the glass spider tour david bowie

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When David Bowie Launched His Eye-Popping ‘Glass Spider’ Tour

David Bowie  was a performer ahead of his time – in his music, his image and his live performances. His 1987 Glass Spider tour was the biggest live spectacle of his career, an undertaking so massive that Bowie would never attempt to repeat it, despite the trek's success.

The tour was in support of the Never Let Me Down  album, which was intended as a return to rock for Bowie after exploring mainstream pop on previous releases. He conceptualized a big, bold, innovative experiment in blending an arena rock show with theatrical elements, groundbreaking staging and choreography.

"It's written and structured with various thematic devices," Bowie said at the time. "If this works the way I hope it does, then the next step for me will be to write a piece specifically for arenas and stadiums, which is almost like taking a musical on the road that has one narrative form all the way through, with a cast of characters, and is written for epic theater. I'm testing the waters with this tour."

Bowie assembled a team that included five dancers (under the direction of choreographer Toni Basil, famous for the No. 1 hit "Mickey"), saxophone, trumpet, congas and violin. He tapped Peter Frampton – who had just launched a semi-successful comeback after several years of retirement – to play guitar on both the album and tour.

Watch David Bowie Perform on the Glass Spider Tour

The entire ensemble rehearsed for 12 hours a day in New York before kicking off the tour on May 30, 1987 at Stadion Feijenoord in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The set list included the bulk of the new album, as well as a number of lesser-known songs from Bowie's catalog. The massive stage set consisted of a giant spider with vacuum tube legs that were lit from the inside, and Bowie would emerge from the spider's head for the show's dramatic encore.

The tour was financially the most successful of Bowie's career to that time, but both it and the album it supported were met with a mixed critical reception. Though Bowie would later state that he felt the tour paved the way for many elements that became important in subsequent live productions from other acts, he found the rigors of the show so exhausting that he chose to scale down his future road shows.

The tour was documented in a popular home-video release, Glass Spider , a year later in 1988, and then released on DVD in 2007.

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Opening on the 30th May 1987, The Glass Spider World Tour visited fifteen countries and produced eighty-seven performances, as well as nine promotional press shows. The band consisted of: David Bowie (vocals, guitar, saxophone), Carlos Alomar (guitar), Peter Frampton (lead guitar), Carmine Rojas (bass), Alan Childs (drums), Erdal Kizilcay (keyboards, trumpet, congas, violin) and Richard Cottle (keyboards, saxophone). The dancers were: Melissa Hurley, Constance Marie, Craig Allen Rothwell (aka Spazz Attack), Viktor Manoel and Steven Nicholas (aka Skeeter Rabbit). In March before the tour started, a number of Press Shows were given in various countries. The band for these performances consisted of: David Bowie (vocals), Carlos Alomar (guitar), Peter Frampton (guitar), Alan Childs (drums), Carmine Rojas (bass) and Richard Cottle (keyboards).

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Music: Bowie's Glass Spider Tour

By Jon Pareles, Special To the New York Times

• Aug. 1, 1987

Overkill reigns in David Bowie's latest stage show, the Glass Spider Tour, which played its first American date Thursday at Veterans Stadium here and goes to Giants Stadium in New Jersey on Sunday and Monday. The two-and-a-half-hour set frequently looks far different from a standard rock concert, as Mr. Bowie has been promising. But when it does, in some of its most ambitious numbers, it often looks just plain silly.

The production calls for five dancers along with Mr. Bowie and his six-man band, performing under (and at one point, atop) the canopy of a giant ''spider'' with eight lighted legs, moving jaws and a head lighted like a jukebox - a superbly flexible set. There are film projections, props and performance-art-style bits with spoken words, along with such standard stadium effects as giant video screens; Mr. Bowie even ''flies.'' The show is spectacular, but too often it's spectacular for its misjudgments.

Mr. Bowie is clearly trying to do something extraordinary. The set opens with the Kronos Quartet's recording of Jimi Hendrix's ''Purple Haze'' - an example of the high culture-mass culture combination Mr. Bowie is after - and continues with his song ''Up the Hill Backwards,'' which declares, ''It's got nothing to do with you/If one can grasp it.''

Indeed, long stretches have nothing to do with crowd-pleasing. Although the current band plays more conventional, big-beat rock than most of Mr. Bowie's touring outfits (complete with hard-rock guitar solos by Peter Frampton), the set plays down hits in favor of bleaker songs about the clash of cultures (''Loving the Alien''), totalitarianism (''Big Brother,'' ''87 and Cry'') and utter alienation (''Scary Monsters,'' ''Sons of the Silent Age''). The set is also weighted toward Mr. Bowie's dramatic ballads (''Absolute Beginners,'' ''Time'') rather than his rockers.

Mr. Bowie probably hoped to merge his most nightmarish lyrics with dreamlike dancing for an eerie, unsettling show. The dancers run, jump and tumble around the stage (and around Mr. Bowie), enacting shoving matches and dispensing repetitive gestures - a man swinging a baseball bat, group gestures like sign language - that suggest a half-baked version of the choreographic theater of Pina Bausch. Early in the show, ''Day-In, Day-Out,'' with dancers on three stories of scaffolding, promises a dizzying overload of visual activity.

But for all the energy the dancers bring, the choreography fails. It's by Toni Basil, whose 1970's troupe, the Lockers, brought the robotic motion and acrobatics of street dancing to television. Over the last decade, however, moves that seemed startling have become commonplace - and instead of deepening Mr. Bowie's songs, the hair-flinging, shoulder-twitching and rubber-robot routines tame them. ''Dancing With the Big Boys'' looked like an outtake from the movie ''Flashdance''; a line from that song, ''This can be embarrassing,'' was all too appropriate.

The more arresting images occurred when Mr. Bowie was partnering a single dancer. He sang ''Sons of the Silent Age'' to a dancer who swayed back and forth as if he were moving her by telekinesis; in '' 'Heroes,' '' he started the song on his knees, roped, with a dancer gradually unfurling his bonds and home-movie images from the Soviet Union flickering behind him.

Along with '' 'Heroes,' '' though, the best parts of the show were those in which the dancers had been dispatched to dressing rooms and Mr. Bowie stepped forward and simply led his band in such songs as ''Rebel Rebel,'' ''The Jean Genie,'' ''Young Americans'' and the new ''Beat of Your Drum.'' His movements became more authoritative, though no less stylized and oblique; it again became clear what a charismatic actor Mr. Bowie can be. Even the music seemed crisper without the visual distractions.

In ''Fashion,'' the dancers gang up on Mr. Bowie, pushing him around and even tossing him head over heels. The number could speak for the show itself, which puts Mr. Bowie's music far too much at the mercy of its staging.

FLASHBACK: David Bowie's 1987 'Glass Spider' Tour Was 'Colorful, Vulgar, Dreamlike'

Watch david bowie preview his 'colorful, vulgar' 1987 world tour, 'the view’s sunny hostin and alyssa farah griffin react to show’s arguments going viral (exclusive), 'the view' og host star jones names her current favorites on the panel (exclusive), tamron hall’s 5-year-old son picked out her daytime emmys look (exclusive), jennifer hudson confirms she’s back in the recording studio for new music (exclusive), dick van dyke reacts to making history as oldest daytime emmy nominee ever (exclusive), zooey deschanel wears cher’s dress from 1966 to the daytime emmys (exclusive), 'the acolyte': why leslye headland regrets admitting to writing 'star wars' fan fiction (exclusive), valerie bertinelli's boyfriend mike goodnough blushes as she names fav things about him (exclusive), barry keoghan and sabrina carpenter get flirty in her 'please please please' music video, ‘caught in providence’ judge frank caprio 'feeling stronger' in pancreatic cancer battle (exclusive), 'perfect match' stars explain why they want to find love on reality tv (exclusive), ariana grande's ‘the boy is mine’: brandy & monica cameo in catwoman-inspired vid with penn badgley, daytime emmys: melody thomas & edward scott react to ‘huge honor’ of joint lifetime achievement win, ‘sister, sister's jackée harry ‘trying to keep up’ with ‘divorced and single’ tia mowry (exclusive), blake shelton joins post malone for surprise performance to debut new collab, method man reflects on friendship with mary j. blige as 'you're all i need' turns 30 (exclusive), luke bryan reveals the famous names tossed out to replace katy perry on ‘american idol’ (exclusive), 'baby reindeer': what to know about fiona harvey’s $170 million lawsuit against netflix, mary j. blige and ‘power book ii: ghost’ cast celebrate series’ final season, jon bon jovi on 'joyous' new album 'forever' and possibly going on tour again (exclusive), the singer spoke to et just before launching the tour in support of his album 'never let me down.'.

David Bowie was a consummate entertainer, and his enthusiasm for his live stage shows came through in this ET flashback, as the rockstar prepared to launch his 1987 Glass Spider Tour.

“I try and do something I want to go and see really, that's the essence of whatever I do,” Bowie told ET at the time. “This particular tour, for instance, I’ve really tried to put together all the elements, everything that I’ve been fascinated [with] in theater and rock, ever since the beginning of my career.”

WATCH: David Bowie Dies at 69: Stars Share Touching Tributes

The worldwide tour, in support of Bowie’s album Never Let Me Down , was a massive stage production, which included appearances by guitarist Peter Frampton and choreography by Toni Basil. The set, described at the time as the “largest touring set ever” was designed to look like a giant spider.

“It looks like the kind of show I really want to go and see myself. It's fast, colorful, vulgar, loud, subtle, quiet, dreamlike. I mean, it has so many different qualities to it,” the singer, then 40,  said before the first show.

Bowie conceived the tour as a theatrical stage show, including spoken-word introductions to songs, vignettes, videos, and props.

“I’m not really good at getting up there and singing a couple songs,” he said, admitting that he was “excited and nervous” to launch the tour. “I really like to make a piece of theater out of it.”

FLASHBACK: David Bowie Said Fatherhood 'Helped Me Grow Up' in 1987

Bowie died on Sunday at 69 after quietly battling cancer for 18 months. His son, Moon director Duncan Jones, confirmed the news on Twitter, posting: “Very sorry and sad to say it's true. I'll be offline for a while. Love to all."

The singer never publicly acknowledged his illness, but released his final album, Blackstar , on Friday, his 69th birthday. On Tuesday, Billboard reported that Blackstar was already on its way to becoming Bowie's first-ever No. 1 album.

Born David Robert Jones, Bowie is survived by his wife of 23 years, supermodel Iman; his 15-year-old daughter, Alexandria Jones; and his 44-year-old son, Duncan.

WATCH: David Bowie's Final Days: Brian Eno and 'Blackstar' Director Share Heartbreaking New Details

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David Bowie’s 1987 Slump Held Its Own Weird Magic

His much-maligned album Never Let Me Down and the dazzling Glass Spider Tour it spawned were the work of a veteran artist in the throes of metamorphosis.

In his 1980 song “Ashes to Ashes,” David Bowie sang of how his long-running character, the doomed astronaut Major Tom, was “hitting an all-time low.” Seven years later, Bowie found himself in similar straits. Never Let Me Down , his seventeenth album, was released in April of 1987 to middling sales and critical hostility. It was his first album in 16 years to fail to crack the British Top Five. The Glass Spider Tour, lavish and overstuffed, kicked off a month later and was equally panned. As the magazine Smash Hits trolled at the time, “If Dame David Bowie is such a bleeding chameleon, why, pray, can’t he change into something more exciting than the skin of an aging rock plodder?”

Bowie turned 40 that year, and he became caught in a backlash against rock’s aging aristocracy. He’d pulled off a coup at the start of the decade with the massive, career-boosting success of his album Let’s Dance , but by 1985, he was hamming it up with Mick Jagger during their hollow cover of Martha and the Vandellas’ “Dancing in the Street.” The slickly produced and tepidly executed Never Let Me Down was panned as being just as self-indulgent. Time hasn’t softened that consensus. Thirty years later, in his book On Bowie , Rob Sheffield called Never Let Me Down “an all-time low”—as if to echo Bowie’s own lyrics in “Ashes to Ashes.” Lesser albums by popular artists are routinely relegated to the dustbin of history—or at the very least, the tail end of online rankings and listicles. But there’s as much to be learned from the dead ends and disappointments of great artists like Bowie as there is from their triumphs and masterpieces.

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Never Let Me Down , ironically, was one of Bowie’s biggest letdowns. There was a sly self-awareness about his conversion from cult figure to mainstream figurehead following Let’s Dance , a quality sorely missing from the plasticity of Never Let Me Down . The track “Shining Star (Makin’ My Love)” is stiff and static, and it’s marred even further by a rap verse from the actor Mickey Rourke, who spits some egregious rhymes about Leon Trotsky and Adolf Hitler. Listless arrangements and cellophane-thin tones render the songs as robust as soda fizz. “Too Dizzy,” a song so emblematic of ’80s blandness that it makes Phil Collins sound like Otis Redding, was even removed by Bowie from the album’s reissues. “What, for me, was a bitter disappointment was the way [ Never Let Me Down ] turned out. It wasn’t played with any conviction,” Bowie laments in Christopher Sandford’s book Bowie: Loving the Alien . “It was studio-fied to such an extent that, halfway through the sessions, I was going out to lunch and just leaving everyone to it.”

For all of Bowie’s self-deprecation, Never Let Me Down actually marked an upward creative shift. The artist had more songwriting credits on the album than he did on either of his two previous albums, 1983’s Let’s Dance and 1984’s Tonight . And for the first time since 1980’s Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps )—the album that contained “Ashes to Ashes”—he does more than just sing; he contributes guitar, harmonica, and keyboards to the recording, closer to the hands-on process he used in his ’70s prime.

Two of the album’s singles, “Day-In Day-Out” and “Never Let Me Down,” fare far better in retrospect than much of the pop-rock of 1987. The former song, despite a muddled if well-meaning message about urban poverty, boasts brassy hooks and a gutsy vocal performance from Bowie; the latter is a mix of crooning atmosphere and sultry danceability drawn straight from his Let’s Dance playbook. Meanwhile, deep cuts and B-sides like the anthemic “Zeroes” and the stripped-down, infectious “Julie” were overlooked in the rush to tag Bowie as yet another ’60s-spawned rocker who, by 1987, had lost his luster.

It’s easy to see why Never Let Me Down left so many Bowie fans and critics crestfallen. After a three-year break from releasing studio albums, this trailblazer known for his restless innovation and reinvention seemed content to tread water. But judged on its own merits, the album reflects an interplay between social consciousness, rosy nostalgia, and Bowie’s growing desire to reconnect with his craft—the superstar remembering he’s a songsmith.

Nowhere is that more evident than on “Glass Spider.” Buried in the middle of Never Let Me Down , the track is a throwback to Bowie’s high-concept work of the ’70s, most obviously Diamond Dogs and The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars . It begins with a poetic, spoken-word monologue detailing a mythic creature who would decorate its web with the bones of its prey, “creating a macabre shrine of remains.” What follows is a haunting phantasmagoria tailor-made for newbies who had bought into Bowie after his major work of 1986—a starring role in Jim Henson’s dark fantasy film Labyrinth . At the same time, it dog-whistled to his longtime fans who missed the theatrical, science-fictional Bowie of old. Stark and exquisite, “Glass Spider” remains one of Bowie’s great, underappreciated songs.

The Glass Spider Tour was a more complicated affair. Bowie launched it in May of 1987 with a series of press releases around the world, in which he claimed that the upcoming concerts—spread across seven months and three continents—would be “overflowing with makeup, costumes, and theatrical sets.” It being the excessive ’80s, quantity conferred quality. The set included a 60-foot-tall illuminated spider that hovered menacingly over the stage. Bowie descended from that monstrous prop every night, seated in an office chair and reciting his monologue from “Glass Spider,” except for the nights when it was too windy to safely permit it. The stage show was comically extravagant, with up to a dozen dancers and instrumentalists flanking Bowie at any given time. A loose narrative drove parts of the performance, but the interstitial bits mostly added up to flimsy excuses for catwalks, scaffoldings, garish jumpsuits, astronaut costumes, and lots of gold lamé.

Yet this was Bowie. Although he’d dialed back his thespian tendencies since Let’s Dance , was it really so unreasonable to see him back under the veritable proscenium arch? Critics thought so. This was the year that the most buzzed-about rock album was U2’s The Joshua Tree , released in March—an album that heralded a wholesale rejection of early-’80s glitz in favor of a gritty, earnest air of dressed-down authenticity. Framed in that context, the magazine Sounds dismissed the tour as “frenzied schlock and half-baked goofing.” Chris Roberts, a former staff writer at Melody Maker admitted in David Buckley’s book Strange Fascination , “There was overwhelming peer pressure not to like [The Glass Spider Tour].” Yet, Roberts added, “It was ambitious, challenging, weird, strange, mental, and barmy, and that’s got to be good.”

Indeed, The Glass Spider Tour is as underrated as Never Let Me Down . Released as a concert movie in 1988, Glass Spider shows an acrobatic, outlandish troupe backing their equally larger-than-life frontman. The famed guitarist Peter Frampton, a childhood friend of Bowie’s, adds a fluid virtuosity to the longtime guitarist and bandleader, Carlos Alomar, who performs intrepidly with his hair sculpted into punky spikes. The set list ranges from classics like “Rebel Rebel” to fan favorites like “Sons of the Silent Age,” and from fresh singles like “Day-In Day-Out” to covers of two of Bowie’s prime influences, The Stooges and The Velvet Underground. It’s spectacular, beautiful, charmingly pretentious, and weirdly magical. Dwarfing everything is the six-story spider hunched over the stage—as impossibly grandiose, intimidating, and iconic as Bowie himself.

After the tour ended in New Zealand in November, the band and crew ceremoniously destroyed the massive prop. “It was so great to burn the spider in New Zealand at the end of the tour,” Bowie recalls in Strange Fascinations . “We just put the thing in a field and set light to it. That was such a relief!” Whether or not he realized it at the time, it was a symbolic act. Soon after returning home, Bowie began a new project that would signal a rebirth of sorts: the rock band Tin Machine, a lean, back-to-basics quartet whose self-titled debut in 1989 presaged the rise of alt-rock and grunge. Having hit the height of ego and extravagance on The Glass Spider Tour, Bowie submerged himself in a humble group that erased his name from the marquee. Tin Machine wasn’t particularly well received either, but it put Bowie back on the path of relentless reinvention he’d been walking since the ’60s. He didn’t have to hit rock bottom to get there; he had to be hoisted 60 feet in the air.

Never Let Me Down may indeed be a midlife crisis set to music, an album expressing longing for the glamour of youth as well as a confused desire to recapture it. But there’s nothing inherently wrong with that; it’s no less valid than an album written in the passion of post-adolescence or under the shadow of death. Bowie himself delivered all of the above, and everything in between, throughout his half-century-long career—up to and including his sprawling swan song, 2016’s Blackstar . But with Never Let Me Down , and the attendant spectacle of The Glass Spider Tour, Bowie unwittingly painted a jumbled, overambitious self-portrait of a veteran artist in the throes of metamorphosis. It was uncharted territory, even for a man who built an identity around changes. Which is why, for all its flaws, Bowie’s 1987 work remains some of his most audaciously dazzling, and some of his most human.

DavidBowieWorld.nl

David Bowie 1987 Glass Spider Tour

Tour by David Bowie Start date 30 May 1987 End date 28november 1987 Legs 3 Shows 86

David Bowie Tour band 1987 – The Glass Spider Tour • David Bowie – vocals, guitar • Peter Frampton – guitar, vocals • Carlos Alomar – guitar, backing vocals, music director • Carmine Rojas – bass guitar • Alan Childs – drums • Erdal Kızılçay – keyboards, trumpet, congas, violin, backing vocals • Richard Cottle – keyboards, saxophone, tambourine, backing vocals

Tour dancers • Melissa Hurley • Constance Marie • Spazz Attack (Craig Allen Rothwell) • Viktor Manoel • Stephen Nichols • Toni Basil (choreography)

Tour design • Allen Branton – Lighting design • Mark Ravitz – Set design • Christine Strand – Video director

Tour Date – City – Country – Venue

Promotional press shows 17 March 1987 Toronto, Ontario,Canada,Diamond Club 18 March 1987 New York City, New York,United States,Cat Club 20 March 1987 London,England,Player’s Theatre 21 March 1987 Paris,France,,La Locomotive 24 March 1987 Madrid,Spain,,Halquera Plateaux 25 March 1987 Rome,Italy,Piper 26 March 1987 Munich,Germany,Parkcafe Lowenbrau 28 March 1987  Stockholm,Sweden,Ritz 30 March 1987 Amsterdam,Netherlands Paradiso

Europe 30 May 1987 Rotterdam ,Netherlands,Stadion Feijenoord 31 May 1997 Rotterdam ,Netherlands,Stadion Feijenoord 02 June 1987 Werchter,Belgium,Rock Werchter 06 June 1987 Berlin,Germany,Platz der Republik 07 June 1987 Nürburgring,Rock am Ring 09 June 1987 Florence,Italy,Stadio Comunale 10 June 198 7 Milan,Stadio San Siro 13 June 1987 Hamburg,Germany,Festwiese Am Stadtpark 15 June 1987 Rome,Italy,Stadio Flaminio 16 June 1987  Rome,Italy,Stadio Flaminio 19 June 1987 London,England,Wembley Stadium 20 June 1987 London,England,Wembley Stadium 21 June 1987 Cardiff,Wales,Cardiff Arms Park 23 June 1987 Sunderland,England,Roker Park 27 June 198 7 Gothenburg,Sweden(Cancelled) Ullevi Stadium Hisingen,Eriksbergsvarvet 28 June 1987 Lyon,France,Stade de Gerland 01 July 1987 Vienna,Austria,Praterstadion 03 July 1987 Paris,France,Parc départemental de La Courneuve 04 July 1987 Toulouse,Stadium Municipal de Toulouse 06 July 1987 Madrid,Spain,Vicente Calderón Stadium 07 July 1987 Barcelona,Ministadio C.F. 08 July 1987 Barcelona,Ministadio C.F. 11 July 1987 County Meath,Ireland,Slane Castle 14 July 1987 Manchester,England,Maine Road Football Ground 15 July 1987 Manchester,England,Maine Road Football Ground 17 July 1987  Nice,France,Stade De L’Ouest 18 July 1987  Turin,Italy,Stadio Comunale di Torino

North America 30 July 1987 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,United States,Veterans Stadium 31 July 1987 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,United States,Veterans Stadium 02 august 1987  East Rutherford, New Jersey,Giants Stadium 03 august 1987  East Rutherford, New Jersey,Giants Stadium 07 august 1987  San Jose, California,Spartan Stadium 08 august 1987  Anaheim, California,Anaheim Stadium 09 august 1987  Anaheim, California,Anaheim Stadium 12 august 1987  Denver, Colorado,Mile High Stadium 14 august 1987  Portland, Oregon,Civic Stadium 15 august 1987  Vancouver, British Columbia,Canada,BC Place Stadium 17 august 1987  Edmonton, Alberta,Commonwealth Stadium 19 august 1987  Winnipeg, Manitoba,Winnipeg Stadium 21 august 1987  Rosemont, Illinois,United States,Rosemont Horizon 22 august 1987  Rosemont, Illinois,United States,Rosemont Horizon 24 august 1987  Toronto, Ontario,Canada,Canadian National Exhibition Stadium 25 august 1987  Toronto, Ontario,Canada,Canadian National Exhibition Stadium 28 august 1987  Ottawa, Ontario,Frank Clair Stadium 30 august 1987 Montreal, Quebec,Olympic Stadium 01 september 1987  New York City, New York,United States,Madison Square Garden 02 september 1987 New York City, New York,United States,Madison Square Garden 03 september 1987  Foxborough, Massachusetts,Sullivan Stadium 06 september 1987  Chapel Hill, North Carolina,Dean Smith Center 07 september 1987  Chapel Hill, North Carolina,Dean Smith Center 10 september 1987  Milwaukee, Wisconsin,Marcus Amphitheater 11 september 1987  Milwaukee, Wisconsin,Marcus Amphitheater 12 september 1987  Pontiac, Michigan,Pontiac Silverdome 14 september 1987  Lexington, Kentucky,Rupp Arena 18 september 1987  Miami, Florida,Miami Orange Bowl 19 september 1987 Tampa, Florida,Tampa Stadium 21 september 1987  Atlanta, Georgia,Omni Coliseum 22 september 1987  Atlanta, Georgia,Omni Coliseum 25 september 1987 Hartford, Connecticut,Hartford Civic Center 28 september 1987  Landover, Maryland,Capital Centre 29 september 1987 Landover, Maryland,Capital Centre 01 October 1987 St. Paul, Minnesota,St. Paul Civic Center 02 October 1987 St. Paul, Minnesota,St. Paul Civic Center 04 October 1987 Kansas City, Missouri,Kemper Arena 06 October 1987 New Orleans, Louisiana,Louisiana Superdome 07 October 1987 Houston, Texas,The Summit 08 October 1987 Houston, Texas,The Summit 10 October 1987 Dallas, Texas,Reunion Arena 11 October 1987  Dallas, Texas,Reunion Arena 13 October 1987 Los Angeles, California,Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena 14 October 1987 Los Angeles, California,Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena

Oceania 29 October 1987 Brisbane,Australia,Boondall Entertainment Centre 30 October 1987 Brisbane,Australia,Boondall Entertainment Centre 03 november 1987 Sydney,Sydney, Entertainment Centre 04 november 1987  Sydney,Sydney, Entertainment Centre 06 november 1987  Sydney,Sydney, Entertainment Centre 07 november 1987  Sydney,Sydney, Entertainment Centre 09 november 1987  Sydney,Sydney, Entertainment Centre 10 november 1987  Sydney,Sydney, Entertainment Centre 13 november 1987  Sydney,Sydney, Entertainment Centre 14 november 1987  Sydney,Sydney, Entertainment Centre 18 november 1987  Melbourne,Kooyong Stadium 20 november 1987  Melbourne,Kooyong Stadium 21 november 1987  Melbourne,Kooyong Stadium 23 november 1987  Melbourne,Kooyong Stadium 28 november 1987  Auckland,New Zealand,Western Springs Stadium

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”THE SONGS” _builder_version=”4.5.1″ _module_preset=”default”]

From  The Man Who Sold the World

• “ All the Madmen “

From  Aladdin Sane

• “ The Jean Genie “
• “ Time “

From  Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture

• “ White Light/White Heat ” (originally from  White Light/White Heat  (1968) by  The Velvet Underground ; written by  Lou Reed )

From  Diamond Dogs

• “ Big Brother “
• “Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family”
• “ Rebel Rebel “

From  Young Americans

• “ Fame ” (Bowie,  John Lennon ,  Carlos Alomar )
• “ Young Americans “

From  “Heroes”

• “ ‘Heroes’ ” (Bowie,  Brian Eno )
• “ Sons of the Silent Age “

From  Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)

• “ Fashion “
• “ Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) “
• “ Up the Hill Backwards “

From  Let’s Dance

• “ China Girl ” (originally from  The Idiot  by  Iggy Pop , written by Pop and Bowie)
• “ Let’s Dance “
• “ Modern Love “

From  Tonight

• “ Blue Jean “
• “Dancing With the Big Boys” (Bowie, Pop,  Carlos Alomar )
• “ Loving the Alien “

From  Never Let Me Down

• “’87 and Cry”
• “ Bang Bang ” (Pop,  Ivan Kral )
• “Beat of Your Drum”
• “ Day-In Day-Out “
• “Glass Spider”
• “ Never Let Me Down ” (Bowie, Alomar)
• “New York’s in Love”
• “ Time Will Crawl “
• “Zeroes”

Other songs:

• “ Absolute Beginners ” (from  Absolute Beginners )
• “ I Wanna Be Your Dog ” (from  The Stooges  (1969) by  The Stooges , written by Pop,  Dave Alexander ,  Ron Asheton  and  Scott Asheton )
• “ Lavender’s Blue ” (traditional)
• “ London Bridge Is Falling Down ” (traditional)
• “ War ” (from  War & Peace  (1970) by  Edwin Starr ; written by  Norman Whitfield  and  Barrett Strong )
• “Who Will Buy?” (from the musical  Oliver! )

Rehearsed, but not performed:

• “Because You’re Young” (from  Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) )
• “ Scream Like a Baby ” (from  Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) )
• “Shining Star (Makin’ My Love)” (from  Never Let Me Down )

[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]

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Most brilliant concert in L.A.

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Glass Spider

Released: 20 April 1987

Available on: Never Let Me Down Glass Spider (Live Montreal ’87)

2018: Reeves Gabrels: lead guitar, rhythm guitar, ambient guitar David Torn: lead guitar, ambient guitar Steven Wolf: drum programming, bass programming

‘Glass Spider’ opened side two of David Bowie’s 1987 album Never Let Me Down , and lent its name to that year’s Glass Spider Tour.

A mother-figure number! One’s feeling of isolation when you’re launched off into the world. You always think your mother’s there, but of course she never really is; however close you are to your parents, they can never be any nearer then they were when you were about five or six. ‘Mommy, come back ’cause the water’s all gone’: the water’s kind of the substance of meaning of life.

Beginning with a spoken-word monologue redolent of Diamond Dogs ’s ‘Future Legend’ , ‘Glass Spider’ trod the fine line between theatricality, 1980s bombast, and overblown ridiculousness, but at its heart is a tale of children abandoned by their mother.

‘What’s all this about glass spiders? What is it you’ve got going on with spiders, Bowie?’ I don’t know. Spiders keep coming up in my references all the time, from obviously the Spiders From Mars. I don’t know what the Jungian aspects of it are but I see it as some kind of mother figure. [laughs] Do you want to run with that for a bit? It’s the pivotal song on the album, and it’s the idea of children when they eventually… there’s a point in every child’s life when it realises its parents are really not something they can depend on for everything. They are kind of on their own. It’s that kind of feeling, and that permeates the feeling of the show that I’m putting together.

The song opened each date of the Glass Spider Tour. Bowie later expressed regret at how the production, which featured a giant spider structure straddling the stage, had turned out.

I admit, I overstretched and put too many fine details into something that was going to be seen (indicates tiny figure with his finger and thumb) this big. Serious Moonlight worked much better because they were much broader, bigger strokes yet there was detail work as well. There were facial moves. I mean, why bother? It was only for myself really. It was so great to burn the spider in New Zealand at the end of the tour. We just put the thing in a field and set light to it. That was such a relief!

The release

Never Let Me Down was released on 20 April 1987 , with ‘Glass Spider’ as its sixth track.

On the original vinyl edition, seven songs were edited for length. ‘Glass Spider’ was reduced from 5:30 to 4:56.

I just loved Peter Frampton. We bonded as lead guitar player and rhythm player on ‘Glass Spider’, and that man can play his ass off. He is a sweetheart and I thought that David taking him and putting him on the pedestal that he so deserved was just amazing.

The 2018 box set Loving The Alien (1983-1988) contained four albums which included versions of ‘Glass Spider’, including Never Let Me Down .

It also contained Never Let Me Down 2018 , a reworking of the album which retained Bowie’s vocals and added new instrumentation. ‘Glass Spider’ featured guitarists Reeves Gabrels and David Torn, and bass and drums programmed by Steven Wolf.

‘Glass Spider’ was also on the live album Glass Spider (Live Montreal ’87) , and the Re:Call 4 compilation, which contained the original vinyl edit of the song.

I was fascinated by the fact that the black widow spider does lay out its victims’ skeletons on a web. I found that out a few months ago; it came up in some documentary on television. I just took it from there. I have this thing about spiders representing motherhood – play around with that one! I always saw spiders as being a maternal thing, and I wanted to have an all-encompassing motherhood song: How one is released from the mother and then left on one’s own, and you have to get by on your instincts. I wanted to develop the fable of the black widow spider, transform it. The reference to glass is obviously fitted. Putting the two together, “glass spider” reminds me of castles and something almost Chinese. Imagine this layer of webs like a castle; it moves from room to room and had a kind of altar at the top. It’s fabricating a mock mythology. The subtext for that one was motherhood: being abandoned by one’s mother, which is inevitable.

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