Tour Memorabilia.

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This guy must have lots of cool tour memorabilia and even cooler stories about the Diamond Dogs tour?

Jack








But few may know this: In 1974 Battista, a freshly minted Indiana University grad who was handy at building things, spent six months with the newfangled English rock star David Bowie.

The stint was during Bowie's Diamond Dogs tour, considered rock's first giant, show-biz-style extravaganza. Battista's job was carpenter. Over and over — the tour had 72 shows — he assembled then dismantled then reassembled the enormous stage set known as "Hunger City."

Forty years ago this month Battista would have been making his way from Anaheim, Calif., where Bowie did two shows, to St. Paul, Minn., where he would do one. On Oct. 8 the show would come to Battista's hometown of Indianapolis, where Bowie would strike the Indianapolis News rock critic as resembling Elvis Presley except that Bowie's "scarecrow sexuality" appealed to men as well as women while Presley's was "strictly truck driver masculinity directed toward women."

Presley is long dead, but Bowie is alive and, at age 66, having a moment. A major museum exhibition of his old costumes and artifacts, curated by staffers at London's Victoria and Albert Museum, is traveling the world. It opened Tuesday at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, where it runs through Jan. 4. That's the closest it will get to Indianapolis. Bowie also is the subject of a documentary film, which was screened in Indianapolis on Tuesday night.

Battista saw the film. His memory was jogged. He sat down with The Indianapolis Star to discuss recollections of not doing drugs, failing stage props, missing appendages, and the coupon bonus:

Bowie's wife thanked him for not getting stoned

"It was early on in the rock and roll touring business, and in those days (the crew) could mingle with the stars. David would hang out with the crew because the crew had better drugs than the band had. Thirteen weeks into the tour his management decided he was getting too involved with the crew and drugs, so they kind of separated him from us.

"The tour started up again at the LA Universal Amphitheatre (with the entire crew having been switched out except the drug-free Battista). And I got this letter. It was from Angie Bowie (David Bowie's then-wife). She said: 'Hello Tom, What pleasure that you and Bowie are working together. I hope you enjoy the tour and the magic of music moves us all. Angie,' and she wrote three X's.

"I didn't really know her, but I took it as she was thanking me for not doing drugs and for being a good stagehand."

Oops — Bowie falls fast at the hands of Battista

"David came in for the first rehearsal. Kind of unexpectedly. We didn't know he was coming. The electricians had placed five light poles on this bridge/elevator that went 25 feet in the air. (Bowie) wanted to ride the elevator" (like he would in the show, during "Changes").

"We'd tried it 10 or 15 times, and everything was perfect, but the electricians had put these light poles on the bridge, and they weighed more than the 110 pounds Bowie weighed at the time. So when he got on the elevator — it was my first cue in the business, they start "Changes," and the elevator is supposed to come to a certain point then stop. It didn't stop."

(Bowie, apparently worried he would be unable to step off, wanted assurances it wouldn't move any faster.)

"He came over and asked me, 'Is this as fast as this can go?' I said, 'Yes,' I had no idea if that was true or not, but I didn't want to get fired."

That night we stayed all night, and we put Porsche brakes (onto the bridge/elevator) so we could actually stop it in the right place.

Losing three fingers

"Midway through the tour, Bowie wanted a different set. We built a new set, and the head carpenter they hired, my boss, immediately cut the tips of three of his fingers off. Which then meant I was going to have to work twice as hard for the next 13 weeks of the tour. Which I did."

Gee, you shouldn't have

"At the end of tours now it's not unusual to get a large bonus, but in 1974, at the end of this huge tour, they gave us a coupon to the Ice Palace Discotheque in New York, good for two free hamburgers, unlimited free sodas, popcorn, candy, Italian ices and a dance contest. One of our guys went berserk, and he flipped this lightning bolt prop, this huge sign, and he flipped it down a five-story ramp at Madison Square Garden."

Bowie has stayed cool all these years because he keeps it fresh

"I think David Bowie is still relevant to this day because he's always changed. He's like a chameleon. When we did Diamond Dogs everyone showed up like Ziggy Stardust, and David came out with an English riding crop and uniform-kind of thing. Always he has looked at the future and never the past."

Tom Battista

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Pavilion Hemel Hempstead May 7th 1972.

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Post production cheque 'No 4' for the show/promo video David Bowie -'On Stage' recorded on April 10th 1978 at the Convention Centre Arena, Dallas, Texas......

Jack