The tributes to David Bowie continue to flow following the legend’s death in January last year, and a new tribute tour will be one of the most apt yet, with a team of former bandmates and collaborators joining forces for a run of dates next year.
As Consequence of Sound reports, the ‘Celebrating David Bowie’ tour will feature King Crimson’s Adrian Belew, who appeared on Bowie’s 1979 LP Lodger and played on his monumental ‘Sound & Vision’ tour in 1990, and guitarist Gerry Leonard who played on Bowie’s Heathen and Reality Lps in ’02/’03, and toured in support.
Bassist Carmine Rojas will be joining them, having played with Bowie on the ‘Let’s Dance/Serious Moonlight’ tour, along with Angelo Moore of Fishbone, Spiders From mars keyboardist Mike Garson, Guatemalan singer Gaby Moreno, producer (and organiser of the tour) Angelo Bundini aka Scrote, and even Sting’s son Joe Sumner.
It’s not the first time former Bowie members have hit the road together to pay their respects, and previous tours have been fast-and-loose affairs Bundini told Rolling Stone last year.
“It’s intentionally set up to be fly-by-night so the energy is loose,” he says. “Part of the beauty of having great artists and musicians on board is that they aren’t sure what’s happening, so they’re really forced to bring it and be in the moment. In the end, the most important thing to me is the stage being electric and passionate. You can’t get that from great players that have played with the legends of the world if its all planned and plotted just perfectly.”
“David Bowie didn’t write the easiest fucking songs,” added Stones backing vocalist Bernard Fowler. “Most people’s songs you can kind of telegraph and you know where the changes are and the next lyric. That’s not the case here. Before rehearsal, I asked what songs they were and I was sent a list, and then two or three days later the list would change, and then two or three days after that the list would change again and then two or three days after that the list changed again, so a lot of that prep went out the fucking window.”
While this tour might be a little bit more organised, Bundini makes it clear to Rolling Stone that anything can happen with a back-catalogue this all-encompassing.
“I don’t like to give away too much detail but I will say that we will perform all the very biggest Bowie songs you’d expect plus many favorites we didn’t play last time from Space Oddity all the way up to Blackstar. We’ll touch on everything one way or another.”
If you want to check this one out, you’ll need to head to the U.S. for now, with a 20-show run on the way from February next year, but if you’re planning a trip, check out the dates below, along with a clip of the band performing ‘Life On Mars’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU94zP6iMTk
Celebrating David Bowie 2018 tour
02/10 – Silver Spring, MD @ The Fillmore Silver Spring Sun
02/11 – Philadelphia, PA @ Keswick Theatre
02/12 – New York, NY @ Irving Plaza
02/13 – Albany, New York @ The Egg
02/16 – Boston, MA @ Chevalier Theatre
02/17 – Montreal QC @ M Telus
02/18- Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall
02/19 – Detroit, MI @ Royal Oak Music Theatre
02/21 – Minneapolis, MN @ Pantages Theatre
02/22 – Milwaukee, WI @ Pabst Theatre
02/23 – Chicago, IL @ The Vic Theatre
02/25 – Denver, CO @ Paramount Theatre
02/27 – Las Vegas, NV @ Brooklyn Bowl
02/28 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern
03/03 – San Francisco, CA @ Regency Ballroom
03/04 – Santa Rosa, CA @ Luther Burbank Center
03/06 – San Diego, CA @ Balboa Theatre
03/07 – Mesa, AZ @ Ikeda Theater
03/10 – Seattle, WA @ Benaroya Hall
03/11 – Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater
