Long time members of David Bowie’s live and recording band will gather in Sydney in January with Australia’s Bernard Fanning, Sarah Blasko and Paul Dempsey to perform the music of David Bowie, David Bowie style.
Celebrating David Bowie will be the third Bowie celebration show in recent months in Australia. Amanda Pelman’s excellent Nothing Has Changed featured Deborah Conway, Tim Rogers, Steve Kilbey and Adalita.
David Williams’s ‘Bowie In Berlin’ will tour Australia in January with Mick Harvey, Kylie Auldist, Dave Graney, Ron Peno, Kim Salmon and Max Sharam performing songs from Bowie’s Berlin trilogy ‘Low’, ‘Heroes’ and ‘Lodger’.
‘Celebrating David Bowie’ features former star Bowie band members Mike Garson, Adrian Belew, Earl Slick, members of David’s last two touring bands, Angelo Moore from Fishbone, Latin Grammy Award Winner Gaby Moreno, Bernard Fowler from The Rolling Stones, Joe Sumner, and a vast extended musical family who play with or have played with Tom Waits, Sting, Seal, Herbie Hancock, De La Soul, Brian Eno, Iggy Pop, Smashing Pumpkins, B52s, Dr. Dre, Burt Bacharach, David Byrne, Todd Rundgren, Prince, Neil Young, and Lenny Kravitz making up the core ensemble.
More Australian performers will be announced soon.
CELEBRATING DAVID BOWIE
Sunday 29 January 2017
Sydney Opera House
Tickets on sale at 9.00am, Monday 12 December from
www.sydneyoperahouse.com or (02) 9250 7777
www.ticketmaster.com.au or 136 100
www.celebratingdavidbowie.com
#CelebratingDavidBowie #CDB
Adrian Belew (Guitars): Perhaps best known for his long stint as frontman and second guitarist for the progressive rock group King Crimson (1981 – 2009) and his work with:
DAVID BOWIE: 2 world tours, 3 records, and one single/video (Pretty Pink Rose).
FRANK ZAPPA: 1 world tour, 7 records, and one live film (Baby Snakes)
TALKING HEADS: 1 world tour, 2 records.
THE TOM TOM CLUB: one multi-platinum single (Genius Of Love).
KING CRIMSON: 33 years of touring, multiple records, DVD’s + 2 Grammy nominations.
LAURIE ANDERSON: 3 records and one live film (Home Of The Brave).
PAUL SIMON: 3 multi-platinum records (including Graceland).
NINE INCH NAILS: 5 multi-platinum records (including Downward Spiral).
Records with other artists include: CYNDI LAUPER, JEAN MICHEL JARRE, JOE COCKER, RYUICHI SAKAMOTO, THE BEARS, MIKE OLDFIELD, CAIFANES, and many others.
As a solo artist: 20 records, 1 Grammy nomination, voted into Guitar Player Magazine Hall Of Fame, and composer of the 2016 Pixar short film PIPER.
Alex Painter (Vocals): Alex Painter is singer/songwriter, bassist and guitarist that brings a soulful, rootsy approach to a modern alt rock perspective. From his solo work, to his varying collaborations, his music has graced many stages, televisions and movie screens. His collaborations include work with; Sony recording artists Sinister Dane, Section 8, Atlantic recording artists The Peak Show, Onostatic, Marisa Ronstadt and The Soul of John Black. His solo work has been licensed for major television shows and motion pictures. He is currently in the studio working on his latest solo release and on the road gracing such stages as the San Jose Jazz Festival.
Angelo Moore (Vocals): Angelo Moore is an American musician, best known for his work as lead singer and saxophonist for the Los Angeles alternative rock band Fishbone. Moore also performs and records under the stage name Dr. Madd Vibe.
In addition to his regular duties with Fishbone, in 1993 Moore released a poetry anthology titled Dr. Madd Vibe’s Comprehensive Linkology. In 1997 he released his first solo CD, also titled Dr. Madd Vibe’s Comprehensive Linkology, as well as his first video titled The Delusional Quandaries Of Dr. Madd Vibe. In 2000 Moore released another CD/video set titled The Yin-Yang Thang, and in 2006 he released the CD Dr. Madd Vibe’s Medicine Cabinet. Moore also made a cameo appearance as the bandleader in the movie Idlewild featuring Outkast members Big Boi and Andre 3000. On June 26, 2012, Angelo Moore and the Rondo Brothers released the single “Brand New Step” under Ninth Street Opus record label.
Bernard Fowler (Vocals): Bernard Fowler’s talents as a singer, songwriter, producer, and instrumentalist have resonated throughout the span of his extraordinary career in the music industry. His dynamic vocals have appeared on hundreds of albums for bands as diverse as The Rolling Stones, Herbie Hancock, Ryuichi Sakamoto, John Mayer, Rod Stewart, Robert Plant, Duran Duran, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Michael Hutchence, Michael Buble, Philip Glass, Yoko Ono, Alice Cooper and Bootsy Collins, and many more.
Bernard is most widely known by millions of people around the world as the background singer and percussionist for The Rolling Stones, a position he has held for 28 years and counting. He has recorded and toured with “the world’s greatest rock n’ roll band” to nearly every continent, appearing on 14 Rolling Stones albums. In 2006 Bernard released his first solo album Friends with Privileges to critical acclaim. His second solo album, The Bura was released in 2015 and feature an all-star line up of musicians including Slash, Waddy Wachtel, Darryl Jones, Phil X, Chuck D, Lukas Nelson, Lenny Castro, Jimmy Paxson and Sugar Blue.
Blair Sinta (Drums): Blair Sinta has been a professional drummer in Los Angeles for 20 years. He has recorded/toured with Annie Lennox, Chris Cornell, Stevie Nicks, Alanis Morissette, Melissa Etheridge, Josh Groban, Glen Ballard, Dave Stewart and many others.
Blair was a featured performer on the Los Angeles and San Francisco Celebrating David Bowie shows.
Earl Slick (Guitars): From the spacey sounds of seventies David Bowie, to the seminal solo work of John Lennon, to the gritty resurgence of punk pioneers the New York Dolls, Earl Slick has had two hands in shaping the sounds that have come to define legends.
Slick got his start in the club scene of his hometown, New York City, where he quickly gained a reputation as a unique and talented guitarist. In 1974, friend and film composer Michael Kamen recommend Slick to David Bowie as Mick Ronson’s replacement on the Diamond Dogs tour.
Although Bowie supplied most of the guitar work on Diamond Dogs, Slick managed to duplicate and expand on the tracks while injecting his own style into the live show, resulting in one of the greatest live rock guitar albums of all time, David Live, recorded at the Tower Theater in Philadelphia in 1974.
Slick remained with Bowie for his next two studio albums, which saw the singer transform into his “Thin White Duke” persona, resulting in the classic Young Americans (1975) and the more experimental Station to Station (1976). It was around this time that Slick met John Lennon, who would ask Slick to join him in the studio a few years later on what would turn out to be Lennon’s final studio album, Double Fantasy.
During this time, Slick also launched his solo career, resulting in the records Razor Sharp (1976) and Earl Slick Band (1976) and in the following years, Slick would continue to record and tour with some of the world’s most influential artists.
In 2000, Slick accepted an offer to rejoin Bowie full-time, touring steadily and appearing on Bowie’s 2002 studio effort, Heathen, and 2003’s Reality. “Earl is a legendary guitar star and a musician of great feeling,” says Bowie. “His playing is earthy, timeless and never less than stellar.” In 2003, Bowie, Joe Elliott (Def Leppard), Robert Smith (The Cure), and other notables joined Slick for his solo release, Zig Zag.
Most recently, in April 2016, Slick was joined by Rolling Stones backing vocalist Bernard Fowler for the Station to Station Revisited tour in the UK and Japan.
Gaby Moreno (Vocals): Guatemalan singer-songwriter, Gaby Moreno has achieved remarkable success as a musician. She has been nominated for an Emmy and won a Latin Grammy for Best New Artist. She has released four albums, toured with Tracy Chapman, Ani DiFranco, Punch Brothers, Hugh Laurie and Calexico, and has shared the international stage with pop music luminaries such as Bono, Andrea Bocelli and Van Dyke Parks.
In 2006, she took the top prize in the “John Lennon Songwriting Contest”, the first contestant in the Latin category to win Song of the Year. (She’s now a judge.) She co-wrote the theme song of the NBC series “Parks and Recreation” which was nominated for an Emmy in 2010. That same year, she recorded the classic song “Smile,” by Charlie Chaplin, for the Oscar-winning documentary “The Cove.” And she performed “Toast to Freedom,” a song commemorating the 50th anniversary of Amnesty International, first with Kris Kristofferson on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, then in Dublin where she shared the stage with Angelique Kidjo and Bono.
She released her second album, “Illustrated Songs” in 2011, followed by “Postales.” in 2012, her first release entirely in Spanish and with Metamorfosis, the label founded by her compatriot Ricardo Arjona, one of Latin America’s most prominent singer-songwriters. That year, Moreno and Arjona released a duet, “Fuiste Tu,” which was nominated for Song of the Year and Record of the Year at the Latin Grammy Awards.
By the time Moreno was named Best New Artist in the 14th Annual Latin Grammy Awards of 2013, the “newcomer” had already almost spent half her life in the music business.
Gail Ann Dorsey (Bass, Vocals): Gail Ann Dorsey is an American musician with a long career as a session musician, perhaps best known for her lengthy residency in David Bowie’s band from 1995 to 2016. Aside from playing bass, she occasionally sung lead vocals with Bowie on “Under Pressure” and duetted with him on others including “The London Boys”, “Aladdin Sane (1913-1938-197?)”, “I Dig Everything”, accompanying Bowie on clarinet, and a cover of Laurie Anderson’s “O Superman”.
From 1993 to 1996, Dorsey recorded and toured with Tears for Fears and collaborated on songwriting with the band. She appeared in several of the band’s promo videos throughout this period. Her diverse range of work includes performances and/or recordings with, among others including Lenny Kravitz, Bryan Ferry, Boy George, the Indigo Girls, Khaled, Jane Siberry, The The, Skin, Gwen Stefani, Charlie Watts, Seal, Gang of Four, Susan Werner, ani difranco and Dar Williams.
In addition, Dorsey has released three solo albums: The Corporate World (1988), Rude Blue (1992), and I Used To Be… (2003).
Holly Palmer (Vocals): Playboy Magazine calls her the “thinking dude’s (and dudette’s) pop sex symbol.” Los Angeles Confidential said “a sultry voice that recalls Edith Piaf and Billie Holiday, with Eminem’s hip-hop beats mixed in.”
She’s recorded, toured and collaborated with such illustrious industry icons as David Bowie, Dr. Dre, Gnarls Barkley, Seal, and Michael Bublé — in addition to releasing four well-received albums of her own.
After recording her soon to be critically acclaimed second album, Palmer was invited by David Bowie to sing on his album Hours. She was featured on the opening track “Thursday’s Child,” proclaimed by Q Magazine as one of the top moments of the year 2000, noting the best bit as “…the breathy female whispers that usher in the second gorgeous chorus.” Palmer spent the next year touring the world with Bowie, appearing on VH-1 Storytellers, as well as two additional Bowie albums: Live at the Beeb and Toy.
“Middle of a Miracle” Holly’s latest release (February 2017) is an album focused on her family life – and the joys and heartaches she and her husband have experienced raising their 7 year old son Maceo – who was born with Cerebral Palsy.
Her newest single recording is a song she wrote called “Human” which contains the core message of Holly’s inclusion initiative – a message that David Bowie certainly put forward in his music throughout his life.
Jeremy Little (Vocals): Jeremy Little is an American composer, songwriter, and performer whose work has been heard hundreds of times in television and film. Shows such as J.J. Abrams’ “Fringe” and “Almost Human” have featured his music as well as shows like “Shameless”, “The Big C”, and “The Voice”. As a singer, he has recorded dozens of commercial jingles, and as a singer/songwriter has become an L.A. favorite with his cabaret-like performances.
Jordan Katz (Trumpet): Jordan is a New York-born, Los Angeles-based multi instrumentalist, horn arranger, musical director and music producer. Recent film, television and video game work include appearances on Ellen, Conan and American Idol and the score for Grand Theft Auto V. Katz has worked with artists as varied as Martin Starr, Brother Ali, Dan Bern, Lucinda Williams, Jennifer Nettles, Neon Trees, Indigo Girls, David Berkeley, Ghostface Killah, Iggy Pop, M83, MC Lars, Tom Kenny, Sara Bareilles, Far East Movement, Fitz and the Tantrums, Paul F. Tompkins, and Foster The People. He’s also an Executive Producer of the new De La Soul album “and the anonymous nobody” and the musical director for the podcast/live stage show The Thrilling Adventure Hour.
Mark Plati (Guitars/Bass): Mark‘s career began in earnest in New York City in 1987 when he began working with dance music legend Arthur Baker at Shakedown Sound as an engineer, mixer, programmer and musician. Working with Baker was an instant immersion into the music industry of the 1980s: it was a trial-by-fire period that kept Mark busy in Baker’s domain, and quickly led to work elsewhere. Between 1987 and 1991 Mark worked with such diverse artists as Quincy Jones, Janet Jackson, The Talking Heads, Fleetwood Mac, Lou Reed, Oingo Boingo, Dream Academy, The Fat Boys, Grayson Hugh, Pete Wylie, Dennis Brown, and the Bee Gees.
During the 1990s Mark worked with such diverse artists as Nina Hagen, New Order, Natalie Imbruglia, Suzanne Vega, Al Green, Big Audio Dynamite, Shawn Colvin, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Deee-Lite. In 1991 he began a ten-year association with minimalist composer Philip Glass’ New York City recording complex, The Looking Glass, where he produced, engineered, mixed, or performed on albums by The Cure, Hooverphonic, Alisha’s Attic, Duncan Sheik, Dave Navarro, as well as Glass himself. In 1996 Mark co-produced and mixed David Bowie’s ‘Earthling’ album; this marked the beginning of a seven year association with David where Mark either produced, recorded, mixed, or performed on most of Bowie’s musical output. In 1999 Mark switched gears and began a three year stint as Musical Director and guitarist/bassist with Bowie, performing with him in Europe and the U.S. at such shows as the Glastonbury Festival, NetAid, the Montreux Jazz Festival, VH-1 Storytellers, The Concert for New York, and the Area 2 Tour with Moby. He supervised the live execution of two complete Bowie albums – ‘Heathen,’ and the 1976 classic ‘Low.’ In 2005 Mark began a period of working in Paris, producing and mixing a number of iconic platinum artists including Louise Attaque, Les Rita Mitsuko, Emilie Simon, Alain Bashung, KYO, and Charlie Winston. Mark continues to work in New York as well as on the Continent, and is constantly looking for new musical adventures.
Mike Garson (Piano/Keyboards): Mike Garson is a jazz, classical and rock pianist and composer, perhaps best known for his relationship with David Bowie, spanning forty years – bookended by both Bowie’s first and final live American performances. Garson was Bowie’s musical director for his Young Americans tour with Luther Vandross and Dave Sanborn, and was Bowie’s longest standing member, having performed 1,000 live Bowie concert performances. Mike made his mark on 19 Bowie albums, including his much talked about masterly solo on the Aladdin Sane track. Garson has also performed and recorded with Nine Inch Nails, The Smashing Pumpkins, Alicia Keys, Seal and Stanley Clarke – among hundreds of the biggest names in rock, pop, jazz and classical music. Mike is the subject of the international bestselling biography of his life, “Bowie’s Piano Man – The Life of Mike Garson.”
Ron Dziubla (Saxophone): Ron Dziubla’s raw and greasy rock and roll tone has rocked the stage and studio with artists such as Duane Eddy, Joe Bonamassa, Los Straitjackets, Nick Waterhouse, Royal Crown Revue, Joe Perry, Waddy Wachtel, John Mayall and many more. Ron can be seen and heard on the live Joe Bonamassa concert recordings, Amsterdam, Muddy Wolf at Red Rocks and Live at the Greek Theater. He was Duane Eddy’s featured soloist on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member’s first studio recording in 30 years, “Road Trip.” A specialist in rock saxophone, his musical versatility is proven in his tours and recordings with artists such as Ricky Martin, Chayanne, and Franco de Vita. Ron is featured on Ricky Martin’s live DVD/CD recordings, MTV Unplugged and Live Black and White Tour.
The Independent UK commented on Ron’s playing with Duane Eddy in London in 2010, “Mr. Dziubla is a real find. His honking, tempestuous, full-blooded playing lifted every song into a delirium of noise”. The Miami New-Times described Ron’s saxophone as “paint-peeling blasts of sax.”
Not content with tours and LA recording sessions alone, Ron also lives the academic life, serving as the Program Chair of the Common Course Department at the world famous Musicians Institute in Hollywood, CA.
Scrote (Band Leader / Guitarist): Scrote is a guitarist/producer from Los Angeles. In addition to his LA-based work, he also works in San Francisco, Austin, New York, and Berlin. He has produced, recorded and/or performed with a wide array of Grammy winners, indie icons, world-renowned instrumentalists, and other celebrated artists including: Daniel Johnston, Puscifer, Jackson Browne, No Doubt, Fred Frith, Seal, Angelo Moore (Fishbone), Mike Garson (David Bowie, NIN), Adrian Belew, Tim Lefebvre, Benmont Tench (Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers), actor Ewan McGregor, Blake Mills, Gaby Moreno, Paul Barker (Ministry), actor Gary Oldman, Reeves Gabrels (David Bowie, The Cure), Jerry Harrison, Van Dyke Parks, Wayne Kramer (MC5), Rhys Chatham, Michael Des Barres, and Conan O’Brien show trumpeter Mark Pender.
Scrote regularly releases and performs his own music across the US, Germany, Egypt, Holland, Spain, Switzerland, Hungary, France, Denmark, Belgium, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Czech Republic, Poland, Italy, Bulgaria, and Monaco. His innovative guitar playing and artistry is well recognized for simultaneously blending and contrasting a myriad of genres and styles.
Sterling Campbell (Drums): Campbell rose to international attention in 1986 touring with Cyndi Lauper on her True Colors World Tour. For the next ten years, he played with several notable bands which drew from different genres. In 1987, Campbell joined Duran Duran and later was hired first as a session player in 1991 by Soul Asylum, playing on half of the tracks on their 1992 release, Grave Dancer’s Union including their Grammy Award-winning single, “Runaway Train”. Campbell soon replaced Soul Asylum’s drummer Grant Young and played with them from 1995 to 1998.
Sterling began recording with David Bowie in 1991 and later joined his band in 1992 touring with him for fourteen years until the end of his “A Reality Tour” in 2004. Campbell has worked with artists such as David Byrne, The B-52s, Chic, Tina Turner, Grayson Hugh and Gustavo Cerati. In 2007, he reunited with The B-52s and currently tours with the band.
Zac Rae (Keyboards): Zac Rae is multi-instrumentalist, producer, and composer from Los Angeles, CA. His electic recording and performance credits include: Fiona Apple, Gnarls Barkley, Annie Lennox, Lana Del Ray, Childish Gambino, Leonard Cohen, Damien Rice, Lissie, Miguel, Norah Jones, Tim Finn, Glen Campbell, Gary Clark Jr, Jason Mraz, Christina Perri, Jane’s Addiction, Aerosmith, Macy Gray, Michael Buble, Ziggy Marley, Carlos Santana, and many more; as well as the soundtracks to such movies as Oceans 13, Ghostbusters (2016) and the Oscar nominated The Theory Of Everything. Most recently, Zac has been a performing as a member of the group Death Cab For Cutie.
