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The 14,820 capacity Rod Laver Arena had the honour of
staging two back-to-back Reality concerts.
Built in 1988, the venue is well acquainted
with international rock acts but most notably it is the
home of The Australian Open tennis
championship. The night of February 26, however, marked
the first occasion that David Bowie would play a concert
at the arena.
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| Left: Seating Plan
for Melbourne concerts (click to enlarge) |
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Melbourne David Bowie ticket (first
night - 26 Feb, 2004).
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Above: Melbourne Advertisements.
Items from Bruce Butler's collection. |
On the first night, Bowie's bassist - Gail Ann Dorsey (a
huge tennis fan) - made note of the venue they were
playing in by appearing on stage with a giant sized
tennis ball.
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| Left: Bowie and Gail
Ann Dorsey. Right: Rod Laver
when in "tennis mode". |
Early in the concert, Bowie noticed a girl wearing a
tiara in the front rows and later on, he addressed more
people for their 'very cool outfits'. Bowie proceeded to
play a solid show even if there were no new songs added
from the previous downunder concerts.
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| Above:
Bowie at Rod Laver. Photo by Adam Dean |
Finally, Bowie closed the first night with a
triple-header from Ziggy. Having already played Hang
On To Yourself and Starman earlier in
the set, Bowie approached the mic to sing Five Years,
Suffragette City and Ziggy Stardust.
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| Above:
Bowie at Rod Laver. |
On the second night in Melbourne, Bowie opened as usual
with Rebel Rebel and New Killer Star
but then announced he'd done some sprucing up of the set
list. Right away came the opening strains of Fashion
- a first for the downunder portion of the tour.
A few songs later came China Girl and about
the time Bowie would usually announce how poor the
audience sounds (as they make a futile attempt to sing
the words), Bowie stopped, listened for a while and a
look of surprise came over his face. He then announced
that Melbourne was the first and only audience in the
world capable of singing China Girl correctly.
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Above: Bowie at Rod Laver. Photos by
Charlie Brookes.
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Following China Girl, two Bowie Downunder
members (Bruce and Julie) decided to throw toy
marsupials on to the stage. It was then Bowie announced
that he was being 'rained on' by marsupials before
incorporating it into a short news spiel and something
about The Twilight Zone.
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Above: Bowie at Rod Laver. |
As per the second Sydney concert, Bowie again did Let's
Dance first with the slow, jazzy intro before
breaking into the full blown rock/pop song most are
familiar with.
Later on, Bowie surprised the audience further with two
double headers from Heathen and then four
back to back numbers from Low. The song Never
Get Old and the classic Changes also
debuted for the very first time on Australian soil.
Thanks to BDU members that sent in the following. If any
of these are your images, please email me so I can credit
you accordingly.
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Above: Bowie at Rod Laver. |
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Above: Bowie at Rod Laver. |
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Bowie and Earl Slick play guitar at
Rod Laver.
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Bowie at Rod Laver.
Photo by Charlie Brookes. |
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Bowie and Gail Ann Dorsey at Rod Laver.
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Bowie at Rod Laver. |
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Bowie at Rod Laver. |
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Bowie at Rod Laver. |
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Bowie at Rod Laver. |
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Bowie and bassist, vocalist Gail Ann
Dorsey at Rod Laver. |
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Bowie at Rod Laver. |
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Bowie on stylophone at Rod Laver.
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Bowie 'cupped' by Louise Coulter at Rod Laver.
Photo by Harry Williams.
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Thanks to Bruce Butler for
collecting the following.
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