Eight uncut hours of David Bowie’s historic ‘The 1980 Floor Show’
In the early 1970s, David Bowie firmly established his glam-rock era. Influenced by the likes of Marc Bolan and T. Rex, Bowie transformed himself into his Ziggy Stardust alter-ego. Characterised by striking outfits, makeup and the incredible backing of The Spiders from Mars, Ziggy cemented Bowie’s place as an icon of the 1970s and a household name in music.
The Brixton-born musician had already witnessed some success in his 1969 single ‘Space Oddity’, but it was his Ziggy era that rocketed him into musical stardom and the hearts of countless dedicated fans. Not content with riding his glam-rock success for as long as possible, Bowie was constantly reinventing himself and exploring new musical genres and stage characters.
Coming to the end of his Ziggy Stardust era after the release of Pin Ups in late 1973, Bowie made the decision to give the much beloved alien rock star character a good send-off in the form of a rock musical broadcast on US television, The 1980 Floor Show.
The hour-long rock musical spectacular featured performances of tracks from Pin Ups and Aladdin Sane as well as some covers of songs by other artists like The Who and Sonny & Cher. Bowie also invited guests along, in the form of The Troggs and Marianne Faithful, with whom he dueted ‘I Got You Babe’. Of course, Bowie also dons some truly spectacular outfits across the broadcast, capturing the transitional period between his glam rock era and the darker Halloween Jack era that would come with the following year’s Diamond Dogs.
The special is essential viewing for Bowie disciples, as well as anyone who has an interest in performance art and musical history. Bowie has such a level of fame and appreciation that pretty much every bit of content featuring the man has, by this point, been released, remastered, re-released and generally put out into the world. The 1980 Floor Show, however, seems to have only been reproduced by bootleggers since its original release, shrouding it in a certain sense of mystery.
Diminishing that mystery, much to the joy of Bowie fans, a YouTube user has uploaded over eight hours’ worth of uncut footage from the show, featuring outtakes, extra performances, and lots more juicy Bowie content. Although not as high-quality as the Beatles documentary of similar length, Get Back, the eight-hour video offers stunning insight into the production of the television special, which was recorded over three nights at The Marquee Club in London.
The backstage moments, dance rehearsals and outtakes included in this uncut footage are all very charming, but on a deeper level, this footage captures the zeitgeist of Bowie transitioning from one character era into another, leaving Ziggy behind and reinventing himself once again. It provides fascinating viewing, to say the least.
