“Welcome to Reality”
Fifteen years ago this evening, Bowie fans had made their way to the Riverside studios in London’s Hammersmith, or to their nearest cinema to witness the goings on at aforementioned venue.
For it was on 8th September 2003 that Bowie and band unleashed a live version of his upcoming album, Reality, to a small throng of lucky BowieNetters along with 50,000 fans around the globe by the magic of a satellite broadcast.
Before we leave you with an excerpt from the original US press release and the setlist, we should mention that you can view a photo album from the night over on BOWIE KOOKS, the only Official David Bowie Facebook Fan Group.
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DAVID BOWIE BRINGS ‘REALITY’ TO 50,000 FANS IN GLOBAL SATELITE CONCERT
BOWIE MAKES HISTORY WITH FIRST EVER LIVE, INTERACTIVE GLOBAL CINEMA EVENT
DAVID BOWIE made history this week with the biggest ever live and interactive music satellite event the world has ever seen.
The special one-off live concert was beamed via satellite Monday, September 8 from London’s Riverside Studios, simultaneously to 50,000 fans in 86 cinemas in 26 countries around the planet from Hong Kong to Helsinki. There were 14 screens in Paris alone dedicated to the show.
BOWIE thrilled fans across Europe with a spectacular, first-ever live performance of his brand new album REALITY, due September 16 on ISO/Columbia Records. The performance of the album was followed by precedent-setting interactive question and answer session between BOWIE and fans in cinemas in London, Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, Oslo, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Brussels and Milan.
The event marked many firsts in technological terms: it was the biggest ever non-TV satellite broadcast, the first ever interactive cinema event and the first live satellite event in 5.1 DTS surround sound, which was overseen by longtime BOWIE collaborator, Tony Visconti.
BOWIE—embarking October 7 on his first World Tour in almost a decade–thrilled fans in movie theaters with an exclusive preview of his new album REALITY to over 2000 people in Paris, a 1000 fans in London and thousands of fans in Berlin, Stockholm, Oslo, Dublin, Budapest and Copenhagen. There were reports across Europe of fans flocking to the front of the screen as though it were a live gig, and for the first time there was dancing in the aisles, much to the chagrin of the cinema ushers whom tried in vain to keep order!
This precedent-setting event also went live across Asia Tuesday, September 9 with a live Q&A between DAVID and fans in Japan, Australia, Singapore and across Southeast Asia. The event will also be beamed to North America (Canada as well as New York City) and South America Monday, September 15, with BOWIE doing brand new live question and answer sessions for those broadcasts.
The amazing one-off night was topped with a special set of fan favorites voted for by members of BOWIEnet, including Lodger’s “Fantastic Voyage,” “Hang on To Yourself” from Ziggy Stardust and “Hallo Spaceboy” from Outside.
As a special treat to the cinema crowd, BOWIE also performed an unscheduled set of songs at the end of the show, which included the classic “Modern Love” and a duo of tracks,”Cactus” and “Afraid” from last year’s widely acclaimed, million-selling album Heathen.
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Here’s the full setlist:
Warm up:
A New Career In A New Town
Plus short snippets of Blur’s Song 2 and Link Wray’s Rumble
Main set:
New Killer Star
Pablo Picasso
Never Get Old
The Loneliest Guy
Looking For Water
She'll Drive The Big Car
Days
Fall Dog Bombs The Moon
Try Some, Buy Some
Reality
Bring Me The Disco King
(Satellite questions and answer session with Jonathan Ross)
Extra set for live audience:
Hallo Spaceboy
Fantastic Voyage
Hang On To Yourself
Modern Love
Cactus
Afraid
New Killer Star
One thing that doesn't come across in the press release is the hilarious banter between Bowie and the assembled BowieNetters and celebrities.
#BowieReality
