Guardian of a loved-up isle…
David Bowie had the unenviable task of following a 2-1 England defeat in the Euro 2004 Cup match at the hands (or should that be feet) of the French football team, for his concert at the Nokia Isle of Wight Festival in the UK last night.
However, the spirits of a generally disappointed 35,000-strong crowd, (who had just watched the game live on screens at the gig) were lifted completely the moment DB took to the stage, with his customary: “Hello Isle Of Wight, you crazy mother-fuckers!”
Those famous initials were still fresh in the minds of the audience who gasped a collective moan of disbelief when that other DB, David Beckham, missed a penalty for the England side. This was one of the few references Mr Bowie made to the football when he said something along the lines of: “I’m not the only famous person with the initials DB in England, you know… But, I’m the only one who’ll wake up with his balls intact tomorrow.” – Something like that.
Anyway, he made what seemed to be one more little reference directly after The Loneliest Guy when he explained: “I’m not really lonely at all and I’m hardly sad, even though my initials are DB.”
“You’re going home in a f***ing ambulance…etc.” DB spies
BNetter Celine and assorted French types in the IOW crowd.**
David, who headlined the three-day event, travelled over the water to the tiny island by ferry for the gig and was reported in the UK tabloid The Daily Star thus: David Bowie shelled out £13 for a ferry ticket to the Isle of Wight festival as he’s scared of flying. Brave move considering one fan, dressed in a bunny suit, is following his every move. Gold dust tickets were selling for £2000 on Ebay. Hmmm, no comment.
Lots of reviews of David’s performance have popped up already, and I’ve provided links to them at the end of the piece. But here’s one paragraph from this morning’s Independent that kind of sums everything up:
But even the fanatical crowd of Saturday night displaying a thousand variants on T-Shirts emblazoned with “The Who”, had to concede that David Bowie, closing the festival last night, was the reigning monarch of this assemblage of rock royalty.
So there you have it. There are lots of pix of the reigning monarch in action, including the return of Erik’s brilliant handiwork in the VT section, (click on the image below to get there) and a whole bunch over at gettyimages.com which you can reach by clicking on David’s headgear in the top picture.
Also thanx to Celine for the picture above (among others she sent in) and BowieNetter iforgot, who has posted tons of great shots on the MBs which members can find by searching iforgot by username with the MBs search function.
“Far out in the red-sky. Far out from the sad eyes. Strange, mad celebration. So softly a supergod strums…”
Here’s the officially-confirmed 20-song setlist courtesy of the ever-dependable Ch ch ch ch charly and that old Trojan, HNB:
Isle Of Wight June 13th 2004
01 Rebel Rebel
02 New Killer Star
03 Cactus
04 Sister Midnight
05 All The Young Dudes
06 Fame
07 Reality
08 China Girl
09 The Man Who Sold The World
10 The Loneliest Guy
11 Hallo Spaceboy
12 Under Pressure
13 Ashes To Ashes
14 Quicksand
15 Station To Station
16 I’m Afraid Of Americans
17 “Heroes”
(Encore)
18 Heathen (The Rays)
19 Suffragette City
20 Ziggy Stardust
Here’s those online reviews:
A Reality Tour continues on Thursday June 17 at the Bergen Festival in Norway.
**In an uncharacteristically jingoistic move, the caption under the animated Bowie is my attempt at humour. But, I would like to point out that David Bowie did not actually say anything derogatory about those jammy French bastards at the IOW gig. Like I could care less about the football anyway. (Blammo ducks as Celine throws a stale baguette in the general direction of his head!)