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Posted at 2025-06-07 13:22:32(1 wk ago) (Bowie General / Images Vol. 27)

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These articles appear just as they were posted in the Usenet group alt.fan.david-bowie by group member Jamie Soule aka AladINSAnE. I have made no attempt to alter the formatting, spelling, grammar or edit in any way.

*Images*: Part 27

Although it all appeared that success had infiltrated every aspect of
Bowie's life, and his career, there was still a recurring problem that
had yet to be overcome. It had plagued him his entire career and
continued to do so. No remedy seemed to work and he had tried
everything. Bowie still couldn't sell many records, and the lucrative
American market he dreamed of one day breaking into, still eluded him.
The first stage of his world tour concluded on June 29 and a four month
break was scheduled before it was to resume. Bowie went off to
Switzerland immediately to take a well needed three week holiday. What
was becoming worrisome is the fact that even though the tour was earning
Bowie record attendance figures, and record gate receipts, his record
sales were dropping to staggering low figures. It did not matter where
one looked, David Bowie had nothing on the record charts anywhere in the
word. Tony Visconti mixed the tapes for Stage, the double live album
recorded in Philadelphia on April 28 and 29, and the album was due for
release the first week of September, while the tour was still in
progress. It was hoped that Stage would have some impact and put Bowie's
name back on the charts. There was one more item, which nobody thought
much of at the time. The premier of Just A Gigolo was postponed, and re
scheduled for an October release in Berlin. The film would be ready for
general release in February of 1979. The reason given was that the re
editing of the film was taking much longer than originally anticipated.
A curious comment was made in an article written by Michael Watts in
the September issue of Melody Maker. In the article Watts predicted
Just A Gigolo would turn out to be, " the movie bummer of the year."
Lucky guess maybe?

While on the break from the touring schedule Bowie enters the studio,
once again with Brian Eno to begin work on his next LP which will be
released as Lodger. On September 25, 1978 RCA releases Stage.
Personally, I can't imagine that any of the "suits" over at RCA would be
so bold as to hold out even the slightest hope that Stage would do
anything other than make a brief ripple, and then promptly sink to the
depths and disappear from view. I say this because if you look at it
realistically, and I find this quite humorous, what Bowie had given them
was a "live" version of Low and Heroes, two albums RCA hated, and two
albums that were commercial failures. The results were what one would
expect, Stage sold 127,350 (fig. 1984) copies in America. With three
commercial failures in a row, and considering the fact that Bowie was
being far from co operative, they still couldn't even find him half the
time, the executives at RCA had decided that they had taken about enough
as they were going to from Bowie. The battle lines were being drawn.

This character was one of indifference concerning the wants of those
around it. Bowie did what "he" wanted to, and that was it. This
attitude was reflected in his work, his attitude and his lifestyle and
if anyone disagreed with him, well, too bad. Things would be his way
only. It is a dream of most to have a life where one does not need to
have to succumb to the wishes of others, but instead living a life where
you are free to do whatever YOU want, without any interference from
others. It's called freedom I believe. This sort of lifestyle is
possible, however it requires one thing, and that is to be self
sufficient. In order to break free from having to do the will of
others, you first have to stop relying on the support of others to
survive. Contrary to what many may think this is easily accomplished,
all that is required is an ample supply of money, because once you have
the money, you can get what you want, you do not have to depend on
anyone else. If one stops to look at what Bowie had accomplished in the
time frame of about two years the results are nothing short of
astounding. Look back to February of 1976, the beginning of the Station
To Station tour. Bowie had just previous to the start of that tour re
negotiated his contract with MainMan. While at MainMan Bowie was not
only broke, he owed a sizable amount of money, and was himself owed a
hefty sum from MainMan, which it was unable to pay. After all was said
and done, Bowie was for the most part free by the beginning of 1976 and
after receiving what was due to him he had around three hundred thousand
dollars to his name. This was considered a lot of money back in those
days, however compared to the gross income Bowie had generated for
MainMan, the amount was laughable. Still, it was better than the seventy
five dollar a week salary, and fifty percent of whatever money Defries
decided he would leave behind as profits. In just two short years Bowie
received $200,000.00 in advance for Stage, and so far he had grossed
from the 66 concerts on the tour five to six million dollars. If you add
in the other sources of income such as royalties derived from album
sales and publishing, Bowie was worth an estimated ten million dollars,
and all of it was tucked away in the safety of Swiss bank accounts.

The rift with RCA was becoming noticeable, so much in fact that the
"trades" were starting to comment in their editorials. Bowie was living
up to the letter of his contractual obligations, it was assumed that
this would ensure a clean break with RCA when his contract expired and
to avoid any litigation. The most recent "spat" between RCA and Bowie
was over Stage. Bowie insisted that Stage count as two separate albums
against what he was required to produce for RCA under the terms of his
agreement, RCA would have no part of this saying Stage counted as one
album, not two. Surprisingly for once it was RCA who eventually got
their way, Stage would count as one album. It was for obvious reasons
that Bowie wanted to avoid "pissing" on RCA publicly, he still had four
additional years to fulfill under his contract and a public fight would
do nothing but further strain the relationship helping no one. In a
completely unexpected mood Bowie held a press conference on October 8,
saying he wanted to clear the air concerning the rumours about his
intended split with RCA. At the press conference Bowie stated that his
relationship with RCA was not only a long one, but a very rewarding one
as well. He said that any rumour stating that he was interested in
signing with another label were false and erroneous. He was lying
through his teeth. Isolar, under his direction, was already compiling
information on the other labels for him to examine. Bowie was through
with RCA.

The Heroes tour resumed on November 11 in Australia, with Adelaide being
the first stop. All was not well. David Hemmings had run out of money
when three quarters of the way through editing Just A Gigolo, and as a
result he just simply walked away from the whole project. Bowie was
given the opportunity of an advance screening before the film went to
final edit. He watched it in the company of the members of Manhattan
Transfer who had been hired to perform on the soundtrack. Bowie saw the
movie for exactly what it was, career damaging. He was horrified,
describing it as a "cocaine" movie. I disagree with this however, it is
much more like an "acid" movie in my opinion. It gets worse however, you
see Bowie saw the film BEFORE it got butchered. With Hemmings gone the
final "cut" was left in the hands of "others." To make matters worse,
the running background dialog which provided the story narration was
deleted. In addition the music by Manhattan Transfer was cut and spliced
to the point of reducing it to mish mash. Twenty minutes of the film,
which Hemmings insisted provided the humour and the irony that were
central to the picture, was left on the cutting room floor. In my
opinion this statement was Hemmings trying to save his own skin.
Nothing, especially twenty minutes of lost film could have saved this
movie. I saw it several times and I did not think the humour was erased
from the film in the least, I laughed my ass off all the way through it
each time.

There is a saying, and it goes like this, "Let sleeping dogs lie." It
is an old and popular saying, and one that someone should have
remembered. When Just A Gigolo was complete there was not one film
distribution company they could find that would have anything at all to
do with it. Now, does this tell you something? It tells me something and
perhaps they should have listened and decided not to release the film,
however some people are stubborn. In the end they found an inexperienced
distribution company called Tedderwick, who had distributed just one
film before, to handle it. Bowie held a press conference at The Cafe
Royal which lasted fifteen minutes. He did not attend the premier. The
critics were honest, they wrote that the film was a complete mess. The
script was called abysmal and the directing by Hemmings lacked any
flair. The acting, with the exception of Sydney Rome was described as
"stiff as a morgue." The saving grace for Bowie is that the film was not
heavily publicized and pulled from the market after only a few showings.
This certainly limited the amount of damage to his career. Bowie later
referred to Just A Gigolo as all of his Elvis movies packed into one. I
imagine the pig in the movie sued for damage to its acting career as it
would not have been able to find work after appearing in that film. This
film in my opinion has no value as art, however as a comedy it is worth
seeing.

The tour wound through Australia playing in venues that were well sold
out in advance. The Melbourne show was held outdoors where a crowd of
over twenty thousand braved the pouring rain to see the concert. As much
as the crowds turned out however, this character Bowie had assumed grew
more and more isolated. On one rare occasion he did speak to a
journalist in London something he said had almost a prophetic value.
The interview was conducted by Mavis Nicholson for Welsh TV. In the
interview Bowie said, " Thematically I've always dealt with isolation in
everything I've written, I think. So it's something that triggers me
off. It always interests me in a new project. I have often put myself in
circumstances and positions where I am isolated, just so that I can
write about them." Interestingly, and what no one knew at the time, this
statement was coming from a man, who for the most part was about to
disappear for a period of five years. The Australian portion of the tour
finalized with two performances in Sydney. There was a rumour, this one
was reported in certain papers, that Bowie was paid in gold bars for the
two performances in Sydney. This would allow him to legally evade
certain tax obligations he had to the Australian government. Although
this rumour is unsubstantiated, personally with his business savvy
knowing how to keep the tax man in poverty, and his earnings in his own
coffers, this would not surprise me one bit if it is true. If it is not
true someone just gave him a perfect idea to use next time.

On November 17th, RCA released Breaking Glass/Art Decade as a single
with Ziggy Stardust on the flip side. All of the cuts were off of Stage.
If anyone was still crazy enough to believe that there would be any
positive public reaction to Stage, their hopes were soon dashed as the
single promptly sailed off into oblivion. Much to the dismay of the
accounting department of RCA, as well as the executives responsible for
managing their artists, this was becoming all to routine. The failure of
the single to spark any interest in Stage, as well as the overall
commercial failure of Stage had little or no effect on Bowie. Why should
he care anyway whether it sold or not, he was making enough money as
well as doing things his way. He did not need a hit, RCA did. To those
around him Bowie was becoming incessantly arrogant. It was a "Fuck You"
attitude, if you don't like it, well, then Fuck You. Bowie did what he
HAD to, but no more beyond the minimum. He was quite clearly biding his
time and there was nothing RCA, or anyone else could do about it. With
the Australian part of the tour wrapped up Bowie rented an apartment,
unknown of course to RCA, and he quietly moved to Kyoto, Japan. It is
here that Bowie would spend Christmas.

The 1978 Heroes tour wound up with shows in Osaka and Tokyo. To all who
saw this tour most will agree with what I say, that it was an awesome
experience. Now, as much as it was a real privilege to have the
opportunity to attend a performance on this tour, and thinking of it
conjures up some great memories, there is also a downside attached to
it. Without getting into a debate the majority of the fans who "grew up"
with Bowie in the seventies will agree with the opinion that this tour
marked the end of Bowie, live anyway. The sad part is that little did
anyone ever dream that this tour would be the last of Bowie as he was
prior to 1980. We witnessed the end. This character turned out to be a
virtual Jeckyl and Hyde. You see, on the one hand this character gave us
arguably the best work of Bowie's career, certainly the most creative.
On the other hand it took the Bowie we knew away. Not immediately mind
you, but it was the end of an era. Let me throw this out, just for the
sake of asking. What do you think the mood would have been like had
those in the audience known at the time that this would be the last they
would see of Bowie for five years? Also, that this was the last they
would see of Bowie as he was, the next time they saw him he will have
done a complete makeover, musically and personally, he would leave it
all behind, including his fans, and David Bowie would become totally
commercial?

March 1979 would find Bowie in New York mixing Lodger. Lodger, Bowie's
most experimental album really. That is hard to understand until one
examines the recording of it. To do that we have to go back to September
1978, Montreux, Switzerland.

To be continued..........

AlADinSANe

""I don't begrudge any artist for finding an audience"
- David Bowie abt. 1987

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