David Bowie played in Croatia for the first time on September 5, 1990.
On September 5, 1990, so 17 27 years ago, I was getting ready for my first birthday party, still unaware that some 15 years later I’d be introduced to and fall desperately in love with the sounds of Ziggy Stardust, while the man himself was playing in Zagreb for the first time on that same day.
50,000 lucky souls stood in the rain and watched the Thin White Duke perform at Maksimir as part of his Sound + Vision Tour. Tina Turner had performed at the same spot three weeks prior, so the concert marked Croatia entering an era of great concerts by international artists, and not just local performers.
Bowie started with Space Oddity and included all his biggest hits, Life on Mars?, Starman, Ashes to Ashes, Rebel Rebel, Ziggy Stardust, Let’s Dance, and ended, of course, with Heroes.
Some reports say that Bowie played for an hour and a half in the rain, but some people remember it being shorter – only 45 min.
Boa opened for Bowie (they kind of sound similar, come to think about it) and the concert was the last big concert before the war, and most people remember it because the weather was terrible and everyone was soaking wet – even though it seems umbrellas were allowed at concerts at the time.
David Bowie played in Zagreb again, this time in 1997, and, again, I was too young to comprehend what I was missing, but I sure do envy every single one of the 50,000 people in the audience for getting a chance to see Starman live before he went off to a galaxy filled with colourful glitter in 2016.
Excerpts translated from Muzika.hr.
