Live: Curtis Hixon Hall, Tampa

David Bowie performed at the Curtis Hixon Hall in Tampa, Florida, on 2 July 1974.

This was the 16th date of the Diamond Dogs Tour, which had kicked off in Montreal on 14 June. It was Bowie’s only appearance at the venue, which was demolished in 1993 and the site converted to a public park.

Bowie performed without the elaborate Hunger City stage set and props. A bee had flown into the cab of the truck carrying the set and had stung the driver, causing him to crash into a roadside ditch.

He drove the truck into a swamp somewhere near Tampa, Florida. Bowie went on that night on a bare stage. He says it’s the best audience reception he’s had to date.

Despite the bare stage, Bowie was given a rapturous welcome in Tampa, including a 20-minute ovation before the encore.

Good evening ladies and gentlemen. The concert you’re going to see tonight is not the show we had planned for you. Due to an unfortunate road accident half of our stage scenery, costumes, lighting equipment is in a local swamp 15 miles north of here. There was talk of cancelling tonight’s performance but David Bowie would not hear of it and insisted we go on in the remaining half condition. So, in a few minutes, we’ll go on with the concert. Thank you.

The tour’s musical director was Michael Kamen, who also played electric piano, Moog synthesizer, and oboe. Earl Slick played guitar, and Mike Garson was on piano and Mellotron. The bass guitarist was Herbie Flowers, and the drummer was Tony Newman.

The backing singers were Geoff MacCormack (billed as Warren Peace) and Gui Andrisano. The line-up was completed by David Sanborn and Richard Grando on saxophone and flute, and percussionist Pablo Rosario.

The setlist

• ‘1984’
• ‘Rebel Rebel’
• ‘Moonage Daydream’
• ‘Sweet Thing’
• ‘Candidate’
• ‘Sweet Thing (Reprise)’
• ‘Changes’
• ‘Suffragette City’
• ‘Aladdin Sane’
• ‘All The Young Dudes’
• ‘Cracked Actor’
• ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll With Me’
• ‘Watch That Man’
• ‘Space Oddity’
• ‘Future Legend’
• ‘Diamond Dogs’
• ‘Panic In Detroit’
• ‘Big Brother’
• ‘Chant Of The Ever Circling Skeletal Family’
• ‘Time’
• ‘The Width Of A Circle’
• ‘The Jean Genie’
• ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Suicide’