📰 Live in Seattle – Mar. 1978

Writer: New Musical Express

Date: March 18, 1978

Length: ~4 min read

A playful, irreverent NME sidebar poking fun at a dubious bootleg sleeve pairing Bowie and Iggy Pop as the “dynamic duo” of the 1977 Seattle show.

A glam‑punk myth wrapped in a bootleg sleeve and a wink.

In March 1978, NME ran a short, cheeky article reacting to a bootleg titled Iggy & Ziggy: Live in Seattle 4/9/77. The piece questioned the authenticity of the photos on the sleeve while celebrating the chaotic energy of the Bowie–Iggy partnership during their 1977 tour.

📰 Key Highlights

• NME commentary on the Iggy & Ziggy Seattle bootleg

• Photos on the sleeve suspected to be faked or misattributed

• Bootleg tracklist includes “Raw Power,” “Search and Destroy,” and “China Girl”

• Article reflects the press fascination with Bowie and Iggy’s 1977 collaboration

• A snapshot of late‑’70s bootleg culture and its mythology

📰 Overview

By early 1978, the Bowie–Iggy creative partnership had become the stuff of rock‑press legend. Their 1977 tour — with Bowie playing keyboards in Iggy’s band — produced a wave of bootlegs, rumours, and fan‑circulated ephemera. One such item was Iggy & Ziggy: Live in Seattle 4/9/77, a bootleg LP with a provocative sleeve featuring shirtless Iggy Pop and a sultry Bowie posed against an American flag.

NME’s one‑page article treated the bootleg with a mix of amusement and skepticism. Rather than reviewing the music, the writer focused on the sleeve itself, questioning whether the images were genuine or cleverly assembled fakes. The tone was knowingly playful, reflecting the era’s fascination with the Bowie–Iggy dynamic — two artists whose personas blurred the line between authenticity and performance.

The article stands as a small but telling artifact of how the British music press framed the pair: dangerous, glamorous, unpredictable, and irresistibly intertwined.

📰 Source Details

Publication / Venue: New Musical Express

Date: March 18, 1978

Format: One‑page article / Bootleg commentary

Provenance Notes:

• Clipping consistent with NME’s late‑’70s tone and layout

• Commentary references the Seattle 4/9/77 bootleg

• Focus on sleeve authenticity rather than musical content

📰 The Story

The Seattle performance on April 9, 1977, was part of Iggy Pop’s The Idiot tour — a run that saw David Bowie acting as musical director, keyboardist, and occasional backing vocalist. The shows were raw, volatile, and deeply influential, capturing both artists at a moment of reinvention.

Bootlegs quickly circulated, and Iggy & Ziggy became one of the more visually striking examples. The sleeve juxtaposed two dramatic portraits: Iggy Pop bare‑chested and feral, Bowie cool and composed. NME seized on the imagery, joking about the “terrible twins” and the possibility that the photos were doctored.

The article’s humour reflects the era’s fascination with Bowie and Iggy as a pair — creative partners, cultural disruptors, and icons whose mythologies fed into each other. Even a questionable bootleg sleeve became an opportunity for the press to explore their shared aura.

While the piece offers no musical critique, it captures the spirit of the time: the blurred lines between authenticity and artifice, the rise of bootleg culture, and the enduring magnetism of Bowie and Iggy’s 1977 collaboration.

📰 Visual Archive

A bootleg LP sleeve featuring two monochrome portraits: Iggy Pop shirtless on the left, David Bowie on the right with an American flag behind him. The title “Iggy & Ziggy — Live in Seattle 4/9/77” appears above, with a tracklist printed below.

Iggy & Ziggy: Live in Seattle 4/9/77 — the bootleg sleeve that sparked NME’s March 1978 commentary.

📰 Related Material

• Iggy Pop — The Idiot Tour (1977)

• David Bowie — Berlin Era Collaborations

• Bootleg Culture in the 1970s

📰 Closing Notes

This brief NME article captures a moment when Bowie and Iggy’s partnership was still radiating through the culture — a pairing so potent that even a dubious bootleg sleeve could spark fascination, humour, and myth‑making in equal measure.

#DavidBowie #IggyPop #IggyAndZiggy #1977Tour #NME #BootlegHistory

📰 Sources

• New Musical Express, March 18, 1978

• Contemporary bootleg catalogues

• Archival documentation of the 1977 Seattle performance

📝 Copyright Notice

All magazine excerpts, photographs, and original bootleg artwork referenced remain the property of their respective copyright holders. This Chronicle entry is a transformative, non‑commercial archival summary created for historical documentation and educational reference. No ownership of the original material is claimed or implied.