JANUARY

10 Interview published with Nic Roeg in Street Life, conducted by Mike Flood Page:

"He has before him a miniature Sony cassette machine and offers an exclusive preview of the Bowie soundtrack just in from LA. It's a simple melodic instrumental based around organ, bass and drums, with atmosphere courtesy of studio wizardry all put together and performed by Bowie himself."

Roeg compared the character of Newton in The Man Who Fell To Earth with Howard Hughes.

"There is this line that he speaks in the film which is quite indicative of his attitude: "My life is not secret, but it is private", which is typical of Hughes. It seems to me that irritates a lot of people."

Rehearsals for the tour began at Keith Richard's studio at Ocho Rios, Jamaica and New York.

21 Leaves Jamaica for Canada to prepare for the beginning of the tour.

Station to Station LP released by RCA

The release date was held up by Bowie's decision to change the sleeve to black and white to reflect the visual feel of the tour.

1 Appears on Dinah! and performs Stay and Five Years.

After an interview with fellow guests Nancy Walker and Henry Winkler, Bowie has a karate lesson.

[Broadcast CBS Jan 3].

» Reported by Lisa Robinson for Hit Parader August 1976

Tour group

Carlos Alomar
Guitar

Dennis Davis
Drums

Tony Kaye
Keyboards

George Murray
Bass

Stacey Heydon
Guitar

Tour staff

Patrick Gibbons
acting manager

Corinne Schwab
Bowie's personal assistant

Barbara Le Witt
worldwide press and publicity

Tony Mascia
Bowie's driver

8 Los Angeles, Englewood Forum

The post-concert party guests included Rod Stewart and Britt Ekland, Alice Cooper, Ringo Starr, Ray Bradbury, Linda Ronstadt, Carly Simon, Henry Winkler and Steven Ford, son of President Gerald Ford.

11 Los Angeles, Englewood Forum

After the show, Bowie is introduced to David Hockney by Christopher Isherwood.

» Reported by Lisa Robinson for Hit Parader August 1976

12 "Ground Control to Davy Jones" published in Rolling Stone.

13 Returns home to Stone Canyon Drive to pack up his belongings.

A removal firm takes them to Los Angeles airport to be freighted to Switzerland to the new home in Vevey.

San Diego Sports Arena

15 Phoenix, Veterans' Memorial Coliseum

» Interviewed by Lisa Robinson for Hit Parader August 1976

16 Albuquerque, Civic Auditorium

17 Denver, McNichols Sports Arena

20 Milwaukee, Mecca Arena

21 Kalamazoo, Wings Stadium

22 Evansville, Riverfront

23 Cincinatti, Convention Center

25 Montreal, Forum

26 Toronto, Maple Leaf Garden

27 Cleveland Auditorium » review

28 Cleveland Auditorium (two shows)

29 Detroit, Olympia Stadium

MARCH

The Eagle Has Landed begins shooting without Bowie, who had agreed to appear in the film as a Nazi officer. The problem was Bowie's tour commitments, as director Jack Wiener explained:

"It's unfortunate, because we would have liked very much to have had him, but when you are working on a movie with a five and a half million dollar budget you can't afford to have one of the cast involved with something else at the same time."

2 "The Return Of The Thin White Duke" by Richard Cromelin published in Circus Magazine.

1 Detroit, Olympia Stadium

3 Chicago Amphitheatre

5 St Louis, Henry W Kiel Auditorium

6 Memphis, Mid-South Coliseum

7 Nashville Municipal Auditorium

8 Atlanta

11 Pittsburgh Civic Arena

12 Norfolk, Scope Conventional Hall

13-14 Washington DC, Capital Center (two shows)

15-16 Philadelphia, Tower Theatre (two shows)

17 Boston, New Boston Garden Arena

18 The Man Who Fell To Earth premieres at the Leicester Square Theatre, London.

Among the guests were Angie Bowie (right), James Coburn, Lee Remick, Rick Wakeman, John Peel, Amanda Lear, Stomu Yamashta and stars from the film, Candy Clark (above), Rip Torn, Alf Martin and John Walters.

19 Buffalo, New York, Memorial Auditorium

Bowie struggles through the show with flu.

20 Rochester, New York

Interviewed before the show by Al Rudis:

AR: After your European tour, are you going to concentrate on acting for a while?

DB: No, no, no, the first thing I'm doing is I'm gonna finish off some silk screens and lithographs that I've worked on. I did some earlier this year, which I thought were very successful.

After the show, in the early hours of the morning, Bowie, Iggy Pop, Dwain A. Vaughs (a friend) and a girl, Chivah Soo are arrested at the Flagship Americana hotel in Rochester on suspicion of possession of 8 oz. of marijuana. Bowie later given bail of $2000. He also put up the bail of $2000 each for the other three.

21 Springfield, Massachusetts

22 New Haven

23 Uniondale New York, Nassau Coliseum

Recorded for King Biscuit Flower Hour radio broadcast. The source of several bootlegs, notably Resurrection on 84th Street and The Thin White Duke.

Word On A Wing and Stay released officially on Station To Station (Rykodisc) and Queen Bitch on Rarest One Bowie.

25 Appears in court in Rochester, New York. The case is adjourned and dropped one year later. Bowie later appeared on Channel 5 news leaving court.

» Full report in The Democrat and Chronicle

26 New York, Madison Square Garden

After this, the final US show of the 1976 World Tour, a small party was held at the Penn Plaza Club for Bowie and the crew.

At the party Bowie described that evening's show as getting the best reaction he had ever received

"I was so nervous, I nearly threw up!"

Bowie spent most of the evening in a corner chatting with Iggy.

27 A private screening of The Man Who Fell To Earth Bowie had arranged for friends had to be cancelled when Bowie couldn't get a print of his own film.

Sails from New York for Cannes to continue the tour.

2 Bowie, while returning from a stopover trip to Moscow, is held at the Russian/Poland border while customs men confiscated some Nazi books. Bowie said they were reference material for a film on Goebbels he was planning.

In 1980 Bowie discussed his Nazi fascination in an interview with Angus Mackinnon for NME.

That whole Station To Station tour was done under duress. I was out of my mind totally, completely crazed. Really. But the main thing I was functioning on was, as far as that whole thing about Hitler and the Rightism was concerned, was mythology… I had found King Arthur. It was not as you probably know … I mean, this whole racist thing that came up, quite inevitably and rightly.

But – and I know this sounds terribly naive – but none of that had actually occurred to me, inasmuch as I'd been working and still do work with black musicians for the last six or seven years. And we'd all talk about it together – about the Arthurian period, about the magical side of the whole Nazi campaign, and about the mythology involved.

TVC 15 / We Are The Dead single released in the US (RCA). (highest chart position No. 33)

7 Munich, Olympia Hall, Germany

8 Dusseldorf, Philips Halle, Germany

10 Berlin, Deutchlandhalle, Germany

Interviewed earlier in the day by Stuart Grundy for The David Bowie Story, broadcast in May on Radio One.

11 Hamburg, Kongress Zentrum Halle, Germany

Further interviews with Stuart Grundy.

13 Frankfurt Festhalle, Germany

14 Zurich, Switzerland

Originally, the tour schedule included another German show in Ludwigshafen Franz-Eberthalle, but was cancelled in favour of a Swiss date.

15 Frankfurt Festhalle, Germany

16 Bowie stopped off for the evening in a Frankfurt club and made a rare off-the-cuff guest appearance with a local group, Linus Band.

17 Bern Festhalle, Switzerland

Bowie with Coco at the Metropole hotel, Moscow

21 Iggy sees in his 29th birthday with a party with Bowie, Pat Gibbons, Coco Schwab and Andy Kent (photograph).

22 Sightseeing in Moscow with Iggy and Andy Kent

24 Helsinki, Masshallen, Finland

Earlier in the day a press conference is held.

26 Stockholm, Kungliga Tennishallen, Sweden

After the show, pursued by a persistent Swedish reporter (left), Bowie made his infamous and ill-fated remark about fascism, a remark that Bowie has since repudiated on many occasions.

"As I see it I am the only alternative for the premier in England. I believe Britain could benefit from a fascist leader. After all, fascism is really nationalism."

27 Stockholm, Kungliga Tennishallen, Sweden

» "Bowie Meets the Press" by Ben Edmonds published in Circus magazine.

28 Gothenburg, Sweden

29 Copenhagen, Falkoner Teatret, Denmark

MAY

2 Bowie arrives at Victoria Station to a well-publicised return to the UK, after an absence of over two years, the national press showing particular interest in him after the political declaration made a few days earlier in Stockholm.

For Bowie's arrival at the station RCA supplied a PA system on the platform for him to make a speech on arrival. This never actually took place as the PA had broken down. Bowie left the station after only thirty seconds waving to excited fans. The media ran a photograph of Bowie in mid-wave making it appear to be a Nazi salute. In the furore it created Bowie was furious at the claim and repeatedly denied it in subsequent interviews.

4 Wembley, Empire Pool

Interviewed earlier that day by Jean Rook for the Daily Express in his only press interview while on tour.

5-8 Wembley, Empire Pool

9 Review of a Wembley show in the Sunday Times

13 Rotterdam, Ahoy Sports Stadium, Holland

15-18 Paris, Pavillon de Paris, Porte de Patin

15 After the show, Bowie and famous transvestite Romy Haag celebrate the end of the world tour at the Alcazar club.

Bowie and Iggy had intended to stay on in Paris but soon sought refuge from the many fans roaming the city.

Coco arranges for them to relocate to the Chateau d'Herouville. After two nights they decide to book two months recording time in the summer to begin work on Iggy's album with Laurent Thibault, owner of the Chateau, engineering.

Bowie then joins his family in Switzerland.

JUNE

Bowie family move into Clos Des Mesanges, near Montreux in Corsier-sur-Vevey, to relax after the tour.

Bowie also begins plans for his next album and makes rough sketches of songs for The Idiot on keyboard and guitar.

At the end of June, Bowie and Iggy Pop leave for the Chateau d'Herouville to begin work on backing tracks.

JULY

Bowie spends two days recording, playing piano with session drummer Michel Santangeli. Bowie then adds keyboards, drum machine and saxophone with Thibault on bass.

9 Suffragette City / Stay single released (RCA).

George Murray and Dennis Davis arrive at the end of July to add bass and drums, some of which are used in the final mix.

AUGUST

Bowie, Iggy and Thibault complete recording of The Idiot at Musicland studios, Munich.

Phil Palmer is called in to contribute guitar parts.

Final mixing done at Hansa Studios By The Wall, Potsdamer Platz, Berlin.

» "David Bowie: An In-Depth Look at the Illusion" by Lisa Robinson published in Hit Parader magazine

Stay / Word on a Wing single released in the US (RCA)

Home for Bowie and Iggy in Berlin at this time was a seven-room flat above a car spares shop, at 155 Hauptstrasse, Schoeneberg.

The flat, which was within walking distance of the studios, was in a very poor area of Berlin, populated mostly by Turkish.

"Berlin gives me something I don't get from London or Los Angeles."

- interview with the Berliner Morgen Post, Bowie's last press interview in Berlin.

Bowie awarded the US Academy of Science, Fiction, Fantasy And Horrors Best Actor Of The Year award for The Man Who Fell To Earth

Christmas at the rented chalet near Montreux with Angie and Joey.