Bowie Style

off by a more informal suit and suede winklepicker
boots, and performed in the shadow of a 40-foot
‘Glass’ Spider. As in ‘83, the tour was a huge
moneyspinner with crowds flocking to pay homage
to top-tier rock royalty, but Bowie was in danger of
being eclipsed by his props. Worse still, his quickchange
strategies had grown unflattering and
cliched. At least a young pretender like Madonna
had youth and the element of surprise on her side. “I
succumbed, tried to make things more accessible,
took away the very strength of what I do,” he now
says. “I started to appeal to people who bought Phil
Collins albums.”
At Live Aid in London, July 1985.