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1983 Serious Moonlight Tour (AUS/NZ)

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Auckland: November 26


The final concert was at Auckland's enormous Western Springs (a speedway stadium).

The 74,480 strong audience was the largest ever recorded for an Australasian concert and was believed to be the largest single crowd gathering in the history of New Zealand.

The gig was recorded in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest crowd gathering per head of population anywhere in the world.




Above: Western Springs Stadium. From the publication "David Bowie's Serious Moonlight The World Tour".

According to Bowie fan Paul from Auckland, some papers may have declared a mere 70,000 attendance but that number had swelled considerably by at least 20,000 due to people pushing the perimeter fences over.


"The bemused security guards just stood there scratching their heads before moving to assist folks over the broken fence and thereby preventing any crush injuries. It was a great show and certainly the largest by any act that I've ever been to."

~ Paul from Auckland


The publication David Bowie's Serious Moonlight The World Tour mentions that there were "90,000 or so, with their bonfires up on the hills around the site. Looking like Huns in the flickering light but behaving."




              
"I remember just watching the people on the hill and the population, it looked like everyone was there at a picnic.

Everyone was  coming there as though it was a family affair.

And it was so wonderful - young people, old people, babies.

- Frank Simms (Bowie's backing singer)



Above: Western Springs Stadium. Photo NZ/Herald Staff Photographer



              
Lenny Pickett (Bowie's sax player):

"I remember distinctly because of the environment, because of the natural venue, because of the huge number of people that were there.

And it sticks in my mind certainly more than most performances, because it was of the natural beauty of the place.

It was an extremely unusual quality - a striking juxtaposition of art and reality - having this very ancient geography, along with our faux ancient set"




Above: Western Springs Stadium. Photo NZ/Herald Staff Photographer




Above: Ticket scan provided by TJNWorldEnterprises



Like so many 1983 shows, Bowie opened proceedings with Look Back in Anger from 1979's Lodger.

With 3 new albums to showcase since his last world tour, it would fundamentally be a mix of old and new.


              
"I mean, obviously, as soon as Bowie started - everybody was up, everybody was screaming, everybody was dancing, everybody was singing.

They all sang along to the songs because by then, they were so well known."

- Gabrielle Pike



Above: Photo by Peter Farmiloe.
Please do not reproduce without permission.




Geeling Ng  - the New Zealander with Asian ancestry - who starred in the 'China Girl' video recalls:


              
"When they played my song, I cried.

‘China Girl’ live on stage and David singing and I'm thinking wow, that's my song."


Geeling had earlier joined the European leg of the Serious Moonlight tour for some 4 weeks.

She was sad to say goodbye but then encountered Bowie's band members Carmine Rojas and Carlos Alomar outside the Regent Hotel in Auckland:

              
"They said 'girlfriend you've got to come', and I said I've already bought tickets and they said ‘no, no, no, no, you've got to come backstage’.

So, the next thing I get a phone call in my apartment;

‘Hi it's Coco [Bowie’s long time PA Coco Schwab]. I've got you a couple of backstage passes."





Above: Photo by Peter Farmiloe.
Please do not reproduce without permission.


In the encore, Bowie played 'Stay' (from Station to Station) followed by 'The Jean Genie' (from Aladdin Sane).

Above: Photo by Peter Farmiloe.
Please do not reproduce without permission.




In the final stages, Bowie was joined by his co-actor in the film Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence. Kiwi actor James Malcolm  played the part of Bowie's younger brother.

As the nuclear arms race was dominating world headlines, Bowie finished with an impassioned oration:

"I wish our world leaders would stop their insane inability to recognise that we wish to live peacefully"

Bowie and James then released two white doves into the sky.

A final song - Modern Love - closed proceedings.



Auckland Set list
26 Nov, 1983


1 Look Back In Anger
2 "Heroes"
3 What In The World
4 Golden Years
5 Fashion
6 Let's Dance
7 Breaking Glass
8 Life On Mars
9 Sorrow
10 Cat People
11 China Girl
12 Scary Monsters
13 Rebel Rebel
14 White Light White Heat
15 Station To Station
16 Cracked Actor
17 Ashes To Ashes
18 Space Oddity
19 Young Americans
20 Fame
21 TVC-15
22 Star

Encore

23 Stay
24 The Jean Genie
25 Modern Love  




With the main tour officially over, Bowie threw a party with Polynesian dancing girls.


The last minute addition to the Serious Moonlight Tour called the "Bungle In The Jungle" (documented in the "Ricochet" video) was to be stripped down to the basics without most of the crew.....so Bowie asked the road crew to cut the huge cake shaped like the Earth.






Support Bands


Like Bowie's recent Australian shows, the Auckland show was supported by Australian group Models, however, a local group - Dance Exponents was also added to the bill.


              
Michael Chunn (Dance Exponents Manager):

"Michael Gudinski rang and said 'I think I can get them on the David Bowie show at Western Springs.'

I can still see Jordan and the boys when I told them. They kind of almost fell over, fainted. They were stunned. Of course everybody wanted that gig and this band had really only just arrived.

As I walked into the backstage area, David Bowie and Dance Exponents were all standing around in a circle talking.  It was like he was just one of the mates.

It was an amazing sight and I said ‘spread out guys’, and I took a photo of the six of them, five in the band and David Bowie."


Auckland 1983 - David Bowie and support band Dance Exponents. Pic sent in by Harry Williams



Press Articles


Articles from sonofsilence. (Click to enlarge)


              
"My dad still remembers the exact Danish spirits he was drinking before the concert.

Single and in his early 30s, he’d invited about eight mates to preload at his rental at 83 Old Mill Road, a stone’s throw from the entrance to the stadium.

One woman brought Afghani hash. 'I was as high as a kite,' he tells me, brimming with nostalgia. 'We wandered along the road and went into the concert and I was really high. But I remember the concert really well. It was just spectacular.'

Western Springs in the early 80s were some of the best years of his life, and the Bowie concert in ‘83 was the jewel in the crown."

- Madeline Holden, 'The Spinoff' - 2023


 

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