Month: June 2004

As you’ve all read in various places, or in some cases witnessed first hand, David Bowie finished his show in Prague last night slightly ahead of schedule. This was due to a trapped/pinched nerve in his shoulder.

Here’s the officially confirmed setlist courtesy of HNB:

Prague June 23rd 2004

01 Life On Mars?
02 Rebel Rebel
03 Fame
04 Battle For Britain (The Letter)
05 Cactus
06 The Motel
07 New Killer Star
08 All The Young Dudes
09 Reality
(David leaves the stage while the band carry on without him)
10 A New Career In A New Town
11 Be My Wife (Sung by Catherine Russell)
(David returns)
12 China Girl
13 Modern Love
14 Station To Station (Halted and then restarted and completed after a 10 minute break by David and the band)
15 The Man Who Sold The World(Show ends after intro to Changes)

Thanx to Simone and Jungtheforeman for their earlier setlist details.

A Reality Tour will continue on Friday at the Hurricane Festival in Scheeßel, Germany, as scheduled.

Maybe, I’ll slay a dragon for you…

Tickets for the Festa do Dragão, or the Dragon Festival to most of you reading this, have proved almost impossible to buy for anyone living outside of Portugal. Tickets went on sale on the plateia website recently, but it seems they could only be bought by registered members…and you could only register with a Portuguese phone number! Tickets were also meant to go on sale via fnac, but again, unless anybody can tell me differently, that doesn’t seem to have happened either.

But there is light at the end of the tunnel, and it isn’t an oncoming locomotive as somebody once said. We now have a phone number which you can apparently call direct and speak to an English-speaking human on the other end who will help you with your booking. I tried the number, and there was indeed a very pleasant lady more than willing to help.

Do remember her English is most likely far better than your Portuguese, so please remain polite if you do come up against a language barrier. Make sure you know exactly what you are ordering before you complete the transaction, in other words that you are booking the right day and that you know where in the stadium you will be situated.

Here’s that number: 00 351 21 458 3333

For those of you that can’t quite make out the rather poor quality poster above, here are the details for the full three days:

The Dragon Festival, Dragon Stadium, Oporto, Portugal.

July 16
Iggy & The Stooges
The Darkness
Cinerama
The Hells
UK Subs

July 17
David Bowie
The Charlatans
Starsailor
The Leah Wood Group
Ute Lemper

July 18
Deep Purple
Status Quo
The Scorpions
Cheap Trick

Good luck folx, and I’ll see you there on the 17th.

The music is outside…**

We first mentioned the Sony double disc versions of 1.Outside, Earthling and ‘hours…’, way back in April of last year. (04.25.2003 NEWS: SONY REISSUES: THE FACTS) Well, I’m happy to report that the folx at Sony have stayed true to their word and intend to reissue the three albums on September 27th, complete with bonus discs. Here’s how I described the reissues in that original news item over a year ago:

These bonus discs will contain a dozen or so songs each, and the tracks will be drawn from rare and hard-to-find releases and promos. They will not contain unreleased and unfinished versions of tracks…

And, sure enough that’s exactly what you’ll be getting. Many of these tracks have not had a CD release before now and have only been available on hard to find promos and the like. I’ll be posting a complete breakdown of the bonus disc tracks and where they originated from shortly. (See track listings below)

The albums will be available to buy separately or all three together as a slipcase edition, as in the picture above. Each of the albums will be packaged in the DigiBook style that the recent EMI releases, such as Diamond Dogs, have favoured. The booklets have been expanded slightly to include the bonus track details and some additional photos.

The separately available albums will only be available for one pressing, when they’re gone, they’re gone. The slipcase edition will be a numbered limited edition, limited to just two thousand copies.

On a final note, I know this is the third version of these releases around the world over the last year, but I have said all along that there would be double disc versions available too… including when I announced the single disc US versions back in February. (02.15.2004 NEWS: SONY RE-ISSUES FOR AMERICA) So, for those of you, like me, that need to own every version (Hi Keiths) please keep your grumbles to yourself… we were warned!

If, however, you’ve never owned these albums on CD, these are the ones to get. You should save yourselves a couple of hundred quid not having to shell out for those rare and very pricey original vinyls and promos.

Here are those bonus disc track listings…

**Actually, the music is inside… inside the lovely limited edition silver slipcase!

I’m thinking that it must be love…

A Reality Tour stopped off in Finland yesterday, to take part in the fun at the Provinssirock Festival in Seinäjoki. The Sun returned to brighten up proceedings and the Fins proved how they like to hold a sign aloft.

From a nice Aladdin Sane display promo, complete with feather boa…

to an economical Ziggy placard made from cardboard and a stick…

and a simple message in marker pen: “IT MUST BE LOVE” that caught David’s eye and forced the rock historian in him to make a comment.

When he spotted the sign, David said how he thought the person holding it was far too young to remember this track released by The Contours in the sixties. While it’s possible that the creator of the sign was perhaps more familiar with the Labi Siffre hit of the same name, later popularised further by Madness, or was even quoting a line from David’s very own Station To Station (surely the most likely reason for the sign), I felt compelled to press David for further information regarding the completely different song released by The Contours:

It Must Be Love was the flip of Don’t Let Her Be Your Baby, a 1963 single release on the Gordy label. The Contours were a rough and ready sounding Motown band that did the definitive great version of Do You Love Me (now that I can dance). A sort of unsophisticated Isley Bros. One of the forgotten greats.

So now you know. David delved back even further when he performed an impromptu Ella Fitzgerald style spot of scat singing. By all accounts, very impressive and perfectly convincing. Wouldn’t mind hearing a tape of that.

Here’s the officially-confirmed 27-song setlist courtesy of HNB:

Seinäjoki June 20th 2004

01 Rebel Rebel
02 Fame
03 Battle For Britain (The Letter)
04 The Motel
05 Cactus
06 New Killer Star
07 All The Young Dudes
08 Reality
09 China Girl
10 Life On Mars?
11 Modern Love
12 Sister Midnight
13 The Man Who Sold The World
14 Changes
15 The Loneliest Guy
16 Pablo Picasso
17 Under Pressure
18 Ashes To Ashes
19 The Supermen
20 Quicksand
21 Be My Wife
22 Diamond Dogs
23 White Light, White Heat
24 I’m Afraid Of Americans
25 “Heroes”

(Encore)
26 Suffragette City
27 Ziggy Stardust

A Reality Tour continues on Wednesday at the T-Mobile Arena, Prague 7, in the Czech Republic.

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.

The music is inside, It’s happening inside…

Due to inclement weather at recent events at the Prague and Salzburg outdoor venues, these shows are to be moved indoors where David can present his production properly as it was meant to be seen, in arenas.

The June 23 Prague T-Mobile Park will now be held at:

T-Mobile Arena
Za Elektrarnou 419
Prague 7
Czech Republic

All tickets purchased for this concert previously scheduled at the T-Mobile Park will be honoured. Doors will open at 18H00. The running order will now be: 20H00 Tata Bojs – 20H40 Intermission – 21H10 David Bowie

The June 30 Salzburg Residenzplatz show will now be held at:

SALBURG ARENA
MesseZentrum Salzburg GmbH
Am Messezentrum 1
A-5020
Salzburg

The times for this show remain unchanged

We apologise in advance for any inconvenience these changes may cause you, but we hope you will agree that they are in the best interests of everybody involved.

The Sun machine is coming down, and we’re gonna have a party…

David Bowie played the third show of the Summer 2004 European leg of his A Reality Tour last night, which was also the 107th of the tour. The show, at the Bergen Festival in Norway, was a particularly sunny affair, and such was the position of the Sun during David’s set, that he had to put on a pair of sunglasses explaining that ultraviolet light wasn’t good for his bad eye. Young master Underwood has a lot to answer for! };-)

That regular front row feature, The Fungirl Three, made it into the local papers with the shot below and a bit of an interview regarding their fandom. BowieNetter letmeindarnit has bravely attempted a translation of the piece, which BowieNet members can read here on the MBs …though I fear the piece may have lost a little in translation. For those of you that can read Norwegian, click on Nemmy‘s hat in the picture below to get to the original article.

Before we get to the setlist, I’ll leave you with another of Erik‘s pictures, a particularly beautiful shot of Cat from yesterday’s show. You can view the rest of Erik’s pictures in VT by clicking on Cat’s shaker thing.

Here’s the officially-confirmed 24-song setlist courtesy of HNB:

Bergen June 17th 2004

01 Rebel Rebel
02 New Killer Star
03 Cactus
04 Sister Midnight
05 All The Young Dudes
06 Fashion
07 Reality
08 China Girl
09 Looking For Water
10 The Man Who Sold The World
11 The Loneliest Guy
12 Hallo Spaceboy
13 Under Pressure
14 Ashes To Ashes
15 The Supermen
16 Quicksand
17 Station To Station
18 Panic In Detroit
19 I’m Afraid Of Americans
20 “Heroes”

(Encore)
21 Heathen (The Rays)
22 Diamond Dogs
23 Suffragette City
24 Ziggy Stardust

A Reality Tour continues at the Norwegian Wood Festival in Oslo in Norway tomorrow.

**OK, OK… So Iggy wrote the lyric, but it’s a Bowie/Pop composition for goodness sake!

This is our last dance…

If I had a penny for every fan that approached me in Amsterdam to insist that A Reality Tour would be returning to the UK for some arena shows in September, I’d have about 12p! Well, some people believe what they want to believe, and despite my protests they remain unswerving in their belief that the tour will continue beyond the Vieilles Charrues Festival in Brittany, France, on Friday July 23.

Well, it won’t. And so those T-shirts that have already been printed with the extra dates on them, (that a couple of these “in-the-know” fans told me about) will just have to be destroyed!

David gave pretty strong hints what he does intend to do after the tour’s end to Johhnie Walker yesterday when he said he planned to take a two or three week holiday with his family, before embarking on writing and recording for his next album.

The brief interview also covered the following topics: A Reality Tour, sadness at shorter Festival sets, IOW fans not affected by football score, artist v entertainer, Liza Jane 40th anniversary, Mash-Up comp, time off after tour in July/August, the need for characters in his early career, The Day After Tomorrow v Beatrix Potter, reading to Lexi, spirituality and belief in a higher being, or the lack thereof, longevity, Butterfly Boucher version of Changes.

If you missed it, you can still listen online by clicking on the image above.