Aladdin Sane Live at Royal Festival Hall

I have been a big fan of David Bowie ever since THAT appearance on Top of The Pops in 1972 and I was lucky enough tp see him live a little later on the Ziggy Stardust tour.

Even so, I was not immediately interested in seeing Aladdin Sane Live. Part of the reason ws that this was billed as an "reimagining" and the other part was that Aladdin Sane was never one of my favourite Bowie albums as I felt is was a collection of songs that lacked a coherent theme or style.

But I still had plenty of credit left on Southbank Centre account and so I took the plunge and paid £50 for seat N9 in the stalls. I would not have paid that much if it was my own money.

Unsurprisingly most of the audience looked as though they were there in 1973 when Aladdin Sane came out. I remember it cost me £2.38 and it was the most expensive album at that time, the excuse being the gatefold sleeve.

The format of the show was quite simple and effective. All the songs on Aladdin Sane were played, but not in the album order, with a series of guest singers performing a couple of songs each. I had heard of none of them but I believe they were Anna Calvi, Jake Shears, Roxanne Tataei, Lynks and Tawiah.

The three women were much better than the two men who seemed to be going for style over substance and the undoubted star of the evening was Roxanne Tataei.

The Nu Civilisation Orchestra was funky, which was fine. It sounded a bit like David Live which may be why they called it Aladdin Sane Live. Having a consistent style across the songs helped to bring some of the coherence missing from the original album.

The song order was much as expected and worked well live. Of course they finished with Jean Genie and they led up to that with Drive in Saturday and Time. 

They also threw in 1984, from Diamond Dogs, at the start of the second half and that was probably to showcase the orchestra and the backing singers as this was performed without a soloist. The encore was another Diamond Dogs song, Rebel Rebel, and that was obviously well received.

Perhaps because they were mostly old, like me, the audience was pretty well behaved throughout. There was no singing (expect when ordered to), no standing up and only a few annoying phones recording snippets. When I saw Bowie live we all stood on the backs of our seats as soon as he came on stage.

The reviews I have read of the concert are a little lukewarm, and I can understand that, but these were good Bowie songs done pretty well and I had a great evening.

David Bowie 8 January 1947 – 10 January 2016

I was one of those many people who saw Starman on Top of the Pops in 1972 and Bowie has been with me ever since.

The first album I got was Ziggy Stardust in 1973. It was a birthday present and on cassette. I still have it even though I do not have a tape player to play it on.

I cut out all the Bowie stories in NME and I still remember Charles Shaar Murray's closing words to his review of Aladdin Sane, "Who will love Aladdin Sane? Easy one children, you will".

I saw Bowie live in Bournemouth in May 93, the Ziggy Stardust tour. I stood for the entire concert with one leg on the back of my chair and the other on the back of the chair in front.

I bought all the albums, some several times as cassettes and then LPs wore out. I bought them again when they first came out on CD with the extra tracks and original covers. I even bought the two Tin Machine albums, I was spurred into this by watching the video for Working Class Hero on MTV in Europe somewhere. I also bought the Philip Glass adaptations, e.g. the Low Symphony.

I bought Blackstar a couple of days ago and played the title track in the pub last night when testing the setup for my music round in the quiz. One of the songs I played in the quiz was Life on Mars.

I saw the David Bowie Is exhibition at the V&A in 2013 and bought the t-shirt to prove it. That t-shirt gets worn whenever I go to see the excellent The Thin White Duke, a Bowie tribute band, play in my local pub. Those nights are always packed and everybody sings along to all of the songs.

My sister bought me Station to Station for a birthday present and my room mate at university described the title track as "ultra way above average ville". He was right.

When Julia and I started going out I made her a cassette of my favourite music and that included Always Crashing in the Same Car from Low. I felt the following track (Be My Wife) was a bit presumptive though it proved to be prophetic!

David Bowie has meant a lot to me for over forty years.

I am in shock.

The Thin White Duke made it another great night at the Fox and Duck

I think it's fair to say that of all the bands that play at the Fox and Duck that The Thin White Duke consistently pull in the most people and get more of the audience singing and dancing. They are one of the few bands that I make a point of always seeing and one of the even fewer that I get there early enough to catch their full set, rather than just the second half which is what I normally do.

I said of another band recently that they suffered from covering a band I never particularly liked and not sounding too much like them either, to which a friend added they also do not look like them. The Thin White Duke were the exact opposite, I have loved Bowie since Starman (everybody who saw it remembers that TOTP performance), they sound like Bowie whether it is the Bowie sound of Life on Mars, Fame or Heroes, and David Cull makes a good job of looking like The Thin White Duke himself.

I managed to find myself a spot next to the bar close enough to be in the thick of the action but not close enough to get mixed up with some of the more energetic dancers right at the font. It was the ideal spot for my gentle swaying.

The mood was infectiously buoyant and right from the start everybody was singing along loudly to (most of) the songs. It has long-since stopped surprising me just how many people of how many ages know the words to how many Bowie songs, and not just the hit singles either. The one exception was the title song from 2003's Reality, his last proper album before returning unexpectedly with The Next Day in 2013.

Even that virtually unknown song was well received so you can imagine what the reaction to the closing Starman and Heroes was like. I am very glad that I was there to be part of it.

The Thin White Duke get it together at the Fox and Duck

There are few nights that are as much fun as The Thin White Duke playing at the Fox and Duck; the songs are brilliant, the band are good and there is always a great atmosphere in the pub.

I have seen The Thin White Duke play several times now and I think that I enjoy them more each time.

I made a slight mistake this time and assuming that they would start around 9:30, as they had previously despite the billed 9:00 start time, I turned up at 9:20 to find them already playing and the pub already buzzing. They were on their fourth song, The Man Who Sold The World. A good start.

I had to push fairly hard through the crowd to get to the bar to get my beer and then back towards the door again to join some friends who had grabbed a good spot there.

This spot used to be against the back of a bench but the two benches that used to divide off that section of the bar had gone in the pub's ongoing improvements, which also included a proper raised stage for the bands. I liked that changes as it made it easier to see the band and created more space for dancing. Not that I ever dance but some people do.

There was another surprise with an unknown bassist playing in the band. Just to fool you the picture above was taken in the second half of the set when the original bassist was back with the band. I spoke to him afterwards and he explained that work commitments meant that he was leaving the band and the new bassist was gradually taking over.

There was no surprise with the set-list, though they did sneak in two songs that were new as far as I am aware, The Stars are out Tonight (from The Next Day) and Stay (from Station to Station).

You just have to look at the set-list to understand how good the evening was. I was soon singing, then swaying and finally (against my better judgement) dancing. The Thin White Duke know what they are doing and they structure the set well mixing in some (possibly) less well-known songs like Diamond Dogs as well as a good selection of the hit singles. The last four songs were out and out belters and everybody in the pub was singing along and most of us were dancing too. It was wonderful.

The Thin White Duke had a well deserved break somewhere in the middle and then played until the midnight curfew, so not only was it a fun evening it was a delightfully long one too.

The evening was greatly helped by seeing so many familiar faces there, some local faces and also a few know from other music venues and pubs. I dread to think how many times Ralph has been in the same room as me!

The Thin White Duke are due back at the Fox and Duck on 25 April. It's in my diary.

Holy Holy recreate The Man Who Sold The World joyfully at the O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire

Bowie started his career with a succession of ground-breaking and totally different albums, including a pretty convincing heavy-metal inspired album The Man Who Sold The World in 1970. This was the year that Deep Purple gave us Deep Purple in Rock and Black Sabbath issued both their eponymous first album and Paranoid. Happy days.

Because of the heavier tone The Man Who Sold The World does not have the same general recognition as the mellow albums that came before and after it, Space Oddity (1969) and Hunky Dory (1971). I loved it though and have listened to it consistently over the years. I've bought it at least three times.

I am probably never going to see Bowie play live again but seeing some of the original performers do The Man Who Sold The World was a no-brainer. The two originals were bassist and producer Tony Visconti and drummer Woody Woodmansey. I still remember Charles Shar Murray writing that Visconti had cranked his bass up loud on the album and that was alright because it was a heavy metal album. I agree.

The logistics were bit of a pain as I had to work in Reading that day but I managed to get around that by wearing clothes to work that while they fell far short of our formal dress-code were both smart enough for the office and rough enough for the gig. I was not going to go there wearing a suit!

The other part of the logistics, the travel, worked well as the O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire is a short-hop from Paddington which is where the train from Reading dumped me. In fact that worked so well that I got there much earlier than I expected, around 6:30, and rather than head for the pub I joined the queue. My original plan was to sneak in around 8pm but I reasoned that I might as well stand and have a beer in the venue as do so in the pub.

The queueing worked even better than expected as some of the other early birds headed for one of the other preferred locations, or the bar, and the front of the arena was not that busy. I managed to buy a beer and still bag a position fairly central in the second row, i.e. there were just the people against the barrier in front of me. I chose my space well and had a young lad and his short mum in front of me so I had a very good view, as shown by these photos.

Being early also meant that I had to endure the support bands but they proved to be OK, if not very distinctive. Tony Visconti's son, Morgan Visconti, was allowed an extensive run-out for which he was joined by another offspring, Jessica Lee Morgan. No I don't understand how they got their names.

The pending arrival of Holy Holy was signalled by some Beethoven music in the style of A Clockwork Orange and then we were off.

The other main players in Holy Holy were Glenn Gregory (Heaven 17) on vocals and Steve Norman (Spandau Ballet) on guitar and saxophone. There were others, lots of others, and the guest musicians were a major feature of the show.

I had only discovered a couple of days previously that these guests included Marc Almond. That was a special treat for me as I bought almost all of his albums between 1981 and 1989 when he recorded with/as Soft Cell and Marc & the Mambas as well as solo.

I expected Marc to do the title track, as Lulu had done, but he came out for After All, the quiet ballad that closed side one of the original LP.

By then I was singing along loudly to everything, as was everybody else. Music this good is infectious.

The Man Who Sold The World as received rapturously, despite its less well-known content.

Then we got a selection of more Bowie songs from around that era, though there were a surprising number from Aladdin Sane (1973). Marc Almond came back to do Watch That Man and there was a stonking version of fan-favourite Time.

Musicians came and went, but mostly came. I counted twenty people on stage at the end. The most prominent of these was Gary Kemp (also Spandau Ballet) who added his guitar to the three or four that were already playing.

The crowd were lapping it all up and the band seemed to be having as much fun as we were. There was a fair amount of interaction between us too with the audience joining in when asked (not that we needed much asking) and there was a loud cheer of shared joy and memory when Steve Norman talked about that Top of The Pops appearance on 6 July 1972. It changed many people's lives, including mine.

It was possibly the happiest concert that I have ever been too and even the eager photographers in the pit could not dampen my joy. This was an absolutely brilliant concert with excellent musicians delivering great songs that they had rehearsed with care and love.

The mood from the convert was so positive and uplifting that I hope that Holy Holy continue in some way.

The Thin White Duke at the Fox and Duck (April 2014)

Let's get the bad news out of the way first as that rather clouds my view of the evening.

I was feeling rather run-down and not really in the mood for a good time. That also made me more susceptible to the irritations of the livelier people in the pub, one of whom was equally loud and annoying the previous week at Echoes. Let's hope that this is not a trend.

The good news is that the bad news stopped me from dancing and everybody else should be grateful for that.

The Thin White Duke are extremely popular and despite arriving well before the 9pm start time the pub was already full and I had to wait a little to get my first of several Doombars. It always helps when the pub is full as the lively happy atmosphere is as important as the music.

There was a change in the ranks of The Thin White Duke this time with the arrival of Sally Knight on backing vocals. Bowie usually had female singers with him so the move made sense though.

Along with Sally came some new songs. We were promised four but only Absolute Beginners was announced as such. The other news ones may have been Sorrow, Sound and Vision (who wrote "Sounds" on the set-list?), and Young Americans, but it would not surprise me either to learn that these are all stalwarts of the band's.

The Thin White Duke did what they always do and that is to get everybody singing and quite a few dancing. Who could possibly resist getting involved with classics like Life on Mars, Starman, Oh You Pretty Things and the set-closer Heroes? Though I would still like to see them do the German version, Helden, one day.

The moans about some of the audience do not detract from the simple fact that The Thin White Duke are a good band playing great songs and this was a fine performance.

Sadly there is some bad news to end with too. They have had to cancel the gig scheduled for August so they will not be back to the Fox and Duck until 6 December. It's in my diary.

The Thin White Duke at the Fox and Duck, Petersham (November 2013)

I finally found something to keep me away from The Thin White Duke.

Their latest appearance at The Fox and Duck was on 23 November 2013 which has gone down in history as the day that the Dr Who 50th Anniversary Special was broadcast. That did not finish until 9:10pm so it was approaching 9:30 by the time that I got there.

Obviously other people had other priorities and the place was already packed and it took some effort to get to the bar and then find somewhere safe to stand. I tried to avoid the enthusiastic ladies at the front for mortal fear of being dragged in to a dance so I went to the side initially.

The Thin White Duke did what they always do and they did it much skill and style. and it was good to see Simon back on keyboards too.

A couple of friends arrived which forced me back in to the middle (I wanted to take some photos anyway) where I spent the rest of the evening fighting the temptation to dance.

The temptation to sing was irresistible and I joined everybody else in singing along to all the songs, apart from Reality which nobody seemed to know that well.

The pub was in fine mood and did its part to make the evening special. I was pleased that both of the young ladies behind the bar remembered that I drink Doombar (thought that is only because they have no other draught bitters).

The pub, beer and company were all good, my singing less so, but the solid heart of the evening was the music of David Bowie and the band that presented it to us in a way that made each song shine in its own way.

I would like them to add two songs to the set list though. They played just a few bars of Laughing Gnome at the end and the reaction was enough to proof that everybody was keen to sing along to it. And I still think that, in Petersham at least, they should do Helden, the German language version of Heroes.

The Thin White Duke always put on a great show and that is why I have already put their 2014 Petersham dates in my diary.

David Bowie is ... in the best selling show ...

... and it's easy to see why.

Bowie has been a prominent figure in British cultural life for over forty years and the V&A has pulled all the stops out in collecting and curating material relating to his life in music and on stage.

I bought my tickets months ago and even then I had to settle for a 10am slot on a Sunday morning.

TfL did not help by cancelling trains west of Earls Court that day and I had to risk the rail replacement bus service. I was relieved to get to the V&A only a few minutes late for my timed slot.

The V&A seemed to have learnt some lessons from the also-sold-out Hollywood Costumes exhibition which was, at times, too packed to enjoy easily. Perhaps being in the first slot of the day helped.

Another change was the technology. This time we all got clever audio guides that did not have the usual numbers to call up the voice, it used proximity instead so you only had to walk up to one of the exhibits and the headset automatically spoke or sang to you. This was a little spooky at times and I found myself looking around for the video that was lip-synced to what I was listening too.

Costumes featured heavily and there were outfits on display from many of the album covers and major tours. No prizes for spotting the Pin-Ups suit here.

I found myself strangely entranced by the costumes, when I had not expected to. I especially liked the Alexander McQueen frock-coats from the Earthling album and tour. And that hints at one of the exhibition's strengths, it drew on the full range of Bowie's career and did not play safe and just draw on the big periods like Ziggy. There was even some Tin Machine stuff in there.

Other things on display included song lyrics, album covers, stage designs and interviews, such as one with a hopeless Russell Harty who referred to the new single as "Golden Tears" before asking Bowie to introduce it himself.

Of course there were lots of video clips too and I caught more than one person singing out loud. A highlight was the final large room (above) which had several large screens and lots of seats too. There I watched a number of songs from live performances and at one point there were two versions of Heroes playing and which one you heard depended on where you were in the room. It was magic and I'd probably still be in there if it was allowed.

The V&A are seriously good at curation and when they combine those skills with a popular subject then they know that they have got another big hit on their hands. I absolutely loved it and I think that all the people grabbing the merchandise in the shop on the way out did too.

The Thin White Duke get Petersham singing (April 2013)

Things like babies (theirs, not mine) have kept me and The Thin White Duke apart for just over a year so when they came back to the Fox and Duck I was there to see them.

Admittedly I was a little late, having been to the theatre and an exhibition earlier in the day, but I got there after just a couple of numbers.

It was something of a fight to get in to the pub as the place was packed, especially the main standing area just inside the main door. A managed to win the fight to the bar for a pint of Young's Ordinary and then the second fight through the crowd to the seat with the clearest view.

The font man, Dave, was far out in front, escaping from the narrow confines of the makeshift stage area. Behind him on guitar and bass were Ben and George as usual. The surprise came from the new faces on keyboards and drums, Norbert and Ashley.

Speaking to George during the break he said that he preferred the sound of the new lineup. I had not noticed much change at that point so I paid more attention in the second half and it was the rendition of Cracked Actor that convinced me that he was right. Their sound was richer and funkier.

The band may be 40% new but the set is very much the same and we were treated to a couple of hours of Bowie's greatest hits, and a few oddities, from Queen Bitch to China Girl.

Ziggy Stardust featured heavily, as expected, and as it should. It is still a brilliant album and time has done nothing to diminish it.

The one surprise was the inclusion of Reality, the title track from the 2003 album.

The Thin White Duke know what they are doing and they ended the set with Heroes which was quickly followed, due to time pressure, by an encore of other sing-a-long songs, ending with Starman. Most of us had been singing for most of the evening and by the end we were all joining in. There was dancing too but I know my limits.

The best news is that The Thin White Duke will be back before too long, August I believe, and I expect to be there. I'll try to be on time.

The Thin White Duke in Petersham (Dec 2011)

After a heavy run of theatres and exhibitions it was good to go to a concert again with The Thin White Duke returning to the Fox and Duck. This was the fourth time that I had seen them there and, as always, it was a total blast.

The Fox and Duck likes The Thin White Duke as much as I do and turns out in force to sing and dance to the music of David Bowie.

I'll admit to joining in on the singing bit, how can you not shout out "Hot Tramp, I love you so" during Rebel Rebel, but I draw the line at dancing, to the relief of those having a good time.

The Thin White Duke have a wide repertoire of Bowie songs to call upon and they like to mix the selection and the order a bit.

This time the first half was a bit ChangesOneBowie featuring some of the older classics like John, I'm Only Dancing, Oh You Pretty Things, Life on Mars and Space Oddity. All classics, all delivered superbly and all enthusiastically received.

After a short break to allow band and audience to refresh we moved forward a few years with songs like Fashion, Fame, China Girl and Boys Keep Swinging. If anything these were even better received which is probably more a reflection on the relative youth of the audience than anything else.

The thing that I like most about The Thin White Duke is that they are happy to stray boldly away from the hit singles on to territory like Moonage Daydream (the opener), Diamond Dogs, Breaking Glass and Hang on to Yourself. A little something for the purists there to enjoy.

The two hours or so that The Thin White Duke played just whizzed past in a whirl of good tunes, good humour and good times.

Afterwards I managed to collect a set list (which they more or less followed) and snatch a few words with some of the band. The best news there is that they are looking to improve their technology so that they can extend their repertoire to include songs like Station to Station. I hope to witness this soon, even if I have to trek to Berrylands to do so.

The Thin White Duke (Sept 2011)

The Thin White Duke's third visit to the Fox and Duck in a year was just as good and just as well received as the others.

I managed to get there promptly this time (despite working in Cardiff that day) and grabbed a seat on the bench by the wall on the right-hand side of the pub. This had the advantages of being more comfortable than standing for three hours and of reducing the temptation to dance but the down-side is that all the pictures that I took were from the same angle.

So there are lots of shots of the lead singer and bass guitarists but none of the lead guitar, keyboards or drummer. There time will come another day.

The Fox and Duck filled quickly with a surprisingly wide age range of Bowie fans.

The age gaps became apparent as the set progressed with us oldies most eager to mouth the word to the songs from Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust while the youngsters were keener on the Let's Dance era.

One of the reasons that The Thin White Duke are so popular is that they trawl large swathes of the extensive Bowie back-catalogue and carefully extract a mix of songs that sound quite varied but which are united in their quality.

They also play the songs with a lot of love and skill. They bill themselves as, "The tribute band made by Bowie fans, for Bowie fans", and it shows.

The full set kicks in with Rebel Rebel from Diamond Dogs. A rocking song and a single too. The singing-along starts immediately and legs start to twitch expectantly.

As the evening progresses we get large chunks of Ziggy Stardust, fair smatterings of Hunk Dory and snippets from most of the other albums from Space Oddity (1969) to Let's Dance (1983).

The Berlin period was previously represented by the lone Heroes but was joined this time by Breaking Glass and Be My Wife from the musical medley that is the first side of Low.

You can always argue about the songs left out of the set but with some thirteen original albums in this period to choose from there is always going to be more left out than included in.

And while I'd love to hear all 9 minutes and 33 seconds of Cygnet Committee, I suspect that would not be a popular choice with everybody else. One day.

The Thin White Duke return to the Fox and Duck on 3 December and you know that I'll be there too.

The Return of The Thin White Duke (to Petersham)

It was worth going to see The Thin White Duke at the Fox and Duck again just so that I could use the "The Return of The Thin White Duke" heading. (For the uninitiated that's a line from the magnificent Station to Station).

It was also well worth going for the songs of David Bowie as delivered by The Thin White Duke.

This was my second time with The Thin White Duke having first seen them at The Fox and Duck last November.

The only reason that I had gone so long without seeing them again was simply because they had not played locally again since then.

The Fox and Duck suits them well. The performance area is just about the right size for a five-piece band and the locals are good Bowie fans.

The pub gets packed and many people sing along to the songs. Including me.

We even got a few people dancing at end but I was happy to keep out of that. My singing is not up to much but my dancing is even worse.

The Thin White Duke bill themselves as "made by Bowie fans for Bowie fans" and that comes across strongly both in the choice of songs and the enthusiasm of the performance.

Talking to the band reinforced this even further and we were soon talking about band line-ups, producers and even songs from the often overlooked first album, David Bowie, from 1967.

One of the best things about The Thin White Duke is their selection of songs.

Bowie gives you a lot of fantastic songs to choose from, including all the classic singles like Life on Mars, Jean Genie and Fashion but The Thin White Duke avoid playing safe and also give us songs like Lady Stardust, Rock n Roll Suicide and Diamond Dogs.

And I was delighted that they ended the evening with Width of a Circle, the opening tracks from 1970's The Man Who Sold the World. Magnificent.

Pub nights don't get much better than this.

The Thin White Duke gets Petersham singing

Another conversation with another mate in another pub (Willoughby Arms) led me to see The Thin White Duke at the Fox and Duck in Petersham where they delighted us with highlights from David Bowie's long, illustrious and varied career.

Bowie had the advantage of changing bands every time that he changed moods but The Thin White Dukes does a pretty fine job of imitating those styles with a single line-up. There is a tendency to go for the later, funkier versions of songs like The Jean Genie and Rebel Rebel but there's nothing wrong with that.

The set list is stuffed full of Bowie classics, like a teenage girl's handbag, and over a couple of hours we were treated to songs like Ashes to Ashes, Life on Mars, Changes, Fame, Fashion, Let's Dance and Heroes.

But there were a few surprises in there too, like Time, The Man Who Sold the World (a hit for Lulu!) and Five Years.

A surprise omission was Station to Station which is where the term "the thin white duke" comes from but it would be churlish to criticise them for this when there are so many good songs to choose from that many favourites were bound to be left out.

The songs were delivered with precision and infectious enthusiasm and it was not long before we were all singing along; even me, and I don't do singing.

The set ended with Starman which is where Bowie and I started with his Top of The Pops performance back in July 1972. From there it was a short step to Ziggy Stardust, the farewell tour, a lifetime of buying all his albums and finding things to appreciate in all of them, even Tin Machine!

The Thin White Duke compress all that love and excitement in to a couple of magical hours.