Live: Coventry Theatre, Coventry

David Bowie began a nine-date tour with Humble Pie on 8 October 1969, with a performance at the Coventry Theatre.

The Changes ’69 tour also featured Love Sculpture and Samson. Humble Pie featured Bowie’s former schoolmate – and future collaborator – Peter Frampton on guitar.

Bowie had originally been asked to do a mime set, but instead performed an acoustic solo set. He was invited onto the tour by Andrew Loog Oldham, former manager of the Rolling Stones, who now looked after Humble Pie.

David was taking his car on the tour so the two of us drove up to Coventry together on October 8. Humble Pie’s agent David Apps offered to drive me back to London after the show, so while David was rehearsing, I went in search of somewhere for him to stay the night. As all the reasonably priced theatrical digs were full I reserved a room at the Leofric Hotel for him. When I got back to the theatre I found that there had been a mix-up in the arrangements for David’s musical accompaniment and that he had decided to accompany himself. Andrew wasn’t very pleased that David had also decided against doing any mime, but I think the straight musical set was preferable in the short time at his disposal.

The Coventry Theatre opened in 1937 as the New Hippodrome, and was renamed in 1955. It became the Coventry Apollo in 1979, but closed in 1985 and became a bingo hall before being demolished in 2002.

The nine dates of the Changes ’69 tour were: Coventry (8 October), Leeds (9), Birmingham (10), Brighton (11), Bristol (13), London (21), Edinburgh (23), Manchester (25), and Liverpool (26).