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A Reality Tour

2003–2004 concert tour by David Bowie From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A Reality Tour
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This article is about the David Bowie concert tour. For the concert tour by Jessica Simpson, see Reality Tour (Jessica Simpson concert tour).

A Reality Tour was a worldwide concert tour by the English singer-songwriter David Bowie in support of his 2003 album Reality.[1] 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.[2] A heart attack in late June 2004 forced the cancellation of some dates near the end of the tour.[3] Bowie retired from performing live in 2006, making this tour his last.[4]

Quick Facts Location, Associated album ...

The tour grossed US$46 million, making it the ninth-highest-grossing tour of 2004.[5]

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Background

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Bowie announced the tour in June 2003, intending to play to over a million people across 17 countries, and was billed as his first major tour since the Outside Tour of 1995.[6] Rehearsals for the tour begin in July, with the band from his previous Heathen Tour mostly unchanged; Mark Plati had other work booked, so guitarist Gerry Leonard was made the new bandleader.[7] The band played a warm-up gig on 19 August in New York to an audience of about 500 people at The Chance theater.[8] Starting in September, Bowie appeared on national radio and TV shows in Germany and France before doing a "live and interactive music event" staged in London on 8 September, one of the first live streams of a rock concert, and the first to be broadcast in 5.1 sound.[8] This show was beamed live to audiences around the world, although some countries (such as the Japan and Australia) didn't broadcast the show until the following day, and some countries (like the US) did not broadcast the show until a week later.[8] Some theaters report not receiving the center channel of audio of the show, meaning that some audiences didn't hear Bowie's singing as part of the broadcast (strictly an issue at the theaters' end, according to Tony Visconti, who was responsible for the mix).[9]

Bowie continued publicity for the album and tour, playing songs on shows such as Friday Night with Jonathan Ross on BBC One, The Today Show, Last Call with Carson Daly, and The Late Show with David Letterman.[10] Tracks performed during these shows included "New Killer Star", "Modern Love", "Never Get Old", and "Hang On to Yourself".[10] Finally, in late September, Bowie and the band played songs for AOL Online, performing "New Killer Star", "I'm Afraid of Americans", "Rebel Rebel", "Days" and "Fall Dog Bombs the Moon",[10] all of which were streamed to AOL customers over the next few months.[10] By the end of September, Bowie and band were in Brussels for final rehearsals.[10]

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Tour design

The tour itself was described by Bowie biographer Nicholas Pegg as "in some respects [...] even more theatrical" than the "Sound+Vision Tour", one of Bowie's more theatrical undertakings.[10] The stage included a giant LED screen with a raised catwalk, multiple platforms pushing out into the audience, staircases and "huge, bleached white tree branches" that dangled "gracefully from either side of the stage".[10] Bowie himself helped design the stage alongside designer Therese Depreze, lighting designer Tom Kenny and visual director Laura Frank.[10]

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Repertoire

The set list included tracks spanning Bowie's 30 plus years in the music business, from The Man Who Sold the World (1970) all the way to Reality (2003), along with collaborations such as "Sister Midnight" (originally from The Idiot (1977) by Iggy Pop) and "Under Pressure" (released as a single (1981) by Bowie and Queen later found on Hot Space released the following year), and snippets and teasers of Bowie classics such as "Space Oddity" and "Golden Years".[11] The band had rehearsed around 60 songs for the tour,[2] and the large repertoire of available songs allowed them to change the setlist from night to night, sometimes making up the setlist on the fly, a departure from some of Bowie's previous and heavily choreographed tours like the Serious Moonlight Tour of 1983, the Glass Spider Tour of 1987, and the Sound+Vision Tour of 1990.[11] Bowie and his band played over two hours every night of the tour, playing more than 30 songs at some venues.[12] One song that was rehearsed but not performed is "Win" from his 1974 album Young Americans; it never made it further than the occasional soundcheck for the tour.[13]

Reception

The 24 January 2004 show in Vancouver, Canada was reviewed positively, with the reviewer saying that "with Bowie's near-flawless vocals, brilliant band, and smartly executed show, you wind up with one of the finest old-school rock gigs the Canucks’ home rink has ever hosted."[14] The review of the next show in Seattle on 25 January 2004 was similarly positive, saying Bowie, "still every inch a superstar ... still oozes charm and sex appeal" and called the setlist a "celebration of his whole body of work."[15] In Las Vegas's The Joint at the (now former) Hard Rock Hotel, a review of the 6 February 2004 show there described Bowie as he "laughed and joked around between songs" to a crowd "dancing ... in the aisles" in an overall positive review.[16]

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Tour incidents

On 6 May 2004, a performance at the James L. Knight Center, Miami, Florida was cancelled after lighting technician Walter "Wally Gator" Thomas fell to his death prior to Bowie going onstage.[17] At the show in Oslo on 18 June 2004, Bowie was struck in the left eye with a lollipop thrown by an audience member.[18]

Heart attack

On 23 June, while on stage in Prague for the tour, Bowie had a heart attack (misdiagnosed at the time as a pinched nerve), which required him to leave the stage (and finally end the show early) to receive medical attention.[3][19] The tour was officially curtailed after the Hurricane Festival performance in Scheeßel, Germany on 25 June 2004, as a result of continued discomfort.[3] On 30 June, the tour was officially cancelled after Bowie was diagnosed with an acutely blocked artery that required an angioplasty procedure (performed on 26 June).[3][20]

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Live recordings

Main article: A Reality Tour (film)

A DVD video of the Point Theatre, Dublin performances of 2003 was released as A Reality Tour in 2004. A CD of the same performances was released as A Reality Tour in 2010.

Setlist

The following setlist was obtained from the concert at the Singapore Indoor Stadium of Singapore, on 4 March 2004.[21] It does not represent all concerts through the tour.

  1. "Rebel Rebel"
  2. "New Killer Star"
  3. "Fame"
  4. "Cactus"
  5. "All the Young Dudes
  6. "China Girl"
  7. "Battle For Britain (The Letter)"
  8. "The Loneliest Guy"
  9. "The Man Who Sold the World"
  10. "Afraid"
  11. "Sunday"
  12. "Heathen (The Rays)"
  13. "Under Pressure"
  14. "Life on Mars?"
  15. "Looking for Water"
  16. "Quicksand"
  17. "Days"
  18. Ashes to Ashes"
  19. "I'm Afraid of Americans"
  20. ""Heroes""
Encore
  1. "Changes"
  2. "Five Years"
  3. "Suffragette City"
  4. "Ziggy Stardust"
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Tour dates

More information Date, City ...
  • On 19 August 2003 Bowie performed a one-off show in Poughkeepsie, New York at The Chance, as a warm up show.
  • On 8 September 2003 Bowie performed a show at the Riverside Studios in London, and the live performance was beamed via satellite to cinemas and theatres across Europe and, due to time delay, the following day across Asia, Australia, North and South America.[22][23]
Notes
  1. The concert on 13 June 2004 in Newport was part of the Isle of Wight Festival.
  2. The concert on 17 June 2004 in Bergen was part of the Bergen Festival.
  3. The concert on 18 June 2004 in Oslo was part of the Norwegian Wood Festival.
  4. The concert on 20 June 2004 in Seinäjoki was part of Provinssirock.
  5. The concert on 25 June 2004 in Scheeßel was part of the Hurricane Festival. This was also the final David Bowie concert as part of a headlining tour.
Cancellations and rescheduled shows
12 November 2003 Toulouse Le Zénith de Toulouse Cancelled
6 December 2003 Atlantic City The Borgata Events Center Rescheduled to 29 May 2004
7 December 2003 Fairfax Patriot Center Rescheduled to 16 May 2004
9 December 2003 Boston Fleet Center Rescheduled to 30 March 2004
10 December 2003 Philadelphia Wachovia Center Rescheduled to 29 March 2004
12 December 2003 Toronto Air Canada Centre Rescheduled to 1 April 2004
6 May 2004 Miami James L. Knight Center Cancelled
26 June 2004 Tuttlingen Southside Festival Cancelled
29 June 2004 Vienna Schloss Schönbrunn Cancelled
30 June 2004 Salzburg Residenzplatz Cancelled
2 July 2004 Roskilde Roskilde Festival Cancelled
4 July 2004 Werchter Rock Werchter Cancelled
6 July 2004 Ile De Gaou Festival de la Gaou Cancelled
7 July 2004 Carcassonne Festival de la Cite Cancelled
10 July 2004 Kinross Balado, T in the Park Cancelled
11 July 2004 County Kildare Oxegen Festival Cancelled
14 July 2004 Bilbao Bilbao Festival Cancelled
16 July 2004 Compostela Xacobeo Festival Cancelled
17 July 2004 Porto The Dragon Festival Cancelled
20 July 2004 Nyon Paléo Festival Nyon Cancelled
21 July 2004 Monte Carlo Club du Sporting Cancelled
23 July 2004 Carhaix Vieilles Charrues Festival Cancelled
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Tour band

Songs

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Notation:

  • DVD/CD Included on A Reality Tour (film) and A Reality Tour (live album)
  • CD Included on the live album
  • iTunes Available as Digital download bonus tracks (iTunes) for the live album

From The Man Who Sold the World

From Hunky Dory

From The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

From Aladdin Sane

From Diamond Dogs

From Young Americans

From Station to Station

From Low

From "Heroes"

From Lodger

From Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)

From Let's Dance

  • "Modern Love"
  • "China Girl" CD written by Iggy Pop and Bowie)
  • "Let's Dance"

From Tonight

  • "Loving the Alien" DVD/CD
  • "Blue Jean"

From Outside

From Earthling

From Heathen

From Reality

Other songs:

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Notes

References

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