Is it a bird? Is it a dame? No…It’s Rainbow Man!
Rare colour shot of DB at the Roundhouse 1970.
Tapping out your memories…
Our very own Spaceface has created a wonderful page relating to just one of the events in the book we told you about recently, ‘A Promoter’s Tale – Rock At The Sharp End’ by Geoff Docherty. (10/15/02 NEWS: BOWIENETTERS MAKE GOOD (PART 236)) As you know, Spaceface helped edit the book, and obviously the event she has focused on for us, is David’s gig with The Hype at The Fillmore North in Sunderland on 13th March 1970.
Apart from the stuff in the book, Spaceface has managed to get some eye-witness reports and she’s also salvaged some of the bits that didn’t make the book. I won’t spoil it by giving too much away, but one of the issues raised by the piece is what David actually wore on the night. Unfortunately, there are no actual pictures from the night, all the shots used here and in Spaceface’s piece are from the show at The Roundhouse a couple of days earlier on the 11th.
DB and TV with THAT collar at the Roundhouse.
Inset: the original ad for the Fillmore North show.
Mike Brown, an attendee at the Fillmore show is pretty sure David wore the cape with the huge collar that Hype Man (aka Tony Visconti, see pic above) wore at the Roundhouse show two days earlier. 32 years later, neither Rainbow Man or Hype Man’s memories were particularly enlightening. When I asked David if TV and DB were into a bit of role reversal for the Hype shows, this is what he said:
“All I know is that it’s more than likely, what with our budget an’ all.”
Tony wasn’t much bloody use either! };-)
“Okay. I saw a brief film clip on the recent A&E Biography where I thought I saw David wearing that cape! I don’t have time to view the entire tape, but I’m certain I saw him wearing the cape.”
First person to e-mail me a still from the scene Tony is referring to gets something groovy from the vaults. Click on either of the images above to take you to Spaceface’s page, and do check out Geoff’s book if you get a chance…it’s a jolly good read.