The story of David Bowie’s first show in the United States
While David Bowie had been around in the UK since 1967 with the release of his debut album, it wasn’t until 1972 that he embarked upon the country that he would later call his home for a while: the United States. Following the wild success of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, Bowie took to the States to give Americans their first taste of one of the most influential musicians of all time.
Bowie’s show at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in Los Angeles on October 20th, 1972, is now considered to be the performance at which he broke through to the American audience. This was partially owed to the fact that it had been recorded for radio, and the recording subsequently did the rounds as a bootleg before it found official release.
However, the first gig that Bowie had actually played in the States was two months earlier, on September 20th, at the Cleveland Music Hall in Ohio. Between those two dates, Bowie had been playing to small crowds in the Midwest before his arrival in LA. In Moonage Daydream, Bowie confessed: “We had our downs; St. Louis was [admittedly] not a Ziggy town.”
Yet the show in Cleveland was a huge success and gave Bowie the confidence to give ’em hell wherever his tour would take them. In a preview of the Cleveland show in The Cleveland Press, John Sipple wrote: “New rock singer: Bowie or girl? He is not the first male singer to appear on stage in feminine garb – but his thing is not the violent anti-sexual sham of Alice Cooper.”
The article then conflictingly continues: “Bowie will appear here with his group ‘The Spiders From Mars’ in a rock concert. Bowie seems to want to be accepted as he is, for what he is – talented, entertaining, sensitive, beautiful. If he succeeds, I think it will be progress for all of us.”
And ultimately, Sipple would (eventually) get it right; Bowie progressed to stardom in the States. Cleveland music journalist, Jane Scott, wrote of the show, “Orange-haired Bowie, one of the most important figures of ’70s rock, seemed a little awkward at an earlier press conference, but after his smash show, he eluded his security guards and was eager to talk about coming shows. We reporters sensed that a star was born that night.”
While the shows in between Cleveland and Santa Monica were admittedly slightly bereft of attendees and understanding of Bowie’s whole ‘thing’, Cleveland set Bowie on the course to that magnificent LA show that is now considered a piece of musical history.
Check out some rare footage of the Cleveland show below.
