It was cold and it rained…
David Bowie has often been regarded as a man of extremes, but even he can’t be blamed for the outrageous change in weather conditions for his performance at the Norwegian Wood Festival in Oslo in Norway yesterday. The switch from blinding sunshine the day before, to torrential rain for yesterday’s show meant David had to abandon his normal stage clobber for the yellow hooded affair pictured here.
And it seems the shades he wore to protect his bad eye from the sun at the previous show in Bergen, may have been useful to perform a similar protective role at yesterday’s show, but this time from a flying lollipop! I’m sure you’re all aware of the story by now, so I won’t dwell on it, but please think carefully before you lob anything stageward in future, people. Anybody remember Brixton 19991?
I’m sure there was no malice intended, but yesterday’s incident could have been far more serious than it was. However, in typical Bowie fashion, and despite his understandable initial anger, David made light of the incident when he threw a plectrum into the crowd and then said he would have to go and hide in the band as he thought he may have got somebody in the eye! This was a humorous reference to the fact that the launcher of the lollipop missile refused to own up and simply melted into the crowd.
Despite the rain and the lollipop, DB was in top jovial mood joking and laughing throughout the show, at one point even teasing the audience that he might perform The Laughing Gnome! Apparently the setlist was abandoned to the point of Life On Mars? almost being performed twice.
As you can see from the officially-confirmed 27-song setlist courtesy of HNB, below, the set was quite different to many of the recent shows.
Oslo June 18th 2004
01 Rebel Rebel
02 Fame
03 Battle For Britain (The Letter)
04 Cactus
05 Sister Midnight
06 New Killer Star
07 All The Young Dudes
08 Reality
09 China Girl
10 Life On Mars?
11 Modern Love
12 Afraid
13 The Man Who Sold The World
14 Changes
15 The Loneliest Guy
16 Hallo Spaceboy
17 Under Pressure
18 Ashes To Ashes
19 The Supermen
20 Quicksand
21 Be My Wife
22 Panic In Detroit
23 White Light, White Heat
24 I’m Afraid Of Americans
25 “Heroes”
(Encore)
26 Suffragette City
27 Ziggy Stardust
A Reality Tour continues at the Provinssirock Festival in Seinäjoki, Finland, tomorrow.