I am surprised this one isn't more popular in the poll - I gave the CD a listen yesterday (the Visconti remix) and was amazed at how good the performances are. Width of a Circle really rocks with great Ronson guitar work. My Death is superb. The great 'retirement' announcement followed by Rock and Roll Suicide. Great stuff. I think my favourites do shift around but right now I would say 1. Ziggy soundtrack - possibly tied with no 2 2. Welcome to the Blackout 3. Santa Monica 4. Stage 5. Nassau 76 6. David Live 7. Cracked Actor 8. Reality Tour 9. Serious Moonlight
My personal favourites are the BBC Radio Theatre 2000 and Glastonbury 2000, as I was at both gigs. My name appears in the booklet for the BBC Radio Theatre CD, so that one is very special. I like all the 1970s ones, apart from Stage, which is too flawed IMO.
BBC 2000 bonus disc got my vote. It was at the beginning of DB showing larger audiences how well his body of work stood the test of time, plus didn't his voice sound great ? The inclusion of Wild Is The Wind alone made it a gem, imagine how great the complete show (performed for dedicated fans) on disc would have been, with the setlist a little more exciting than Glastonbury.
It really was a great night. One of my favourite memories, along with the 50th birthday show, Dublin 1999, and Live by Request. There was an odd moment, though, at the BBC 2000 gig, where Bowie had to go to the back of the stage to receive air through an oxygen mask. You don’t see that on the television broadcast, and it’s been kind of forgotten over the years.
I have to put Cracked Actor top now, then Blackout and Santa Monica equal second. If Santa Monica had been a full range recording it would have come first by miles...
Love the Beeb stuff, but I went with Motion Picture. I only wish the sound had at least been recorded stereo instead of mono—wtf were they thinking? I can listen to Motion Picture and vividly see in my mind the footage that goes with it, since I’ve watched it so many times.
1. Stage tied with Welcome To The Blackout 2. Live Santa Monica '72 3. Glastonbury 2000 4. A Reality Tour 5. Cracked Actor 6. David Live 7. Ziggy Stardust OST Top 5 ROIOs: 1. Live By Request 02 2. BBC Paris Theatre 70 3. BBC Maida Vale Studios 02 4. London, Ontario 04 5. Bremen Musikladen 78 BTW, the Ziggy Motion Picture is in stereo, it just sounds crappy.
Yes, it used to seem fabulous as a bootleg in the seventies, but has been overtaken by subsequent concert issues. I still love the performance, but find myself frustrated by the sound. Still holds second equal in my ratings, so not too bad.
I would have chosen either "BBC Radio Theatre, London, June 27, 2000" that was included with "Bowie At The Beeb". Or "Glastonbury 2000", but neither was on the list... :/ Well, it was a close race between "A Reality Tour" and "Live At Nassau Coliseum '76"... But "Reality" won.
It probably isn't really the best, but the full 1983 show on the gray market 10-CD "Live" set I got from Amazon is my fave. The Serious Moonlight VHS was my gateway drug for Bowie, and I still just love the performances from that tour. The gray market one gets the nod over the official set released in 2018 since it's complete while the official CD drops some songs from the show. Nonetheless, I voted for the official 1983 since it's the one in the poll!
Stage. Preferably the original release with the "wrong" order of songs. And on yellow vinyl please. That was my gateway drug to seriously getting into Bowie when I was 15 years old. I did see him on the Serious Moonlight Tour and loved the show, but I would have given an arm and a leg for being at a show from the tour where Stage was culled from.
Whatever the order, I prefer "Stage" to "WttB". The performances on the latter just seem kinda... blah!
I think, especially with the recent live releases, this is a rather difficult question. Here’s my top 5; Nr 5. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust It’s a legendary performance, also with a great 16mm concert registration by D.A. Pennebaker. The fact that the last Ziggy Stardust show, in the Hammersmith Odeon, was filmed makes it something special. The sound quality and mix is rather good and the show has an overall rawness. Rock n Roll Suicide is of a serious epicness and it has some sort of classic status. Nevertheless from the same tour Live at Santa Monica ‘72 is also worthwhile. It is also a fairly good recording but the main interesting element is that while Hammersmith was at the end of the tour, this was at the beginning. This might sound like a minor detail but I spoke to a mucisian who was Bowies support act at the beginning of the tour and who witnessed a major change. This really started of as a smalltime tour through bar- and college-like stages with Bowie being a one-hit wonder or a cultphenomenon growing, during this tour, to becoming a worldwide superstar. In between these two recordings Aladdin Sane was released which gives the two gigs rather different setlists and both interesting in their own rights. The biggest difference is the energy. At Hammersmith Bowie and the band were tired, in Santa Monica they were energetic and ready to take on the world. I would suggest to buy both shows. Nr. 4 Something in the Air Bowie’s live voice got better near the end of his career. I don’t even think it’s a controversial thing to say because it is often heard among Bowie-fans. Perhaps it has to do with a healthier lifestyle (he could sound very tired in the seventies) but he himself said he started to enjoy performing more later on in life. His Paris ‘99 performance has got to be his most intimate recording and in every regard (atmosphere, setlist, energy) an outsider. It has everything to do with the nature of his then latest release Hours which somehow got him to a more reflective state. The songs on this album, and mainly the ones that made it to this live show (Thursday’s Child, Something in the Air, Survive, Seven) belong lyrically and melodywise to the finest, most tender things Bowie wrote. And he plays them with the same sensibility as when he wrote them. Somehow the atmosphere of these songs is reflected in the entire show. He combines it with some not often played ‘70s songs (Always Crashing in the Same Car, Drive-In Saturday, Word on a Wing), carefully played which gives the show a sense of peaceful transition. There is not a single bad moment in this warm sounding live show. If you enjoy this I can also strongly recommend VH1 Storytellers which is soundwise a bit better but it is clearly a live show within a television-format. Nr 3. Live Nassau Coliseum For a long time, when it was just a bootleg, this was my favorite Bowie live show. It has to do with the fact that he sings much better than on the other (or say first; David Live, Stage) live releases and the entire setlist, show and moment in time (The Isolar I-tour) are quite exciting. Much more than on the Diamond Dogs-tour Bowie had found an interesting vorm and style in the new Thin White Duke-character, with the ultimate Bowie-show-opener Station to Station. If you enjoy that album this might be the ultimate Bowie-show to go to. The audio recording is (despite some source-issue on Life om Mars?) quite good. The overall energy and vibe is unique and a treat! Nr. 2 Look at the Moon The Brilliant Live Adventures-release of this show took me by surprise. I wasn’t completely happy about the series until that moment. The sound-quality of the first two wasn’t really worth the money in my opinion and when I read that Look at the Moon was directly recorded from the output of the mixing desk my hopes were low... And nevertheless it sounds superb. You can sometimes hear in slight volume-changes that this is a live-mix but the distinct clear sound of Bowie’s voice in the center and the full sound of his 12 string guitar of the opening made me immediately fall in love. And what an opening it is! By far the best version of Quicksand, the way it builds up; the moment Gail Ann Dorsey joins in singing, the moment the synthesizer joins... and that’s just the opening. Just as Something in the Air is quite unique in Bowie’s touring-career, so is this show. But in a complete different manner. His drum-base live experiments are working great here (unlike years before) and it makes this show an energetic bomb. He plays some of his best (‘90s) compositions like I’m Afraid of Americans, Battle for Britain, Seven Years in Tibet, Looking for Satellites, The Hearts Filthy Lesson, Hallo Spaceboy, Dead Man Walking and Little Wonder making it some sort of Best of Bowie ‘90s show. And that is worthwhile (one of his best periods in my opinion). He has become a different perfomer (more skilled actually) since the seventies and eighties and delivers a full and powerful show. I was blown back when it came out earlier this year and I’ve been listening to it since it’s release. Nr. 1 Welcome to the Blackout I do not understand why so many people come up with Stage; and I think it has to do with nostalgia for it being the first decent Bowie live-show released. Welcome to the Blackout is not only a far better recording of that tour it is in my opinion the ultimate ‘70s Bowie live show. It starts of with this slow and eerie recording of Warszawa which sets the same kind of tension for the show as it does in the movie Christiane F. - Wir Kinder Vom Bahnhof Zoo. After the last note is played, without a word being said, they start the best recorded live-version of “Heroes”. The way Bowie’s voice goes higher near the end of the song, combined with the great transition in the lead-guitar is phenomenal; a moment for goosebumps. This show is big, it’s dark and haunting but it is also dynamic. Bowie is in total control, over his voice, over the band. I have enjoyed Stage and I like the small Live in Berlin ‘78 album but both are sidenotes compared to this luxurious record. There actually are quite some more shows which are really worth having and listening. From the Diamond Dogs-tour (or the so-called Soul-leg of it) the I’m Only Dancing record is unique. Bowie sounds worn-out and that edge gives his voice the final element to his soul-experiment to make it his best soul-moment recored. Also band- and arrangementwise this live show seems what he has been searching for the entire tour. But... the sound-quality, bandperformance and setlist of Cracked Actor earlier that tour make it a musthave. Anyone who has listened to that recording will immediately forget David Live (which Bowie himself later revered to as; ‘David Bowie is alive and well and only living in concept’). when I bought the initial DVD-releases of the Glass Spider- and Serious Moonlighttours I wasn’t pleased. It sounded flat and uninspiring and I never cared much for the overall performance. Now the recent releases in the Loving the Alien-box have completely changed that. Both Serious Moonlight (Live ‘83) and Glass Spider (Live ‘87) sound superb. These are two very unique shows that have not lost it’s funky ‘80s sense and on these records have enough energy and love for music to be worth the effort. As a matter of fact buying the boxset is completely worth the effort to get these shows. These tours are also much better to listen to than to look at. Then there is ChangesNowBowie which is a nice intimate studio-live-recording done just before his 50th birthday. It is a surprising set of songs with great new interpretations of some ‘70s Bowie songs. It is performance- and soundwise quite the treat. Glastonbury 2000 is also great fun and nothing like the tour before or the tour after. Then there is A Reality Tour, his final, and one of his finest tours. This live recording is a very good (though unplanned) live-goodbye. It rocks.
This was done over four years ago, and with the Brilliant Adventures live releases, I think you’re entitled to start a new thread. Clearly this one is now redundant. I’ll be voting on your new thread. I had a look at this poll, and I see there are three votes for the Tin Machine live album!
I voted for Nassau Coliseum 1976, although it is heavily brickwalled. I hope that they will release a better mastered version one day.
I’m surprised how dynamic the stereo soundtrack is on the DVD for A Reality Tour. It’s really great. Did they just downmix the 5.1? The menu music is LOUD and brickwalled but as soon as the feature starts, I need to move the volume dial from -42 to -28.
