ABSOLUTE BOWIE – CONCORDE 2, BRIGHTON 26.7.24
Absolute Bowie were back in Brighton this evening, courtesy of Black Rabbit Productions and the varying age punters gathered at the Concorde 2 and were taken on a David Bowie nostalgia trip of his released material from 1969 to 1984.
This tribute act is big business as they are arguably the very best that there is! This evening, like every other time I have witnessed a live performance from them, was filled with a demographic audience of 60s babies, 70s babies, 80s babies, 90s babies and even noughties babies! This being a true reflection of the appeal of the original master himself David Robert Jones aka David Bowie.
There was such an uplifting atmosphere in the air tonight, that frontman John O’Neill (who plays Bowie and even shares the same birthday, 8th January), was milking it to the full. John is an entertainer par excellence. He clearly has spent hundreds of hours sifting through video footage of David Bowie in order to accurately emulate every move and copy his various clothing styles down the years. Absolute Bowie have been playing live for around sixteen years, so it’s fair to say that John certainly knows what he’s doing. He is joined by his ‘Spiders From Mars’ in the form of Andy Marr (as Mick Ronson) on guitar and backing vocals, Sam Ferrari aka ‘Telegram Sam’ (as Trevor Bolder) on bass, Alex Face aka ‘Monster’ (as Woody Woodmansey) on drums and backing vocals, and Varo (as Rick Wakeman) on a trio of keyboards and backing vocals.
As usual there are to be two sets of music from Absolute Bowie with the first lasting 47 minutes (from 7:56pm to 8:43pm) and the second set lasting 55 minutes from 9:05pm to 10pm curfew. So at 7:56pm the intro tape kicks in and the musicians take to the stage, with John eventually bringing up the rear. As with all of my previous Absolute Bowie encounters, John is out there to entertain the fans and so there are a number of obligatory impressive costume changes that he performs in order to get into that particular character and range of years. Whilst he is no doubt frantically changing off stage, his quartet of bandmates perform the occasional extended version of a number of tunes. This evening for me there were a few new inclusions which freshen things up, but this inevitably means that some classics had made way. But as David Bowie amassed such a wealth of top quality material, it must be difficult for Absolute Bowie to choose which corkers to pick out. Having said that, this evening’s choices all seemed to be lapped up by the punters and a great time was had.
At the start of the first set ‘The Spiders From Mars’ were kitted out in their sparkly garb and high heel boots and John is wearing the striking ‘KABUKI’ wide-leg jumpsuit made from black vinyl with white stripes which was designed by Kansai Yamamoto for David Bowie and the first three tracks are culled from the iconic ‘The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars’ album, these being ‘Hang On To Yourself’, ‘Suffragette City’ and ‘Moonage Daydream’. There are poses-a-plenty from John and at the end of ‘Suffragette City’, he informed us that he had got a mouthful of Mick Ronson’s hair which tasted like 1972. ‘Moonage Daydream’ which featured some great guitar playing was performed as an extended version, which allowed John to leave the stage and change into the next Bowie look. This being Kansai’s silk kimono look, as seen on stage at the Hammersmith Odeon on 3rd July 1973. His big red boots had been ditched too and was now barefoot.
‘Changes’ from 1971’s ‘Hunky Dory’ album was the next choice and as John sings “So I turned myself to face me”, he produces a Bowie face mask on a stick from within the kimono. After the tune concludes, the kimono was pulled apart by Mick Ronson (Andy Marr) and Trevor Bolder (‘Telegram Sam’) to reveal the Kansai Yamamoto figure-hugging dance style colourful costume, with its one leg and one shoulder free, which no doubt was inspired by Bowie’s previous work with dancer Lindsay Kemp whose work was influenced by kabuki. They were immediately away with ‘The Jean Genie’ from 1973’s ‘Aladdin Sane’ album and John tapped away at the tambourine. Next up was the 1972 ‘John, I’m Only Dancing’ single and for this John strapped on his blue acoustic guitar and informed us that this was their “cock rock number”. This was followed by ‘All The Young Dudes’, found on the 1974 ‘David Live’ album and hit single for Mott The Hoople. John said that “This goes out to the dudes, dudettes and all the non binaries of which Bowie was the first!” The fans waved their arms in the air for this classic.
It was back to ‘The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars’ album with the arrival of ‘Starman’ which went down well and the punters sang the “La, la, la, la” chorus whilst hand clapping along. The first set was then brought to a close with the arrival of ‘Life On Mars’ from 1971’s ‘Hunky Dory’ album, which for me is a song that has certainly matured with age, and although not at the time of release was one of my Bowie favourites, but it certainly is now, and judging by the punters, I’m not alone. I noted the attention of detail in this track as ‘Monster’ even used the padded drumsticks for that crescendo ending section. It was now 8:43pm and a gap of 22 minutes for a “Ziggy break” was required, not by me though!
Ideally they should have returned to the stage at 9pm instead of 9:05pm, as this meant that the proposed set closer had to be dropped, this would have been “Heroes”.
I was expecting John to return for the second half by wearing the ‘Serious Moonlight Tour’ suit as found on the cover of the ‘Modern Love’ single, that he had worn on a few previous occasions. But no, he surprised me, by bounding on stage sporting Bowie’s 1976 ‘Station To Station’ look, which was the first time I had seen John live, where I reckon I might be able to recognise him on the street. The tune of choice being the same ‘Station To Station’, which on vinyl comes in at a running time of ten minutes and fifteen seconds and so this was the longest track of the night. This is an atmospheric number that builds and builds with decent train sounding keys. There was searchlight style lighting too which added to the atmosphere. The band had ditched their glam rock look clothing in favour of a leather rocker look.
The quintet carried on rockin’ with an extended version of ‘Panic In Detroit’ from 1973’s ‘Aladdin Sane’ album, although this track does have a later feel to it. This tune included a decent Cozy Powell style drum solo from ‘Monster’ which afforded John the time to switch to a sky blue suit and hat with a white band around it, for ‘Blue Jean’ from 1984’s ‘Tonight’ album. After this came ‘Cracked Actor’ from 1973’s ‘Aladdin Sane’ album, which afforded John the use of a few props, these being a red cape which was slung over his shoulder, as well as putting on dark glasses and him tapping away at the tambourine. John then sat down in a director’s style chair and held a prop skull in his hand. He then came to the front of the stage and reclined on it, which I’m sure many punters managed to capture on their mobiles.
An extended version of ‘Ashes To Ashes’ from 1980’s ‘Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)’ album was their next selection. John removed his blue jacket for this track and often stretched and pinged his white braces and then half way through left us again as the band played on with some jolly good keys and guitar work going down. John returned wearing a white suit and they played two popular tunes from 1983’s ‘Let’s Dance’ album, these being ‘China Girl’ and an extended version of the funky ‘Let’s Dance’ title track, which benefited from some great bass guitar licks! The musicians then all vacated the stage, but swiftly returned to award us with one more song, this being the iconic ‘Space Oddity’ from the 1969 self-titled David Bowie album, which saw the sole use of lasers as part of the set, which went from green to purple and blue and back again. John was on acoustic guitar for this tune and I have to say that this was a very good version. The track finished at 10pm and sadly that was our lot. John thanked us for coming and for Paul assisting with the lights and ‘Major’ Tom on sound, as well as his bandmates. John then stood one foot on top of the crowd barrier and shook hands with a number of excited fans. It had been yet another decent encounter with Absolute Bowie. Roll on Christmastime, when they are set to return to the Concorde 2 on 20th December 2024 where they will no doubt be performing many different David Bowie classics. Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased HERE.
Absolute Bowie:
John O’Neill (as David Bowie) – vocals, acoustic guitar, tambourine
Andy Marr (as Mick Ronson) – guitar, backing vocals
Sam ‘Telegram Sam’ Ferrari (as Trevor Bolder) – bass
Alex ‘Monster’ Face (as Woody Woodmansey) – drums, backing vocals
Varo (as Rick Wakeman) – keys, backing vocals
Absolute Bowie (Part One) setlist:
‘Hang On To Yourself’ (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)
‘Moonage Daydream’ (extended version) (found on the 1972 ‘The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars’ David Bowie album)
‘Changes’ (found on the 1971 ‘Hunky Dory’ David Bowie album)
‘The Jean Genie’ (found on the 1973 ‘Aladdin Sane’ David Bowie album)
‘John, I’m Only Dancing’ (found on the 1972 ‘John, I’m Only Dancing’ David Bowie single)
‘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)
Absolute Bowie (Part Two) setlist:
‘Station To Station’ (found on the 1976 ‘Station To Station’ David Bowie album)
‘Panic In Detroit’ (extended version with drum solo) (found on the 1973 ‘Aladdin Sane’ David Bowie album)
‘Blue Jean’ (found on the 1984 ‘Tonight’ David Bowie album)
‘Cracked Actor’ (found on the 1973 ‘Aladdin Sane’ David Bowie album)
‘Ashes To Ashes’ (extended version) (found on the 1980 ‘Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)’ David Bowie album)
‘China Girl’ (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)
(encore)
‘Space Oddity’ (found on the 1969 ‘David Bowie’ David Bowie album)
