In the four years prior to the release of Never Let Me Down, Bowie had worked on a series of miscellaneous projects that included collaborations with the Pat Metheny Group for "This Is Not America" and Mick Jagger for "Dancing in the Street".

"[8] Bowie was initially mum on his plans for his tour, saying only "I'm going to do a stage thing this year, which I'm incredibly excited about, 'cause I'm gonna take a chance again."

If this works the way I hope it does, then the next step for me will be to write a piece specifically for arenas and stadiums, which is almost like taking a musical on the road that has one narrative form all the way through, with a cast of characters, and is written for epic theater.

"[13] Bowie described how he assembled the show, saying, "The idea was to concoct surrealist or minimalist stage pieces to accompany rock-and-roll songs.

The press tour shows were typically delivered in smaller venues seating around 300 people, and local fans were often allowed into the events.

Articles promoting Bowie's album and tour appeared in non-music periodicals in mid- to late-1987 such as In Fashion,[12] Mademoiselle[19] and Teen[20] magazines.

Bowie agreed to what at the time was considered a controversial[21] commercial sponsorship agreement with PepsiCo,[22][23] which was later seen as helping to pave the way for other big money tours by other artists.

[38] About halfway through the first leg of the tour in Europe, Bowie discovered that the full Spider set was so large that it would not fit in most indoor venues.

[11] Bowie thought of the whole set as a metaphor of life, describing the stage as having "a feeling of a ship, which is the voyage, with the rigging and the climbing and the ropes.

Bowie shot the video for his single "Time Will Crawl" during these rehearsals; it previewed some of the elaborate dance routines that were used during performances of "Loving the Alien" (1985), "Fashion" (1980) and "Sons of the Silent Age" (1977).

Bowie entered the show to the song "Glass Spider", for which he was lowered from the set's ceiling while seated in a silver chair and singing into a telephone.

[15]For Part 2, Bowie appeared on the stage's scaffolding to "'87 & Cry", flew through the air in a Flying by Foy abseiling harness, and was subsequently tied up by riot police.

[45]The encore typically opened with the song "Time", for which Bowie emerged from the top of the spider's head with angel wings behind him, 60 feet above the crowd.

The song was occasionally cut from outdoor shows when bad weather made the perch atop the spider too precarious to perform.

One of these suits, also autographed by Bowie, sold at a Sotheby's auction in 1990 for $7,000 (worth about $16,300 today) several times its expected selling price.

[8] Michael Clark, a lighting engineer for the tour, died at the Stadio Comunale in Florence, Italy, on 9 June after falling from the scaffolding before the show commenced.

[8] At one point during the European tour, guitarist Carlos Alomar ripped a ligament in his leg, an injury that caused him to change his on-stage character.

[8] Some of the outdoor performances in Britain had to start early due to curfew laws, a problem typically avoided in other European shows, which reduced the impact of the lighting of the stage and set dressing, and bothered Bowie considerably.

[1][38] Chris Roberts, a writer for Melody Maker, later said that there was "overwhelming peer pressure" among his fellow musical critics to review the tour unfavourably.

[72] Bowie was frustrated how the reviews in Europe changed from initially positive to negative, blaming the early start of the tour in some outdoor venues for the poor reception.

[10] A local paper in Portland, Oregon had a positive review that said that the dancers, music, set and band combined into an "overall effect [that] could rightly be called spectacular.

[68] A 2007 DVD re-release of the show included an audio recording of the performance at Olympic Stadium, Montreal on 30 August 1987, which was re-mastered and released on Loving the Alien (1983–1988) (2018).

The 6 June 1987 Platz der Republik (Reichstag – City of Berlin Festival) performance was broadcast live on FM radio.

In 2009, an article in the BBC News singled out the Glass Spider Tour's innovative set and marriage of music and theatre as an inspiration to later acts, including Britney Spears, Madonna, U2 and others.

Stage designer Willie Williams said the Glass Spider Tour was a template for those acts: "There will be one set of costumes and they will do a few songs, then there will be another big scene change and move on to the next thing.

According to German journalist Tobias Ruther, these protests in East Berlin were the first in the sequence of riots that led to those around the time of the fall of the wall in November 1989.

Peter Frampton played two natural-finish maple body Pensa-Suhr Strat types, hand-made by New York-based John Suhr.

Additional instruments played included a set of Latin Percussion timbales and white congas, a cowbell, 6- and 8-inch Zildjian cymbals, Promark drum sticks, a Simmons SDS-9, a cornet and a 17th-century Italian viola.

Carmine Rojas used two Spector basses, and Alan Childs played on Tama Artstar II drums and used various combinations of Zildjian A, K, and Platinum series cymbals.

[29] From The Man Who Sold the World From Aladdin Sane From Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture From Diamond Dogs From Young Americans From "Heroes" From Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) From Let's Dance From Tonight From Never Let Me Down Other songs: Rehearsed, but not performed:[8]