Nevertheless, Bowie and Waters did land up on the same platform some decades earlier, in 1986, when they ‘appeared’ on the soundtrack of When The Wind Blows — which contained music by Waters — although the keyboard-driven title song was composed by Bowie. singles chart in February 1974. R.A more ‘direct’ connect with Bowie occurred on July 13, 1985 when Doordarshan stunned international music listeners by deciding to broadcast Live Aid, live and, among the multi-artistes featured, Bowie was prominent by running through four songs at London’s Wembley Stadium, almost at midnight India time if I remember correctly, clothed to perfection, as always, in a light grey suit.P.Blackstar — the album — was released on the icon’s birthday and, as this column is being written, there are strong indications that the album may just become Bowie’s first no.
Although Bowie did not appear on Roger Waters’ ‘The Wall’ tour covering 2010-13 — which is brilliantly captured and documented on a DVD recently released by Reliance Entertainment —Bowie did perform on one of the original album’s prime cuts, Comfortably Numb (ranked in Rolling Stone magazine’s ‘500 Greatest Songs Of All Time’), along with Waters’ former Pink Floyd partner, David Gilmour, at London’s Royal Albert Hall on May 29, 2006, as also on another Pink Floyd selection, Arnold Layne. A hush would eventually fall over the massive crowd as the intro to Heroes commenced, wherein Bowie took the liberty of introducing his band, subsequently, adding: “I am forever in their debt. The rock legend originally debuted Blackstar, the song, in November 2015, which was used as the theme for the European television series, The Last Panthers. Not only that but, although most people are not aware, there is also a connect between Bowie and, one of my favourite bands, Pink Floyd.While there really is so much to write on David Bowie and even more once you discover his multifarious musical avatars, suffice to say that there are not many globally popular artistes who can boast of releasing 9 live albums, 25 studio albums, and 46 compilations, having combined sales upwards of 140 million units.1., David Bowie, you are already missed!
