Bowie PDF Book from JFK247

effective method of dispersing them. Morrissey left
the UK tour after the first ten dates, taking offence at
Bowie’s suggestion their sets should overlap, like
they had done on his American tour. Morrissey was
not as accommodating as Trent Reznor of a move
‘which deprives people of saying goodbye to me’, he
asserted later, adding for good measure, ‘He’s a
business, you know. He’s not really a person.’
On 19 February, 1996, as the European leg of the
tour came to a close, there was a rather more
fulsome tribute from Tony Blair, Labour Party leader,
who hailed David as ‘an innovator’ as he presented
him with a Brit award for Lifetime Achievement. The
future world statesman was six years younger than
David, who later commented he’d only turned up at
the awards ceremony to perform his current single,
‘Hallo Spaceboy’ – if so, the tactic worked, for the
Pet Shop Boys’ remix of the song entered the UK
charts a fortnight later at number twelve.
The success of ‘Hallo Spaceboy’ was a welcome
vindication in a year in which David’s public, and the
critics, gave his new material a generally grudging
reception. His own enthusiasm, though, was fired up
to a new peak, for after a short break in the spring
the band – stripped down to Gabrels, Garson, Alford
and Gail Ann Dorsey, whose vocals on a superb
version of ‘Under Pressure’ were now a staple of the
set – returned to Europe for festival dates in June
and July. It was just a couple of days after the band
had returned home that David called Gabrels to tell
him he’d booked Philip Glass’s studio in New York,
for a fortnight later.