In my original posting, the audio was slightly out of sync with the video, which has now been corrected. Plus Life On Mars? had a drop out (now restored) while Station to Station had a glitch (now removed).

About.
On the 20th November 1983, David Bowie performed his final Australian concert of the Serious Moonlight tour. This Betamax recording was taken from a sight screen feed made at that time.

The first couple of numbers, plus the end have some artefacts but, as it hasn't been viewed in nearly 40 years, the quality overall has held up well. The audio was in mono and has been remastered to bring it out more.

The Setlist:
0:00 Introduction
0:18 Look Back In Anger
3:00 "Heroes"
7:57 What In The World
11:29 Golden Years
14:57 Fashion
17:41 Let's Dance
22:08 Breaking Glass
24:54 Life On Mars?
29:00 Sorrow
31:49 Cat People
36:02 China Girl
41:18 Scary Monsters
44:59 Rebel Rebel
47:24 White Light White Heat
52:34 Station To Station
1:01:23 Cracked Actor
1:05:53 Ashes To Ashes
1:10:00 Space Oddity
1:15:02 Band introductions
1:17:00 Young Americans
1:22:25 Fame

Encore
1:27:32 Star
1:30:11 Stay
1:38:22 The Jean Genie
1:43:33 Modern Love

Story behind this video.

Back in 1983, I was working in a One-hour photo lab in Sydney and we would often have crew from the Sydney Entertainment Centre come by to drop off films to be processed. Over time I got to know some of the camera crew that were used to shoot the video that would be projected onto the sight screens at the side of the stage.

When Bowie came to Sydney, these guys were hired to do the same thing at the Sydney Showgrounds for his final two concerts. This was video only, as it was to be shown live on the side screens. However, I was told that for the final concert a Sony U-Matic video recorder was used to record the show with a mono audio feed from the mixing desk used for reference by the director. This was for personal use only. When I was told about this on the following Monday by one of their crew, I asked if it was possible to get a copy. The guy said that I could drop by with a VCR and make one, which I did (but with a Sony Betamax) the following day. Later when I saw one of the crew and thanked them again, he told me that the original tape had been lost and it was possible it had been recorded over (!!??) also, there were no other copies made. As such, I had the only video in existence.


The tape has been with me for 40 years and I finally got to having it transferred to digital file last year. I hope one day the tape can be restored to remove any artefacts and defects.

**20th November 2023 (40th anniversary of the concert)
I have been hunting around Sydney, trying to confirm if the original tape still existed and possibly be available for the 40th anniversary of the concert, unfortunately I can confirm the original is long gone. I did track down a member of the crew and he told me that one of the cameramen was caught in traffic that night, so they were short one camera for the early part of the concert. This is why there is limited footage of Earl Slick early on. Fortunately the cameraman did turn up for the remainder of the show.
No one is sure who made the recording from the feed but I for one am grateful they did and that I made a copy at the time.

The Band:
David Bowie – lead vocals, guitar, saxophone
Earl Slick – guitar
Carlos Alomar – guitar, backing vocals, music director
Carmine Rojas – bass guitar
Tony Thompson – drums, percussion
Dave Lebolt – keyboards, synthesizers
Steve Elson – saxophones
Stan Harrison – saxophones, woodwinds
Lenny Pickett – saxophones, woodwinds
George Simms – backing vocals
Frank Simms – backing vocals


trog26@gmail.com

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