David Bowie – “Heroes” (Live on TopPop, October 13th 1977) Nacho remaster

david live

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Restoration of David Bowie’s beautiful live-vocal performance on Dutch music show TopPop.

The material for Bowie’s album “Heroes” was recorded and mixed quickly in August ’77. In early September, just prior to the release of the “Heroes” single, Bowie commenced a short promotional tour, recording TV shows and the “Heroes” video.

The recording dates of the tour were:

September 7th • UK • The Marc Show
September 11th • UK • Bing Crosby’s Merrie Olde Christmas TV Special
September 27th • UK • “Heroes” video shoot
October 1st • Italy • Odeon
October 13th • Holland • TopPop
October 16th • France • Le Rendez-Vous Du Dimanche
October 19th • UK • Top of the Pops

This video is an upgrade on the existing versions on YouTube. The quality is the best that I am aware of, and unlike the official upload on the TopPop channel, it contains the original live audio. Whereas on the official TopPop upload, the audio has been replaced with the standard studio 7″ version of “Heroes”. In order to make the two sources sync, TopPop re-cut and superimposed parts of their video. This version is the uncut original.

About 5 different versions of the clip were utilized, including one with a longer outro than was originally broadcast, where Bowie continues to sing after the backing track fades out.

This video was also originally a plug for a ten-minute film of the TopPop appearance that I had made and put up on my Nachos Productions Vimeo account. But unfortunately in 2021, Vimeo suddenly deleted all the videos on my account.

Nacho, October 2023.

Sources

Video:
AVRO TopPop outtakes • October 13th 1977
AVRO TopPop broadcast • October 15th 1977

Audio:
David Bowie • V-2 Schneider from the album “Heroes”, recorded in August, 1977

Musicians
David Bowie – vocals, keyboards, guitars, saxophone, tambourine
Brian Eno – synthesizers, keyboards, guitar treatments
Robert Fripp – lead guitar
Carlos Alomar – rhythm guitar
George Murray – bass guitar
Dennis Davis – drums, percussion
Tony Visconti – percussion, backing vocals

Original track produced by David Bowie and Tony Visconti