Never one to do things by halves, David Bowie threw himself the 50th birthday party to end all 50th birthday parties in January1 997, when he staged a show at New York’s Madison Square Garden at which he was joined by a dazzling array of special guests for a once-in-a-lifetime journey through his incredible back catalogue.
The evening saw Bowie share the stage with Smashing Pumpkins Billy Corgan, The Cure's Robert Smith, Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon, Foo Fighters, Lou Reed and more, and the celebrations also ended up having an unintended effect on The Cure’s long-term line-up.
Bowie’s Musical Director at the time was Reeves Gabrels, his former Tin Machine bandmate, and it fell upon the Staten Island-born guitarist to make sure each guest joining Bowie onstage had learned their parts ahead of time. Not everyone got the personal touch that he afforded to Robert Smith, however, as Gabrels told this writer in 2021, recalling that the pair ended up going on a three-day drinking bender in New York.
We'll let the man himself pick up the tale…
“Robert [Smith] was the last one that I got together with," Gabrels explained. "He came into New York on the Wednesday evening, we got together, we were talking, went through the songs and it was pretty obvious he had done his homework. He was spot on.”
