INTERVIEW: London is ready to ‘Experience’ Bowie again
Photo: Laurence Knight portrays David Bowie in Bowie Experience. Photo courtesy of Charlie Raven / Provided by Premier with permission.
David Bowie’s deep catalogue of music continues to attract new listeners from every generation. The influential musician, who died three years ago, made statement after statement on what rock ‘n’ roll could sound like, what fashion could look like and what a live concert could feel like.
Capturing some of that undeniable Bowie energy is singer Laurence Knight, who is currently touring his tribute show around the United Kingdom. He will bring the homage to the Hackney Empire in London Friday, Feb. 1 at 8 p.m.
When audiences take in the concert, they will be experiencing a polished act that has been worked on for more than 20 years.
“I was at music college, trying to pay the bills,” Knight said in a recent phone interview. “I used to go out with some other musicians into the clubs and the pubs around the UK playing general covers, lots of different artists in one night, music for just general entertainment, and most musicians like something from David Bowie’s catalogue. We would put in a few David Bowie songs, and people started saying to me that I sounded like him when I sung his songs and that I should do something with that.”
This was back in 1997, and Knight said there weren’t many tribute shows around. So after the suggestion came for him to create an homage concert, he didn’t know what the next step should be. He was a trailblazer in many ways.
“I wasn’t completely clear what they meant, which was probably a good thing because then I didn’t have to refer to any other tribute,” he said with a laugh. “I just had to do what I thought was right, so that’s when I started. I thought, OK, I’ll give it a go, thinking this is never going to work. We’re talking about David Bowie. How could you possible do this? So I put on one show, and people liked it. And so I put on another one, and people liked it. And it’s been going like that ever since.”
Experience Bowie, the latest incarnation of his tribute act, has toured the world, and this current theater tour has been going strong since May of 2016. In recent years he has visited Sweden, Norway, Ireland, Denmark, Holland and other countries. Upcoming engagements take him to major cities in England, Scotland, Ireland and Northern Ireland.
In the early days of this musical adventure, Knight would host different Bowie tribute gigs. Sometimes he would focus on the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, which features the songs “Starman,” “Suffragette City” and, of course, “Ziggy Stardust.” Other times his interests swayed toward the Let’s Dance album, which features the songs “China Girl,” “Shake It” and “Criminal World.”
Today, the theater show has a fixed set list, one that focuses on the music listeners have come to cherish. Fans should expect songs like “Changes,” “Space Oddity,” “Under Pressure” and “Golden Years.”
“David Bowie’s output is pretty vast, both in breadth and scope,” he said. “It’s ripe for exploration and reinterpretation. … So the songs that we do are mostly the hits, to be fair. There’s quite a few of them, but we do take the odd detour into things like ‘Hallo Spaceboy,’ the song ‘Where Are We Now?’ from the album The Next Day from 2013. … So, yeah, it’s mostly hits, but there’s so much material that I do my best to try and push it into something a bit more interesting from my point of view.”
Throughout the evening, Knight changes costumes several times — 11 times, to be exact. He transforms himself into the iconic and memorable personas that Bowie used to inhabit on stage.
“I start off dressed like David Bowie was on a program in the UK called Top of the Pops back in the early ’70s where he performed ‘Star Man,'” Knight said. “I wear about six Ziggy Stardust costumes in the first set, and the second set I’m wearing things like what he wore on the Diamond Dogs tour.”
The clown costume from the “Ashes to Ashes” music video? Yes, that is accounted for as well. “Yes, 11 costume changes take you from 1969 pretty much throughout his whole career,” he said.
At the end of the night, Knight has earned a well-deserved rest. It’s a vocally challenging performance, but he has mastered its physical demands. No one’s doubting that Knight gives the audience all he has.
“If I came off stage feeling that I still had lots to give, I would feel that I hadn’t done the show properly,” he said. “So, yes, certainly afterward I just want to be locked into a dark room with a pack of crisps and not see anybody. It is physically very draining. It can be a strain on the voice, but I’ve been singing for a very long time. So I’ve learned a few ways of giving a performance without ruining the voice one night so I can’t do the next night. You can do roundabout four consecutively before the voice starts to say, ‘I’m not really sure we can do another one. We need a bit of a rest.’”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Bowie Experience will play the Hackney Empire in London Friday, Feb. 1 at 8 p.m. Click here for more tour dates and tickets.
