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Originally released as a Record Store Day exclusive in April 2018 but swiftly receiving a CD and digital release, Welcome to the Blackout (Live London '78) gathers 24 highlights from David Bowie's two-night stint at Earls Court on June 30 and July 1, 1978. Apart from "Sound and Vision" and "Be My Wife," which appeared on a 1995 compilation, this album consists of previously unreleased -- but heavily bootlegged -- live performances, all dating from the end of Bowie's 1978 tour. Stage, which came out a few months after this performance, captures the same tour, but Welcome to the Blackout isn't as stiff as that contemporaneously released double album. Bowie and band -- which includes guitarists Adrian Belew and Carlos Alomar, bassist George Murray, and drummer Dennis Davis, along with Roger Powell, a keyboardist who served in Todd Rundgren's Utopia -- are loose, sometimes rushing a tempo and sometimes settling into it, as they do on a louche "Heroes" that kicks off the record. The positioning of "Heroes" is telling: it's not here as a triumphant closer but a grooving keynote, setting the pace for a set where Bowie attempts to find the right balance between art and a party. He doesn't always get it right -- Powell tends to overwhelm on the suite of Ziggy Stardust numbers, painting everything with swathes of synths -- but the performance is invigorating even with its flaws.
David Bowie
Welcome to the Blackout (Live London '78)
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AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Track Listing - Disc 1
| Sample | Title/Composer | Performer | Time | Stream | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
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06:27 | Amazon | ||||
| 2 |
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07:33 | Amazon | ||||
| 3 |
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04:01 | Amazon | ||||
| 4 |
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02:45 | Amazon | ||||
| 5 |
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06:34 | Amazon | ||||
| 6 |
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03:42 | Amazon | ||||
| 7 |
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03:25 | Amazon | ||||
| 8 |
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02:37 | Amazon | ||||
| 9 |
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03:10 | Amazon | ||||
| 10 |
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03:31 | Amazon | ||||
| 11 |
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03:52 | Amazon | ||||
| 12 |
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04:58 | Amazon |
Track Listing - Disc 2
| Sample | Title/Composer | Performer | Time | Stream | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
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06:08 | Amazon | ||||
| 2 |
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02:51 | Amazon | ||||
| 3 |
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02:30 | Amazon | ||||
| 4 |
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02:39 | Amazon | ||||
| 5 |
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03:24 | Amazon | ||||
| 6 |
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03:50 | Amazon | ||||
| 7 |
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03:08 | Amazon | ||||
| 8 |
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03:58 | Amazon | ||||
| 9 |
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11:08 | Amazon | ||||
| 10 |
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04:17 | Amazon | ||||
| 11 |
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06:58 | Amazon | ||||
| 12 |
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03:51 | Amazon |
