David Bowie

tour band Ziggy Stardust tour 1972-1973:
David Bowie: vocals, guitar, harmonica
Mick Ronson: guitar, vocals
Trevor Bolder: bass
Mick "Woody" Woodmansey: drums
Mike Garson: piano, mellotron, organ (22 September 1972 � end of tour)
Geoffrey A. MacCormack: backing vocals, percussion (19 January 1973 � end of tour)
Ken Fordham: saxophone (19 January 1973 � end of tour)
Brian Wilshaw: saxophone, flute (19 January 1973 � end of tour)

Masonic Temple Theater
Detroit, Michigan, USA
March 1, 1973

JEMS Master

Secret Origins: JEMS 8-Track Master Series Vol. Two

Recording Gear: Lloyd's 8-Track Cartridge Recorder with Lloyd's external stereo mics

JEMS 2015 Transfer: Repaired Master 8-Track Cartridge > Panasonic 8-Track player >
McIntosh C32 Preamp > Wavelab 96/24 capture > downsample to 16/44 (wav) >
tracking > flac (sb's aligned) > torrentially yours.
a this and that JEMS production.
do not sell this recording.
share freely, losslessly and gaplessly.

runtime: 69:43 (minutes/ seconds)

setlist:
01: prelude > 1:05
02: hang on to yourself 2:35
03: Ziggy Stardust 3:15
04: changes 3:31
05: moonage daydream 5:46
06: panic in Detroit 4:48
07: five years 3:52
08: watch that man 4:28
09: Aladdin Sane 6:26
10: the width of a circle 11:35 (end applause spliced)
11: space oddity 4:45
12: time :34 (cuts)
13: Suffragette City 3:28
14: encore break 2:30
15: Jean Genie > love me do 7:05
16: rock 'n' roll suicide 3:58

Hello and welcome to the second volume in JEMS� Secret Origins series,

presenting for the first time some of our earliest recordings, captured on
and transferred from the original master 8-track cartridges.
For the full history of JEMS� recordings on 8-track and the long road to making these transfers,
please refer to Vol. One of the series here: http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=540863

The second 8-track master in our series is an historic one to be sure, Bowie on tour in support of
Aladdin Sane. It�s one of Tapeboy�s earliest recordings and in the encore break you can hear him and friends
loud and clear talking sarcastically about the show, which only adds to the strong �you are there� vibe of this
audio document. (Tapeboy asks his friend, �Do you think David Bowie is any good? His friend responds,
�No, I think he�s terrible. He�s outrageous.� To which Tapeboy replies, �A well-respected man talks about David Bowie.�)

The recording has issues to be sure, as the loud PA overloaded the levels at times (in the notes on Vol. One you�ll see
that while the Lloyd�s recorder had an adjustable level control, it had no meters, so Tapeboy was flying blind to set proper levels),
and there are minor dropouts and occasional bleed-through (a chronic problem with 8-tracks) due to the age and condition of the tape.
But despite distortion and other surface issues, the recording has an electric dynamism too, which one can only presume enhances
the sense of what it would have been like to see this tour at that time. Samples provided.

This is a fresh transfer of the original 8-track cartridge, rebuilt and restored for one last proper capture.
Not surprisingly, beyond the issues noted above, there is a meaningful 20 or so seconds of �Suffragette City�
that was beyond repair. Happily, Tapeboy made a first-generation cassette copy of the 8-track back in the mid-70s
(the source of any circulating copy of the show), so we�ve patched in the missing bit from his cassette.
We believe this is the best this wide-stereo recording can sound and it should be superior to extant copies.

Tapeboy shared his memories of the show and the recording:

�I thought Pink Floyd at Cobo Arena in Detroit was the first show where I used my 8-track recorder,
but after going through all the cartridges and checking dates, I see now that this David Bowie show was the first.
Where the Floyd show was quite over-recorded and distorted, Bowie fared somewhat better.
With no VU meters on the deck to measure levels, it was still trouble, but luck was always a factor with the 8-tracks!



Bowie had played the Fisher Theater in Detroit about seven months earlier on the Ziggy Stardust tour,
and that show signaled a change in the air. It was the only rock show I ever saw at the Fisher Theater,
which was usually reserved for Broadway plays, and the audience was a real eye-opener to me.
I was a high school junior in bell-bottomed blue jeans and a sweatshirt in the midst of one of the
best dressed rock audiences I had ever seen. Where did these people come from?
Where did they find satin suits in Detroit??

The Ziggy set at the Fisher Theater was a great show, including an encore of the then-unreleased
�Jean Genie� dedicated to Iggy Pop. I loved the Ziggy Stardust album (which then sent me working
backwards through Honky Dory and Space Oddity), and I bought tickets to Bowie's Detroit return for
the first of two shows at the bigger Masonic Auditorium supporting Aladdin Sane.

This show was a much bigger production and featured a larger band, with The Spiders still at the
heart of it, and more costume changes. (Who had costume changes in rock in 1973? For that matter,
who had costumes in 1973?). Oh, and even taller platform shoes!

I was recording a 90-minute show on less than 90 minutes of tape, so sacrifices had to be made,
which is why �Time� is intentionally cut just a few seconds in.
Other missing bits are down to the instability of the 8-track recorder.
The show the next night, which I didn't go to, had the same set-list, according to a friend of mine
who went, with the addition of �Let's Spend The Night Together� in the encore.�

Thanks to J for having the audacity to tape on 8-track in the first place and for the persistence
in figuring out how to get these shows transferred after 40+ years.
And to glasnostrd19 for his assistance in post production and torrenting to get it into your ears
and keep our 8-track series going. There are more to come!

BK for JEMS

Notes from glasnostrd19:

this show was also posted on jan 22, 2012 by stranger009 at dime torrent #390742
and on march 3, 2016 by kiwikid at http://www.bowiestation.com/TT2/torrents-details.php?id=1820
(possibly elsewhere too)
from a low generation audience tape.
with this setlist
01 Intro
02 Hang onto Yourself
03 Ziggy Stardust
04 Changes
05 Moonage Daydream
06 Panic in Detroit
07 Five Years
08 Watch That Man
09 Aladdin Sane
10 Width of a Circle
11 Space Oddity
12 Time (cut off)
13 Suffragette City
14 The Jean Genie
15 Rock n Roll Suicide

this one is from a master tape, said to be new to circulation
although the same master source has circulated from a 1st or more gen. tape copy
and this is actually the 1st "8 track cartridge" series show recorded, sequentially.
there were some technical issues that had to be addressed in this one,
which is probably why it was not the first installment of the series posted.
very tough to imagine recording anything from the audience with an 8 track recorder
never mind flying blind with recording levels (none) on a manually adjustable recorder of any kind.
it took some getting used to. there were some problems with the tape after 43 years time,
and some bleed through in a few parts, most notibly some love me do after width of a circle ends,
before space oddity. that had to be edited out completely and replaced with applause from another section.
apparently most if not all of the music was recorded (except most of "time") and is included as it should be.
this sounds like most of the concert survived this long arduous journey pretty well,
even with several bumps along the way, with some changing of sound fidelity as is typical of auds of rock shows
in larger venues, and sounds pretty enjoyable for 8 track audie Alladin/Ziggy Bowie.
thanks to all who went to such trouble to preserve the Alladin/Ziggy Bowie!
I didn't use any noise reduction, EQ or alteration of the sound,
only to smooth out a few of the bumps a little bit and reduce a few of the loud claps and screams between songs
and by mutual agreement, to try and smooth out the transition between width of a circle and space oddity
about 47 min. into the show, since there apparently was actually an applause break between them.
I tried to splice one in from another part of the show in place of the bleed through part.
having heard several Bowie recordings from 1972 and 73, obviously there are not many in very good sound quality
and even with all the warts in this one, it may be the "definitive edition" available of this
rather widely circulated recording. it's a little bit delayed in sharing, and hardly perfect
but finally the time is here (past, actually) to share this with Bowie fans, so here you go.