Perth Airport, 1983
By Stevee



It was in November 1983, here in Perth Western Australia.

Bowie's last leg of the Serious Moonlight tour was, at that stage, to be Australia (he later added some Asian dates).

His first stop in Australia was to be Perth.

He was flying in from Japan, so it wasn't too hard to work out an approximate arrival date.

Qantas was the only company flying in from Japan on that date, and so I took a punt and phoned it's reservation desk.

I'm sure you know, but it's highly illegal for airline companies to let enquirers know the flight details of others - but I struck it lucky.

I probably got the only corrupt telephonist at Qantas, and he had no reservations about giving me all of the flight details.

I think he may have been a Bowie fan. He was  very friendly, and most helpful.

"No", he said.  "We have no Bowie on board.  Perhaps he couldn't get a seat due to the size of the Jones entourage on the same flight."

What a gem - I'm forever in his debt.

The day came, and Mrs Stevee and I headed off to the Perth International Airport, her with her Changes Two album sleeve, and me with my empty Portrait Of A Star box set, and a big fat permanent marker.

You have to realize this - Perth isn't a big city, and the airport (in 1983) was the size of a dolls house, compared to say, Heathrow, LAX etc.  It is NOT a busy airport.

So, the plane landed, and we stood waiting at the door which was used by passengers to exit customs and enter the main hall of the airport.  Yep, he only had one way out, and I had it covered.

Me, Mrs Stevee, about five other fans (obviously they'd talked to the same guy at Qantas) and a few newspaper photographers were the only ones there.

Eventually, the passengers started to come out, a few at a time.

Then the band members - Carlos, Earl, Frank and George.  Then Coco (jeez she's sour looking).

Then it happened.

Out came Davo (pushing his own bags on one of those uncontrollable baggage trolleys),  black suit and hat, bright, bright yellow hair, and about 48 hours worth of stubble on his face.

I had to move to get out of his way - it was very surreal.

As he passed, I welcomed him to Perth, and he thanked me, desperately trying to manoeuvre the trolley towards the black limo waiting outside.

When he got to the car, I asked him to sign my empty box set, and he said "certainly".

He had a good look at it before signing it.

He then signed Mrs Stevee's LP cover.  It was then that one of the photographers took the picture of Davo, Mrs Stevee and my nose that I've posted here before.

Then a girl who just happened to be there at the right time asked him for an autograph, but had neither pen nor paper.

Davo then asked me if he could use my pen.  "Certainly", I said, and he signed the girls arm (stupid bitch).

As he got in the car, he turned and said "see you at the show".

We ran to my car, and followed his limo (stalker style) until it got to the hotel he was staying at in the city.  By the time I found parking for my car, he had signed in and gone to his room.

We hung out at the hotel a few times whilst he was there, but didn't see him again.

We saw and spoke to the band members a few times, but that's another story.


- Stevee







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