After he retired his hits in 1990, Bowie said he would have no space for them in future concerts.


How long did he wait?

Correct me if I'm wrong

Heroes-92

TMWSTW (reworked) -95

Under Pressure* 95 (had he played that live before?)

All The Young Dudes* - 96 Not really part of his live shows for a long time, but still a hit single

Diamond Dogs -96

Let's Dance (radically reworked) - 96

Jean Genie, Space Oddity, Fashion - 97

Ashes to Ashes, Life On Mars? Starman, China Girl, Wild Is The Wind, Fame, This Is Not America -99

Absolute Beginners, Changes, Rebel Rebel, Let's Dance (more normal version)), Ziggy, Station To Station (does S2S count?) - 2000

Loving The Alien, Modern Love - 2003




Has he played Golden Years since 1990?


I reckon the moment Bowie properly reprised his hits was Glastonbury 2000. That was a storming set list that blew everyone away, even the NME described it as an awe inspiring spectacle.

> Has he played Golden Years since 1990?

Yes.

Roseland Ballroom, New York 16th June 2000 and Glastonbury Festival 25th June 2000.


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How I wished I went to that concert..

During the live broadcast I remember Billy Bragg saying exactly this about Bowie's set:

"that was a definitive Glastonbury performance, people will be talking about that for years to come"

No festival in 2001. When Bowie played they had so many gatecrashers scaling the fences that they had to take a year out to build a better perimeter.

The Glasto performance in 2000 was great. I bought the bootleg on a crappy cassette in 2005. It was the first time I'd ever heard Station to Station and I was transfixed of course. It's still my favourite live version of STS. They get the 'Ooohs' just right (you know the bit I'm on about 'Ooooh it's too late'). A lot of live versions omit that and a lot of live versions don't quite hit the higest note but this one got it just right. Noel C very kindly gave me a copy of the visual to this. It was great to see it as I hadn't got access to youtube at the time.

Coming to Bowie quite late and still not having investigated the live appearances to the depth I should I can't really comment too much on the original ponderings of your post, Mr. T, but I'll just add a little bit on it to stay on topic and say I think Reality was a bit of a greatest hits tour (not in the conventional sense of course but for Bowie it kinda was, because he doesn't appear to do too many 'hits' generally) in a way. It was nice to throw in the odd number from leftfield like Fantastic Voyage. Respect to an artist who refuses to spit out the same old *casual* crowd pleasers though. He could be so much richer than he already is by playing the game that the likes of Rod Stewart play but he sticks to his guns and for that he's retained artistic integrity and I don't think many others have. Wilfully shoots himself in the foot commercially but is a genuine artist. (Should I sign off with the IMO apology? Nah).

Good call, shoots himself in the foot commercially to stay true to his artistic integrity

Tin Machine, for example!

Also Iselect. Given that there was nothing to promote, no album, no concerts or merchandise or anything and the choice of songs included. I think Bowie used that as an opportunity to educate Mail On Sunday readers about the songs he's proudest of which they may not necessarily have liked or even known of.

He didn't do a Prince and have concerts to sell or a Radiohead and made the album subsequently commercially available with bonus tracks so the fans have to buy it anyway, no. Bowie took a highly commercial concept and sabotaged it just to educate others. He had to give 1 hit to make it worthwhile, Life On Mars, but the rest of the songs were pure indulgence.

It would have been hard to promote the Mail On Sunday by saying "Free CD - 12 old Bowie songs you've never heard of".

Bowie abused the concept to get millions of people to own Sweet Thing, Repetition, Time Will Crawl etc.. Any other artist who has a free CD promotion has to make it desirable, either by including a lot of hits or a brand new album. Bowie gave neither and got The Mail On Sunday to distribute a CD of obscurities to millions of people- genius!


For the life of me I can not think of any other way Bowie could have reached those songs to that many people. Bowie could have given Space Oddity, Lets Dance etc and the Mail On Sunday would have paid him a lot more.

There was a Roxy Music CD in the MoS in the weekend - had some hits and some non hits but basically one or two songs from each album. an interesting pick of tracks

That seems more like a slightly alternative hits package:

Virginia Plain - 4
Do The Strand - a popular song which appeared on their greatest hits LP, but didn't chart at the time
Love Is The Drug - 2
Both Ends Burning - 25
Angel Eyes - 4
Avalon - 13
Oh Yeah - 5
More Than This - 6
Over You -5
Out Of The Blue - a live favourite

While My Heart Is Still Beating - obscure album track
Amazona - obscure album track