JANUARY

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

After the interview Bowie gets a karate lesson.

Also on the show, actors Nancy Walker and Henry 'Fonzie' Winkler. [Broadcast CBS Jan 3]. Reported by Lisa Robinson in Hit Parader August 1976.

Station to Station LP released by RCA

The release was delayed when Bowie, unhappy with the colour of the sleeve, ordered a change to black-and-white to reflect the look he was developing for the tour.

Rehearsals for the tour begin in Ochios Point, Jamaica and New York.

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.”

Bowie on set with Candy Clark and Nic Roeg

Bowie's group for the tour:

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 bodyguard

11 Los Angeles Forum. After the show, Bowie 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 San Diego Sports Arena

15 Phoenix, Veterans' Memorial Coliseum.

Interviewed by Lisa Robinson for Hit Parader

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 (2 shows)

29 Detroit, Olympia Stadium

MARCH

Filming of The Eagle Has Landed started without Bowie, who had originally agreed to appear in the film. 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.”

1 Detroit, Olympia Stadium

Bowie interviewed pre-concert by Chris Charlesworth at the Pontchertrain Hotel.

"I couldn't do anything but survive now. Once you've made the initial bloom, what else do you have to do?"

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

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

Stays at the local Holiday Inn, after the show giving an early rendition of Sister Midnight (which was written on the 1976 tour and occasionally sung live) in the hotel bar.

13-14 Washington DC, Capital Center (2 shows)

15-16 Philadelphia, Tower Theatre (2 shows)

17 Boston, New Boston Garden Arena

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

Among those who attended: Angie Bowie, James Coburn, Lee Remick, Rick Wakeman, John Peel, Amanda Lear, Stomu Yamashta (who contributed to the score), and stars from the film, Candy Clarke, Rip Torn, Alf Martin and John Walters.

19 Buffalo, New York, Memorial Auditorium.

Bowie struggles through the show with severe flu. The following day he is kept in bed until the afternoon before the drive to the Rochester show.

20 Rochester, New York. Interviewed before the show by Al Rudis, Bowie was still suffering.

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.

AR: Will they be exhibited?

DB: No.

21 Springfield, Massachusetts.

Before 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.

22 New Haven

23 Uniondale New York, Nassau Coliseum

Recorded for King Biscuit Flower Hour radio broadcast and subsequently released on a number of bootlegs. Word On A Wing and Stay released officially as bonus tracks on Station To Station (Rykodisc), Queen Bitch on RarestOneBowie.

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

Bowie with Coco at the Metropole hotel, Moscow

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 conducted with Stuart Grundy for The David Bowie Story on BBC Radio One.

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

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, 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 The Man Who Fell to Earth released in the UK.

Review of a Wembley show ran in the UK Sunday Times.

13 Rotterdam, Ahoy Sports Stadium, Holland

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

After the show on 15 May, Bowie and famous transvestite Romy Haag celebrate the end of a successful world tour at the Alcazar club in Paris.

Haag suggests to Bowie that he should visit Berlin.

JUNE

JULY

AUGUST

Bowie family move into the rented cuckoo-clock house near Montreux in Corsier-sur-Vevey, to relax after the tour. After a short stay there, Bowie and Iggy Pop leave for the Chateau d'Herouville in France.

Bowie and Iggy begin work on Iggy's The Idiot and Low. Sessions continue throughout July.

9 Suffragette City / Stay single released (RCA). Initial release in picture sleeve.

Bowie, Iggy and the Chateau's studio engineer complete recording of The Idiot at Musicland studios, Munich. Final mixing done at Hansa Studios By The Wall, Berlin.

DAVID BOWIE: An In-Depth Look At The Illusion by Lisa Robinson published in Hit Parader magazine.

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.