Memorable BBC "Omnibus" documentary which first appeared on TV in early 1975, documenting Bowie's 1974 U.S. "Diamond Dogs" tour which morphed into something very different as he reacted to the soul music he listened to out there, which of course took him very soon to the "Young Americans" album, the album that really broke him in the States, including as it did his no. 1 hit "Fame".
Bowie himself has looked back scathingly at his personal behaviour around this time, with a growing cocaine addiction feeding his success and with it his audience's expectations and his own insecurities. Indeed it was while watching this that director Nicolas Roeg decided to cast the singer in his upcoming movie "The Man Who Fell To Earth", completely buying into the other-worldly mystery Bowie projects here.
I don't know, but watching it then, as now, I personally still think he looks Uber-cool no matter how strung-out he might have actually been. The live clips are terrific and it's clear that nobody else was doing the ambitious things on stage with mime, sets and props that he was. He looks great, if gaunt, in his new-look classic tailored-suits, in so doing, staying ahead of his audience, some of whom are still caught up in the Ziggy look its creator gave up the year before. The music's great too, if sometimes irritatingly truncated and I personally couldn't understand the editorial decision to overdub his live performance of "Space Oddity" in his floating cockpit with the already well-known studio version.
For the interview inserts, Bowie occasionally gets above himself but is often just as quick to catch himself doing so and then puncturing the effect with humour.
Bowie was travelling at the speed of light at this period, my favourite spell of his long and often brilliant career and this 50-odd minute documentary gives the viewer at least a glimpse into his vivid existence. Really, the programme could have been twice as long but that's not to gainsay its value as a behind-the-scenes document of Bowie at his best.
Bowie himself has looked back scathingly at his personal behaviour around this time, with a growing cocaine addiction feeding his success and with it his audience's expectations and his own insecurities. Indeed it was while watching this that director Nicolas Roeg decided to cast the singer in his upcoming movie "The Man Who Fell To Earth", completely buying into the other-worldly mystery Bowie projects here.
I don't know, but watching it then, as now, I personally still think he looks Uber-cool no matter how strung-out he might have actually been. The live clips are terrific and it's clear that nobody else was doing the ambitious things on stage with mime, sets and props that he was. He looks great, if gaunt, in his new-look classic tailored-suits, in so doing, staying ahead of his audience, some of whom are still caught up in the Ziggy look its creator gave up the year before. The music's great too, if sometimes irritatingly truncated and I personally couldn't understand the editorial decision to overdub his live performance of "Space Oddity" in his floating cockpit with the already well-known studio version.
For the interview inserts, Bowie occasionally gets above himself but is often just as quick to catch himself doing so and then puncturing the effect with humour.
Bowie was travelling at the speed of light at this period, my favourite spell of his long and often brilliant career and this 50-odd minute documentary gives the viewer at least a glimpse into his vivid existence. Really, the programme could have been twice as long but that's not to gainsay its value as a behind-the-scenes document of Bowie at his best.
