David Bowie: The Vancouver Rehearsals 2nd February 1976
The Mainman And The Mainline
Label: 100% British
Year Released 1999
Source: Video
Total Time: 87 mins aprox
Quality Overall: 9
Station to Station (10.09)
Suffragette City (4.22)
Waiting For The Man (6.08)
Word On A Wing (5.30)
Stay (9.32)
TVC 15 (5.8)
Sister Midnight (6.18)
Life on Mars (1.46)
Five Years (8.07)
Panic In Detroit (6.32)
Fame (4.00)
Changes (4.21)
Jean Genie (8.38)
Queen Bitch (3.11)
Rebel Rebel (4.03)
This double CD set is the same show as appears on Transition but in much better quality and now appearing in its entirety for the first time, which basically means you get Waiting for the Man, Word on Wing and Stay as well. Starting off with the screaming guitars we then get the train like intro of Station to Station which lasts for about 2 and half minuets, before Bowie breaks into 'The Return of The Thin White Duke. He forgets the words on the line There are we, One Magical Moment from ' and sings 'There are you, then stops, the band plays on an we get a quick 'Oh' where the line should end. The song then carries pretty much as it it should be. Nest comes Suffragette CIty which again is troubled by the memory loss on the words this time before the 'Wham Bam Thank You Man'. Its still an awesome version though. Next comes a funky version of 'Waiting for the Man'. Its a great version with Bowie doing the high pitched vocals in one or 2 places and some nice solo guitar work and Bowie doing a couple of Ohs and Urhs at the end of the solo. No forgetting the words on this, as he sings Im Waiting, Im Waiting, Cant stop waiting near the end of the song I prefer this to the earlier versions. Next comes Word on a Wing, the first time this has been released in this form. Its a great version, the backing vocals sounding like there's a female vocalist in there somewhere singing woos.. Straight after this we get the Guitar intro of Stay, again female like backing vocals. There's no long Stay vocal on the instrumental bit which is a hugely extented.version. There's a slight pause in the music before we get a solitary note on the PIano, a 1 2 1 2 3 4 and the Oh Oh Oh Oh intro to TVC15., in the background the band are also doing the Ohs and the Heys. There's also high pitched backing vocals through the song. It sounds as if the band are really enjoying themselves. Next comes the Iggy and Bowie number, Sister Midnight. This is probably the best version about any where, great gutter work and high pitch vocals in places. This song was dropped after the first few shows of the US leg of the tour and was a collaboration between Bowie and Iggy Pop, it features the same same Riff as the Lodger track Repetition. Next comes a much shortened 'Life on Mars', What we get is the first verse and chorus, Bowie struggles on some of the high notes especially on the chorus, which is why in later shows he changed it to a lower voiced version. We get Five years next, or the first attempt at it. This is the first verse with Bowie on his own, no backing vocals up to the line ' Cried so much his face was wet, I knew he was not lying'. He then forgets the words and La La Las the next line before starting again on the line 'some tiny Children,' He gets as far as the line 'Soldier with a broken arm' and stops. After a little bit of talking in the background, he starts off again with the Soldier line and get as far as ' The queer threw up at the sight of that' although there is a slight lyric change as he uses the word fag instead off queer'. There's a quite lengthy pause here with guitar tuning in the background until Bowie says 'Can I take advantage of this break and get a cigarette, you got a cigarette Dennis ? He the says 'and Coco' . After the ciggie break , he says 'Intro into five years, so if you want to pickup, pickup Dennis, and we'll go from there' There's then an a Urgh which sounds like something out of a Frankinstein film before the drum starts and its straight into 5 years again, no into on the song and also this time it has backing vocals at the start. . We get complete the complete song this time. Its a great version, great vocals and we get a little impromptu bit at the end when he gives a little 'dobbie doos' and such, even better than the Ziggy versions.
Disc 2 starts off with Panic in Detroit, again with dodgy backing vocals.. About halfway though the song the band stop playing and its the drum solo bit, with Bowie doing a bit 'scat' vocals in the back ground. This seems to be the song that all the musicians get to do their own bit. The music starts up again but apart from a few 'woo hoo' that's the end of the vocals as we get panic in detroit 'instrumental version'. At the end we get an 'All right, then a 1 2 3' and its in into Fame, he misses part of the line 'What you get is no tomorrow' and we also get a few 'Doobie doos' when he again forgets the words late in the song. The song ends abruptly on the 'what's your name'. He then make a clucking 'noise' before saying 'Oh yeah, you got to give some light in there, or were gonna be stuck with a, then a pause, and then as the music starts 'an anti climatic number'. the piano and keyboards play the intro to changes and just before the guitars start in, he says 'So give them a big hand ladies and gentlemen. The band come in proper and we get the first 2 lines and then ,he then goes into an old (film?) song 'An old fashion millionaire' for a half the verse and then comes back and 'doo doos' the rest of the verse, and comes back in on 'What their going through'. There's some nice backing harmonies on the chorus with the band sounding strangely in tune. We get a high pitched 'Wha' before the second verse starts. He adds a 'Yeah' at the end of the line 'As you try to change there worlds'. The backing vocals on the second chorus are a little out of tune in places. The song ends with a nice 'Bass' solo bit. A massive ;Jean Genie' next at over 8 mins long, again the band being allowed to show there talents, and we get the 'Tuesday, Wednesday,.... bit that appeared in most of the 76 shows. It seems a little too long here. Queen Bitch next on which he mucks up the vocals part through way it. The sound seems to go a bit flat on the second verse, not hugely noticeable, though really.. Finally comes 'Rebel Rebel' which is more kin to the US single version than the Diamond Dogs track, with the 'Li Li Li ' bits in it. He also sings 'Naughty, Naughty, Naughty' in one of the end Chorus. There's a Wah Hoom at the end of the set and that's it. Strangely no Diamond Dogs, as it was played on all the dates of the tour. Its also interesting to see the set list order which had changed quite a bit after the first couple of shows Downsides?. Well if you have Transition, you may think twice about buying this. 'Don't'. This blows away Transition, it has better sound, no speed ups, and the full set. Ive had it for a about 8 years and only played ii half a doz. times if that. Played this twice as much in a month.. A bit of Bonus stuff would have been nice as disc 2 is a little on the short side, but apart from that another great release from the 100% British stable proving once again that the factory doesn't mean better. I've herd some say this is better than the 'Thin White Duke Nassau Show' - I wouldn't go far, that for me is up there with Santa Monica and LA 74 Strange Fascination but it makes a great a companion to it
Highly recommended
source of info and artwork:
http://www.geocities.com/bowieboots/Van76/van76.htm
download:
http://rapidshare.com/files/969342/_...Rehersals_.rar
You gotta lot of info for this! Thanks for Bowie!!
Do you know how can I break these up into single tracks?
Linear Mode
