Serious Moonlight Tour

Last updated

Serious Moonlight Tour
Tour by David Bowie
David Bowie Serious Moonlight Tour 1983.jpg
The Serious Moonlight Tour promotional poster
Location
  • Europe
  • North America
  • Asia
  • Oceania
Associated album Let's Dance
Start date18 May 1983
End date8 December 1983
Legs8
No. of shows96
David Bowie concert chronology

The Serious Moonlight Tour was a worldwide concert tour by the English musician David Bowie, launched in May 1983 in support of his album Let's Dance (1983). The tour opened at the Vorst Forest Nationaal, Brussels, on 18 May 1983 and ended in the Hong Kong Coliseum on 8 December 1983; 15 countries visited, 96 performances, [1] and over 2.6 million tickets sold. [2] The tour garnered mostly favourable reviews from the press. [3] It was, at the time, his longest, largest and most successful concert tour to date, although it has since been surpassed in length, attendance and gross revenue by subsequent Bowie tours.

Contents

Background and development

In 1980, David Bowie had released his album Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) , at the time expecting to support the album with a tour. [4] [5] However, the murder of John Lennon in December 1980 deeply affected Bowie [lower-alpha 1] and as a result, he cancelled his tour plans and withdrew to his home in Switzerland where he became a recluse and continued working. [4] [5] Consequently, the Serious Moonlight Tour was Bowie's first tour in 5 years.

This tour, designed to support Bowie's latest album Let's Dance , was initially designed to be a smaller tour, playing to the likes of sub-10,000-seat indoor venues around the world, similar to previous Bowie tours. However, the success of Let's Dance caused unexpectedly high demand for tickets: there were 250,000 requests for 44,000 tickets at one show, for example, and as a result the tour was changed to instead play in a variety of larger outdoor and festival-style venues. The largest crowd for a single show during the tour was 80,000 in Auckland, New Zealand, while the largest crowd for a festival date was 300,000 at the US 83 Festival in California. The tour sold out at every venue it played. [1]

Bowie used boxing (of which he was a fan) to get in shape for the tour. His son Duncan Jones pointed out years later that "Each round [of boxing] is approximately the same length as a song, so if you can get your cardio up enough to do a full 12 or so rounds, you’re ready to go!" [6]

Set design

Initially, Bowie worked with Derek Boshier to design the stage for the tour, as Boshier had designed the artwork for the Let's Dance album itself. The design proposed by Boshier was an "extravagant design reminiscent of the Diamond Dogs set with multiple platforms and levels, rotating prisms revealing different backdrop designs on each facet, and a gigantic cartoon figure of Bowie with a guitar", but this was rejected as too expensive, so instead Bowie worked with Mark Ravitz to come up with what was the final design, [7] which included four giant columns (affectionately referred to as "condoms") as well as a large moon and a giant hand. [8] Ravitz had designed the set for Bowie's 1974 Diamond Dogs Tour, and would work on Bowie's next touring set as well, the 1987 Glass Spider Tour. [9]

The Serious Moonlight stage was deliberately given a vertical feeling (especially due to the columns) and an overall design that Bowie called a combination of classicism and modernism. The weight of one set (of which there were two) was 32 tons. [1] Lighting the set were 40 Vari-Lites, some of which were set horizontally across the stage, which allowed them to "create set-piece landscapes" for certain songs. [7]

Tour rehearsals and musicians

Earl Slick November 1983 during the Serious Moonlight Tour Earl slick at serious moonlight 1983.jpg
Earl Slick November 1983 during the Serious Moonlight Tour

Bowie used the musicians he'd newly collaborated with on Let's Dance , along with some longer standing collaborators, including Carlos Alomar who was the designated tour band leader. [1] [8] Stevie Ray Vaughan, who had contributed guitar solos to six of the songs on Let's Dance and who was up and coming, was to join the tour, also to please the American audience. [10] Early rehearsals were held in Manhattan [1] without Vaughan and Bowie, and were overseen by Alomar. [7] Rehearsals moved to Las Calinas, Texas in April, [3] where Bowie and Vaughan joined the band, [7] [11] [12] but Vaughan showed up with a cocaine habit, a hard-partying wife and an entourage looking for easy access to drugs. [13] Given that Bowie himself had moved to Berlin in the late 1970s to try and kick his own cocaine habit, [14] [15] Bowie and Vaughan's management failed to come to an agreement on how to temper the situation, and in the end Vaughan pulled out of the tour. [10] Bassist Carmine Rojas called Vaughan's release "one of the most heartbreaking moments he had ever witnessed on the road, Stevie left standing on the sidewalk with his bags surrounding him." [16] Bowie, who was in Europe promoting the album and tour when the disagreement arose, did not have a say in Vaughan's departure. [16] This happened less than one week before the tour's opening night, and as a result, Vaughan's replacement Earl Slick spent the next few days in his hotel room, learning all of the 31 songs on the setlist. [16]

Each band member wore a costume which was designed "down to the smallest detail", as if a character in a play. [17] Two sets of each person's costumes were made and worn on alternate nights, and everyone got to keep one set at the conclusion of the tour as a souvenir. [3] The bands' costumes were a nod, a "slight parody", on all the New Romantic bands that were growing in popularity at the time. [1]

Song selection

Faced with high demand for tickets for the tour, Bowie decided to play his more recognizable songs from his repertoire, saying a few years later that his goal was to give the fans the songs that they'd heard on the radio over the past 15 years, calling the setlist a collection of songs that the fans "probably didn't realize when added up are a great body of work". [18] Bowie and Carlos Alomar selected an initial list of songs for the tour, 35 of which they rehearsed for the tour. [1] One song that was on the rehearsal's song list that never actually got to the rehearsal stage was "Across the Universe", which Bowie had covered in 1975 on his Young Americans album. [3] The setlist for the tour was the basis for the track list for the 1989 box set Sound + Vision . [19] Some of Bowie's less well-known songs, such as "Joe the Lion" and "Wild Is the Wind" were performed only on early dates of the tour. [20]

Tour performances

David Bowie on stage during the 1983 tour Bowie 1983 serious moonlight.jpg
David Bowie on stage during the 1983 tour

Various artists opened for Bowie across different legs, including UB40, Icehouse, The Tubes, The Beat and Peter Gabriel. [21] To counteract counterfeiting, tickets and backstage passes were printed with small flaws that casual observers would not notice, but tour staff and security were trained to spot. [1]

On 30 June 1983, the performance at the Hammersmith Odeon in London was a charity show for the Brixton Neighbourhood Community Association in the presence of Princess Michael of Kent. [21] The show raised nearly £100,000 for charity (about £330,000 in today's currency), and was performed without the standard set. [21] The 13 July 1983 Montreal Forum performance was recorded and broadcast on American FM radio and other radio stations worldwide, and it was from this concert that the live version of "Modern Love" was recorded. [22] The concert on 12 September in Vancouver was recorded for the concert video Serious Moonlight , that was released in 1984 and on DVD in 2006. [22] There were discussions to release a live CD from these performances as well, but that idea was later discarded. [22]

At the Canadian National Exhibition Stadium performance on 4 September 1983 in Toronto, Bowie introduced special guest Mick Ronson, who borrowed Earl Slick's guitar and performed "The Jean Genie" with Bowie and band. [22] Mick had only been asked to play the day before when he had been backstage at the previous night's show, and he later recalled:

I was playing Slick's guitar ... I had heard Slick play solos all night so I decided not to play solos and I just went out and thrashed the guitar. I really thrashed the guitar, I was waving the guitar above my head and all sorts of things. It was funny afterwards because David said, 'You should have seen [Earl Slick's] face...' meaning he looked petrified. I had his prize guitar and I was swinging it around my head and Slick's going 'Waaaa... watch my guitar', you know. I was banging into it and it was going round my head. Poor Slick. I mean, I didn't know it was his special guitar, I just thought it was a guitar, a lump of wood with six strings. [3]

The last show of the tour, on 8 December 1983, was the third anniversary of John Lennon's death, whom Bowie and Slick had previously worked with in the studio. Slick suggested to Bowie a few days prior to the show that they play "Across the Universe" as a tribute; but Bowie said, "Well if we're going to do it, we might as well do 'Imagine'." They rehearsed the song a couple of times on 5 December (in Bangkok) and then performed the song on the final night of the tour as a tribute to their friend. [3]

Legacy

David Bowie in a 1983 promotional picture David Bowie - 1983 Let's Dance Promo 004.jpg
David Bowie in a 1983 promotional picture

The tour was a commercial high point for Bowie, who found his new popularity perplexing. He later remarked that, with the success of Let's Dance and the Serious Moonlight Tour, he lost track of who his fans were or what they wanted. [23] One critic would later call this tour his "most accessible" because "it had few props and one costume change, from peach suit to blue." [24]

"The 'Blond Ambition' tour, as we ended up calling it, in 1984 [sic] was pretty good," Bowie conceded in 2003. "We'd booked it before everything went huge and it really was quite innovative. It was the first big theatrical-show-type tour there had been. Madonna and Prince came to see it and it had an influence." [25]

The 26 November show in Auckland became – at the time – the most attended concert in the Southern Hemisphere with over 80,000 people in attendance. [26]

Bowie specifically tried to avoid repeating the Serious Moonlight Tour's successful formula for his 1987 Glass Spider Tour. [27]

Set list

This is the set list from the performance in Vancouver, Canada, on 12 September 1983. It's not intended to represent all shows throughout the tour. [28]

  1. "Look Back in Anger"
  2. "Heroes"
  3. "What in the World"
  4. "Golden Years"
  5. "Fashion"
  6. "Let's Dance"
  7. "Breaking Glass"
  8. "Life on Mars?"
  9. "Sorrow"
  10. "Cat People (Putting Out Fire)"
  11. "China Girl"
  12. "Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)"
  13. "Rebel Rebel"
  14. "White Light/White Heat"
  15. "Station to Station"
  16. "Cracked Actor"
  17. "Ashes to Ashes"
  18. "Space Oddity"
  19. "Young Americans"
  20. "Fame"
  21. "Red Sails"
Encore
  1. "Star"
  2. "Stay"
  3. "The Jean Genie"
  4. "Modern Love"

Personnel

Tour dates

DateCityCountryVenueAttendance (approx)
Europe
18 May 1983 Brussels Belgium Vorst Forest Nationaal
19 May 1983
20 May 1983 Frankfurt West Germany Festhalle
21 May 1983 Munich Olympiahalle
22 May 1983
24 May 1983 Lyon France Palais des Sports de Gerland 23,615 [29]
25 May 1983
26 May 1983 Fréjus Les Arènes28,937 [29]
27 May 1983
29 May 1983 Nantes (Cancelled) Le Beaujoire
North America
30 May 1983 San Bernardino United States US Festival
Glen Helen Regional Park
300,000 [1]
Europe
2 June 1983LondonEngland Wembley Arena 23,162-27,000 [29] [30]
3 June 1983
4 June 1983
5 June 1983 Birmingham National Exhibition Centre 22,000 [30]
6 June 1983
8 June 1983ParisFrance Hippodrome D'Auteuil 120,000 [1]
9 June 1983
11 June 1983 Gothenburg Sweden Ullevi Stadium 101,000 [30]
12 June 1983
15 June 1983 Bochum West Germany Ruhrstadion 33,843 [29]
17 June 1983 Bad Segeberg Freilichtbühne 24,150 [29]
18 June 1983
20 June 1983 West Berlin Waldbühne 22,245 [29]
24 June 1983 Offenbach am Main Bieberer Berg Stadion 24,720 [29]
25 June 1983 Rotterdam Netherlands Stadion Feijenoord 101,311 [29]
26 June 1983
28 June 1983 Edinburgh Scotland Murrayfield Stadium 47,444 [1]
30 June 1983LondonEngland Hammersmith Odeon 2,120 [1]
1 July 1983 Milton Keynes National Bowl 174,984 (over all 3 nights) [1]
2 July 1983
3 July 1983
North America
11 July 1983 Quebec City Canada Colisée de Québec 14,400 [1]
12 July 1983 Montreal Montreal Forum 32,547 [29]
13 July 1983
15 July 1983 Hartford United States Hartford Civic Center
16 July 1983
18 July 1983 Philadelphia The Spectrum 64,235 [29]
19 July 1983
20 July 1983
21 July 1983
23 July 1983 Syracuse (Re-scheduled)Carrier Dome
25 July 1983New York City Madison Square Garden 57,820 [29]
26 July 1983
27 July 1983
29 July 1983 Richfield Richfield Coliseum
30 July 1983 Detroit Joe Louis Arena 37,268 [29]
31 July 1983
1 August 1983 Rosemont Rosemont Horizon
2 August 1983
3 August 1983
7 August 1983 Edmonton Canada Commonwealth Stadium
9 August 1983 Vancouver BC Place
11 August 1983 Tacoma United States Tacoma Dome
14 August 1983 Inglewood The Forum
15 August 1983
17 August 1983 Phoenix Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum
19 August 1983 Dallas Reunion Arena
20 August 1983 Austin Frank Erwin Center
21 August 1983 Houston The Summit
24 August 1983 Norfolk Scope Cultural and Convention Center 21,370 [1]
25 August 1983
27 August 1983 Landover Capital Centre 29,371 [1]
28 August 1983
29 August 1983 Hershey Hersheypark Stadium 25,230 [1]
31 August 1983 Foxborough Sullivan Stadium 60,000 [1]
3 September 1983 Toronto Canada Canadian National Exhibition Stadium 101,239 [29]
4 September 1983
5 September 1983 Buffalo United States Buffalo Memorial Auditorium
6 September 1983 Syracuse Carrier Dome
9 September 1983 Anaheim Anaheim Stadium 67,401 [29]
11 September 1983 Vancouver Canada Pacific National Exhibition Coliseum
12 September 1983
14 September 1983 Winnipeg Winnipeg Stadium 34,816 [29]
17 September 1983 Oakland United States Oakland Alameda Coliseum 57,920 [1]
Asia
20 October 1983TokyoJapan Nippon Budokan 42,984 [29]
21 October 1983
22 October 1983
24 October 1983
25 October 1983 Yokohama Yokohama Stadium 25,989 [29]
26 October 1983 Osaka Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium
27 October 1983
29 October 1983 Nagoya Kokusai Tenji Kaikan10,064 [29]
30 October 1983 Suita Expo Commemoration Park
31 October 1983 Kyoto Kyoto Prefectural Gymnasium
Oceania
4 November 1983 Perth Australia Perth Entertainment Centre 23,063 [29]
5 November 1983
6 November 1983
9 November 1983 Adelaide Adelaide Oval 18,409 [29]
12 November 1983 Melbourne VFL Park 37,914 [29]
16 November 1983 Brisbane Lang Park 26,757 [29]
19 November 1983 Sydney RAS Showgrounds
20 November 198325,000 [1]
24 November 1983 Wellington New Zealand Athletic Park 50,000 [1]
26 November 1983 Auckland Western Springs Stadium 80,000–90,000 [1]
Asia
3 December 1983 Singapore Singapore Former National Stadium
5 December 1983 Bangkok Thailand Thai Army Sports Stadium 9000-14,981 [31] [29]
7 December 1983 Hong Kong Hong Kong Hong Kong Coliseum
8 December 1983

Song list

Notes

  1. Bowie and Lennon became friends in the mid-1970s and collaborated with each other for "Fame" and a cover of Lennon's Beatles song "Across the Universe", both released on Bowie's 1975 album Young Americans

Related Research Articles

<i>Lets Dance</i> (David Bowie album) 1983 studio album by David Bowie

Let's Dance is the 15th studio album by the English singer-songwriter David Bowie, released on 14 April 1983 through EMI America Records. After the release of Scary Monsters (1980), Bowie began a period of numerous musical collaborations and film appearances. By 1982, he left RCA Records out of dissatisfaction and signed with EMI America. Wanting a fresh start, he chose Nile Rodgers of the band Chic to co-produce his next record.

<i>Tonight</i> (David Bowie album) 1984 studio album by David Bowie

Tonight is the 16th studio album by the English singer-songwriter David Bowie, released on 24 September 1984 through EMI America Records. The follow-up to his most commercially successful album Let's Dance, it was written and recorded in mid-1984 at Le Studio in Morin-Heights, Canada, following the conclusion of the Serious Moonlight Tour. Bowie, Derek Bramble and Hugh Padgham co-produced the album. Many of the same personnel from Let's Dance and the accompanying tour returned for Tonight, with a few additions. Much of Bowie's creative process was the same as he used on Let's Dance, similarly playing no instruments and offering little creative input to the musicians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fashion (David Bowie song)</span> 1980 song by David Bowie

"Fashion" is a song by the English musician David Bowie from his 14th studio album Scary Monsters (1980). Co-produced by Bowie and Tony Visconti and recorded from February to April 1980 at New York and London, it was the last song completed for the album. Originating as a reggae parody titled "Jamaica", "Fashion" is a post-punk, dance and funk track structurally similar to Bowie's "Golden Years". King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp contributed lead guitar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fame (David Bowie song)</span> 1975 single by David Bowie

"Fame" is a song recorded by the English singer-songwriter David Bowie. It was released on his 1975 album Young Americans and was later issued as the album's second single by RCA Records in June 1975. Written by Bowie, Carlos Alomar and John Lennon, it was recorded at Electric Lady Studios in New York City in January 1975. It is a funk rock song that represents Bowie's dissatisfaction with the troubles of fame and stardom.

"Joe the Lion" is a song by David Bowie in 1977 for the album "Heroes". It was produced by Bowie and Tony Visconti and features lead guitar by Robert Fripp.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Earl Slick</span> American guitarist

Earl Slick is an American guitarist best known for his collaborations with David Bowie, John Lennon, Yoko Ono and Robert Smith. He has also worked with other artists including John Waite, Tim Curry and David Coverdale, in addition to releasing several solo recordings, and two records with Phantom, Rocker & Slick, the band he formed with Slim Jim Phantom & Lee Rocker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Breaking Glass (song)</span> Song by David Bowie

"Breaking Glass" is a song by the English singer-songwriter David Bowie. It was co-written by Bowie, bassist George Murray and drummer Dennis Davis in September 1976. Originally a track on Bowie's 1977 album Low, a reworked version of the song was a regular on the Isolar II Tour. A live version from that tour was used as the lead track on a 7-inch EP to promote his second live album, Stage in 1978. The EP reached number 54 on the UK Singles Chart in December 1978.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) (song)</span> 1980 song by David Bowie

"Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)" is a song by the English singer-songwriter David Bowie, released as the title track of his 1980 album Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps). It was also issued as the third single from that album in January 1981. Coming as it did in the wake of two earlier singles from Scary Monsters, "Ashes to Ashes" in August 1980 and "Fashion" in October the same year, NME critics Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray labelled its release another instance "in the fine old tradition of milking albums for as much as they could possibly be worth". The song was subsequently performed on a number of Bowie tours.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cat People (Putting Out Fire)</span> 1982 song by David Bowie

"Cat People (Putting Out Fire)" is a song recorded by the English singer-songwriter David Bowie as the title track of the 1982 erotic horror film Cat People. Bowie became involved with the track after director Paul Schrader reached out to him about collaborating. The song was recorded at Mountain Studios in Montreux, Switzerland in July 1981. Bowie wrote the lyrics, which reflected the film, while the Italian producer Giorgio Moroder composed the music, which is built around only two chord changes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Let's Dance (David Bowie song)</span> 1983 single by David Bowie

"Let's Dance" is a song by the English singer-songwriter David Bowie, originally included as the title track of his 1983 album of the same name. Co-produced by Nile Rodgers of Chic, it was recorded in late 1982 at the Power Station in New York City. With the assistance of engineer Bob Clearmountain, Rodgers transformed the song from its folk rock origins to a dance number through studio effects and new musicians Bowie had yet to work with. Bowie hired then-unknown Texas guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan, who added a blues-edge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">China Girl (song)</span> Song by David Bowie and Iggy Pop

"China Girl" is a song written by Iggy Pop and David Bowie in 1976, and first released by Pop on his debut solo album, The Idiot (1977). Inspired by an affair Pop had with a Vietnamese woman, the lyrics tell a story of unrequited love for the protagonist's Asian girlfriend, realizing by the end that his Western influences are corrupting her. Like the rest of The Idiot, Bowie wrote the music and Pop improvised the lyrics while standing at the microphone. The song was released as a single in May 1977 and failed to chart.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Modern Love (song)</span> 1983 song by David Bowie

"Modern Love" is a song written by the English singer-songwriter David Bowie. It was released as the opening track on his 1983 album Let's Dance and issued as the third single from the album later in the year. Co-produced by Bowie and Nile Rodgers of the American band Chic, it is a rock song that contains elements of new wave music. It was recorded at the Power Station in Manhattan and was one of the first tracks recorded for the album. It was performed by Bowie on the Serious Moonlight Tour, where it often closed the shows. A music video for the song, directed by Jim Yukich and featuring a performance of the song during the tour, was released in 1983 and played frequently on MTV.

"Cracked Actor" is a song by the English musician David Bowie, released on his sixth studio album Aladdin Sane (1973). The track was also issued as a single in Eastern Europe by RCA Records in June that year. The song was written during Bowie's stay in Los Angeles during the American leg of the Ziggy Stardust Tour in October 1972. Co-produced by Bowie and Ken Scott, it was recorded in January 1973 at Trident Studios in London with his backing band the Spiders from Mars – comprising Mick Ronson, Trevor Bolder and Woody Woodmansey. A hard rock song primarily led by guitar, the song describes an aging Hollywood star's encounter with a prostitute, featuring many allusions to sex and drugs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stay (David Bowie song)</span> 1976 song by David Bowie

"Stay" is a song by the English musician David Bowie, released on his 1976 album Station to Station. The song was recorded in late 1975 at Cherokee Studios in Los Angeles. Co-produced by Bowie and Harry Maslin, the recording featured guitarists Carlos Alomar and Earl Slick, bassist George Murray, drummer Dennis Davis, pianist Roy Bittan and Warren Peace on percussion. The track features prominent dual guitar work from Slick and Alomar, who mostly composed it in the studio. Based on the chord structure of "John, I'm Only Dancing (Again)", a funk reworking of "John, I'm Only Dancing" (1972), "Stay" emulates funk rock, soul and hard rock. The song's lyrics are abstract and relate to love.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Look Back in Anger (song)</span> Song by David Bowie

"Look Back in Anger" is a song written by English artists David Bowie and Brian Eno for the album Lodger (1979). It concerns "a tatty 'Angel of Death'", and features a guitar solo by Carlos Alomar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A Reality Tour</span> 2003–2004 concert tour by David Bowie

A Reality Tour was a worldwide concert tour by the English singer-songwriter David Bowie in support of his 2004 album Reality. The tour began on 7 October 2003 at the Forum Copenhagen, Denmark, continuing through Europe, North America, Asia, including a return to New Zealand and Australia for the first time since the 1987 Glass Spider Tour. At over 110 shows, the tour was the longest tour of Bowie's career. A heart attack in late June 2004 forced the cancellation of some dates near the end of the tour. Bowie retired from performing live in 2006, making this tour his last.

<i>Glass Spider</i> 1988 video by David Bowie

Glass Spider is a concert film by English singer David Bowie. The release was sourced from eight shows during the first two weeks of November 1987 at the Sydney Entertainment Centre in Australia during the last month of the Glass Spider Tour. The 86-show tour, which also visited Europe, North America and New Zealand, was in support of Bowie's album Never Let Me Down (1987). Originally released in 1988 on VHS, the tour was choreographed by Toni Basil, directed by David Mallet, and produced by Anthony Eaton. The VHS was released by MPI Home Video in the US and by Video Collection International in the UK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glass Spider Tour</span> 1987 worldwide concert tour by David Bowie

The Glass Spider Tour was a 1987 worldwide concert tour by the English musician David Bowie, launched in support of his album Never Let Me Down and named for that album's track "Glass Spider". It began in May 1987 and was preceded by a two-week press tour that saw Bowie visit nine countries throughout Europe and North America to drum up public interest in the tour. The Glass Spider Tour was the first Bowie tour to visit Austria, Italy, Spain, Ireland and Wales. Through a sponsorship from Pepsi, the tour was intended to visit Russia and South America as well, but these plans were later cancelled. The tour was, at that point, the longest and most expensive tour Bowie had embarked upon in his career. At the time, the tour's elaborate set was called "the largest touring set ever".

<i>Ricochet</i> (documentary) 1984 British film

Ricochet is a 1984 documentary film about the musician David Bowie. Made with Bowie’s full consent and participation, it was the second of such documentary productions following Cracked Actor from 1975. However, whereas Cracked Actor was made for television by the BBC's Omnibus strand, Ricochet was made for commercial release to the home video market.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Flippo, Chet (1984). David Bowie's Serious Moonlight : The World Tour. Doubleday & Company, Inc. ISBN   978-0-385-19265-1.
  2. Pimm Jal de la Parra, David Bowie: The Concert Tapes, P.J. Publishing, 1985, ISBN   90-900100-5-X
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 David Currie, ed. (1985), David Bowie: The Starzone Interviews, England: Omnibus Press, ISBN   978-0-7119-0685-3
  4. 1 2 Pegg 2016, pp. 662–664.
  5. 1 2 Buckley 2005, p. 325.
  6. @ManMadeMoon (24 February 2020). "Posted this to someone else, but it applies here too... It's a great way to train for tours and dad did train this way for this tour. Each round is approximately the same length as a song, so if you can get your cardio up enough to do a full 12 or so rounds, you're ready to go!" (Tweet) via Twitter.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Pegg 2016, p. 577.
  8. 1 2 Edwards, Henry; Zanetta, Tony (1986), Stardust: The David Bowie Story, 1986, ISBN   978-0-07-072797-7
  9. Albrecht, Leslie (24 August 2016). "Former David Bowie Set Designer Keeps Park Slope Building Dripping with Art". DNAInfo.com. Archived from the original on 14 September 2016. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
  10. 1 2 Gregory, Hugh (2003). Roadhouse Blues: Stevie Ray Vaughan and Texas R&B. Backbeat. pp. 75–76. ISBN   9780879307479.
  11. Scapeletti, Christopher (11 January 2016). "Hear David Bowie and Stevie Ray Vaughan in 1983 Rehearsal". Guitar Player . Retrieved 17 May 2016.
  12. "Soundboard Recordings of Stevie Ray Vaughan's 1983 Rehearsal with David Bowie in Dallas Texas". Forgotten Guitar. 17 May 2016. Retrieved 17 May 2016.
  13. Barres, Pamela Des (1996). Rock Bottom: Dark Moments in Music Babylon. St. Martin's Press. p. 259. ISBN   9780312148539.
  14. Mastropolo, Frank (11 January 2016). "The History of David Bowie's Berlin Trilogy: 'Low,' 'Heroes' and 'Lodger'". Ultimate Classic rock .
  15. Wilcken, Hugo (2005). Low. New York: Continuum. p. 24. ISBN   978-0-8264-1684-1.
  16. 1 2 3 Pegg 2016, p. 578.
  17. "In Which It Is Neither The Plane Nor The Pilot". thisrecording.com.
  18. Morse, Steve (July–August 1987), "David Bowie (Cover Story)", In Fashion Magazine, 3 (10): 151, 153
  19. Rougvie, Jeff (15 November 2015). "It Was 26+ Years Ago Today Part 3 & Maybe 4 & 5, too". JEFF ROUGVIE HUB. Retrieved 15 March 2019 via Squarespace.
  20. Pegg 2016, p. 579.
  21. 1 2 3 Pegg 2016, p. 580.
  22. 1 2 3 4 Pegg 2016, p. 581.
  23. Pond, Steve (March 1997), "Beyond Bowie", Live! Magazine: 38–41, 93
  24. Cohen, Scott (September 1991), "From Ziggy Stardust to Tin Machine: David Bowie Comes Clean", Details magazine : 86–97
  25. Lowe, Steve (March 2003). "Q200 – David Bowie". Q . No. 200. p. 62.
  26. "Billboard Magazine" (PDF). 28 January 1984. p. 7. Retrieved 14 December 2016. David Bowie's 'Serious Moonlight' Tour of Australia and New Zealand ` .. eclipsed all previous concert attendance records Down Under. More the 80,000 people attended the final Australasian concert in Auckland. That's the single biggest concert ever in the Southern Hemisphere. 1nact, the audience outnumbered the fifth largest city -in New Zealand.
  27. Graff, Gary (18 September 1987), "Bowie Is Back, And Bolder Than Ever His Controversial Glass Spider Tour Proves The Ageless Rocker Is Still Full of Surprises", The Orlando Sentinel, archived from the original on 29 October 2013, retrieved 28 May 2013
  28. Pegg 2016, pp. 640–641.
  29. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 "David Bowie said "Let's Dance"" (PDF). Billboard . 24 March 1984. p. 7. ISSN   0006-2510 . Retrieved 11 April 2024.
  30. 1 2 3 "EMI, RCA Dancing For Joy Over Bowie's 'Moonlight' Tour" (PDF). Billboard . 17 September 1983. pp. 9–76. Archived (PDF) from the original on 22 January 2021. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
  31. Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine : "สารคดี โบวีในกรุงเทพ แขกรับเชิญคุณ อัมพร จักกะพาก BOWIE IN BANGKOK - THE PROMOTER - full interview". YouTube .

Sources