January 29, 1977 - David Bowie Iggy Join Forces

BOWIE, IGGY JOIN FORCES

PLANS are afoot for both David Bowie and Iggy Pop, whom he now manages, to appear in Britain this year.

Bowie, whose controversial new album, "Low", is at number 17 in the MM's charts, wants to do a tour in the autumn with Brian Eno on keyboards, Tony Visconti on bass, and Ricky Gardiner, formerly of Beggar's Opera, on guitar.

All three played on "Low," of which Visconti was the co producer with Bowie, and Eno's ideas are said to have in- fluenced strongly Bowie's decision to make an experimental album. The second side of "Low" is almost completely electronic, and there are vocals only on five of the seven tracks on side one.

On the tour he would like to perform this "mood" music, which has affinities with that of German groups like T. Dream and Kraft- werk, and of Eno's own records. "But I don't think I had such an influence as the press has made out or assumed," says Eno, who told the MM that so far Bowie had not approached him.

However, Bowie will definitely not tour before the summer.

Iggy Pop, who has become a cult hero for his onstage excesses, is due to begin a tour of Europe and America next month, of which three dates should be in Britain.

His new album, produced by Bowie at the Chateau d'Herouville in France, is called "The Idiot" after a 1906 painting Bowie found of a hunched man who is said to look remarkably like Iggy. Bowie produced his last official album, "Raw Power."

According to Visconti, Bowie has been a great influence on Iggy, who lives with him in Berlin: "He's completely off drugs, and he walks about two miles a day. It's a great album, a little like 'Raw Power'."

The Making of the Bowie Album: page 36; Eno is in Eight Days A Week, page 10.