'Good Evening, Newcastle!' David Bowie in Sunderland (1987)

 Even David Bowie wasn't a fan of 1980s David Bowie records - but I was.

Accepted wisdom seems to be that Bowie was brilliant right through the 70s but went commercial (and a bit crap) in the mid-80s. 

Balls. Bowie singing "Heroes" at Live Aid was my Starman on Top of the Pops moment. I was 12 and instantly fell in love. He was a cool bastard and his Live Aid set was dynamite - I didn't have a clue what TVC15 was about but I taped it off the telly and listened to it endlessly.

To begin with, the only Bowie album I could find was a dodgy pirate cassette a relative had brought home from the Middle East: Tonight.  

 The music pirates had padded out a 60 minute cassette with older songs, so for quite a while I thought When I'm Five and Let Me Sleep Beside You were recorded at the same time as Loving the Alien and Blue Jean. That's how much I knew about the Bowie back catalogue.

It was only when I bought a secondhand vinyl copy of Tonight (£2.50 from the Tuesday market in Newton Aycliffe) that I realised the album had 9 tracks.

I didn't read music magazines or newspapers, so I didn't know Bowie 'wasn't as good as he used to be'. But throughout 1986 I realised just how exciting it was to wait for a new Bowie single. Unlike every other pop or rock star, there was no way of guessing what a new Bowie song would sound like. Bowie released Absolute Beginners, Underground and When the Wind Blows as singles in 1986 and all of them were completely different.

I also managed to get some more dodgy cassettes from a relative. They were mainly compilations and I still didn't realise they were pirates. The tracklistings and the artwork were always messed up, but the music was the important thing.

I didn't think any of the 70s tracks were better or worse than the stuff on Tonight or the Labyrinth soundtrack - I just thought they were different. I'd always been told I had a short attention span, but there was so much Bowie music I never got bored. For me, it's like Bond movies or Doctor Who. Just because you like Sean Connery or Tom Baker, it doesn't mean you have to hate Roger Moore or Peter Davison.

An interesting note: some of my school friends called me a 'puff' and a 'queer' for liking David Bowie. One particular kid told me that I shouldn't be listening to music by 'that bender,' I should listen to 'proper rock. Like Queen.'

So I tried to keep my Bowie addiction quiet, but that was difficult when 1987 rolled around. I couldn't stop listening to his latest album (Never Let Me Down). It was the best thing I'd ever heard. And then the really unexpected news broke - Bowie was bringing the Glass Spider tour to Roker Park. This was simply too good to be to true. 

David Bowie. 

In Sunderland.

I skived off school. I'd never been to a 'gig' before. It was the day after my 14th birthday and there was a coach trip running from Darlington. It was a grey and drizzly day and going to one of those big stadium gigs seemed to involve a lot of standing around. I had a big blue cagoule and a pair of binoculars - so I spent the hours before the show staring at the giant glass spider stage set. It didn't look great - it was made mainly of tinsel, wires and scaffolding - but I was sure it'd be fine once all the lights were on.

I still wasn't reading the music press so I didn't know about the bad reviews (for Never Let Me Down and the Glass Spider Tour). And I'd never seen Spinal Tap. I have to admit - I didn't have a very good view of the stage and I thought the music was too loud, but I loved every minute. 

It was supposed to be surreal and dream-like - but it was also really frustrating because it was the middle of Summer and in broad daylight the set looked a bit rubbish. There were black polythene bags over some of the electrical equipment - presumably to keep the rain out.   

But it was David Bowie! In Sunderland! It was really him! In Sunderland! And the crowd loved him - even if he did say 'good evening, Newcastle' in Sunderland! 

He also thanked us for 'not letting it rain. You don't know how nice it is not to play in the rain'. And then he couldn't do the encore on top of the big Spider because it started pissing down. 

Bloody Sunderland. 

 I spent my birthday money on secondhand vinyl; The Man Who Sold The World, Diamond Dogs and "Heroes" - mainly because Bowie played All The Madmen, Big Brother and Sons of the Silent Age at Sunderland. He was supposed to have 'gone commercial' and 'sold out' in the 80s but he was throwing bizarre album tracks into his set-lists. Getting hold of his older albums felt like like reading up on ancient history. 

I also managed to buy bootleg cassettes of the Roker Park show from a market stall in Newton Aycliffe (from the same bloke who'd sold me the secondhand copy of 'Tonight'). It was a pretty crappy, audience recording but it was great to hear the whole show again - even that bit about Newcastle. 

 

The first music magazine I ever bought was Q. I only bought it because Bowie was on the cover. May 1989. He was launching his latest album Tin Machine. Except it wasn't a new Bowie album, it was a whole new band. Bowie (and his new band-mates) took the opportunity to slag off Glass Spider and Never Let Me Down. Apparently Tin Machine* was Bowie getting back to making good music after a few years of being crap. I felt a bit daft. I loved that 'crap' music. Seeing the Glass Spider show had meant so much to me.

 I couldn't listen to those mid-80s albums for years. And that's ridiculous. Apart from the nostalgic glow I get from hearing Tumble & Twirl, Magic Dance or Day-In Day-Out, I enjoy listening to them. I genuinely think Never Let Me Down is one of the very best songs he ever recorded. 

 

I'm sure there are ways to prove that Never Let Me Down is not as good as Aladdin Sane, but I don't care - I still listen to both. 

And it's OK for an artist to dislike their own work - otherwise what would be the point in carrying on and creating new stuff?

Now that David Bowie isn't around any more, I think his music - all of his music - is more important to me than ever before.

*Yes - I liked Tin Machine as well. I listened to it more than anything else in 1989.