Diamond Dogs Tour - Set Design

Set Design

The set for the theatrical "Diamond Dogs" tour, which was built to resemble a city (called "Hunger City"), included a movable catwalk (which collapsed once during the tour with Bowie on it), streetlamps and elaborate props. For the song "Big Brother," Bowie sang from inside a multi-mirrored glass "asylum," only to emerge during the song "Time" from a giant hand. For "Space Oddity" Bowie climbed onto a cherry picker, which lifted him out and over the audience. These props weren't ready until 6 days before the tour opened. The set itself was estimated to weigh 6 tons and was made of 20,000 moving parts. The show in Tampa, FL, was performed without any of the stage props because the truck driver driving those components was delayed after being stung by a bee.

In 1987, while preparing for the Glass Spider Tour (which picked up theatrically where the Diamond Dogs Tour left off), Bowie recalled about the extraordinary nature of the set he used during the Diamond Dogs tour:

We had four skyscrapers on stage, with bridges that went backwards and forward and would go up and down. The whole things was built on a city pretext. I had dancers working with me and it was choreographed and was a real fantastic musical event. I thoroughly enjoyed working like that.