Last night they loved you…
David Bowie’s show at the MEN Arena in Manchester last night is receiving very favourable reviews… a few of which I’ve posted links to below, along with a snippet from each. Click on the links to read the full reviews. Many thanx to BowieNetter Adeline Cantais for the wonderful shot above.
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He [Bowie] connected with the Manchester audience throughout. I don’t suppose he had to inform us that he’d bought a raincoat that day from Kendals, but such banter at least shows he’s making an effort.
The songs were what really mattered, though, and Bowie served up gem after gem. Life On Mars was sublime, with just Mike Garson on piano for accompaniment, and Under Pressure saw Gail Ann Dorsey, the bassist, sing the Freddie Mercury part of the duet.
It was the cue for the crowd to get on their feet, and they hardly sat down thereafter. Equally animated was Bowie who flitted between the stage and an elevated platform to whip the audience into a frenzy.
At the end he thanked the Manchester faithful for making the start of the tour such a pleasure, but really, the pleasure was all ours. Pure genius.
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But the focus was entirely on Bowie who, together with the band who have played on his last two albums, performed a breathtaking selection of songs from every stage of his career.
From a sublime version of The Man Who Sold The World to the chunky, garage rock of the Pixies song Cactus, from his last but one album, Heathen, Bowie performed with complete authority but also a strange kind of charm ? as if the battles with his myth and the baggage of his past were now resolved. It wasn?t just the self-deprecating grandad remark; his whole attitude seemed to be more relaxed and purposeful than before.
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After two return-to-form albums, 2002’s Heathen and this year’s Reality, presumably the thin white duke at last feels he has new material to hold up against the oldies. And yes, Reality is utterly ferocious. The swaggering New Killer Star has the indescribable but unmistakable feel of a Bowie classic. In fact, there aren’t nearly enough new songs aired.
Changes, Under Pressure and the rest are delivered to perfection. Possibly because Bowie has finally given up smoking, or adopted even tighter trousers, he has reawakened a vocal range that has long lain dormant, even reaching the infamous “vision of swastikas” line in China Girl for the first time since it was recorded. If anyone doubts that Bowie looks fantastic too, five TV screens dazzle with his image. His Low-era haircut has been transplanted onto the body of a 24-year-old, while the creaking jeans reveal the bits that were once hurriedly airbrushed off the sleeve of Diamond Dogs.
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Congratulations David…Great stuff. On a final note, the picture I posted in yesterday’s news of Lard and DB at BBC Manchester, did feature a fair bit of PhotoShop work by me, and despite the fact that nobody seemed to notice, I have posted the untouched original below… apologies to Lard, who is actually thinking of getting his hair done like he has it in yesterday’s picture.
Those of you that missed David’s appearance on Mark and Lard yesterday can hear the whole thing now by clicking on Lard’s hooter.
A Reality Tour continues with the first of two shows in Birmingham tomorrow.