David Bowie's last concert: Hurricane Festival, Scheeßel, June 25, 2004

About the artist

David Bowie was born David Robert Jones in Brixton, south London, on January 8, 1947. He formed his first band at 15, sang in a string of groups, and in 1967 took the name Bowie to avoid being confused with Davy Jones of the Monkees^[1]. "Space Oddity," timed to the Apollo 11 mission in 1969, was his first big hit, reaching the Top Five^[1].

On The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972) he played an androgynous alien rock star^[2], then killed the character off on stage at London's Hammersmith Odeon at the height of its success. Young Americans (1975) turned to soul; in Berlin, with Iggy Pop, Tony Visconti and Brian Eno, he made Low, "Heroes" and Lodger. "Ashes to Ashes" went back to the Major Tom story and reached No. 1, and Let's Dance (1983), made with Nile Rodgers, sold seven million copies^[1]. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 by David Byrne, with Madonna accepting on his behalf^[3].

Japan mattered to him. On his first tour there in 1973 he wore costumes by Kansai Yamamoto and made kabuki-style quick changes on stage; in 1980 he appeared in a TV commercial for a shochu brand and released the instrumental "Crystal Japan" only in Japan; and in 1983 he starred in the film Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence^[2]. Heathen (2002) was followed by Reality in 2003^[4].

Why this was the last show

In June 2003 Bowie announced A Reality Tour to go with the new album. His website billed it as his first major world tour in almost a decade: starting at the Forum in Copenhagen on October 7, it would cover 17 countries in seven months and play to more than a million people, reaching Australia and the Far East in 2004. Bowie said the previous year's shows had been "such a tremendous high"^[5].

At a fan event in September 2003, asked why he had not been to Japan since the Outside tour of 1996, he promised to come the following year^[6]. On March 8, 2004, he played the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo, his first show in Japan in eight years, with 26 songs. At a press conference that morning he recalled that the first Japanese he learned, in 1973, was how to ask for cigarettes, talked about riding the subway on a day pass and getting help from locals to find an udon shop, and said he was "heading for another period of experimentation." He played the Budokan again the next night^[7]. Since he never played another full show after that summer^[8], those were his last concerts in Japan.

In the summer the tour moved to European festivals. On June 13 he headlined the Isle of Wight Festival, which Radio X counts as his last full UK show^[9]. About a week before Prague, in Oslo, a fan threw a lollipop that hit him in the eye^[8].

On Wednesday, June 23, the show in Prague ended early. According to Ultimate Classic Rock, Bowie felt pain in his left shoulder and brought the concert to an abrupt end^[8]. Earl Slick, his guitarist, remembers Bowie telling him to keep vamping during "The Jean Genie," leaving the stage, coming back to sing a little more and then walking off again^[10]. At the time, Bowie's website put it down to a trapped nerve^[11].

The Scheeßel show two days later went ahead in full. But his next date, at Germany's Southside Festival, was called off under doctor's orders^[11]. On June 28 the website announced that the remaining 11 European dates in July were canceled. It said the pinched nerve in his shoulder was still causing pain, that doctors had advised him to stop to avoid further injury, and that it had been a reluctant decision; the team apologized to fans who might have lost money on non-refundable travel and festival tickets^[12]. Reports differ on how many shows were lost in all, giving 14^[13][9] or 15^[14].

The real cause came out in July. His spokesman said that tests for the shoulder had found an "acutely blocked artery" that nobody had known about, and that Bowie had had an emergency angioplasty at a clinic in Hamburg. He had left the clinic the week before and was recovering with his family; Bowie said he couldn't wait to be fully recovered and get back to work^[15]. Slick says the band were told to sit tight in Hamburg because David needed rest, and then, with no details, to go home^[10].

Gerry Leonard, another of his guitarists, has said the heart attack came as a complete surprise, and that afterward Bowie "went pretty quiet" and was candid that he had been shaken^[16]. In September 2005 Bowie told British newspapers that he had taken a year off to look after himself, that he went to the gym and did not drink, and that, having quit smoking six months before the heart attack, it "did come as a bit of a shock"^[17]. The documentary David Bowie: The Last Five Years reports that he considered ending his career at that point^[13].

Touring did come up again. The pianist Mike Garson told Music Week that in 2006 Bowie asked whether they should go out again, and that, sensing he wasn't ready, Garson told him only if he was feeling it. Garson said Bowie felt bad about the 2004 tour being cut short, and that when they talked about touring later, Bowie's health would not allow it^[18]. He never did tour again, and the Scheeßel show of June 25, 2004, stands as his last full concert^[8][14].

What is known about the day

The Hurricane Festival is held at the Eichenring, a sand track on the east side of Scheeßel where motorcycle races are run, and has been based there since the 1990s^[19]. June 25, 2004, was a Friday. Bowie's website reported that the weather was grim again, living up to the festival's name^[20].

The site wrote that the trapped nerve from Prague seemed to have been beaten for the night. Bowie came on in a charcoal grey hooded top rather than a canary yellow one, and fans who were there reported him to be even chattier and more jovial than usual^[20]. Behind him was the band of the tour, with Earl Slick and Gerry Leonard on guitars and Gail Ann Dorsey on bass^[13][16].

He opened with "Rebel Rebel" and "Fame"^[20]. From Reality came "New Killer Star" and "The Loneliest Guy"^[14]. There was the Pixies' "Cactus," and two songs first released by Iggy Pop, "Sister Midnight" and "China Girl"^[9], and in the second half "Under Pressure," his song with Queen, led into "Ashes to Ashes"^[20][9]. Leonard recalls that the show seemed normal, though not quite as energetic and charged as the one before^[13].

The main set ended with "Heroes"^[20]. Slick says it was obvious Bowie was not well, but the band played the whole set, and he counts that day's "Heroes" among the best vocals Bowie ever gave^[10].

The encore began with "Life On Mars?" and went on to "Suffragette City." The last song was "Ziggy Stardust"^[20][9], from the character he had created in 1972^[2][1], and it became the last song he ever played on tour. The set ran to 21 songs, 18 in the main set and three in the encore^[20][14].

After the show, Dorsey recalls, an ambulance came and took him away^[13]. According to his spokesman, he saw doctors about his shoulder after the concert, and that was when the heart problem was found^[15].

On July 20 the arte channel showed a few songs from the night in a 95-minute festival program, and Bowie's website posted a short clip of "I'm Afraid Of Americans"; the music channel Viva also scheduled festival footage. Nobody knew it when the cameras were rolling, the site noted, but this had been the last show of the tour^[21].

What the show left behind

Bowie's next time in front of an audience came in September 2005. At Fashion Rocks, taped at Radio City Music Hall in New York and broadcast on CBS, he sang "Life on Mars" with only a piano, then joined Arcade Fire for "Five Years" and their own "Wake Up," which brought the crowd to its feet^[22]. He said he had agreed to appear only if Arcade Fire played^[17], and that month he also joined them in Central Park^[14].

On May 29, 2006, he walked on during the encore of David Gilmour's show at the Royal Albert Hall in London and sang Syd Barrett's "Arnold Layne" and "Comfortably Numb." Ultimate Classic Rock notes it was his last live performance in the UK; it was included on Gilmour's 2007 DVD Remember That Night^[23], and in Japan it came out the same year as an "Arnold Layne" CD single marking the first anniversary of Barrett's death^[24]. On November 9 he sang "Wild Is the Wind" and "Fantastic Voyage" at the Black Ball benefit at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York, and "Changes" with Alicia Keys^[9][14]. On May 19, 2007, introducing Ricky Gervais at Madison Square Garden, he sang "Little Fat Man" from Gervais's series Extras; in 2016 Gervais called it Bowie's last ever live performance^[9]. All of these were short spots in other people's shows; he never again headlined a concert of his own^[8].

After that he largely disappeared from public view^[1]. On January 8, 2013, his 66th birthday, he released "Where Are We Now?", and The Next Day, his first album in ten years, followed^[1][9]. Tony Visconti, his producer, told NME that Bowie was "fairly adamant he's never gonna perform live again": when one of the musicians wondered how they would do the songs live, Bowie said they weren't going to^[25]. To Rolling Stone, Visconti said there would be no tour, though Bowie might do one show if he felt like it^[26]. When Slick started to say that "Set the World on Fire" would go over well live, Bowie told him, "Don't even think about it," and Slick could tell he meant it^[10]. Ultimate Classic Rock notes that he refused to tour the album^[8].

Blackstar, his 28th studio album, came out on January 8, 2016, his 69th birthday: seven songs made with New York musicians including the saxophonist Donny McCaslin^[27]. Two days later, on January 10, he died of cancer at 69^[1][9]. Leonard has said that Bowie always worked very much in the present, and that the late work makes a lot more sense with hindsight^[16].

In 2017 the retrospective David Bowie is, with more than 300 objects from his 50-year career, came to Terrada Warehouse in Tokyo, Kansai Yamamoto's cape among them^[28]. In David Bowie: The Last Five Years, members of the 2004 band looked back on the days in Prague and Scheeßel^[13].

On the 20th anniversary, June 25, 2024, American Songwriter marked the night as his final full-length concert^[14]. In September 2025 the box set I Can't Give Everything Away (2002–2016) gathered his late albums, including Reality and A Reality Tour, the live album recorded on this tour in Dublin in November 2003^[29][4]; in Japan, the 2025 remaster of A Reality Tour and a new domestic CD of Blackstar followed on July 24, 2026^[30][31]. In October 2026 Slick told Guitar Player that he had hoped they had at least one good tour left in them^[10].

The "Ziggy Stardust" he sang under grim skies in Scheeßel was the last song of his touring life.