This live stream event was the second produced by Mike Garson, former pianist with David Bowie for
much of the 70s. I virtually attended Mike Garson’s previous event, which was excellent and consisted of a great collection of contemporary artists, all Bowie fans themselves, performing some of David Bowie’s best songs. This live stream event promised a similar collection of Bowie classics, performed by a different collection of artists including Joe Elliott with Def Leopard and solo, Living Colour, Simon Le Bon and John Taylor of Duran Duran, Noel Gallagher, Ricky Gervais and Gary Oldman, the latter two are of course both actors.
This was an equally splendid event with Joe Elliott clearly wearing his David Bowie fandom badge near his heart and Simon Le Bon putting in excellent versions of David Bowie classics. Gary Oldman once again performed astoundingly as a vocalist and Ricky Gervais spoke tenderly of his interactions with David Bowie, particularly in relation to his Extras TV programme. Mike Garson was, as before, an excellent master of ceremonies and compere for the entire event. Living colour, a band I am not familiar with, again surprised me with powerful and passionate versions of selections from David Bowie’s massive back catalogue. The house band, featuring Duran Duran’s John Taylor, gave excellent support to the solo vocalists.
Setlist: Fame (WALK THE MOON); Young Americans (Living Colour and David Sanborn); I’m Afraid of Americans (Living Colour); It Ain’t Easy (Judith Hill); Five Years (Gaby Moreno); Space Oddity (Billy Corgan); The Jean Genie (Bernard Fowler); Goodnight Mr. Jones (Joe Elliott); Time (Charlie Sexton and Gaby Moreno); Lazarus (Charlie Sexton); Golden Years (WALK THE MOON); Starman (Gretchen Parlato); As the World Falls Down (Evan Rachel Wood and The Worm from Labyrinth); Drive-In Saturday (Def Leppard); Ashes to Ashes (Charlie Sexton); Slip Away (Gary Oldman); Let’s Dance (Simon Le Bon and John Taylor); Wild Is the Wind (Bernard Fowler and Judith Hill); All the Young Dudes (Joe Sumner); Valentine’s Day (Noel Gallagher); Shadow Man (Gail Ann Dorsey); Under Pressure (WALK THE MOON); Modern Love (Jake Wesley Rogers); Life on Mars? (Jake Wesley Rogers); Changes (Rob Thomas); Heroes (Rob Thomas).
Yet another streaming event. Well it is all that is available the moment. This one was a bit different. We were promised a 3 hour extravaganza celebrating David Bowie’s birthday and featuring artists from around the world all performing together through the power of modern technology. The whole event was orchestrated and planned by 
event was postponed by one day, due to difficulties relating to Covid. “We’ve been working around the clock for months putting together an amazing show for you. Due to the difficulties in the world and the situation with COVID in Los Angeles, we’ve had to move the show 24 hours to tomorrow at the same time. Hang in there with us – just for one day.” So back to sleep I went.
The concert started with Duran Duran playing “Five Years”, the opening track of Ziggy Stardust and one of my favourite Bowie songs. I suspect this choice of opener paid tribute to the fact that Bowie sadly passed away almost five years to the day, a few days after his birthday. Now I have lost touch with Duran Duran. It is many years since I have seen them and I used to be a fan in the 80s, back in the day. I was pleasantly surprised how well they delivered, no nailed, this classic track; Simon Le Bon almost spitting out the vocals. A great opener. But there was more to follow. An electric version of “Moonage Daydream”, followed by Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins meandering around the screen in his own TV, lost in a “Space Oddity”. An excellent version of “The Man Who Sold the World”. Gary Barlow punching above his weight throughout “Fame “. And so it went on. Bowie classic after classic, mixed with some less familiar tunes, Mike Garson constantly present on a grand piano. Macy Gray popped up on a screen to the left singing one of my Bowie favourites “Changes”, doing it full justice. A tribute to Mick Ronson and his wonderful version of “Slaughter on 10th Avenue” performed by Kevin Armstrong, bringing back memories of seeing Ronson perform it on his solo tour, in Newcastle City Hall many years ago. 
Bowie fan, and Def Leopard front man, Joe Elliott sang “Ziggy Stardust” paying tribute to a hero of his youth, as he often does. Ricky Gervais popped up for a moment to introduce “Little Fat Man” harking back to Bowie’s performance of that song on his TV show Extras. 
right, Adam Lambert, performed an appropriately dramatic version of “Star man”. I can’t claim to recognise the name Bernard Fowler, but I did recognise the man as a long time singer for the Rolling Stones. He performed a number of songs during the show, and closed the event with a powerful rendition of “Heroes”. A fitting end to an incredible event. One which finally realised the potential of streaming and modern technology. An excellent tribute to a genius who I feel so privileged to have seen in performance several times. David if you were watching somewhere out there I’m sure you would have approved. Mike Garson is to be applauded for doing a wonderful job in putting together an excellent event. After the show the team behind A Bowie Celebration tweeted: “Thank you David. And our thanks to you all for coming together in a world where that has been so difficult. This couldn’t have been done without you, the amazing Bowie alumni family, our special guests and wonderful behind the scenes team at @rollinglivepro.” I even bought a signed copy of Mike Garson’s book! I will post an image of it here when it arrives.
The reviews in the press were almost all extremely positive. “In almost impossible circumstances, Garson pulled off a herculean task, doing Bowie proud, at a distance.”(Mark Beaumont in 
(Charlie Sexton); Win / Ziggy Stardust (Joe Elliott); Quicksand (Taylor Momsen); DJ / Blue Jean (Charlie Sexton); Where Are We Now? (Michael C. Hall); Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide (Dave Navarro, Taylor Hawkins, Chris Chaney); Little Fat Man (Corey Taylor; introduced by Ricky Gervais); Hang On to Yourself (Corey Taylor, Dave Navarro, Taylor Hawkins, Chris Chaney); I Can’t Read (Gary Oldman); The Jean Genie (Jesse Malin); Strangers When We Meet (Gail Ann Dorsey); Suffragette City (Peter Frampton); Fantastic Voyage (Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross); Fashion (Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, Mariqueen Maandig); Lazarus (Ian Astbury); Life on Mars? (YUNGBLUD and Rick Wakeman); Lady Grinning Soul / Time / Aladdin Sane (Boy George and Charlie Sexton); Dandy /All the Young Dudes (Ian Hunter); Starman (Adam Lambert); Under Pressure (Judith Hill and Andra Day); Heroes (Bernard Fowler); Ashes to Ashes (Instrumental over credits).
By 2003, I was desperate to see David Bowie again. I’d forgotten my disappointment of Tin Machine and realised the stature of Bowie in the formation of rock. So when he announced the Reality tour, I was determined to see him. Marie and I decided we would have a weekend in Dublin, and take in his show at The Point. I booked a hotel room on O’Connell Street, and booked flights and we all set. Our trip to Dublin wasn’t without incident. When we arrived at the desk at Newcastle airport, we discovered that Marie’s passport had run out, and we couldn’t check in. So we dashed home to pick up her driving licence, which we were assured would be ok to check us onto the flight, and arrived back just in time, heavily stressed. We were straight onto the flight, and arrived in Dublin safely soon after. The gig was great, Bowie was on top form, one of the best times I’ve seen him. Marie even enjoyed it so he must have been good! 
The set drew from his extensive back catalogue. Setlist: Rebel Rebel; New Killer Star; Reality; Fame; Cactus; Afraid; All the Young Dudes; China Girl; The Loneliest Guy; The Man Who Sold the World; Hallo Spaceboy; Sunday; Under Pressure; Life on Mars; Battle for Britain; Ashes to Ashes; The Motel; Loving the Alien; Never Get Old; Changes; I’m Afraid of Americans; Heroes; Encores: Bring Me the Disco King; Slip Away; Heathen; Five Years;Hang On to Yourself; Ziggy Stardust
“Good evening Newcastle”, said David Bowie as he took the stage at this gig. Big mistake for a gig in Sunderland; rivalry between the two towns run deep, particularly in the context of football, and saying this in Roker Park, the home of Sunderland football, was not a good idea. It was to be an omen for the rest of the gig, which wasn’t one of Bowie’s best. In theory, this should have been a great gig. Bowie has a great band, with Peter Frampton coming in on guitar. He had promised that this tour would see a return to theatricals of the scale of the US Diamond Dogs tour. There was great anticipation for the gigs, which ultimately played to 3m people, exceeding the Serious Moonlight tour.
The day was wet, as I recall, and Big Country went down a storm, perhaps better than Bowie. Bowie’s setlist focussed on his more recent catalogue, and particularly his latest lp Never Let Me Down, ignoring the Ziggy era. The stage set was Ok, but somewhat silly, and personally I didn’t think it was as impressive as promised. At one point Bowie came down from the stage on a swing, and the spider just looked strange (but was it a forerunner of the recent U2 stage set up?). The programme for the gig (shown left) was obviously produced for the word tour, with lots of glossy photos of David, and nothing about the support acts; there was also an edition of the Sunderland Echo produced specially for the event (see below).
Setlist: Up the Hill Backwards; Glass Spider; Day-In Day-Out; Bang Bang; Absolute Beginners; Loving the Alien; China Girl; Fashion; Scary Monsters; All the Madmen; Never Let Me Down; Big Brother; ’87 and Cry; Heroes; Time Will Crawl; Beat Of Your Drum; Sons of the Silent Age; Dancing With the Big Boys; Zeroes; Let’s Dance; Fame; Encore: Blue Jean; Modern Love. Towards the end of the gig Bowie said: “I’m glad the rain has kept off”. It then poured down during the encore. Not a good day; I was slowly losing faith in Bowie, and I was to suffer further disappointment at a Tin Machine gig a few years later (see my blog of a few days ago). Tomorrow I’ll report on The Reality tour which I caught in Dublin in 2003, and which restored my faith in Bowie.
By 1983 David Bowie was of sufficient stature to play three nights at the Milton Keynes Bowl, which holds 65,000 people. The (quite colourful) ticket (see right) doesn’t tell me which day I attended, but I am pretty certain it was the Saturday, which was the second of the three gigs. My mate and I drove to Milton Keynes, which is around a 450 mile round trip. I’d been having problems with one of the brakes on my car, and unfortunately it just about locked after after around 100 miles, to the extent that I could only drive very slowly, leaving us stranded near the Wetherby roundabout. I phoned the AA who came out but could fix the car at the road side, so they told me to leave the car in a local car park, hide the keys in an agreed spot (!) and that they would come and pick it up and take it home for me. We were determined to get to the gig, so I phoned my dad, who drove down, picked us up an hour or so later and drove us to the Bowl.
Although I enjoyed the show, I felt I’d lost the David Bowie I’d grown to love over the past 10 years. Don’t get me wrong; you couldn’t fault anything: the stage set, the performance, the band were all great. But it was David Bowie becoming an entertainer, a professional, (re)becoming Anthony Newley in terms of aiming for broad appeal; and Ziggy had become a memory. Although general consensus is that this was a great gig, I left somewhat disappointed, feeling let down. Two years later I saw Bowie in Wembley Stadium at Live Aid, and he was great again. However, there were further disappointments to come in the form of the 1987 Glass Spider tour (which I will comment on tomorrow) and Tin Machine (see my blog the other day).
There was great anticipation for the 1978 David Bowie tour. By 1978 he was a massive star across the world, and this time he played three nights at the City Hall, which was almost unheard of; I can’t remember anyone else playing three nights in the 70s. Tickets were available by post, so several of us applied for more than one night, as I recall. I managed to get tickets for a couple of nights. I passed one pair of tickets on to some friends and kept the tickets for the Friday, which was the last of the three nights. In hindsight I wish I’d gone for more than one night. Tickets were getting expensive by now, with best seats costing £6 which was quite a bit more than the 40p I have paid to see Bowie at the City Hall 6 years earlier.
This was one of the best Bowie gigs that I have attended. The set covered much of his by now classic back catalogue, the band was tight, and Bowie’s performance was superb. The show was in two sets, with no support act, as far as I recall. The first set consisted of songs from Low and Heroes which were Bowie’s most recent albums. I had the Low lp and had played and played it, so I was well versed in the tracks from that album. The second set consisted largely of songs from Ziggy and Station to Station. The programme (left and below) continued to follow the ISOLAR theme.
Setlist: Warszawa; “Heroes”; What in the World; Be My Wife; The Jean Genie; Blackout; Sense of Doubt; Speed of Life; Breaking Glass; Fame; Beauty and the Beast; Five Years; Soul Love; Star; Hang On to Yourself; Ziggy Stardust; Suffragette City; Art Decade; Alabama Song; Station to Station; Stay; Rebel Rebel. What I would give to relive a gig such as this, or to see Bowie on stage again, singing Five Years. Great days. Tomorrow I’ll try to remember Bowie’s Milton Keynes show, as part of the Serious Moonlight tour.
When I heard that David Bowie was coming to Newcastle Mayfair with his new band Tin Machine, I couldn’t believe it. Yes Bowie was stressing that “Tin Machine are a band” and that this was a new project, but hey come on, this was David Bowie coming to the Mayfair Ballroon, which he hadn’t played since the early 70s and pre-Hunky Dory days. The tickets went on sale on a Saturday morning, so I went through early to queue. I got there an hour or so before the box office opened and to my surprise there was hardly anyone there. So I joined the small queue and got my tickets without any problems at all. My daughter Ashleigh came along to the show with me. I hadn’t had the chance to hear the Tin Machine album, so didn’t know any of the songs (which was a mistake). I was hoping that Bowie would through in some classics, but suspected that he might not, and indeed it wasn’t to be. The place was full, and the set was all new Tin Machine stuff, and was thus totally unfamiliar to me. It was great to see David Bowie close up again in a small venue, but to be honest I found the songs weak, wasn’t impressed and we left before the end of the gig. This experience put me off seeing Bowie again for some time, and I missed the next couple of tours out (big mistake). On reflection, like many others I didn’t give Tin Machine a real chance. I had a fixed model in my mind of what David Bowie should be, and Tin Machine was just too much of a departure from his past. I should have gone to that gig with a more opne mind. Setlist was something like: I’ve Been Waiting For You; Goodbye Mr. Ed; Bus Stop; Under The God; A Big Hurt; Shopping for Girls; Stateside; I Can’t Read; Baby Universal; Sacrifice Yourself; Betty Wrong; You Can’t Talk; Go Now; Debaser; If There Is Something; Heaven’s In Here; You Belong in Rock & Roll; Crack City. Tomorrow I’ll go back again to the late 70s and the Low tour which came to Newcastle City Hall in 1978.
This was a strange one this. Looking back this gig was pretty important historically, and yet at the time (as is often the case) it didn’t seem so. Iggy wasn’t that well known in the UK at the time. I’d seen him on the TV (was it on the Whistle Test?) throwing himself into the crowd and spreading peanut butter all over his torso at a late 60s gig in the USA. I’d also read the reviews of his seminal, wild gig at the Kings Cross cinema (and regretted not going). I’d seen the Sex Pistols play the Stooges’ No Fun the year before, so knew a little about the Iggy legend and his impact on punk. Generally however little was known about Iggy, and ticket sales for this gig were apparently not going well. A few days before the gig the local paper, the Evening Chronicle, ran an article hinting that David Bowie might be guesting at the gig, presumably to try and boost ticket sales. So a few of us went along to the gig, partly out of curiosity to see if Iggy was as crazy as we’d heard, and partly to see if Bowie really did appear. Still, on the night the City Hall was barely half full. Support came from The Vibrators who were, as I recall, pretty hot at the time, and will have played tracks like We Vibrate and London Girls. Iggy took to the stage and was followed by his band, that included David Bowie, who walked up to a keyboard at the right of the stage without any acknowledgement to the crowd at all. It was very clear that this was Iggy’s show and Bowie was a sideman. The set was a mix of old Stooges classics and tracks from the Idiot lp, and was something like: Raw power; Tv eye; Dirt; 1969; Turn blue; Funtime; Gimme danger; No fun; Sister midnight; I need somebody; search & destroy; I wanna be your dog; Tonight; Some weird sin; China girl. As I recall Iggy was good, but not as wild as usual. He was back to play to a packed City Hall later in the year and went totally crazy, climbing all over the amps, rolling around the stage, with his trousers coming open. A few years later I caught him at Redcar Coatham Bowl (Glen Matlcock on bass, I think), he was smoking on stage and flicking lit cigarettes into the crowd (how times change…). Bowie stayed in the background all night and didn’t speak to the crowd. It was good to see him back on the City Hall stage, but I was hoping that they would perform some Bowie classics. I remember shouting for Moonage Daydream…..Anyway he came back to the City Hall as part of the Low tour the following year. Will report on that tomorrow.
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