David Bowie ended the European leg of his 2002 'Heathen' tour at the Stravinski Hall during the Montreux Jazz Festival, in Montreux, Switzerland. Despite sweltering temperatures, Bowie performed a longer than usual set and rewarded the audience with a similar one to that that which he performed in Cologne the week before and which, until now, was deemed the tour’s finest event.
He started the show in the very stylish black and white clobber that had become the trademark look of this tour. The fans down the front didn't disappoint in terms of launching appropriate items stage-ward at the appropriate lyrical prompts...such as "Just wishing that I had just something you wore", "I'd love to get a letter" and possibly "...your big fat dog" and perhaps even "...the girl next door"!
The first encore saw a return of Bowie’s stylish blue jacket, and for the second the entire Low album, (excepting 'Weeping Wall') for which Bowie wore his long red coat with the black platforms and baggy black trouser, was performed. He finished the show sans red coat, possibly due to the outrageous temperatures in the hall.
At the end of the show, in a rather surreal scene, an important type (Claude Nobs, the founder of the festival, apparently) presented DB with a huge Swiss cowbell onstage...by all accounts David was almost overcome with laughter as he struggled offstage banging his gift.
The entire show was recorded for live FM radio broadcast and while not previously released on CD, this new 2-disc set put that right, featuring as it does Bowie’s entire Montreux 2002 concert