Admission to the show was by invitation only and the audience included 200 members of the newly formed International David Bowie Fan Club, staff and managers of the Marquee, selected musical press, and famous people such as Tony Visconti, Angie and Zowie Bowie, Long John Baldry, Dana Gillespie, Wayne County, Lionel Bart and Mary Hopkins.
This show caused a big expectation in the media at the time for being the first David Bowie's appearance onstage since his anounced stage retirement on 3 July 1973 at the Hammersmith Odeon. To ad more interst it was the very last appearance of Bowie as the alter ego Ziggy Stardust. David Bowie's original idea for the show was to create a special event for The Midnight Special TVseries, using theatrical cabaret performances that would feature himself and other rock bands from the 60's in a futuristic setting.
Out of the three days hired at the club only two of them, the 19th and 20th of october, were used since the first day was spent filming at the television studios. For this production a special and spectacular stage production was set, covering the usual decoration at the club and, apparently the stage and backstage were completely rebuilt and the walls and ceilings were repainted in black to the horror of the club manager Jack Barrie. The performance on Saturday the 19th of October lasted for 10 hours. All the songs were needed to be re-shot several times from different positions since the Marquee club was such as small place the it didn't allow to do takes from different angles at the same time. David Bowie was very warm with the audience and fans during the intervals and signed autographs. Bowie also performed Sony and Cher's hit "I Got You Babe" in a duet with Marianne Faithfull.
The performance on Saturday the 19th of October lasted for 10 hours. All the songs were needed to be re-shot several times from different positions since the Marquee club was such as small place the it didn't allow to do takes from different angles at the same time.
"The 1980 Floor Show" was shown on American NBC-TV on 16 November 1973 on a one hour show. Also extracts were shown at the Top of the Pops in the UK.
