Festival trek will put on the road the original festival role model, which originated in Newport, R.I., with jazz and folk events in the ‘50s.

The traveling version will debut in July with a rotating cast of folk veterans and newcomers making 13 weekend stops through September. An L.A. date has been booked Sept. 20 for the Greek Theatre, with Nanci Griffith, John Hiatt, Richard Thompson, Lucinda Williams, Bela Fleck, Marc Cohn, Beausoleil and Newport regular Joan Baez confirmed and others to be added.

The venture is being organized by the New York-based Little Big Man booking agency (the people behind the Lilith Fair) and Festival Productions, whose founder, George Wein, started the Newport fests and which today also oversees such successes as the annual New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

“Newport Folk has been sitting there waiting for something like this to be done,” says Nat Farnham of Little Big Man, a former Festival Productions staffer. “This is the 40th anniversary of the first folk festival, and I just wanted to do something a little different that I believe in. And whether it’s Ozzfest or Lollapalooza or H.O.R.D.E. or Lilith, the festival business started with George Wein.”