DAVID BOWIE : WELCOME TO THE BLACKOUT (LIVE LONDON '78)

Disc One (52:39)

1. Warszawa
2. Heroes
3. What In The World
4. Be My Wife
5. The Jean Genie
6. Blackout
7. Sense Of Doubt
8. Speed Of Life
9. Sound And Vision
10. Breaking Glass
11. Fame
12. Beauty And The Beast

Disc Two (54:48)

1. Five Years
2. Soul Love
3. Star
4. Hang On To Yourself
5. Ziggy Stardust
6. Suffragette City
7. Art Decade
8. Alabama Song
9. Station To Station
10. TVC 15
11. Stay
12. Rebel Rebel

Label : Parlophone

Venue : Earl's Court, London, UK

Recording Date : June 30, 1978 + July 1st, 1978

Release Date : April 21, 2018

Review (AllMusic) : Originally released as a Record Store Day exclusive in April 2018 but swiftly receiving a CD and digital release, Welcome to the Blackout (Live London '78) gathers 24 highlights from David Bowie's two-night stint at Earls Court on June 30 and July 1, 1978. Apart from "Sound and Vision" and "Be My Wife," which appeared on a 1995 compilation, this album consists of previously unreleased - but heavily bootlegged - live performances, all dating from the end of Bowie's 1978 tour. Stage, which came out a few months after this performance, captures the same tour, but Welcome to the Blackout isn't as stiff as that contemporaneously released double album. Bowie and band - which includes guitarists Adrian Belew and Carlos Alomar, bassist George Murray, and drummer Dennis Davis, along with Roger Powell, a keyboardist who served in Todd Rundgren's Utopia - are loose, sometimes rushing a tempo and sometimes settling into it, as they do on a louche "Heroes" that kicks off the record. The positioning of "Heroes" is telling: it's not here as a triumphant closer but a grooving keynote, setting the pace for a set where Bowie attempts to find the right balance between art and a party. He doesn't always get it right - Powell tends to overwhelm on the suite of Ziggy Stardust numbers, painting everything with swathes of synths - but the performance is invigorating even with its flaws.

Review (Wikipedia) : Welcome to the Blackout (Live London '78) is een livealbum van de Britse muzikant David Bowie, uitgebracht als onderdeel van Record Store Day op 21 april 2018, met een cd-uitgave op 20 juni van dat jaar. Het album werd opgenomen tijdens de shows in Earl's Court op 30 juni en 1 juli 1978 tijdens de Isolar II Tour. Het album is geproduceerd door Tony Visconti en gemixt door Bowie en David Richards in de Mountain Studios in Montreux, Zwitserland, tussen 17 en 22 januari 1979. Bowie wilde oorspronkelijk een concertfilm maken van het optreden, maar was niet tevreden met het resultaat en schrapte het idee. De opnames van "Sound and Vision" op 1 juli, de eerste keer dat het nummer live werd gespeeld, en "Be My Wife" verschenen in 1995 op het niet officiële compilatiealbum RarestOneBowie.