ABSOLUTE BOWIE – CONCORDE 2, BRIGHTON 22.12.19
‘Modern Love’ was certainly in the air tonight at the Concorde 2 in Brighton and will certainly be a memorable occasion for one very happy couple! At the end of this evening’s terrific performance by Absolute Bowie, the band’s keyboard player Alex Paolillo sprung a life changing surprise on his girlfriend, Jane! He produced a ring and got down on one knee and said “……will you marry me?”.…….the reply “Definitely yes! Yes yes yes yes I would love to!”. The packed multi-generational crowd went wild!
This certainly rounded off a rather special night’s entertainment from the Winners of the ‘Best Bowie Tribute’ and ‘Best Tribute Band in the UK’ as announced at the Agents Association of Great Britain Awards in July 2018.
This evening Absolute Bowie performed two varying sets, one of 56 minutes (8:37pm to 9:33pm) and the other of 71 minutes (9:58pm to 11:09pm) of David Bowie ‘Golden Years’ material, which was originally released from 1969 to 1983. Tonight’s sets had several track changes from when we first saw them back in the summer on 20th July – read our in depth review HERE.
The personnel on stage this evening were John O’Neill (vocals/12 string guitar) as David Bowie, Andy Marr (guitar) as Mick Ronson, Alex Face (drums) as Woody Woodmansey, Fabio Cascio (bass) as Herbie Flowers, and husband-to-be Alex Paolillo (keyboards) as Rick Wakeman.
There are cover bands and then there’s Absolute Bowie! John and his chums are so realistic that it was easy to witness a majority of the audience getting totally absorbed into the world of Bowie. Not only does John make himself look and sound like ‘glam years’ and ‘pop years’ Bowie, but he moves exactly like him too. It is very convincing. I, myself, have been a Bowie fan since hearing ‘Space Oddity’ back when I was a little lad, and am aware of many videos of him. It’s obviously John is too and has no doubt spent thousands of hours mimicking them to great success! He’s choreographed every movement.
There were no support bands this evening, just glam rock hits being pumped across the sound-system, Mud, Wizzard, T.Rex, Alvin Stardust etc. This certainly had got the crowd in the right frame of mind, as Absolute Bowie’s first dozen song set spanned from 1970 to 1974 vintage Bowie. Beginning with ‘Diamond Dogs’ through to ‘Life on Mars?’ (which the crowd sang the most on this set), but my standouts were ‘The Jean Genie’ and ‘Queen Bitch’.
After a 25 minute break, set two commenced with a surprising (but welcome) choice in ‘Station To Station’, which was originally released in 1976, which was followed by ‘Fame’. Neither of which had been played to us in the summer, so it was pleasing to hear new ‘covers’. There’s such a plethora of material that can be raided, that no wonder at the very end of the night, John said that they would be back next year! Hopefully we will get some other new gems? Even from different timelines would be most welcome.
If I was personally allowed to pick a few corkers, then I would most certainly think outside the box at times and offer up ‘Silly Boy Blue’ (from 1967 self titled ‘David Bowie’ album, ‘Sorrow’ (from 1973’s ‘Pinups’), ‘Golden Years’ (from 1976’s ‘Station To Station’), have ‘Warszawa’ (from 1977’s ‘Low’) as intro music, ‘Jump They Say’ (from 1993’s ‘Black Tie White Noise’), ‘Hallo Spaceboy’ (from 1995’s ‘1.Outside’), ‘Little Wonder’ (from 1997’s ‘Earthling’), ‘Heathen (The Rays)’ (from 2002’s ‘Heathen’), and ‘Where Are We Now?’ (from 2013’s ‘The Next Day’).
I’m most certainly looking forward to their return already!
This evening’s setlists read:
(Part One)
‘Diamond Dogs’ (found on the 1974 ‘Diamond Dogs’ David Bowie album)
‘The Man Who Sold The World’ (found on the 1970 ‘The Man Who Sold The World’ David Bowie album)
‘Changes’ (found on the 1971 ‘Hunky Dory’ David Bowie album)
‘Panic In Detroit’ (found on the 1973 ‘Aladdin Sane’ David Bowie album)
‘Moonage Daydream’ (found on the 1972 ‘The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars’ David Bowie album)
‘Ziggy Stardust’ (found on the 1972 ‘The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars’ David Bowie album)
‘Suffragette City’ (found on the 1972 ‘The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars’ David Bowie album)
‘The Jean Genie’ (found on the 1973 ‘Aladdin Sane’ David Bowie album)
‘Queen Bitch’ (found on the 1971 ‘Hunky Dory’ David Bowie album)
‘All The Young Dudes’ (found on the 1974 ‘David Live’ David Bowie album)
‘Starman’ (found on the 1972 ‘The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars’ David Bowie album)
‘Life on Mars?’ (found on the 1971 ‘Hunky Dory’ David Bowie album)
(Part Two)
‘Station To Station’ (found on the 1976 ‘Station To Station’ David Bowie album)
‘Fame’ (found on the 1975 ‘Young Americans’ David Bowie album)
‘Young Americans’ (found on the 1975 ‘Young Americans’ David Bowie album)
‘China Girl’ (found on the 1983 ‘Let’s Dance’ David Bowie album)
‘Ashes To Ashes’ (extended version) (found on the 1980 ‘Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps’) David Bowie album)
‘Modern Love’ (found on the 1983 ‘Let’s Dance’ David Bowie album)
‘Let’s Dance’ (extended version) (found on the 1983 ‘Let’s Dance’ David Bowie album)
‘Rebel Rebel’ (found on the 1974 ‘Diamond Dogs’ David Bowie album)
(encore)
‘Space Oddity’ (found on the 1969 ‘David Bowie’ David Bowie album)
‘“Heroes”’ (newer version) (found on the 1977 “Heroes” David Bowie album)
(Wedding proposal!) – CONGRATULATIONS!
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