Outside Tour


The Outside Tour was a tour by English rock musician David Bowie, opening on 14 September 1995 at Meadows Music Theatre – Hartford, Connecticut. Support during the US leg of the tour was provided by Nine Inch Nails, who segued their set with Bowie's to form a continuous show. Prick opened the first date of the tour. Morrissey was the support act for the European leg, but withdrew from the tour after nine dates. On selected dates Reeves Gabrels performed songs from his album, The Sacred Squall of Now in addition to performing with Nine Inch Nails and David Bowie. The opening of the concert tour preceded the release of the 1. Outside album which was released on 25 September 1995.
An official live recording from the tour, David Bowie Ouvre le Chien was released in July 2020.
In a 2012 Rolling Stone reader's poll, the tour was named one of the top 10 opening acts in rock history.

Tour history

Initial tour rehearsals were held at the Complete Music Studios in New York before moving to the Mullins Center, where Nine Inch Nails joined the rehearsal.
This tour was Bowie's first since he retired his hits with his previous Sound+Vision Tour. Bowie said, "We're going to play some older material, sure, but not obvious things. I found, while rehearsing for the tour, that older songs I haven't played for years suddenly fit in with this new material quite well – things like... "Joe the Lion." So I'm quite looking forward to it." Other songs from Bowie's back catalog that he performed during the tour include "Scary Monsters ", "Look Back in Anger", "Andy Warhol" and "Breaking Glass".
Bowie spoke on why he chose to tour with Nine Inch Nails:
Trent Reznor has gone on record numerous times as being heavily influenced by David Bowie, and further collaborated with Bowie by remixing "The Hearts Filthy Lesson" and later on 1997's "I'm Afraid of Americans" single. When asked in 1995 if his album Outside was influenced by Nine Inch Nails, Bowie answered, "the band that I was actually quite taken with was three guys from Switzerland call The Young Gods... I’d been aware of them previous to knowing about Nine Inch Nails."

Set and costume design

For the tour, Bowie went with a modest stage design and avoided the theatrical presentation like his previous Glass Spider Tour in 1987 and Sound+Vision Tour in 1990. The stage "resembled a building site, with paint splashed crumpled sheets draped about", and included an old fashioned table and chair in one corner, onto which Bowie would occasionally climb during shows.
Bowie had a few outfits for the tour, but included three jackets designed by Alexander McQueen.

Performance notes

Bowie opened an interview for the tour with USA Today on the opening day of the tour, on 14 September 1995 with the question "How do you commit commercial suicide? Well, you do this: play songs from an album that hasn't been released yet, and complement it with obscure songs from the past that you've never done on stage."
During the tour, as Nine Inch Nails reached the conclusion of their performance, the two bands played together with both Nine Inch Nails and Bowie and his band performing "Subterraneans", "Hallo Spaceboy" and "Scary Monsters ", followed by two Nine Inch Nails songs "Reptile" and "Hurt" after which Bowie continued with his own set alone.
Early in the tour, the "almost 100% Nails audience" provided a challenge to Bowie, who said "In those first weeks, we had to adjust emotionally to the fact that we were going to be challenged every night to get in sync with what people were coming to the show for. But then you start to recognize that if you're going to continue, you'd better enjoy what you're doing. The more we did that, the more it communicated to the audience. That's how it went from survival to being a good tour."
Bowie signed copies of his album at a local record store while in New York on 26 September 1995.
Morrissey was slated to be the opening act of the European tour, but he suddenly and unexpectedly quit just before the Aberdeen Exhibition Centre performance on 29 November 1995. The support slot was filled on later dates by The Gyres, Echobelly, Placebo and a variety of local bands.

Live recordings

Dallas, Texas (''Ouvre le Chien (Live Dallas 95))''

The 13 October 1995 show, recorded at the Starplex Amphitheater in Dallas Texas, was released on music streaming platforms as David Bowie Ouvre le Chien in July 2020. This release includes two live songs recorded at the Birmingham performance as well.

Setlist

  1. "Look Back in Anger"
  2. "The Hearts Filthy Lesson"
  3. "The Voyeur of Utter Destruction "
  4. "I Have Not Been to Oxford Town"
  5. "Outside"
  6. "Andy Warhol"
  7. "Breaking Glass"
  8. "The Man Who Sold the World"
  9. "We Prick You"
  10. "I’m Deranged"
  11. "Joe the Lion"
  12. "Nite Flights"
  13. "Under Pressure"
  14. "Teenage Wildlife"
  15. "Moonage Daydream"
  16. "Under Pressure"

    Birmingham, England (Big Twix Mix Show)

The 13 December 1995 performance at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, England, billed as the Big Twix Mix Show with Alanis Morissette, Lightning Seeds and Echobelly as support acts, was filmed by BBC TV with excerpts broadcast at a later date. Two songs from this show, "Under Pressure" and "Moonage Daydream", were released as b-sides on Bowie's "Hallo Spaceboy" single as well as part of the Ouvrez le Chien release.

Setlist

  1. "Look Back in Anger"
  2. "Scary Monsters "
  3. "The Voyeur of Utter Destruction "
  4. "The Man Who Sold the World"
  5. "Hallo Spaceboy"
  6. "I Have Not Been to Oxford Town"
  7. "Strangers When We Meet"
  8. "Breaking Glass"
  9. "The Motel"
  10. "Jump They Say"
  11. "Boys Keep Swinging"
  12. "Teenage Wildlife"
  13. "Under Pressure"
Encore:
  1. "Moonage Daydream"
  2. "We Prick You"
  3. "Hallo Spaceboy"

    Tour band

Songs

From The Man Who Sold the World
From Hunky Dory
From The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
From Live Santa Monica '72
From
From Diamond Dogs
From Low
From "Heroes"
From Lodger
From Scary Monsters
From Black Tie White Noise
From Outside
Other songs: