February 14, 1976 - David Bowie Tour Preview NME

MR. DAVID BOWIE could hardly have selected a more suitable jumping-off point for his 1976 world tour than Vancouver, British Columbia (somewhere in) Canada.

This Northwest port city, closer to Alaska than San Francisco - spiritually as well as physically, has managed to remain remarkably provincial despite a head count nearing the million mark. Its populace was substantial (and starved for rock and roll) enough to ensure Bowie a quick sell-out of the 17,000-plus Coliseum, a proper introduction to the kind of venues he'll be seeing regularly on his global campaign.

Yet there's a certain privacy to Vancouver, an outgrowth of the American attitude that nothing north of Seattle really matters. This shouldn't be taken as any kind of geographical slur by Canadian nationalists; it's just that the country has lived so long in Uncle Sam's shadow that it's come to be regarded, however unfairly, as a grey expanse encountered only if you take a wrong turn at Detroit.

Canada is about as off-Broadway as you can possibly get. If the show here didn't make it on any level, there was still plenty of time for adjustment before it would be subjected to too much media scrutiny.