Back Seat Bowie

Iggy Pop : Funtime

[Purchase]

On March 1st, 1977 Iggy Pop kicked off  The Idiot UK tour with David Bowie playing piano and on backing vocals. The first show was a small time gig at the Friars Club in Aylesbury, a small town outside London. The tour, in support of the upcoming album Bowie produced,  lasted a week before the band flew to New York City for six more weeks of shows, culminating in an appearance on the Dinah Shore Show on April 15.

In his book Bowie In Berlin : A New Career in a New Town Thomas Jerome Seabrook writes 

 More than anything, Bowie seemed to enjoy watching Iggy. "I'd never seen him onstage up until then," he later admitted. "I couldn't get over his energy and commitment to savage realism." Bowie, on the other hand, remained in the seat behind the keyboard throughout, lit only by a row of fairy lights, but some observers were still convinced that he was calling the shots. Writing in the New Music Express, Nick Kent felt that the "totally workmanlike" Bowie was "very much in charge here", at least from a musical perspective. He was certainly a big draw for the audience, too, with the number of Bowie fans in attendance generally matching those who had come just to see Iggy.