Bruce Butler reflects:
A single event which, without question, changed the
course of my life.
From the advertisement for David Bowie tickets
appearing in The Age on Saturday 16 September, queuing
for a week to buy tickets, the stoush with Paul
Dainty, "losing" my job at Gaslight, the three weeks
camping outside the MCG, making many new friends,
traveling to Adelaide for the first concert, meeting
Bowie on my birthday and finally everything coming to
a head back at the MCG.
On Friday morning I crawled out of my tent and
it was another beautiful day in the the queue watching
people head to work, uni etc. The big difference today
was that our numbers had expanded from a core group of
about twenty to literally hundreds with more arriving
all the time.
Bowie and his entourage flew into Melbourne from
Perth that afternoon and we soon had a visitor asking,
"Is one of you Bruce Butler?" I fessed up and was
told,
"Mr Bowie sent me down to thank you for your letter in
Adelaide and that he was amazed and appreciative that
you and your friends have been queuing so long. He
wants me to take you inside for a look around."
After collecting together a small group of us who'd
been there the whole three weeks, we were taken into
the MCG where we witnessed the stage being set up. We
were also able to plan our run from the gates to the
best spot in the seats down front. We were given tea
and biscuits and a free tour program each.
A bit later on Denis Davis, who I'd met in
Adelaide and told about the queue, came down to say
hello.
He stayed with us for a while telling us stories about
the tour and the recording of a new album ('Lodger')
which they'd just finished. I asked him if Eno was
involved and he said "Yes" but "I hate working with
that guy, he's a scientist, not a musician. He made us
swap instruments and play random notes he'd point to
blindly on a blackboard."
After giving me his address and phone number in New
York and inviting me to visit he headed off to the
Hilton where he said they were staying.
I had an idea and also headed off to the Hilton.
I booked a room for two nights and went back to the
queue for a while. I decided it'd be good to get a
decent sleep the night before the gig and also have
somewhere to freshen up. Perhaps I might even bump
into the band and/or Bowie.
I spent a relatively uneventful Friday night in
the hotel visited by various members of the queue. On
the Saturday I returned to the MCG to find swarms of
people everywhere and to stories of disturbances from
unwanted visitors, as portrayed in the opening scenes
of Dogs In Space.
After three weeks camping outside the MCG in
perfect Spring weather it started to rain and by the
time we were let into the venue it was pouring.
We didn't care and it was a fantastic concert in front
of Bowie's biggest ever audience to that time.
There was a lot of love and excitement in the air and
as we all left the venue we were exhausted by totally
satisfied and very, very wet.
I made my way back to the Hilton with a couple
of friends, we couldn't find anything going on so we
retired to my room.
Bowie ended up that night going to the
'Melbourne Underground' nightclub where a few of my
friends saw him and a couple even met him. I knew the
owner and people who worked there but without mobile
phones they had no idea how to contact me.
Early the next morning I was wandering the foyer of
the Hilton and, just in case, had my recently
developed photos from Adelaide with me. Luckily as I
did bump into Bowie and we had a little chat where i
was able to thank him for reacting to my letter. I
also showed him the Adelaide photos, he picked one and
said "I quite like this one." I asked if he'd sign it
and he happily obliged signing it on the back in
ballpoint pen. It's not my best Bowie signature but
it's my most prized.
Later on I saw him once more as he and Coco got
into his yellow Merc and headed to the airport to fly
to Brisbane.
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