Tuesday, March 09, 2004

I've spent the past two Sundays traipsing around Tokyo, looking for tickets for David Bowie's Reality Tour concert, unfortunately to no avail. I've always loved Bowie and he's one of my favourite singers.

Well, last night I thought why not try and get a ticket from a tout. I might have to pay over the odds, but it wouldn't matter as it's not every day I get the chance to see one of my musical idols.

Anyway, I arrived at the Nippon Budokan Hall at just gone seven. The Budokan is is one of the world's most famous venues. The Beatles made their Japanese debut there and Bob Dylan was the first of many to release a 'Live at the Budokan' album.

The Budokan was originally built in 1964, for the Judo competition in the 1964 Olympics. Although many concerts are held there, it's primary purpose is for martial arts such as Judo, Kendo, Karate and Aikido.

I managed to get a ticket and fortunately it wasn't much more than the face value. I was ecstatic.

This is the set he played:

01 Rebel Rebel
02 New Killer Star
03 Fame
04 Cactus
05 All The Young Dudes
06 China Girl
07 Never Get Old
08 The Loneliest Guy
09 The Man Who Sold The World
10 Hallo Spaceboy
11 Sunday
12 Heathen (The Rays)
13 Under Pressure
14 Life On Mars?
15 Looking For Water
16 Quicksand
17 Days
18 Sound And Vision
19 Be My Wife
20 A New Career In A New Town
21 Ashes To Ashes
22 I'm Afraid of Americans
23 "Heroes"

(Encore)
24 Five Years
25 Suffragette City
26 Ziggy Stardust

He played a mix of new and old songs, which went down very well with the crowd. In fact, for a while David Bowie stopped playing a lot of his old music in the 90s because he just wanted to play his new material. I was also impressed by the number of songs he did as well, which gave really good value for money.

I had an amazing time, even if security were a bit over zealous. He has a lot of stage presence and it's definitely one of the most impressive gigs I've been to.

You can check out the official David Bowie site
here.

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