tribute david bowie
ZIGGY PLAYED A
A touring pioneer who broke boundaries and paved the way for so much of what followed, the live Bowie circa Station To Station
s groundbreaking on stage as he was in the studio, David Bowie was one of the great live performers, but the rock icon stepped away from the touring circuit in
2004, never to return.
John Giddings, the star’s agent, says a comeback had never been close. “I always thought there would be a possibility of doing one or two shows,” reveals the Solo Agency MD. “I never really thought he would tour again, but he never actually said to me, I’m never touring again.”
The then 57-year-old Bowie suffered a heart attack after a concert in Schessel, Germany, on June 25, 2004, causing the remaining dates of that year’s A Reality Tour to be cancelled. Twelve days earlier, at the Isle Of Wight Festival, Giddings had presented what transpired to be Bowie’s UK swansong - a career spanning 20-song set bookended by Rebel Rebel and Ziggy Stardust. “The festival is on the bucket list of a lot of artists because Jimi Hendrix and The Doors played there,” says Giddings, who revived the event in 2002. “I think every artist of that calibre wants to play it at least once in their career and it fitted in with the tour of festivals we had discussed doing after his indoor tour. “He got off the coach on the ferry and went up to the café and hung out – pretty cool seeing David Bowie on the Isle of Wight ferry,” smiles Giddings. “I remember him being on great form. He was really humble, kind and caring. He was good fun.” Giddings had worked with Bowie since staging his 1987 Glass Spider concerts at Wembley Stadium. The tour initially garnered mixed reviews but has since been reappraised as a groundbreaking spectacle. “It took [stadium rock] to a different level,” believes Giddings. “It was one of the first big productions and ever since then it’s got bigger and bigger.
“He’s a true musical genius whose work will live Continued from previous page
stadium tours, most artists would have settled into comfortable superstardom, knocking out hits to fans old and new. But Bowie was emphatically not most artists: he retired his hits on the 1990 Sound+Vision Tour, formed an alternative rock band (Tin Machine) and spent much of the 1990s and 2000s experimenting with industrial rock and drum ‘n’ bass. Many of the albums from that era
under-performed, but Bowie would regularly remind people of his greatness with his live shows, although it was only after he withdrew from touring and recording following a heart attack in 2004 that his absence from the scene was most keenly felt.
forever, you can put him alongside Beethoven. He was at the cutting edge not only of music but also of fashion, film and photography. “The first time he appeared on Top Of The Pops, the androgynous David Bowie, it was completely shocking to the world. He pushed the envelope for all artists to follow and I think every artist in the last 30 to 40 years
So when Bowie returned in 2013 with The Next Day, having somehow kept his comeback secret, the sheer joy of his fans was unconfined. His comeback reminded everyone of just how much he meant to successive generations of musicians and music fans. Because everyone had their own favourite David Bowie. Whether you best remember his trail-blazing Top Of The Pops appearances in the 1970s; his movie roles in The Man Who Fell To Earth or Labyrinth; the harrowing Berlin period or the appearances on The Snowman or Extras that displayed the twinkle in those famously mismatched eyes, doesn’t really matter. Nor does it matter if over the past week you chose to play Space Oddity, Life On Mars, Let’s Dance, Heroes,
has taken something from him.”
Live Nation’s US-based global touring chief Arthur Fogel, who produced Bowie’s final tour, paid tribute to “a brilliant artist and a great person”, adding: “It was a privilege and an honour to know David and to have worked with him for many years.
“I don’t know any other artist so universally revered –
Suffragette City, Young Americans, Fame, Fashion, Where Are We Now? or The Laughing Gnome in tribute to perhaps the UK’s greatest ever solo star. What matters is that Bowie was always there, always innovating, always entertaining and always one step ahead of everyone else. And now, tragically, he no longer will be. Music Week’s thoughts are with his family, friends and the executives that worked with him over his near 50-year career. Bowie may have proved to have been human after all but, with Blackstar, he leaves us as he first found us with Space Oddity. Planet Earth is bluer than ever at his loss, and there’s nothing we can do except remember and honour his genius.
JANUARY 18
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MUSIC Week
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