Some Bowie in Newcastle

Some people here will know that I am a fan of David Bowie and my other half even more so. We saw the great man live several times and he is sorely missed. There are people keeping his music alive and one of those is Tony Visconti who produced lots of his albums. Tony is 81 now, but still tours with his band Holy Holy playing David's music. Also in the band is drummer Woody Woodmansey who played with the Spiders From Mars. He is a sprightly 75. The singer is Glenn Gregory who is best known for being in Heaven 17.

We have now seen this band four times and the latest was last night in Newcastle. That is a bit of a trip from us, but we have friends up there and went to the gig with them at the City Hall. One of our friends has some mobility issues, but I was able to get us in quicker due to having an O2 phone account and that company own the venue.

We were in the middle of the fifth row and so had a great view. Glenn does not try to imitate Bowie, but then he is a great singer himself. He was saying that he had to work on learning the songs as he had been singing the wrong lyrics on some for most of his life. He actually got a bit lost on Heroes and they re-started the song. I have had issues remembering songs myself in some of my performances. The band is really good and bring the songs to life. The sound was good and not too loud. There were a few obscure album tracks that I did not know too well, but they mostly play the hits from albums that Visconti worked on. They played for a full two hours and ended with Rebel Revel that got the whole audience on their feet. It was a generally older audience, but there were a few younger people there.

Here is a performance of that last song from a few days previously. I took a few photos, but do not usually do video at gigs as the quality will not be great.

Afterwards Visconti came back on stage to chat with the fans and shake hands. He is in great shape for his age. On the merchandise stand they had the usual T-shirts and CDs. We opted for a copy of the set list signed by Woody (twice), Tony and Glenn. That will go on the wall as a memory of the show.

Just up the road from the venue we passed this poster. I have seen some online, but this is the first time I have seen one myself. Bowie had his faults, but I wonder why people idolise this guy who seems intent on trashing the respect for his brand.