APRIL

11 Arrives in New York on the SS France to live in America for nearly two years. Checks into the Sherry Netherlands Hotel on 5th Avenue.

During his stay in New York Bowie spent time putting together a new tour band and seeing live music, particularly black artists such as The Temptations, The Spinners and Marvin Gaye at (normally strictly black) venues in Harlem such as the Apollo Theatre.

Bowie also sees Roxy Music and Todd Rundgren at the Carnegie Hall and attends the after show party.

» Right: Ferry, Amanda Lear (For Your Pleaure cover star and Sorrow temptress), Bowie and Shaun Cassidy (!).

JUNE

8-10 Rehearsals at Port Chester Capitol Theater for the elaborately staged Diamond Dogs US tour, before the 600-mile journey to Montreal.

This tour was originally planned to appear in a city for 5 or so nights and then move on to another city. The set cost $200,000, props $75,000.

Bowie wore this Yves Saint Laurent suit as the Halloween Jack during the June and July dates of the tour.

Diamond David article published in Rock magazine.

JULY

UK promoters turn down the chance to stage the Diamond Dogs tour at the Empire Pool, Wembley, because of the amount of money asked for by MainMan. Tickets would have had to have been about £7.00, unacceptable then as a reasonable price.

8-13 Philadelphia Tower Theatre

The Tower Theatre shows on 12 and 13 July were nearly cancelled at the last moment when Bowie's backing band, after hearing the news that the shows were to be recorded for an LP, refused to play without an increased fee in line with the normal recording rates. The normal show fee of $150 for a member of the group was increased to $5,000 after Bowie relented.

David Live was recorded without Tony Visconti who was held up when his car broke down travelling from New York.

Engineer Keith Harwood was left to do the job alone and the microphones were not placed according to Visconti's instructions. As a result various instruments were not isolated properly thus making the tracks much more difficult to mix. The mixing was done a few days after the Philly shows by Bowie, Tony Visconti and Eddie Kramer at Electric Lady studios in New York. Some of the backing vocals had to be re-recorded due to loss of microphone contact during the shows.

The whole post production process was done in haste as DeFries wanted to secure the record's release for the Christmas market.

16 Boston Music Hall

17 Hartford, Bushnell Auditorium

19-20 New York, Madison Square Garden

The shows videotaped for MainMan by John Dove.

Bowie arrives at 6 o’clock for soundcheck, instead of just before the show, indicating how important he considered the show. At 7.30 Bowie’s hairdresser Jac Collelo (seen later on in Cracked Actor documentary) restyles Bowie’s hair shorter with a more blonde-burgundy colour. The costume for this show is the pale blue suit, white open collar shirt and light yellow socks.

At the aftershow party at the Plaza, Jagger, Bowie and Midler disappear for an hour into a walk in cupboard.

The end of tour party for the road crew was held at the Ice Palace Discotheque.

Late July

Mixing David Live in Electric Lady Studios in Greenwich Village. Initially the album is tentatively called Wham-Bam-Thank-You-Ma’m.

Becomes interested in video techniques and takes lessons from MainMan cameraman John Dove.

AUGUST

Drummer Tony Newman and bass guitarist Herbie Flowers leave the tour group (which Bowie retained for the second leg of the tour in September) replaced by Willie Weeks and Andy Newmark.

Bowie returns to London for a weekend and plays uncredited (and unverified) on Rolling Stones' It's Only Rock'n'Roll and Ron Wood's I've Got My Own Album To Do.

 Young Americans sessions

11-23 The first recording sessions for the Young Americans album.

Bowie had booked studio time at Philadelphia's Sigma Sound studios.

He liked the studios for their Gamble and Huff recording connections, but he was particularly excited by the sound he heard there during an Ava Cherry session. Bowie holes up in The Barclay in Philadelphia for the duration of the Sigma sessions. Bowie works late into the night recording vocals after midnight, the way he’d heard that Sinatra liked to work. In eight days, nine tracks have been completed for the album, tentatively called Dancin’. The fans keeping their vigil outside the studio are invited into the studio to hear the album. Bowie mingles and listens closely to their opinions of the songs then takes to the floor to join in the dancing, ecstatic at the positive response from the fans.

Tracks recorded:

Young Americans

Right

Somebody Up There Likes Me

Who Can I Be Now

It's Gonna Be Me

Can You Hear Me

After Today

John I'm Only Dancing Again was begun then completed in the November sessions. It was dropped later but released as a single in 1979.

A backing track was recorded for Bruce Springsteen's It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City but remained unfinished until the Station To Station sessions, and unreleased until 1989 when it was included along with After Today on the Ryko Sound + Vision anthology.

Who Can I Be Now and It's Gonna Be Me were later dropped from the tracklisting and remained unreleased until the Ryko reissue of Young Americans.

SEPTEMBER

2-8 Los Angeles Universal Amphitheatre. One show filmed by the BBC for Cracked Actor.

Interviewed by Robert Hilburn for Melody Maker

11 San Diego Sports Arena

13 Tucson Convention Centre

Rock 'N' Roll With Me / Panic in Detroit [live] single released in the US (RCA).

14 Phoenix Coliseum. Melody Maker interview published.

16 Los Angeles Anaheim Convention Centre

13 Knock On Wood / Panic in Detroit single released (highest UK chart position No. 10)

OCTOBER

 The Philly Dogs Tour

29 David Live double LP released.

NOVEMBER

David Bowie and Elizabeth Taylor announce that they are to appear together in a film, The Bluebird of Happiness. It was eventually made without Bowie, who considered the script 'too dry and boring'.

1-3 New York, Radio City Music Hall

6 Cleveland Public Hall

After the show, Bowie stayed up all night in the hotel bar dancing and miming.

8 Buffalo Memorial Auditorium

11 Washington DC, Capital Centre

14-16 Boston Music Hall

25 Philadelphia Spectrum Theatre

Reported in Disc magazine

18 Philadelphia Spectrum Theatre

19 Pittsburgh Civic Arena

Young Americans sessions

Recording resumes at Sigma in Philadelphia.

Tracks recorded: Win, Fascination

25 Bruce Springsteen drops in on Sigma sessions. Reported the next day in Bowie meets Springsteen by Mike McGrath in The Drummer.

John I'm Only Dancing Again was begun then completed in the November sessions. It was dropped later but released as a single in 1979.

A backing track was recorded for Bruce Springsteen's It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City but remained unfinished until the Station To Station sessions, and unreleased until 1989 when it was included along with After Today on the Ryko Sound + Vision anthology.

Who Can I Be Now and It's Gonna Be Me were later dropped from the tracklisting and remained unreleased until the Ryko reissue of Young Americans.

Mike Garson, Bruce Springsteen, Tony Visconti and Bowie

28 Memphis, Mid-South Auditorium

30 Nashville Municipal Auditorium

DECEMBER

Young Americans video shot in New York.

Mixing begins at Record Plant in New York. Visconti then takes the masters back to London to finish off, almost losing the reels at LA Airport in the process.

1 Atlanta, Omni.

Last show of the 1974 US tour.

On Tour With Bowie by Leee Black Childers published in Hit Parader magazine.

4 Appears on the The Dick Cavett Show

23 Dinner with Mike Garson, Hotel Pierre. Tells Garson, "I want you to be my pianist for the next twenty years". A day or so later Garson visits Bowie to exchange Christmas presents. It’s the last he sees of him for many years. Ten years on, Garson recalled the passing parade of musicians in Bowie’s career. "The joke had been "When it's my time, David, just let me know.'"