David Bowie Concert at the Gaumont Taunton on June 15th 1973 – The Magic of Bowie
I will never forget that concert!
I had seen Bowie twice already on that tour, the Ziggy Stardust tour, once at the Colston Hall in Bristol and the other time at the Winter Gardens in Weston- so I knew what to expect. And I had both Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust albums- so I knew all the songs off by heart. I was there with my husband and several friends. We were really up for it!
The atmosphere inside was electric with anticipation and the place really erupted when he came on stage. The audience were terrific, really enthusiastic, but the Spiders from Mars were a brilliant band, with Mick Ronson on guitar, and the music was never drowned out. What made this concert especially memorable for me was that, for what seemed like 5 minutes, time seemed to stand still and he was there singing just for me. You see, we were sitting in the second row, and because he had injured his foot, he was not performing on the stage as normal, but sitting actually on the front edge of the stage- so very close to us- and at one point, he looked straight at me and, I think, because I was singing along with him, he came towards me and gazed at me in such a way that I was transfixed.
I dug my nails into my husband’s hands so hard that there were still visible scars afterwards! At the end of the song, he approached us and asked us what we did around here; I couldn’t speak but one of my friends said, “We just get stoned!”. And we all laughed. I was pregnant with my first child at the time- and she has remained a Bowie fan, like me, from that day to this.
