Bowie: A Biography - JFK247

Pretenders and U2). Bowie, Van Halen and, most
controversially, opening-night headliners the Clash
were all rumored to be paid seven-figure fees by the
festival’s sponsor, Apple Computers.
Serious Moonlight hit American sports arenas in
July before traveling to the Pacific rim in late ’83
(over two million people would purchase tickets by
the end of the run). Bowie’s big band (Slick; Alomar;
Thompson; bassist Carmine Rojas, replacing
George Murray; sax men Lenny Pickett, Stan
Harrison and Steve Elson; keyboardist Dave Lebolt
and backing vocalists the Simms brothers) all
dressed in retro hepcat zoot suits and widebrimmed
hats in uplifting shades of green and
peach. The set list drew from Bowie’s entire career,
opening most nights with a bluesy “The Jean Genie”
(Mick Ronson sat in with the band during a tour stop
in Canada) and spacing the Let’s Dance material
and other hits like “Heroes” and “Rebel Rebel”
throughout lesser-known material like Low’s “What in
the World” or the Velvets’ “White Light/White Heat.”
“Modern Love” closed the show most nights. This
would be Bowie’s first tour to employ massive
monitors on either side of the stage, which the
visually savvy star knew instinctively how to work for
the nosebleed seats of stadiums. Thanks to rave
word-of-mouth from the European dates, anticipation
for the American leg and the chart success of “China
Girl” on the heels of “Let’s Dance,” Bowie became
one of the rare rock stars to grace the cover of Time
magazine. “Yes, Michael Jackson may have sold