'No David Bowie world tour in 2013' says guitarist Earl Slick

Slick denies live return of Thin White Duke

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Monday 24th June 2013 by Andrew Trendell | Photos by Press

Rumours of David Bowie making his live comeback with a world tour in 2013 have been denied his guitarist and long-time collaborator, Earl Slick.

Slick, 60, plays on Bowie's latest comeback record The Next Day. The guitarist was in London last week for the annual Meltdown Festival - this year curated by Bowie's friend Yoko Ono.

Speaking at the event, Slick said that there would be “no Bowie live dates this year.”

His dismissal follows on from similar claims from The Next Day's producer Tony Visconti, who told NME: "He’s fairly adamant he’s never gonna perform live again… One of the guys would say, ‘Boy, how are we gonna do all this live?’ and David said, ‘We’re not’. He made a point of saying that all the time.”

However, back in March Bowie's wife Iman hinted that we could see the live return of the Thin White Duke. Speaking to Grazia magazine she said: "We have a 12 year old in school, so we are stuck, we can’t travel. Our schedule is around her, so I don’t know. We’ll have to go visit him, but we won’t be on tour with him because she’s in school.”

Bowie's last full live show was at Hurricane festival in June 2004, before he was forced to cancel the remaining dates on his Reality tour due to illness. See footage of him performing 'Heroes' from the show below:

Despite the latest dismissals, rumour continues to circulate about Bowie making a surprise appearance at this weekend's Glastonbury festival.

The Next Day has been an enormous success for the iconic superstar, with universal acclaim from fans and critics alike. In our review, we said: "Regardless of hype, you realise that you’ve just sat through wonderfully strange journey of wonderfully imaginative and excellently crafted songs from a rare talent. The rarest in fact. The playful defaced Heroes album cover says it all. The record is loaded with the sense of an artist looking back at a colourful life behind him, and instead of being weighed down or having to compete with his own legacy, carrying it with him to use all of his acquired artistry and experience to say something in a language that only Bowie can."

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