David Bowie, Milton Keynes Bowl, 1 July 1983
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I started to venture away from the North. I was a big fan of Bowie, having acquired a fascination on the back of “Space Oddity” when it topped the charts in the early ‘70s in the aftermath of the moon landings. He had not toured for a few years when it was announced he would play 3 nights at the National Bowl in Milton Keynes in July 1983 – part of the Serious Moonlight tour. I was still living in Leeds and picked up a ticket many months in advance of the event at the princely sum of £10, which was 50p more than people were charged in Birmingham the previous month.
I decided I would try and hitch a lift down the M1. I managed to thumb down an old Citroen 2CV, driven by some scatty teacher/lecturer who took me all the way to the Milton Keynes junction, from where I walked into Milton Keynes. My ticket was for the following day, and my journey down had gone so smoothly I found myself with nothing to do and nowhere to sleep – I ended up under a newspaper in a field – not a particularly pleasant night’s sleep but I was up bright and early for the first of the 3 night stint that Bowie was doing at the Bowl.
My wandering around the area that evening resulted in me appreciating a little more the history of the “modern” city of Milton Keynes that had been built on a US-style grid in the 1960s. I had not previously realised there was a village of the same name that had existed for centuries!
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I had the 200mm lens again and managed to get somewhere quite near the front, from where I merrily snapped away throughout the gig. The light for these outdoor concerts made getting clear shots quite easy until the stage lighting took over (and we went under the Moonlight, the Serious Moonlight).
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The support acts were the Beat, who I can vaguely remember and Icehouse, an Australian Rock Band I have no memory of whatsoever. My only focus this day was on Bowie and I was not going to spend a single photo on anyone else. He came onstage to the Jean Genie and captivated us all for 2 hours or more.
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The rapidly diminishing sunlight and an increasing reliance on stage lighting made getting the exposure right difficult, particularly for a colour film. But that could provide some interesting results, in this case the Thin White Duke against a dark background holding his guitar which still held its colour.
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In my own view this was Bowie at his absolute best. I am pretty sure he was not on any illicit substances and he had the best of his incredible back catalogue available, with some excellent newer stuff to complement the older songs. I would see him on a few more occasions but I remember this overall performance the best of all, and I have all these photographic memories to fall back on. In fact this is my favourite single headliner gig of the hundreds I have attended.
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Modern Love brought the show to a close, and we headed for the exit. After the efforts of getting down to Milton Keynes, a rough night’s sleep and a long day culminating in this performance I decided to head to the railway station and catch a train back to Leeds. I think it was about 2am by the time one arrived to take me for a connection in Birmingham getting back home by breakfast time. Later in the day I would start developing both the B&W and colour films and doing some contact sheets allowing me to peruse the results of my endeavours.