David Bowie’s ‘Suffragette City’ was the last song Michael Hutchence ever sang live.
Hutchence was spending his final week in Los Angeles before heading out on his fateful trip to Australia. Michael was in LA recording with producer Danny Saber. Those sessions became Michael’s self-titled solo album, released in 1999.
Saber had an all-star at West Hollywood’s legendary Viper Room and Hutchence tagged along for the show. This was just days before he left for Sydney. It would turn out to be Michael’s last ever live performance and the song he did was a David Bowie song.
“We did a show at the Viper Room, Me and Bernard (Fowler). It was kind of an all-star thing. I had never got to perform with Michael in public and begged him to come up and do one song. I said “you are doing this for me muthafucker”. So I got him up on stage and he did ‘Suffragette City’,” Saber tells Noise11.com.
The one-off performance featured an all-star cast. “Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top) was there, all these amazing musicians. There was Bernard Fowler, Carmine Rojas, David Bowie’s bass player, I think Brian Tichy might have been playing drums. He is also in The Dead Daisies. I got to perform with him one time at The Viper Room a few days before he went back to Australia,” Danny said.
The date was November 16, 1997. Michael Hutchence died in Sydney on November 22, 1997, just six days later.
