Fellow Bowie devotee Beef was up for it as well, so off we went, parking up in the usual Trenchard Street multi story but noting the pre-payment facility had been removed. Bah! Let’s hope the app works as easy as claimed… into the O2 Priority queue, grabbing a barrier spot house right on entry, pretty much in the same place as last year, and coincidentally, next to Jude and Liv, the same mum and daughter combo as last year! There also with friends Mark and Sarah, some lively Bowie-centric chat (mainly led by Jude, AKA “The Thin White Duchess (!)”) easily swallowed up the wait until 8.30, when the lights dimmed after a fiddly back line check, and the brooding synth tones of “Low”’s “Warsawa” again heralded the 8-piece band onstage, Mr. Visconti looking a little frail and clearly being helped on by a roadie. The louche figure of vocalist Glenn Gregory took the stage last, inflecting the serious lyric of the desolate, apocalyptic funereal march opener “Five Years” with suitable gravitas, then the jagged, grandiose and tempo changing psych classic “Width Of A Circle” kicked matters into a higher gear, Gregory announcing, “just so you don’t forget, we have 2 legends [in Visconti and Woodmansey] onstage tonight!”
Once again, this
virtuoso band of expert players delivered a consummate performance of this
fabled and oh-so-familiar material, happily concentrating on the Master’s early
70’s input, repeatedly mining the likes of “Hunky Dory”, “Ziggy Stardust” (the
stomping glam riffery of the title track being dispensed early with aplomb,
Visconti ruing at its conclusion, “I could have been a Spider…!”) and “Aladdin
Sane” for choice cuts. The Berlin café sleaze of “Time” drew an almost
coquettish vocal from Gregory before the soaring build to the choral hook; a
soaring, singalong “Changes” featured some lovely sax licks from Visconti’s
daughter Jessica Lee Morgan; and guitarist James Stevenson (who was excellent
throughout) gave a heartfelt tribute to former Spider Mick Ronson, dedicating a
beautiful and note-perfect “8 Line Poem” to his memory and to his daughter
Lisa, present tonight, the audience rapt and suitably reverentially hushed.
Woodmansey himself then took centre stage on the jagged and rhythmic “Panic In Detroit”, delivering a drumming tour de force, then fellow “Aladdin” cut “Drive In Saturday” was again a stunning highlight, the doo-wop sway ceding to a joyous singalong choral hook and some lengthy-held vocal notes from Gregory. The Heaven 17 frontman (who throughout balanced an energetic and kinetic frontperson performance with a reverence for both of his veteran bandmates and the source material) then delivered the lengthy exposition into Holy Holy’s history, particularly following the great man’s untimely demise, the subsequent piano-led “Life On Mars” emotive, emotional and quite, quite magnificent. Set highlight? Of course…
The none-more-glam
cosmic folk rocker “Moonage Daydream” brought the set to a close, the band then
returning with an ebullient Gregory remarking, “can you imagine how much fun
this is for me? I should be down there [in the crowd], I’m just a fan…!”. The stark,
elegiac “Where Are We Now” (the sole non-70’s choice tonight) weaved a sombre
spell, before final number “Rebel Rebel” rounded off the evening on a more
appropriate buoyant, singalong and inclusive vibe. The band then took a
deserved bow after a near 2 hour set, with Messrs Visconti and Woodmansey directly
thanking the audience, Tony deadpanning, “it’s amazing that Woody and I lived
long enough to do this!” and Woody himself demonstrating a nice line in
“fuck”s!
A roadie handed me a ripped up setlist in 3 parts (no worries, that’s why we have Sellotape!) and I met Gloucester friend Simon and his lovely wife Sarah for a brief chat, then Mr. Woodmansey himself outside, grabbing a word, handshake and signature from the predictably besieged but friendly drummer. Our app payment was happily easy, and we then inched down the hill to the Bearpit, but had a good run afterwards, home for 11.30 reflecting on the show. Another amazing night in virtuoso musical company, maybe for that one last time, celebrating the life and works of one of the, if not THE, most influential musical and cultural icons of our time. ”Icon” is a sadly overused word these days, but it suits David Bowie like no one else; I often call him “the man who invented music” and given his influence on pretty much everything I listen to, he might as well have been…! A gig I should have knocked back? Maybe, but hoo boy, am I glad I didn’t!
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