Songs performed: Space
Oddity, The Width of A Circle, Changes, Five Years, Moonage Daydream, Starman, Hang Onto Yourself, Ziggy Stardust, Rock n Roll Suicide, John, I'm Only Dancing,
Watch That Man, Time & The Jean Genie.
Other artists songs: Round
& Round (Chuck Berry) & Lets Spend the Night Together (Jagger-Richards).
Set lists: Bowie dropped some songs from Aladdin Sane
for this tour and the acoustic set again was absent from this tour.
Support musicians: Mike Garson on piano is joined by
John (Hutch) Hutchinson on rhythm guitar; Geoffrey MacCormack on percussion and backing
vocals; Brian Wilshaw on sax and flute and Ken Fordham on sax. Hutch had played
with Bowie in the Buzz and Feathers & MacCormack was a childhood friend who did backup
vocals on five Bowie albums.
Decca reissue The World Of David Bowie (1970) compilation album in a new
"Ziggy" cover. Decca SPA 58 (UK) and Decca 210039 (France).
Apr-5th 1973
At 4pm Bowie arrives in Yokohama, Japan on the SS Oronsay having
sailed from from Los Angeles. He is then driven the half-hour journey to the
Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. The rest of the Bowie entourage, having returned to London in the
interim, arrives by plane the next day. At this stage "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy
Stardust and The Spiders From Mars" is selling very well and will stay in the
Japanese charts for more than two years. While looked down at by the high-brow press,
Bowie is incredibly popular with contemporary Japanese culture largely due to his
theatrical approach to rock music. Bowie is even popular with the Japanese
government who view him as a desirable, in contrast to the Rolling Stones whose Japan Tour
was cancelled due to previous drug charges. Before Bowie's arrival a huge 60 foot by 90
foot poster of Bowie was hung from a Tokyo building which in this period was the largest
photo poster in the world.
In Japan Bowie will undertake 10 concerts (with a guaranteed return of
$6,000 per concert) and do some sightseeing including attending fashion shows and
traditional Japanese theatre. Backstage, at one of these, he meets one of Japan's
most popular Kabuki stars, Tamasaburou Bandou, who provides him with some advice on
make-up.
"It was a great experience, I found them
absolutely fascinating. There was an awful lot, particularly in the outlying
villages and provinces, of very strange ritual dance performances that I hadn't seen
before. A lot of them were from Shintoism." - Bowie
Japanese fashion designer Kansai Yamamoto, whom Bowie had met in
New York, had been commissioned to create nine Aladdin Sane stage costumes based on
traditional Japanese dramas, and he presented these to Bowie in Tokyo. Some of these
simulated Noh and Kabuki theatre by being able to be torn apart, revealing yet another
costume underneath. While in Japan, the Kansai Yamamoto designed costume variously called
"Spring Rain" or "The Rites of Spring" had to be taken back to
Kansai's shop in Tokyo and repaired often due to hard wear after Bowie's mobbed
performances. While in Japan Bowie, Angie and Zowie spend time with Kansai's family and
two year old daughter Rose.
Another Japanese acquaintance, Masayoshi Sukita, who
photographed him in London in August 1972, and February 1973 in New York, accompanied the
tour from start to finish with his assistant.
Apr-6th 1973
"Drive in Saturday" 7" single from ALADDIN SANE (1973) is
released and immediately goes to #5 in the UK.
"Drive in Saturday/Round and Round" RCA 2352 UK. Highest chart
position = #3
"Drive in Saturday/Life on Mars?" RCA 310936 Spain
Apr-8th 1973
Tokyo Press conference
Concert: Shinjyuku Kouseinenkin Hall, Tokyo. Sold out well
in advance.
"Musically he is the most exciting thing to
have happened since the fragmentation of the Beatles, and theatrically he is perhaps the
most interesting performer ever in the pop music genre." - Japan Times Review
Apr-10th 1973
Concert: Shinjyuku Kouseinenkin Hall, Tokyo.
Apr-11th 1973
Concert: Shinjyuku Kouseinenkin Hall, Tokyo.
Apr-12th 1973
Concert: Nagoya-shi Kokaido, Nagoya.
Apr-13th 1973
Bowie entourage travels on bullet train to Hiroshima and stays at a
hotel overlooking Peace Park - the site of the atomic bomb explosion in 1945.
ALADDIN SANE (1973) is released to advance
orders of 150,000. It receives mixed reviews from critics expecting the earth after the
Ziggy Stardust album.
Side One: Watch That Man / Aladdin Sane / Drive In Saturday /
Panic in Detroit / Cracked Actor
Side Two: Time / The Prettiest Star / Lets Spend the Night Together / The Jean
Genie / Lady Grinning Soul
"John, I'm Only Dancing" 7" single is
"re-released" in the UK.
The A-side was actually a new version from the ALADDIN SANE (1973)
recording session known as the "Sax Mix" (and not the previous 7 September 1972
single). Strangely it was released by RCA with the same matrix number as the earlier
version and no notice that it was a new recording.
"John, I'm Only Dancing/Hang Onto Yourself" RCA 2263 UK.
"Time" 7" single from ALADDIN SANE (1973) is released in
the US and Japan
"Time/Prettiest Star"RCA APBO 0007 US in picture sleeve.
"Time/Panic in Detroit" RCA 552299 Japan in picture sleeve
Apr-14th 1973
Concert: Yubin Chokin Hall, Hiroshima.
The 
Companion
