DAVID BOWIE fans were led to believe the reclusive star would not play any shows in support of his acclaimed new album The Next Day - but his wife begs to differ.
Iman has dropped a "massive hint" that the 66-year-old star will go on tour. The former supermodel told Grazia that she won't be able to join him on the road because their daughter Alexandria is at school in New York.
"We have a 12-year-old in school, so we are stuck, we can't travel," she told the magazine. "Our schedule is around her, so I don't know. We'll have to go visit him, but we won't be on tour with him because she's in school."
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The idea that Bowie will perform live is another surprising development in what's been described as rock's greatest comeback.
In August 2011, one of Bowie's biographers, Paul Trynka, insisted the singer had retired from the studio and stage. "It would be a bit of a miracle if he comes back, but miracles do happen," Trynka told NME.
The following year, the retirement rumours were bolstered by a photograph of Bowie taken in New York, showing the erstwhile fashion plate wearing a flat cap, a "tatty grey hooded sweatshirt" and faded jeans. He was carrying his lunch in a brown paper bag.
"Could Bowie really be the first rock star to have embarked on a quiet and dignified retirement?" asked the Daily Telegraph's Neil McCormick.
No-one is talking about retirement now, thanks to the rapturous reception given to the single Where Are We Now? and the album from which it was taken.
In February, Bowie's guitarist Gerry Leonard said there was a "50-50" chance that the singer would return to the stage after he had commented that tracks on the new album "would be great live". After Iman's comments, the odds appear to have shortened considerably.