Recently I had been part of an online conversation regarding David Bowie’s first concert tour of Australia back in 1978. Bootleg tapes of three of his shows are in circulation however live audience recordings of his performances in Brisbane, Perth and his final show in Sydney on the 25th November 1978 have eluded collectors. Where are they? Are they collecting dust somewhere? They do exist but we now wonder where are these tapes today?
I went to both of David Bowie’s shows in Sydney that year. They were both excellent shows however the show on the 25th November 1978 was brilliant. It was the last show of his Australian tour and Bowie was in excellent form.
That Sydney show on the 25th was memorable. The encores were more spontaneous. Bowie and the band ended Rebel Rebel twice. Bowie thought that he and the band could do it better a second time around. He sang a few bars a cappella from “WIth A Little Help From My Friends” and he also sang a few lines from a beer commercial “I Feel Like A Tooheys”. As the show concluded he grabbed anything he could from the stage and threw it out into the audience ~ towels, cups, etc. All of this is from memory.
I even went to Jands engineering in Sydney after the gigs and asked if anyone had taped the gig. They had done the lighting and sound for the Sydney shows. No one owned up to taping the show. Disappointment.
That 25th November show was so good that every Bowie show I have seen since has been something of a disappointment. I have been to 14 shows by Bowie in all. The others all seemed like a process after that 1978 show. Except for the 1987 Sydney Press Conference gig. That was good. There were about 150 people in the audience and Bowie and the band gave a great performance. Having the chance to speak to Bowie during that press conference was also quite good. Spoke to him on the phone once as well. Heard he was about to give an interview at 2MMM. I rang the station, asked if I could speak to him and they put me on hold, and when the interview started I actually asked the first question. It was a little nerve wracking actually.
I took some photographs of Bowie at both gigs in Sydney back in 1978. I used a Canon instamatic camera.
Nov 27, 2011 @ 09:43:18
Thanks John for sharing your memories and pictures!
Nov 27, 2011 @ 10:01:29
Ah, the memories of long long ago. It’s a testament to the power of memory, aided by contemporaneous photographs, to whisk us back to a time that no longer exists. Such is the nature of life. As you read this, later today, tomorrow, next months or in a year from now, one thing will remain true – this was written in a time that no longer exists.
Like yourself John, I have memories of this concert, as well as about 40 photographs, but my memory of my reaction is different – yes what occurred did so as described – my vantage point was to the right of yours, hard pressed against the front rail – but my reaction was shaped by the earlier concerts in both Adelaide and Melbourne – both highly enjoyable and memorable, though for very different reasons.
Adelaide was the first Australian concert, period; and the anticipation of waiting several hours in the warm sun on the truly beautiful Adelaide oval among a couple of newly found friends at the front railing after sprinting across the grass of the oval, taking in the enormity of the ground, was magical. There was the question of what might be played, as despite having tour reports of overseas concerts, would it be the case that this might change? After all it was the first Australian tour – that was special, at least to the thousands of people who were attending the concerts. As the light began to fade support band, The Angels, who were playing to a home crowd, entertained, and were warmly welcomed. It seemed an age between The Angels finishing and a group of musicians walking quietly on to stage and the opening bars of “Warsawa” sounding.
At least in youth, there’s a strong impact of seeing someone who has been admired in the flesh for the first time. They seem larger than life, almost magical. For me, that Adelaide concert on Saturday November 11 was magical. A short visit to Adelaide airport the next day secured autographs of the some of the band.
A week later it was the Melbourne concert. After returning to the ( Melbourne) Bowie queue, later immortalised in the movie “Dogs in Space”, there was quite a buzz. Several others had also journeyed to Adelaide, and like myself, planned to go to Sydney the following week. During the week the queue was visited by the media – the afternoon paper The Herald ran a story with a photo of four in the queue, and I was interviewed by one of the TV stations ( either GTV 9 or ABC 2). I recall saying that I thought the queue for the concert was the result of inconsiderate planning. Of the outdoor concerts on the Australian tour, all held at sports grounds, Melbourne was the only one in which there was seating on the grass, though rather than being allocated seats, there were two large sections – one at the front, and the other midway between the front section and the grandstand. This in effect caused two queues – one for the tickets, and one for the show. One queue lasted for 18-19 days, the other for a week – almost four weeks in total.
Such was the camaraderie among those in the queue that the night before the concert some stayed in the luxurious Hilton Hotel the night before the concert ( to get a good night’s sleep in my case, to catch a glimpse of Bowie for others) and retained their spot in the queue the following morning. It is probably well known that the Melbourne concert occurred in pouring rain, with everyone with lawn seats being saturated, though as numerous reports and photos testify, the concert was huge success. At the end of the concert, rather than throwing cups and whatever else to the audience as in Sydney, David threw his hired microphone into the crowd, the lead quickly breaking into many pieces, with the mike disappearing down someone’s trousers. This was much to the consternation of the sound crew, who the minute the band finished immediately searched the area and questioned the audience. Somewhere in box in my garage is about eighteen inches of the lead.
Nov 30, 2011 @ 09:18:36
hi ya- great post – i, too, was at the Sydney gigs and have fond memories – i also think i have copies of the Brisbane, Perth and second Sydney show – let me know if you are interested
Nov 11, 2014 @ 15:35:43
I went to one of the Perth shows – if you do have a recording I’d love to hear it again!
Nov 11, 2014 @ 17:08:37
Hi Jim
Sorry to say I do not have a recording of the Perth show. I do not think a recording has ever appeared on bootleg.
Thank you, John.
Jun 05, 2014 @ 11:31:59
Hi John
how wonderful to stumble across these great memories of a concert I went to at the age of 16. What drew me to it was Doc Neeson’s death, which led to me to get all nostalgic and download a few Angels songs. I recalled they were the Bowie support (and they were good too, but everyone was hanging for Bowie) so I googled and here I am.
We camped out to get a good possie at the front and did so, but by the time Bowie started we were about 8 rows back as all the diehards pushed thru. I knew immediately from the opening chords of Warszawa, with the man in shadow, quietly picking out the notes, that this was going to be something special. I will never forget the sombre close of that song immediately followed – bang! – by the aural and visual assault of Heroes.
It was awesome throughout and has remained the benchmark gig for me. As a young bloke I massively enjoyed seeing Chisel, Oils and other homegrown acts, and over the years saw U2, Dylan, Stevie Ray, Clapton, REM, Elvis on several occasions (the best being the Shellharbour Workers gig we spoke of once before, with Nick Lowe, James Burton and Jim Keltner) and all sorts of others, but until I saw the Pixies a few years ago nothing was worthy of comparison to Bowie 78. I must say that Springsteen last year now comes into calculations, he was wonderful and the only rival in terms of the stage power and persona.
In 1978 I was also into Radio Birdman but my parents refused to let me come up to see them at the Funhouse… one memory I have of the Bowie show was looking around as I was walking out and seeing Rob Younger trundling out with a grin from ear to ear. I eventually saw them at Waves years ago and they were great, but I can’t say that anything else I have ever seen tops that Bowie show.
Jun 08, 2014 @ 11:40:52
Thanks for the great post Glenn… yes, saw some of the early gigs of Chisel, U2, Oils and Elvis Costello. I never did get to see Radio Birdman but i did see Iggy on quite a few occasions.
Cheers, John
Jan 24, 2016 @ 13:48:03
I was also at both concerts, something that will be with me forever. I have seen a video of the last concert in Sydney years ago. not sure but I think I picked it up at a video shop. It had a part in the movie where he was sitting back stage with a cricket in a cage. And I remember at the concert Bowie saying, Hope you don’t mind, we’re making a little movie of this. Missed Serious Moonlight but caught Glass Spiders. Thanks for the memories.
Jan 24, 2016 @ 20:11:52
Hi Steve,
Lots of great memories from the two shows in Sydney on the 24th and 25th November 1978. The concert in the video (with the grasshopper interlude) was recorded at the Pacific National Exhibition Coliseum, Vancouver, Canada (12-09-83). I was lucky enough see him again a few times after that! Cheers, Steve. Best wishes, John. ^_^