ABSOLUTE BOWIE – CHALK, BRIGHTON 24.7.21
After two days of solid Punk Rock gigs, it was now time for some Glam Rock in our lives!
This evening, Brighton welcomed back Absolute Bowie, (courtesy of Black Rabbit Productions) who are 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.
The Brighton & Hove News Music Team are certainly no strangers to this outfit, having witnessed their set several times over the past few years, but this evening’s choice of venue was a new one for the band. They were appearing at CHALK, which is located at 13 Pool Valley, Brighton, BN1 1NJ. It rose out of the ashes of The Haunt and it was my partner’s first visit since the total refurbishment and she was very impressed indeed.
There are cover bands and then there’s Absolute Bowie! John O’Neill 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 obvious John is too and has no doubt spent thousands of hours mimicking them to great success! He’s choreographed every movement.
It appears that the Absolute Bowie fans this evening are a very varied lot indeed. Just as David Bowie’s fans are I surmise. Post covid restrictions and 285 brave souls ventured out on a hot Saturday night in search of enlightenment. As always with Absolute Bowie, they got it.
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, Matteo Grassi (bass) as Herbie Flowers, and Alex Paolillo (keyboards) as Rick Wakeman.
There was no time for support bands this evening as Absolute Bowie performed two different David Bowie music sets. During the first, they don their glam rock garb and present twelve selected corkers from the great man’s 1970 to 1974 period. For the second, the band dress down in normal bandwear, whereas vocalist John goes for the 1983 ‘Serious Moonlight tour’ attire.
So to set one and John and the boys first dozen takes spanned the vintage Bowie years. Beginning with ‘Diamond Dogs’ through to ‘Life on Mars?’ (which the crowd sang the most on this set). My standouts for myself were ‘The Jean Genie’ and the aforementioned ‘Life on Mars?’.
We were located at the very front and our speaker was certainly pumping out the bass very nicely, however I could have done with hearing Alex’s Korg Kronos and Nord Stage 2 keyboards a tad more!
As ever, John as Bowie is very impressive during this first set and his choice of clothing, makeup and glam wig, is more than convincing. I personally vastly enjoy this look more than that of the second set.
Absolute Bowie (Part One) setlist:
‘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
‘Panic In Detroit’ (found on the 1973 ‘Aladdin Sane’ David Bowie album)
‘Changes’ (found on the 1971 ‘Hunky Dory’ 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)
After about a 20 minute refreshment break, set two commenced. According to the setlist, there would have been ten covers, but I guess due to time constraints, ‘Look Back In Anger’ from 1979’s ‘Lodger’ album was the one to give. If it was my choice, that’s the one I too would have dropped.
I guess that this second set can be termed ‘The Greatest Hits’ set, as it was rammed with everything a commercial music Bowie fan would want to hear performed live. My picks of this second performance are ‘Rebel Rebel’ and ‘Space Oddity’. Although ‘“Heroes”’ is my fave Bowie track, I don’t quite feel that Absolute Bowie performing it is quite the same. But of course, that’s just me. On another note, my partner particularly enjoyed ‘China Girl’ for instance.
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 will be playing live in Brighton on Wednesday 22nd December 2021 at the Concorde 2. Tickets now on sale from HERE.
Hopefully, next time we will get some other Bowie gems? It’s time for some “ch-ch-ch-changes” in order not to become stagnant. Music from different timelines would be most welcome, such as ‘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’).
Absolute Bowie (Part Two) setlist:
‘Modern Love’ (found on the 1983 ‘Let’s Dance’ David Bowie album)
‘Young Americans’ (found on the 1975 ‘Young Americans’ David Bowie album)
‘Fame’ (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)
‘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”’ (found on the 1977 “Heroes” David Bowie album)
Find out more about Absolute Bowie HERE.
