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David Bowie - Full Set - BBC 2

Was that the complete set? I loved it having grown up in that era but nothing off Aladdin Sane?? For me my favourite Bowie era.. Hunky, Ziggy, Aladdin were his peak albums. Having said that I always had a soft spot for Station to Station, nice to hear some tracks off that album.
Yeah he was playing Cracked Actor and The Jean Genie around that time, would have loved to hear Earl Slick doing his stuff on those!
 
It pains me a bit to say this but I found the whole thing a bit too - "Vegas"

Yes the band were tight, yes his voice was on song , yes I had tears dribbling down my face during "Under Pressure" (a song that has a very deep memory for me - putting up the posters for it on the wall in the Virgin Megastore on Tottenham Court Road - during a break from operating the shrink wrapping machine - which is what I did for a living back then) and Gail Ann Dorsey is still the coolest woman on the planet. But.

If only he had picked up his guitar.

I'd've loved to have seen him do the intro to Starman on that old 12 string.
 
I thought it was a touch boring myself. Certainly no shivers sent up my spine. As Graystoke, the only time I caught him live was Milton Keynes 1983. The Serious Moonlight tour.
 
We watched this yesterday.

Bowie was wearing approx. 2" heels. (he was about 5'10")

We both thought he needed more/better backing singers. A 16 strong choir would have been better. The backing vocals sounded really thin in parts.

Ashes To Ashes, Rebel Rebel, Starman all good. My favourite was Station To Station.

Low points - 'Little Wonder'. - 'Hallo Spaceboy'. -

and unfortunately 'Under Pressure'. It really needed a strong voice to fill Freddy's boots, the voice of the woman on the bass wasn't strong enough. another song were better/more backing singers would have been a stronger performance. (both of us agreed on that point)
'Golden Years' also had thin sounding backing.

The first couple of minutes of 'Heroes' sounded like a Southern Rock version. The Bowie vocals were good, but we didn't like the treatment of the music.

I have never heard 'I'm Afraid of Americans,' and I hope I never hear it again. Nope.

Overall we were glad to see this Bowie performance, but we were even happier that we weren't there at Glastonbury.
 
Great performance, great band, good set list, the two female backing singers were a little lightweight, I thought Bowies voice really started to open out and warm up after a few songs, as usual Mike Garçons piano, Earl Slicks guitar and Gayl Ann Dorseys bass were excellent, probably one of the few people that can sing Freeddies parts in Under pressure and do it justice. All in all I thoroughly enjoyed it though not just quite as good as the Reality tour gig. I'm sure the atmosphere on the night was electric, Bowie really had presence.
 
The audio-mix for TV of live gigs can often sound a bit too thin & sterile, missing something of being there in the moment. Maybe if you listen to it up loud on a good AV system it could sound better?
FWIW, I thought it took the band a few songs to get into the groove & really start to click. It did sound to me a bit clinical ( Las Vegas like?) & not like they were really boogie-ing. The lead guitarist isn’t too shabby though, is he.
Sadly though, any excuse to watch a Bowie gig on the telly has to be grabbed with both hands, even if it wasn’t his best performance, doesn’t it.
 
I finished watching it today. The highlight for me was the torch song style opening to Let's Dance which was rather beautiful. It was good to see a deviation from the style of the original song.

Did anyone else find themselves watching and suddenly remembering he's died? It happened to me half way through All the Young Dudes - a bit of a lump in the throat moment. It still doesn't seem right somehow ....
 
I finished watching it today. The highlight for me was the torch song style opening to Let's Dance which was rather beautiful. It was good to see a deviation from the style of the original song.

Did anyone else find themselves watching and suddenly remembering he's died? It happened to me half way through All the Young Dudes - a bit of a lump in the throat moment. It still doesn't seem right somehow ....


I had had a Bowie day playing many if his albums just a few days ago, so the concert footage was a pleasant addition.

Agreed re: Bowie being dead. I am unable to listen to anything of his without his death being present in the room. (I get the same with Prince, although less intense)

As Tony L. mentioned, I agree,
★ Blackstar (and for me The Next Day) is becoming my favourite album/s.
 
Blackstar is a stunning work of art with some delightful nods to some pretty surprising influences. His choice of collaborators was also pretty important in making it so special.
 
If only he had picked up his guitar.
At one stage he was asking for a guitar, but failed to get one.
I really enjoyed the whole thing, his singing was superb, the band, especially Earl Slick and Gayl Ann Dorsy were excellent.
I did have it cranked up through my Tannoys and the sound was superb. Much too weedy on the TV!
If it's still on Iplayer, I will watch again.
 
At one stage he was asking for a guitar, but failed to get one.
I really enjoyed the whole thing, his singing was superb, the band, especially Earl Slick and Gayl Ann Dorsy were excellent.
I did have it cranked up through my Tannoys and the sound was superb. Much too weedy on the TV!
If it's still on Iplayer, I will watch again.


Yes.

We had the volume up. (5:1 av system)

It sounded pretty good

We recorded it on the HDD box. I will keep it I reckon.
 
Blackstar is a stunning work of art with some delightful nods to some pretty surprising influences. His choice of collaborators was also pretty important in making it so special.

Definitely, IMHO a big part of Bowies work was knowing which musicians, singers and producers to use to create the sound he wanted.
 
At the start I was worried it might turn out to be a Bowie tribute act- there was a moment or two in Changes where the Mockney accent grated a bit but he really got into his stride for the next nearly two hours. It felt like an amazing opportunity to hear his back catalogue and for me it was really moving in places.
Only saw him live once- the 1983 Serious Moonlight tour which felt big and bland as a lot of stadium rock can. Went through a DVD compilation of his songs yesterday with some great film of his early work (BBC OGWT performances like Starman). I listen to his stuff really frequently though I find I can’t take Black Star because his own death is the the subject matter- a part of me doesn’t want to acknowledge that he’s really gone. It doesn’t seem possible that Bowie is dead- that’s a tribute to the powerful illusion he created, the persona.
 
I had rather hoped he’d be wearing a full set, so was a little disappointed. I thought perhaps The Navy Years had come between, say, The Cocaine Years and The Berlin Years and I had blinked and missed them.
 
We thoroughly enjoyed it. It looked as if it had been filmed yesterday rather than twenty years ago, so the absence of smartphones in the crowd seemed very strange...
 


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