Problems started when he got there and discovered that his manager Michael Lippman had apparently neglected to book any accomodation for the party there. The story is that he immediately rang Lippman to tell him that he was fired but there is also a story that there were problems with Lippman securing the rights for Bowie to perform the soundtrack to the film 'The Man Who Fell To Earth' which was also to be released in February. In fact, on the Russell Harty show Bowie had said "All I've got to do is record the sound, I've already written a lot of it." The piece called 'Subterraneans' on the 'Low' album is supposed to be one of the tracks that he originally wrote for the film. From then on, Bowie decided to manage himself in all his business affairs, hiring relevant people for the job whenever necessary. He was also still involved in legal battles with Tony DeFries over his back catalogue since he had sacked him the previous summer. "I used to think an artist had to separate himself from business matters, but now I realise that you have more artisitic freedom if you keep an eye on business" he said while on tour in America in 1976; "My office is a suitcase that stays in my room". As usual when touring, Bowie decided to use the same band that had just finished the album so Earl Slick was asked along. Having made his name with Bowie over the previous two years, Slick had made an album with his own band during the summer while Bowie was in New Mexico filming 'the Man Who Fell To Earth'.
Both his own and 'Station To Station' were due to be released in the New Year and Slick and his management started pressing Bowie for extra prominence on the tour and apparently even wanted RCA to pay Slick's band while their leader was on tour. Bowie wanted none of this so he promptly fired Slick and engaged Stacey heydon, an unkown Canadian guitarist, of whom nothing has been heard since. For the album Bowie had used Bruce Springsteen's pianist Roy Bittan but he was unable to join Bowie since he was busy promoting the 'Born To Run' album. Instead Bowie employed Tony Kaye - formerly of Yes. The rehearsals in Jamaica also featured the musicians who were to tour the following year - Carlos Alomar, George Murray and Dennis Davis. Another idea was to have two backing singers onstage with Bowie but a story in 'Melody Maker' of 31st January 1976 tells that the two (Ava Cherry and Claudia Lennear) were sacked because "both girls were disciples from Satan, sent to Earth in order that he might father one of their children, a child that would one day grow up to be the re-incarnation of the devil himself." It is unclear who made this statement but if it was Bowie he was either enjoying a huge joke at the journalist's expense or in a worse state than anyone could have imagined.
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