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Live Review
by SashaS
3-10-2002
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| Bowie: King of arty sounds and vision |
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Live: David Bowie
Carling Apollo, London
Wednesday, October 2, 2002
David Bowie is splendiferous at Ziggy’s ‘murder scene’
It’s one day short of 32 years and three months how David Bowie killed off his ‘Ziggy Stardust’ alter-ego and has been avoiding the ‘crime’ venue (then known as ‘Hammy-Oh’) ever since. Until this show that saw an incredible performance from the veteran art-rocker that dipped into his huge repertoire for some really surprising song choices. It would all end with the ‘Ziggy’ song and, the feeling was, that it wasn’t enough. Greedy bastards are Bowie-fans!
Despite being a seating venue, nobody is occupying a single place and everyone will remain up for 5 minutes short of three hours! Backed by a six-piece band, it moved through all the stages of his career, including few covers and few connoisseur inclusions, such as lengthy, story-like a la Brecht/Weill, ‘The Bewlay Brothers’ (from ‘Hunky Dory’, 1971, performed only the second time ever; the first was for a radio-taped show at the BBC’s Maida Vale studio a few weeks back).
Bowie is in a talkative mood and precedes each song with a little intro, anecdote, such as ‘Cactus’ being about his hair – of which a German journalist recently enquired if it were real, he added in Kraut-accented English – and expresses regret for not covering Neil Young before ‘I’ve Been Waiting For You’ on ‘Heathen’. A fair selection from the current album is included, ‘5.15 The Angles Have Gone’ sounding rather gloriously free to explore some sonic vistas that have been out of his interest before, ‘Afraid’ moves everybody…
But, it is the one-worded titles that provide mass-joy to these 3,500 souls: ‘Fame’, ‘Fashion’, ‘Starman’, ‘Helden’ (OK, ‘Heroes’, but the song sounds much better as a German version, trust me), ‘Changes’, that get everyone back to where it was all-so-young and promising! ‘Absolute Beginners’ was a duet with his bass-player Gail-Ann Dorsey and there were also renditions of ‘China Girl’, ‘Rebel Rebel’, ‘Be My Wife’, ‘Look Back In Anger’, ‘Let’s Dance’, to keep us all standing up in admiration… One of fans crowding the aisle asks me why I don’t clap; my reply is that I applaud with my reviews. (Didn’t want to get too specific about difficulty of taking notes and clapping at the same time!)
Dressed in a silk blue suit, waistcoat and a matching tie included – Bowie has had more style than Bryan Ferry could dream up – a tightish, shortish affair (typical Bowie), he’d exchange for a knee-length coat of darker colours for encores.
In the main set was a rare inclusion of ‘Alabama Song’, the Brecht/Weill composition from the pre-War Berlin, which simply confirmed that this man is the Sinatra of his generation; funkier numbers doubtlessly corroborate his best ‘Blue-eyed funk’ credentials of the James Brown/Sly Stone magnitude, others display his knack to out-ambient Brian Eno!
Bowie’s always been the Chairman of art-rock but also of so many other genres and tonight he simply displayed all of them – sublimely…
Full setlist:
'Life On Mars?'
'Ashes To Ashes'
'Look Back In Anger'
'Survive'
'Breaking Glass'
'Cactus'
'China Girl'
'Slip Away'
'Absolute Beginners'
'Alabama Song'
'Speed Of Life'
'Be My Wife'
'Fame'
'Afraid'
'5.15 The Angels Have Gone'
'I’ve Been Waiting For You'
'I'm Afraid Of Americans'
'Fashion'
'Rebel Rebel'
'Heroes'
'Heathen (The Rays)'
Encore:
'Sunday'
'I Would Be Your Slave'
'Moonage Daydream'
'Changes'
'Starman'
'A New Career In A New Town'
'Everyone Says Hi'
'The Bewlay Brothers'
'Sound & Vision'
'Hallo Spaceboy'
'Let’s Dance'
'Ziggy Stardust'
SashaS
11-7-2005
David Bowie’s album ‘Heathen’ is available now on ISO/Columbia
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