‘Lost’ 1978 David Bowie tour film to play arenas in 2027, remastered by Moonage Daydream director Brett Morgen

David Hemmings’ never-released concert film from Bowie’s 1978 world tour will be presented in a multimedia show that aims to ‘create the illusion’ that he is present on stage

Almost 50 years after its original run, David Bowie’s 1978 Isolar II tour will return to arenas in 2027, billed as Stage, thanks to Moonage Daydream director Brett Morgen’s painstaking remaster of never-before-seen footage.

Bowie originally commissioned David Hemmings, the Blow-Up star turned director, to film two shows centred on the “Heroes” and Low albums at London’s Earls Court arena that summer. Bowie had recently been directed by Hemmings in the critically maligned Just a Gigolo, alongside Marlene Dietrich.

Bowie intended for the footage to be released as a concert film that could, according to his associates, play in nontraditional venues such as concert venues in lieu of him touring himself. After the Isolar II tour, Bowie would not tour again until the 1983 Serious Moonlight run.

But the always fast-evolving musician soon became busy with other projects: recording and releasing Lodger, working with John Cale on music that was never released and Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps).

While an acclaimed live album of the tour, Stage (recorded at US dates that spring), was released in autumn 1978, the footage never saw the light of day. “I simply didn’t like the way it had been shot,” Bowie said in 2000. “Now, of course, it looks pretty good and I would suspect that it would make it out some time in the future.”