Occasional Albums Thing 049 - David Bowie “Small Club Broadcast: Paris Show 1999”

Bowie released his 21st studio album “Hours…” on 9th October 1999. It was the first album by a major artist to be made available in its entirety by download from the internet…of course Bowie did that first. This show at the titular Small Club in Paris (actually the Elysee Montmartre venue) was recorded just 5 days later for radio broadcast, part of the “Hours Tour”, a short promotional tour comprising eight live performances and numerous television and radio appearances in support of the album. This show found its way onto this pretty darned good sounding bootleg in 2019. I don’t usually bother with bootlegs, they sound terrible as a rule and you’re either getting endless live recordings or substandard outtakes. This one was well presented and as it was from a radio broadcast I gave it a go.

This was a small show (1,000 people) and Bowie is in good spirits here, joking throughout with the audience and band. He’s also in fine voice, the opening “Life On Mars ?”, performed accompanied only by long time collaborator and pianist Mike Garson, is as good a live version as I’ve heard. All info about this recording I can find says this recording of the song is incomplete but I can’t hear anything missing.

Then he brings out the band. Although denied at the time Bowie and guitarist Reeves Gabrels had had a “falling out” and so the guitarist here is former Helmet man Page Hamilton (a blessing I’d say as Gabrels is usually referred to in our house as “the man who made Bowie unlistenable for a decade”). Alongside him is multi-instrumentalist Mark Plati, long time bassist Gail Ann Dorsey, drummer Sterling Campbell (who, trivia fans, took drum lessons from former Bowie drummer Dennis Davis), the aforementioned Mike Garson and Emm and Holly (that’s how he introduces them) on backing vocals, more of them later.

There are some interesting song choices. The tour was to promote “Hours” so that album supplies five out of the 16 song set. The inclusion of “Always Crashing In The Same Car” from “Low” is a treat as is “Station To Station”s gorgeous hymnal “Word On A Wing”. “Drive-In Saturday” would be great but for the previously mentioned Emm and Holly’s frankly pathetic backing vocals. “Repetition” is missing on this bootleg from the original set list (it’s on the official release which is titled “Something g In The Air” and was released some years after this bootleg), which is a shame as it’s not a song Bowie played often live. Other than “Life On Mars ?” my highlight is “Can’t Help Thinking About Me” the first song recorded under the name David Bowie back in 1966. The only real black mark is the inclusion of Tin Machine’s “I Can’t Read” and despite Bowie’s assertion that “YOU’LL LIKE THIS ONE”, no I don’t.

This isn’t something I’d usually buy but it came fortuitously my way and it’s a decent listen. Just 5 years later Bowie quit touring for good, this is a reminder of just where he was at.

Life On Mars? - https://youtu.be/nRnbuDvk7zM?si=_wCs2E6DyIu0uePl