David Bowie – Arena Rock, BBC TV (1978) A Nacho remaster

Interviews

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David Bowie – Arena Rock – BBC TV – 1978

This is an enjoyable and intelligently made David Bowie BBC TV feature from 1978.

The show was produced and broadcast during the 1978 Isolar II World Tour, and produced by Bowie’s old mate Alan Yentob. It features an interview that covers Bowie’s changing musical perspective, his feelings about the tour and the Just A Gigolo movie. Also featured are live tracks and Bowie and Brian Eno’s instrumental from the “Heroes” album, Neuköln, set to a visual collage of contemporary Germany.

Excerpts from the interview have been used in the BBC documentaries, Five Years and The Last Five Years, and in the Bowie Is exhibition. I have also used excerpts in some of my videos, including my last ’78 offering, What In The World – Live 1978:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5v5hBZLYsg0

Arena Rock was, as far as I can tell, a relatively short-lived offshoot of the long running BBC Arena art and documentary series. The Arena Rock episode with David Bowie (and The Tubes) was broadcast on BBC2 on the 29th May, 1978. It is generally thought that the Bowie interview was shot in Berlin on May the 16th, 1978, prior to the show that night at the Deutschlandhalle. However, after using a scene from the interview in one of my previous Bowie music videos, someone called Hankoegal commented:
“…that interview was taken in the town I live in, Cologne, Germany…”
Looking at those twin spires that we see in the distance behind Bowie, they look exactly like the Cologne Cathedral (Koln Dom, in German); a very distinctive and beautiful building that dominates the Cologne skyline. Whereas the view behind Bowie does not resemble Berlin, and Berlin Cathedral bears no resemblance whatsoever to the Koln Dom.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cologne_Cathedral
Therefore, that would put the likely recording date of the interview as May 19th, 1978, the day of the show at the Sporthalle, Cologne.

Alan Yentob, who of course made the classic 1975 Bowie documentary “Cracked Actor” interviews Bowie, and produced the show. He had helped initiate the Arena series in 1975, and remained the editor of the show until 1985.

00:18 Ziggy Stardust – Live
02:00 Interview
04:55 Neuköln
06:02 Interview
09:00 Hang on To Yourself – Live
11:39 Interview

This show has been available online for a while, but in an incomplete and fairly low quality form. Using two sources, I have polished it up and erased the timecode. I also edited an intro specifically for this video, taken from the Bowie parts only, of the original show intro.

Hope you dig it!

Do me an’ yerself a favor – watch it in the Highest Def available with the sound UP LOUD!

If anyone has any other footage, or ideas for another video project, of material from Bowie’s classic period, do please get in touch: nachomarcho@gmail.com

Putting this video together was another huge labour of love, made with love and with respect for the source.

I don’t own the rights, and I’m not making any money out of this etc. Just a fan making videos for other fans.

Nacho, March 24th, 2017.