A CONVERSATION with my friend Mike resulted in a promised email reaching me with a scan of one of his possessions, a ticket stub for David Bowie’s concert at the Caird Hall in 1973 (illustrated).
Lucky boy, particularly as the Dundee gig came at the zenith of Bowie’s performance period.
The rock icon’s Caird Hall concert took place less than a year after 1972’s Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, which made him an international star.
The show was a sell out and we reported that fans had to queue from the wee sma’ hours for the front area £1.10 tickets.
Richard Burdge, our current lead reporter in Perth, recalls he was in the front row back in 1973, but I assume he was not responsible for The Courier’s review of the concert. This told of the rising star whipping the crowd into a frenzy: “A full complement of 2500 eager Bowie-lovers were in the Caird Hall to welcome David, who proved to be contemporary music’s most electric character since Mick Jagger wowed London in the mid-60s.”
Bowie memorabilia has been on the rise since his untimely death last January yet seldom comes to market, largely because the singer kept many items relating to his career. Bowie created an archive of material spanning his entire life and was known to buy back his memorabilia at auction.
In 2013 the V&A in London featured 300 artefacts from his collection – including handwritten lyrics, costumes, fashion, instruments and album artwork – in a record-breaking (forgive me!) exhibition.
At auction, one of his tour guitars recently sold for just under $50,000. In 2013 a guitar that he simply held at a photo shoot made over $20,000. Handwritten lyrics to Jean Genie from the 1972 album Aladdin Sane sold for $27,000 the same year. And a Ziggy Stardust stage costume made $20,000 at Christie’s as long ago as 2007.
Bowie’s 400-picture art collection, of course, attracted hundreds of bidders when dispersed by Sotheby’s in recent weeks, raising many millions for his family.
But only once during his 89-show Ziggy Stardust world tour in 1973 had Bowie to be rescued by bodyguards as fans trapped him in his car. That was after the rebel-rebel Dundee show!
