The David Bowie tribute show A Bowie Celebration is returning the road this year for a special run of shows that will feature complete performances of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars and Diamond Dogs.
The group is led by keyboardist Mike Garson, who played alongside Bowie from the original Ziggy Stardust tour in 1973 all the way through his last tour in 2003-04 and his final live appearance in 2006.
Also in the band is Reality-era Bowie guitarist Gerry Leonard, Serious Moonlight/Glass Spider bassist Carmine Rojas, Glass Spider drummer Alan Childs and multi-instrumentalist Kevin Armstrong, who played with Bowie at Live Aid and on the first Tin Machine album and tour. The group also features Living Colour frontman Corey Glover, Joe Sumner and Canadian singer Sass Jordan. Westworld actress Evan Rachel Wood will appear at select shows.
The history of this tour dates back to 2017, when the members of Bowie’s Reality band reunited to honor him on the first anniversary of his death along with many special guests including Gary Oldman and Kate Pierson of the B-52’s.
The entire thing — which traveled all over the world during the course of just a few weeks — was organized by guitarist Angelo Bundini (a.k.a. Scrote.) “I didn’t see anybody else doing something on the level of the [1992] Freddie Mercury tribute show [after Bowie died],” Scrote told Rolling Stone. “I wanted to do something extraordinarily large and international.”
That show expanded into the Celebrating David Bowie tour the following year, but there seems to have been a split within the camp in the past couple of years. Scrote continues to tour under the banner Celebrating David Bowie and Garson now leads the competing A Bowie Celebration. (The similar names make the whole thing more than a little confusing.) Scrote now devotes much of his energy to his new band the Euphoriant, which also features Joe Sumner and drummer Blair Sinta. He has indicated that Celebrating David Bowie might tour at some point this year.
In the meantime, here are the 2020 tour dates for Garson’s A Bowie Celebration:
March 3rd – San Diego, CA @ Belly Up
March 4th – Mesa, AZ @ Mesa Arts Center
March 6th – Pasadena, CA @ The Rose
March 7th – San Diego, CA @ Belly Up
March 8th – San Francisco, CA @ Bimbo’s 365 Club
March 11th – Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom
March 12th – Seattle, WA @ Neptune
March 13th – Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom
March 15th – Calgary, AB @ Palace Theatre
March 17th – Winnipeg, MB @ Burton Cummings
March 19th – St. Charles, IL @ Arcada Theatre
March 20th – Detroit, MI @ Royal Oak Music Theatre
March 21st – Toronto, ON @ Queen Elizabeth Theatre
March 22nd – Munhall, PA @ Carnegie of Homestead Music Hall
March 24th – Falls Church, VA @ The State Theatre
March 25th – Cleveland, OH @ Agora Theatre
March 27th – Medford, MA @ Chevalier Theatre
March 28th – Lebanon, NH @ Lebanon Opera House
March 29th – New London, CT @ Garde Arts Center – Mainstage
March 31st – New York, NY @ Sony Hall
April 1st – Red Bank, NJ @ Count Basie
April 2nd – Princeton, NJ @ McCarter Theatre Center
April 3rd – Englewood, NJ @ Bergen PAC
April 4th – Glenside, PA @ Keswick Theatre
April 5th – Brookville, NY @ Tilles Center
April 7th – Atlanta, GA @ Center Stage
April 8th – Melbourne, FL @ King Center
April 9th – Clearwater, FL @ Capitol Theatre
April 10th – Lakeland, FL @ RP Funding Center
April 11th – Ft. Lauderdale, FL @ Amaturo