Live: Ellis Auditorium, Memphis, Tennessee

David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust Tour returned to the Ellis Auditorium in Memphis, Tennessee on 25 February 1973.

Bowie and the Spiders From Mars performed two shows, at 7pm and 10pm. The support act was Fumble.

The tour had previously called at the venue on 24 September 1972. It was the 98th date of the tour, which had begun on 29 January 1972.

There had been, quite apart from a certain amount of disinterest in the Ziggy Stardust phenomenon on the part of the citizens of Memphis, a campaign by a group known as ‘The Daughters of the American Revolution’ to have our concert cancelled. The Daughters sought a ban on the grounds that David Bowie’s performances were lewd and obscene, and for fear of corrupting the youth of Memphis. In the southern states we were finding that public opinion, as displayed in the local press and on television was divided between the excitement of the younger generation for the new phenomenon from England, and the disgust of the older generation. I wasn’t sure that I agreed with either polarised position, but as the older generation were classifying me, along with the other members of the tour party, as a ‘cock-sucking English faggot’, I tended to side with the younger generation.