Month: May 2004

Though I’m past one hundred Reality shows…

A Reality Tour celebrated its 100th show with a second concert at the Borgata in Atlantic City, NJ, last night.

As is the way with second shows at the same venue, David always made enough changes to the setlist to keep it interesting for those attending two nights in a row. But even this wasn’t enough to keep the little angel below awake past the first three songs or so. She was apparently sat with her parents right in the front row, but it all became a bit too much… how she slept through that volume, God only knows. Kids of today, eh? No staying power.

As I said yesterday, BowieNetter nancyh was there again, and here’s her remembrance of aforementioned sleepy head lifted from the MBs:

Oh – remembered a cute tidbit from last night’s show – there was an adorable little girl sitting on her mom and dad’s lap up in front row center. She was watching the show as it started, then began sucking her thumb, resting her head against mom’s chest… then fell asleep by the third song.

A bit later, David noticed her and commented “Oh my, we’re being much too loud – I’m sorry! She’s so sweet – is she four? She looks just the age of my own daughter… I’ll try to keep it down a bit”. Meanwhile, the father confirmed, yes, she was four, and no, it wasn’t too loud because she had earplugs, and that really she was a big fan of David’s but just couldn’t stay awake – it was after 10 pm at that point. Very sweet.

Also last night during “Fame”, when David pointed at an audience member for the “what’s your name what’s your name what’s your name….” part at the end, the girl was so thrilled and excited at being pointed out that she didn’t answer. David made a big production of “Oh, so you’re not going to tell me your name? Come up here… yes you!” (She walks up to the front to the mic and says her name) David says “See? That wasn’t so hard, now, was it?”.

Here’s the officially-confirmed 26-song setlist courtesy of HNB:

Atlantic City May 30th 2004

01 Rebel Rebel
02 Fashion
03 Cactus
04 Sister Midnight
05 New Killer Star
06 Panic In Detroit
07 All The Young Dudes
08 The Loneliest Guy
09 The Man Who Sold The World
10 Days
11 Afraid
12 Pablo Picasso
13 Sunday
14 Heathen (The Rays)
15 Fame
16 Under Pressure
17 Never Get Old
18 A New Career In A New Town
19 Be My Wife
20 Ashes To Ashes
21 Changes
22 Let’s Dance
23 Modern Love
24 “Heroes”

(Encore)
25 Diamond Dogs
26 Ziggy Stardust

I’m sure you’ve noticed the return of the Erik credit in the pix above, and yes, that means we have pictures in Virtual Ticket again. Click on either of the images above to get there.

I will be updating VT with the previous two shows shortly, but I don’t have access to broadband for a few days and each picture takes around three weeks to upload, so please bear with me.

A Reality Tour continues tomorrow night at the Verizon Wireless in Manchester, NH.

Diamond Dogs rule, OK…

For the 99th show of his A Reality Tour at the Borgata in Atlantic City, NJ, last night, David decided it was time for another new song to the setlist from the depths of his 40-year-old library.

Just over a week before the release of the 30th anniversary edition of Diamond Dogs, DB resurrected the title track for the first of the two Borgata shows.

BowieNetter nancyh was at the show, that’s another of her superb shots above. She also posted a brief report on the MBs, from which, this:

High points – the entire fucking show.

DIAMOND DOGS!!! QUEEN BITCH!!! Station to Station, Bewlay Brothers, and David in tiptop form telling stories about Divas and Jessica Simpson and Britney and Beyonce and Maria Calais, Aretha Franklin, Ertha Kitt… Joan Crawford, and Gail. Some are, some aren’t and so on…

There was lots of BowieLove going on in the front row. Jim (Floidoip) made it to the show, and right up front, and David dedicated Heathen to him!

David seemed very pleased with Diamond Dogs – it sounded absolutely amazing, and a roaring crowd response. Station to Station was simply flawless, classic, complete with throwing darts in lovers eyes… Bewlay Brothers – Big grin when he finished and he said “I think we’ll keep that in the set, yeah?”

Yeah! FIVE MORE SHOWS this week!

Thanx Nancy. Sounds like a very special show. And well done to Floidoip for getting a dedication. Great stuff. As Nancy says, she will be at the remaining US shows, so expect more enthusiastic reports during the course of next week.

Here’s the full officially-confirmed 27-song setlist courtesy ofHNB:

Atlantic City May 29th 2004

01 Rebel Rebel
02 Cactus
03 Sister Midnight
04 New Killer Star
05 Looking For Water
06 All The Young Dudes
07 China Girl
08 The Loneliest Guy
09 The Man Who Sold The World
10 Battle For Britain (The Letter)
11 Pablo Picasso
12 Heathen (The Rays)
13 Hallo Spaceboy
14 Under Pressure
15 Reality
16 Station To Station
17 The Bewlay Brothers
18 Ashes To Ashes
19 Hang On To Yourself
20 Quicksand
21 Modern Love
22 I’m Afraid Of Americans
23 “Heroes”

(Encore)
24 Diamond Dogs
25 Queen Bitch
26 Suffragette City
27 Ziggy Stardust

A Reality Tour continues tonight with a second show at the Borgata in Atlantic City, NJ.

Everything will be alright tonight…

If you’re not going to be at tonight’s show at the Borgata in Atlantic City, you may be able to attend one of two other Bowie-related things happening this weekend.

First up, BowieNetter David Bedford has written in again with details of his band Space Oddity’s show, this very evening. Over to you DB:

Space Oddity – David Brighton’s tribute to David Bowie will be performing tonight, May 29th at The Bicycle Casino. Here are the details:
Space Oddity’s show time: 9:00pm (approximately).

     Address: 7301 Eastern Avenue
     Bell Gardens, CA, USA
     Tel: (562) 806-4646

Request FREE TICKETS via E-mail at: BowieLive@aol.com or by visiting: www.DavidBowieTribute.com and using the email links on it.

Thanx for that David. If California isn’t convenient for you, perhaps London, England is easier to get to… Or perhaps you’re one of those international jet-setting types that can attend the following too…

The solid book we wrote can be signed tomorrow night…

BowieNetter Nick Pegg will be signing copies of the third edition of his most excellent Bowie Bible: The Complete David Bowie, in London tomorrow night. Here’s the official blurb from his publishers:

Publishers REYNOLDS & HEARN LTD are pleased to announce a signing and launch party for the revised and expanded new edition of THE COMPLETE DAVID BOWIE by Nicholas Pegg.

The launch party takes place on Sunday 30th May 2004 at 5.00 pm till 10.30 pm

To be held in the basement room at: The Corner Store, 33 Wellington Street, Covent Garden, London WC2E 7BN.

The nearest tube stations are: Covent Garden (Piccadilly Line), Leicester Square (Northern & Piccadilly Lines), Temple (Circle & District Lines).

Directions: The Corner Store is on Wellington Street, on the same side and just a few doors up from the Lyceum Theatre (where ‘The Lion King’ is playing).

Admission is free and the book will be available to buy, and the author will be in attendance to sign copies.

The bar will be open of course, and there’s even a small dance floor, so feel free to pop in for a drink, a chat and a boogie. You can guess what the music will be! We hope to see you there.

Sadly, I can’t be there, but I know lots of Bowie fans are planning to be… So, don’t be shy, get your arse along Covent Garden and please say high to Nick from me.

There’s a taste in my mouth…

The 98th show of David Bowie’s A Reality Tour took place at the Ford Pavilion at Montage Mountain in Scranton, PA, last night. BowieNetter mandn has sent in a long review, sadly too long to reproduce in full here, but I’m sure she can be persuaded to post the complete thing on the MBs.

There are also a couple of online reviews. But first, here’s the full officially-confirmed 24-song setlist courtesy of HNB:

Scranton May 27th 2004

01 Rebel Rebel
02 Cactus
03 Sister Midnight
04 New Killer Star
05 Looking For Water
06 All The Young Dudes
07 China Girl
08 The Loneliest Guy
09 The Man Who Sold The World
10 Pablo Picasso
11 Sunday
12 Heathen (The Rays)
13 Hallo Spaceboy
14 Under Pressure
15 Reality
16 Station To Station
17 Life On Mars?
18 Ashes To Ashes
19 Quicksand
20 Modern Love
21 I’m Afraid Of Americans
22 “Heroes”

(Encore)
23 White Light/White Heat
24 Ziggy Stardust

Here’s a small excerpt from mandn’s review:

The crowd is positively buzzing. OK, this is going to be good. House lights dim, screens come up and everyone goes NUTS!! What a reception, I bet after Buffalo they weren’t prepared for this little hick town’s reaction. The band just exploded and the crowd ate it up! Here’s the setlist with comments:

Rebel – Cactus – Sister Midnight (that “some of you younger ones might not know”) – NKS – Looking For Water – All The Young Dudes – China Girl…

Now this is funny. As he is about to sing: “Oh baby, just you shut your mouth”, something happens, and it comes out: “Oh baby, I’ve got a mosquito in my mouth!” LOL. To which he now spends the rest of the show trying to extract. After China Girl, he explains about the mosquito and goes into a story about when he was in Australia and bit into some sort of vegetable roll and there was a cockroach in it, “but only HALF a cockroach…” eeeeewwwwwwwwww. Then into the Loneliest Guy, which was gorgeous if only the crowd wasn’t so chatty

TMWSTW – Pablo Picasso – gorgeous rendition of Sunday/Heathen. Heathen had a nice new ending that seemed to be just for Sterling and Mike. Hallo Spaceboy ROCKED!!!

Now here’s where he started joking around about how terrible The Stereophincs are at soccer and just kept rubbing their faces in it, and then into the band intro, which somehow turned into a chronology of who/what/where and when. Except for Gerry, “who’s from Ireland”

Under Pressure, Gail has the voice of an angel. – Reality – STS – Life On Mars, apparently requested by “one of those soccer playing boys” – Ashes to Ashes – Quicksand – Modern Love – IAOA – “Heroes” dedicated to just about everyone. The encore was White Light, White Heat and Ziggy Stardust.

Another great night! Rousing renditions and chatty, witty banter. Plus, as I was dragged to the front row, by Mr.Dave a friend of mine, I waved at Earl as promised and got a smile and a wave back. Is this not the right time to mention how fabulous everyone looks??

We all kept commenting on how surprisingly fit they all seem to be. I would think 10 months on the road would make anyone bulge a bit in all the wrong places, but not these guys! This must be what it is like to do what you love night after night after night. Somehow, I don’t think I can subscribe to that particular diet plan, but I will stick to Bowie callisthenics for the remaining 4 shows I have tix for.

Thanx for that Mary… Please do post your whole piece on the MBs, it’s a great read.

As I say, there are two excellent online reviews which you can read from the shortcuts below:

Scranton Times Tribune – Often-eccentric Bowie proves he’s in a class all by himself. By Josh McAuliffe

Times Leader – Bowie gives fans the royal treatment. By Alan K. Stout

No pictures for VT just yet, that’s why I’ve utilised a little montage of some of Erik‘s recent shots. Normal service will resume shortly, and hopefully I will be able to come back and update with Scranton pictures too.

A Reality Tour continues tomorrow night at the Borgata in Atlantic City, NJ.

Put a bullet in my train…

OK, here’s the third of Anthony‘s Japanese films. Join David as he meets some old friends and travel with him on the Bullet Train to Kyoto.

BowieNet members can view this latest instalment by clicking on either of the images above to get to Virtual Ticket.

Thanx again Anthony, this is priceless stuff.

And I’m busting up my brains for the words…

We first mentioned the Mark Vidler produced Rebel Never Gets Old single back in March (03.27.04 NEWS: BOWIE MASH-UP FOR NEW SINGLE?) and most recently, last month. (04.19.04 NEWS: RNGO DIGITAL DOWNLOAD AND 12″ PICTURE DISC)

As we mentioned in that last piece, the track became available in the US via i-Tunes on May 4th, where it peaked at # 8 in the i-Tunes US chart. If you are in the US it is worth checking out i-Tunes as they also have a few other Bowie tracks you may be interested in: Your Turn To Drive and an AOL session version of New Killer Star to name but two.

Different versions of RNGO have since become available to buy as downloads throughout Europe too, via the likes of the re-launched Napster in the UK, Chart Radio in Germany and e-Compil and VirginMega in France.

The release of the extremely limited European 4-track 12″ picture disc (see above) has been put back to June 14th, and apart from the previously mentioned 4-track promo CD (keep reading for your chance to win a copy) there will now be a straight black vinyl version of the 12″ too. The picture disc is available to pre-order online at all the usual collector outlets. But, as I say, it is very limited, so be sure to order now to save disappointment.

All three physical formats have the same previously-mentioned track-listing, but here it is again for those of you that missed it last time:

A1: Radio Mix (3:25)
A2: 7th Heaven Edit (4:17)

B1: 7th Heaven Mix (7:22)
B2: Days (Album version) (3:19)

As if all this wasn’t enough, don’t forget you can view Anthony’s excellent video for RNGO (as outlined in a recent BowieNet e-mail) at the Never Follow site.

On the subject of the Never Follow site, the final three mash-ups awaiting your decision this week are: “Suffragette Killer”, “Looking For Water On Mars” and “Let’s Dance With The Disco King”. The winner of this final round will join the five previous heat winners to be judged by David Bowie and Mark Vidler in the final.

While we’re on the subject of mash-ups (this could run and run), the hugely-talented Tony Visconti has created a quite brilliant one of his own which utilises Win and The Loneliest Guy and is downloadable here.

While we’re on the subject of Tony Visconti… only joking…on to the competition…

RNGO PROMO CD COMPETITION

We have ten very collectable and quite rare copies of aforementioned 4-track RNGO promo CD to give away. We also have ten anagrams of REBEL NEVER GETS OLD and one impostor. In other words, of the eleven anagrams below, you have to find the one that isn’t an anagram of REBEL NEVER GETS OLD:

DB ENTERS LOVER GLEE
GENTEEL DB RESOLVER
DB REGRETS LENE LOVE
EVER LONGER DB STEEL
DB LENT REVELERS EGO
GO LEER DB TREE ELVES
DB TELE SNEER GROVEL
REELER GENTS LOVE DB
DB GENTLE LOVER SEER
GREEN EELS REVOLT DB
DB REVERES ENGEL LOT

When you have located the rogue anagram send it from your BowieNet account to me at TotalBlamBlam@davidbowie.com with a subject line of: RNGO anagram. Easy, eh?

The competition ends one week from today and the ten winners will be announced next Friday, June 4th. Remember, as ever, you must use your BowieNet e-mail account. But if this is not possible, you must supply your user name. Good luck kidz.

So now you could spend the morning talking with me quite amazed…

TimesLeader.com has today published a new interview with David Bowie. Calling from Pittsburgh last Monday the 17th, DB talked with Alan K.Stout about writing Reality, the world today, living in NYC, his voice, his band and more. Here’s a couple of excerpts:

On writing Reality: “I just wanted it to be songs that were written at home, where I live. That was the only line I gave myself: ‘Here I am, at home. What songs come to me, just living around town, doing what I do, going out with the family and being on the streets?’ It was that kind of feel, and it was really no more complicated than that.”

On his singing voice: “I really wasn’t that big a fan of my voice at all. It functioned OK for me to be able to do my songs, but I never really thought of myself so much as a singer. That’s probably why I had no problem playing around with it so much and adapting different styles of singing to suit different songs.”

On the Bowie band: “This band is very together. I personally would hold it as one of the best touring bands not only that I’ve ever had, but I would put it up against a lot of major bands. This band is absolutely superb. If it was 1968, I’d say ‘Aw, we blow the competition off the stage,’ but you don’t say that kind of thing these days. Everything is much more sophisticated …But you know what – we blow the competition off the stage,” he adds with another chuckle. “In the nicest possible way.”

Can’t disagree with that. This band is tighter than a nun’s chuff, as some people here in the UK would say… whatever that means!

Click on the image above of DB relaxing at home to read the whole interview.

Standing tall in the dark…

The 97th show of David Bowie’s A Reality Tour took place at Shea’s PAC in Buffalo, NY, last night, and this lucky audience was treated to some special setlist changes indeed.

Apart from the return of The Motel and Battle For Britain, two brand new additions to the setlist were selected from David’s classic Hunky Dory album: The Bewlay Brothers and Queen Bitch!

Here’s the full officially-confirmed 26-song setlist courtesy of HNB:

Buffalo May 25th 2004

01 Rebel Rebel
02 Cactus
03 Sister Midnight
04 New Killer Star
05 Looking For Water
06 All The Young Dudes
07 China Girl
08 The Loneliest Guy
09 The Man Who Sold The World
10 The Motel
11 Battle For Britain (The Letter)
12 Sunday
13 Heathen (The Rays)
14 Hallo Spaceboy
15 Under Pressure
16 Reality
17 Station To Station
18 Ashes To Ashes
19 Quicksand
20 Modern Love
21 I’m Afraid Of Americans
22 “Heroes”

(Encore)
23 The Bewlay Brothers
24 Queen Bitch
25 Suffragette City
26 Ziggy Stardust

Jeff Miers of The Buffalo News has written a great review, from which, these excerpts:

David Bowie has always been ahead of the curve. It was no surprise, then, that his sold-out show at Shea’s Tuesday found him still pushing the envelope, 35 years deep into one of rock’s most ambitious and consistently forward-looking careers.

Bowie’s current tour flies beneath the moniker “A Reality,” and that’s fitting; for 21/2 hours Tuesday, he and his seamless band brought an audience equal parts stunned and elated into another world, an elevated plane of artistic experience. In the arena of rock, this was quite simply as good as it gets.

Those lucky enough to claim a ticket stub for this intimate-yet-grandiose show will likely never forget it. Bowie is a class act, and remains one of the most influential artists in rock music. That he still manages to challenge his audience at this stage of his career is an inspiration to all who care about the music’s future.

Jeff sounds like one very satisfied customer indeed. You can read the whole of his review here. Check out yet more of Erik‘s superb shots by clicking on either of the images above.

A Reality Tour continues tomorrow night at the Ford Pavilion at Montage Mountain in Scranton, PA.

Free games for May, See Kelly play…

The 96th show of David Bowie’s A Reality Tour took place at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Columbus, Ohio, last night… and it was marked by what sounds like a jolly good larf indeed.

The previous day, (Sunday) two teams of some of the finest physical specimens ever to roam the planet met for a game of loads-a-side football. DB’s team, DRJ Dynamo, was challenged by The Stereophonics‘ own team, Aberdare Athletico.

Both teams consisted of a mixed bag of crew and production with Bowie and the band screaming support for DRJ Dynamo from the sidelines. Stereophonics head honcho, Kelly Jones, actually donned a kit himself, but, despite some impressive shooting his team were trounced in a final scoreline of DRJ Dynamo 5 : Aberdare Athletico 1.

The winner’s trophy was proudly displayed during The Stereophonics set last night, as evidenced in the picture above. In a hilarious act of mischief-making, the trophy was lowered and picked out in a spotlight as the band played on oblivious.

Once Kelly finally noticed, he clearly couldn’t face up to the shame of losing and instead told the audience the outrageous lie that in fact his own team had won, due to the fact that the Bowie team was too old! This was met with a loud “We are the champions” from the side of the stage by a widely-grinning DB, whose chance to set the record straight was about to come.

During DB’s set, the irrefutable evidence (see above) was displayed on the screens during Under Pressure. This evidence took the shape of a picture of a victorious DRJ Dynamo posing proudly with the trophy! David also made sure the audience were left in no doubt as to the final score. This whole thing is going to make jolly good VT viewing if Anthony managed to capture it.

Here’s the officially-confirmed 25-song setlist (which witnessed the return of Station To Station) courtesy of HNB:

Columbus May 24th 2004

01 Rebel Rebel
02 Cactus
03 Sister Midnight
04 New Killer Star
05 Looking For Water
06 All The Young Dudes
07 China Girl
08 The Loneliest Guy
09 The Man Who Sold The World
10 Sunday
11 Heathen (The Rays)
12 Hallo Spaceboy
13 Under Pressure
14 Reality
15 Station To Station
16 Ashes To Ashes
17 Quicksand
18 The Supermen
19 Modern Love
20 White Light, White Heat
21 I’m Afraid Of Americans
22 “Heroes”

(Encore)
23 Hang On To Yourself
24 Suffragette City
25 Ziggy Stardust

If you’re a BowieNet member, don’t forget to check out more of Erik‘s beautiful pictures in VT by clicking on any of the images above… and if the couple above are BowieNetters, please do make yourselves known.

A Reality Tour continues tonight at Shea’s PAC in Buffalo, NY.