DAVID BOWIE comes on like a regular superstar. The all black stage of the Manchester Hardrock suddenly glares red, the whistles from the audience turn into cheers and the Spiders are already pounding out Let's Spend the Night Together. By the time he opens his mouth there are 3,000 people on David Bowie's side. He can't lose and every inch of his red jump-suited self knows it.
After the Stones number its all down to songs from Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust. Bowie pouts and struts around the stage for Changes. He's no Mick Jagger, he prowls but he doesn't dance. The girls at the front almost reach him during Hang Onto Your self but Bowie leaps back- wards and he's a million light years away.
It's all part of the act, Mr. Showbusiness, talking to the people tempting them. They are harmless, removed. In Suffragette City he really means "Don't lean on me man.'"
Mick Ronson's excellent guitar playing gives Bowie the confidence he used to lack sometimes and the recent addition of Mike Garson on piano provides the extra depth to a number like Life On Mars that used to be missing from live performances of the number. And every girl with mousy hair in the audience wished it was their god awful small affair.
If it's true that a star's popularity can be judged
by the number of people who try and dress like him, then David Bowie is very popular. Eye shad- ow, lurex and ear-rings were out in force but the audience couldn't change half-way through like Bowie. While Mick Ron- son and the Spiders tore through The Width Of The Circle Bowie changed, Ziggy Stardust had al- most gone, it was time to become the hit machine Starman, John I'm Only Dancing, Jean Genie. Then the mandatory tribute to Lou Reed with a passable imitation of the man himself on I'm Waiting for the Man.
The reaching out to and recoiling from the audience almost shattered my impression of Bowie the Superstar core blew it.
After the usual 10 minutes clamouring we were given a short, sharp and uninspired version of Chuck Berry's Reeling And Rocking. That was Bowie. He was good, every number was con- trolled, planned to carry the maximum effect, but somehow you expect every night to be more than just good, more than just satisfying.
Perhaps it was the audience not being allowed to move but then that's something the Hardrock will have to iron out with its bouncers. Perhaps it was the predictability of the numbers. Ziggy could do to write some more songs. Or perhaps we are just ready to be taken one step further.
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