He was indeed in Dublin in '97 rehearsing Earthling and he did
an unannounced gig in Ringsend. Its a bit of a sore point and actually gives us some insight into why that album is such a terrible failure. Dublin's original jungle crew was centred around Neil Outlaw and Outlaw records, Neil was a flatmate of Naphta, and that was the mini-scene I dropped into in '95 through personal connections. Naphta went onto form Bassbin with Rohan Bassbin a year or so later and they started putting gigs on around the city. No sponsorship, no fixed venues, all hard graft, flyering and posters, word of mouth, the usual underground stuff... however around the same time, Bono's dalliance with club culture resulted in the kitchen nightclub in Temple Bar as in the basement of the luxury Clarence hotel, and of course they needed something to fill the nights... Enter 'quadrophonic', an offshoot of Ireland's biggest concert promoters, who started a regular Friday night residency, the easy supply of cash compensation for the lack of organic connection to the local scene or personell, and the beginning of a small town D+B rivalry.
Obviously I dont know precisely how it happened, but I imagine if Bowie was in town and he wanted to blow off some steam he's far more likely to head to some chic faux underground night run by a rock star acquaintance than slum it with the plebs, and the kitchen was a regular haunt for celebrities (a mate of mine was ejected once for refusing to play a track for Naomi Campbell). He went along, hooked up with the quadrophonic lads and they ended up hosting the night in ringsend via tickets given out the night before in the kitchen, and of course, I missed it.
The reason I think this is instructive in terms of the earthling disaster is that its indicative of Bowie's inclination to take the easy path in his later career. His success was built upon a highly astute personnel choices. Ronson, Vandross, Eno, Rodgers and (perhaps most brilliantly) Davis, Alomar and Murray. After
Let's Dance this sense seems to dissolve. he works with whoever is convenient or at hand. You would think that the man who pulled together so many brilliant bands would have the nous to do the same when approaching an occult genre like jungle... throw Rob Haigh, Photek or 4Hero a fat cheque - fuck it, even get Nookie or something, at least find someone who knows what they're doing instead of some random rock producer who cant cut up a break to save his life. I mean, Mark Plati... who the fuck was Mark Plati? So yeah, he couldve made a decent stab at a jungle LP if he hadn't been so lazy and he could have come to proper jungle nights full of manglers instead of some corporate astroturffed Bono shite, and I could've been at that secret gig in 97.
(I had met Bowie a few years earlier in the National Gallery, but just mumbled something embarrassing and scuttled off.)