What does it sound like?:
In 1977, David Bowie kept himself occupied by celebrating his thirtieth birthday, releasing Low and “Heroes”, co-writing and producing Iggy Pop’s The Idiot and Lust For Life, playing keyboards for him on tour, providing a voice over for Peter And The Wolf and ending the year duetting with Bing Crosby on a TV Christmas special. In 1978, he took it easy by embarking on a world tour called Isolar II.
Bowie could call on his finest rhythm section: Carlos Alomar guitar, George Murray bass and Dennis Davis drums. He recruited pianist Sean Mayes who used to be in a rock band called Fumble that supported Ziggy in 1972. Roger Powell, in the Eno synthesiser and treatments role, was a member of Todd Rundgren’s Utopia. Simon House was borrowed from Hawkwind to play electric violin. Lead guitar was provided by Adrian Belew, an Eno spot at a Frank Zappa gig.
The stage set consisted of an austere white fluorescent cage, capable of glowing and flashing. Spotlights would be trained onto the audience. The shadows cast gave the impression the musicians were sinister and imposing. The show was split into two halves by a brief interval. Part one was overwhelmingly material from Low and “Heroes”. During the break, Bowie donned a snakeskin coat. Part two began with six or seven songs from Ziggy Stardust and concluded with half of Stationtostation.
This was the tour that yielded Stage, recorded towards the end of the US leg. Welcome To The Blackout captures two nights at Earls Court two months later. Consequently, it is impossible to avoid an exercise in compare and contrast and the why bother question. The Stage remix from last year’s Bowie box, shares almost the same tracklist and sequence and is a fair comparison. Welcome additionally features Sound And Vision, the only time they played it on the tour, and the encore, Rebel Rebel.
The first things that hits you, after the opening instrumental Warzarsa, is the mixing. Tony Visconti’s upper register hearing must be shot. Stage is very bottom heavy, to the benefit of Murray, notably on Breaking Glass, but no-one else. David Richards’s mix for Welcome is far superior, sharper, more rounded and highlights the guitars and electric violin much better. It helps enormously that both guitarists are on such scorching form at Earls Court, especially for Jean Genie and Stay, two tracks not included on the original 1978 release of Stage. In fact, it seems as though there is twice as much guitar throughout Welcome. Welcome’s Stay is so spectacular it arguably surpasses the studio version. Dennis Davis’s drumming is simply awesome in both settings. Oddly, the Ziggy tracks don’t suit this band. The jagged, splintered shards of rock styling are stunning but don’t fit Hang Onto Yourself. Poor Woody had to make do with overturned bins for floor toms and tin plates for cymbals. Davis’s kit is far superior and, therefore, feels almost too good.
Sean Mayes recalls that the band deliberately slowed down when recording Stage. Overall, Stage does capture more of the menace in the Berlin songs but the band seem tense, as though the added pressure of recording a live album was transmitted through their fingers. However, tracks like TVC15, Be My Wife and Beauty And The Beast are better at a controlled, stately pace. Earls Court were the final nights before a four month break and the move to Oceana. Consequently, Welcome To The Blackout has a more relaxed end-of-term feel, Bowie and the band enjoying a greater freedom and energy. That energy boosts the likes of Blackout, Speed Of Life and Stationtostation. Two months down the road, Bowie’s voice is suffering, at least for part one. During the break, he must have indulged in a magic potion as he is more authoritative for part two.
The cover for Welcome To The Blackout is a little injudicious. Yes, Bowie’s hand is touching the microphone but, at first glance, it does look like a Nazi salute, evoking bad memories from 1976. Surely, there is a better photo somewhere.
It’s easy to understand why The Earls Court recordings haven’t been issued until now. Stage was already in the can and has received considerable investment, including a 2005 reissue, sorting out the woeful sequencing of 1978, and an expansion and remastering last year. Plus, Bowie’s voice, the star of the show, is less strong. Nevertheless, on balance, Welcome To The Blackout is an essential purchase for any self-respecting Bowiephile, especially those in love with this rhythm section and Adrian Belew’s axemanship.
What does it all *mean*?
Record Store Day has its uses. This was initially an RSD vinyl special and is now getting the all format treatment at a reasonable price.
Goes well with…
Weighing pros and cons. In the end, you pays your money and you makes your choice.
Release Date:
Might suit people who like…
A love of Bowie and dirty, filthy guitar. This is really a product for the established fan.
Every night of Isolar II was recorded. The last night, in Japan 12th December 1978, was filmed and broadcast on Japanese TV. Earls Court may be the best nights of a very long tour.
You can sample the whole album if you wish
Another belter of a review with all my questions answered. Looking forward to this arriving today. Ta muchly.
PS Spot on about this band and the Ziggy material.
It’s interesting, isn’t it. They are superb on Rebel Rebel, Jean Genie and the Stationtostationstation tracks but the Ziggy material just doesn’t gel.
I think it’s the same on Stage. I would almost agree with you about this Stay, and I guess we’ve both heard a few, but for me the Nassau ’76 version is the best. “I’m Earl Slick. Say hello to my lil frien’!”
I think the real difference with this Stay is Carlos Alomar. He is so aggressive and so up for it, laying the foundations for an inspired Belew. That’s why I give it the nod over Nassau.
Carlos probably is better on this tour. Biased as I inevitably am towards the Ronno, I sometimes think that DB never had a better sideman – he’s almost the unacknowledged hero of this whole period. The Lodger sessions, for example, would have been disastrous without his calming influence.
The entire rhythm section provided stability from Stationtostation to Scary Monsters. Carlos didn’t play on Let’s Dance but did on the tour and the following two albums. Bowie obviously rated him very highly. He even managed to get a few writing credits, which is more than you can say about poor Ronno.
I was never a huge Ziggy fan and reading this review I realise it probably stems from my greater teenage familiarity with Stage than the original material.
Earl Slick doesn’t play on the Nassau live album – it’s Stacey Heydon: a Canadian but a guitarist nonetheless.
Who is this large-trousered young croonster?
He’ll go far! etc
Mmmmmm dirty guitar
I was at the non ‘sound n vision’ show at Earls Court in 1978. I can attest to the joy but anticlimax when the Ziggy songs were played. ‘Station…’ and the Berlin songs were simply stellar, as was the Alabama Song, but the glam stomps though fabulous seemed just a bit too gauche in relation to what followed. Bowie was in a pair of remarkable pegged pleated trousers, and the theatrical lighting was a step up from 70s spectacle to, well, art. I came away more interested in brecht and German expressionism, and saw a future beyond reliving the early 70s. All his for £2 and downstairs. Many are they shown a more sophisticated and intellectual world by David Bowie. He was like a hip older brother to me.
What does “£2 and downstairs” mean? Well, I know what £2 is obviously, but….
In the stalls. Earls Court holds 15k, so the back is very much the back. As soon as the crowd massed, I leapt the crash barrier and was in the closer £4 business class area.
PS. I think that cover is great, and not like a Hitler salute at all. The position is completely wrong. You have to do it like you’re feeling for dust on an invisible bookshelf. I read that in The Puffin Guide to the Third Reich.
That gave me a good laugh, I confess.
I didn’t get to the 1978 tour due to poverty but somehow scraped the ackers together to buy Stage on release. I was disappointed with the lacklustre double album but consoled myself that I had missed nothing special at Earl’s Court. How wrong I was. I got Blackout on vinly at RSD and sat back to listen, expecting a clone of Stage. I was stunned just how good it was and how very different in feel, execution and sound. It has charm, warmth and excitement: all qualities singularly absent on Stage.
I recommend.
PS I did see Bowie at Earl’s Court in 1973 when the PA was woefully inadequate for the cavernous venue. I enjoyed it though as it was the first time I heard the Aladdin Sane songs played live.
I remember listening to the start of one of the Earls Court gigs on Capital Radio, they did an outside broadcast of the event, it was a big deal that Bowie was returning. They broadcast half of the opening song and then it was back to the studio at “The Rocking Tower” eg. The building on Euston Road they were based at.
It seemed to be the most glam, incredible event to this 15 year old lad.
CD ordered…the incredible opening to Station to Station more than justifies getting this for me.
Londoners were lucky. It was only two years previously that he did a six night run at The Empire Pool for the Isolar Tour. Those of us living in the sticks hadn’t seen him since 1973 whe he was still Ziggy.
A long way from the “If it was good enough for Shirley Bassey…..” era.
1st July was the Saturday, I was there, half way back on the side. Bowie looked about an inch tall. I don’t remember any spectacular stage show or it being a particularly great gig. Previously the biggest venue I had been to half 1,200 which probably didn’t help so I am going to have to give it a listen.
Hi there Alias,
I was there, too, on Saturday, 1 July, about half way back on the (right-hand) side. Did you see me?
Nowadays, when I listen to “Stage”, say, my favourite bits are the slow, doomy material from “Low”. But as far as I can remember from that night, when Bowie did “Warszawa”, it seemed like a bit of a lull. The audience were restless and unengaged as the long, glacially slow number plodded on. They wanted to get up and dance…
I went to see this tour a few days earlier (the day before my 20th birthday) at the New Bingley Hall, Stafford, a glorified warehouse.
I was reasonably close, standing only. I thought Warszawa was an awesome, moody start & then straight into “Heroes”. The first half was brilliant but, if you recall Low was the album that didn’t sell & “Heroes” wasn’t a hit at the time. All that weird stuff, weirded out some of the crowd. The atmosphere was restless. The interval was a surprise and Five Years was greeted with something bordering on ecstasy, which turned out to be a quick knee trembler all done and dusted by Soul Love. Fortunately, the weirdness was back with Alabama Song and Art Decade. The Stationtostation flourish to finish was jaw-dropping.
I was on the right hand side as you look at the stage. I may even have sat next to you. I remember getting a lift down from Norwich with a couple of friends and one of their sisters and partner. I didn’t sit with them, but I didn’t sit on my own so I am trying to remember who I did sit with. That tells you all you need to know about my memory of set list, audience reaction or that there were two sets. Perhaps it will all come flooding back when I hear the album.