With Just A Hint Of Mayhem

When I saw this show advertised some while ago I had know idea what it would be like. But as a lifelong Bowie fan I was intrigued. Bowie’s music in a cathedral? I’ll have some of that please! This is one of a series of concerts promoted by Concerts By Candlelight across the UK’s cathedrals and similar venues. This show was presented at the magnificent Ripon Cathedral in Yorkshire. Mostly it is with some great tribute acts, including this one. The music for this show was provided by David Live, arguably the best Bowie tribute act on the circuit. I would put them at the top, closely followed by Absolute Bowie and the Bowie Contingent. Charlie Fowler is a great front man and while he has a slight resemblance to Bowie, his mannerisms, movement and voice are close to spot on. His between song conversational banter sounds like Bowie too. The band, who I believe have played together for more than ten years are supremely talented. Spencer James on keys plays with the style of Mike Garson when he needs to. The rest of the band are brothers JM Sutcliffe (guitar), JP Sutcliffe (Drums) and Raphael Sutcliffe (bass). They were all on top form, but for me Raphael shone just a little more brightly, especially when his rumbling 5 string bass guitar kicked in

The evening was split into two halves. The first set saw what might have been a show from the 1976 Thin White Duke Isolar 1 tour. Charlie wore the monochrome combo from that tour and he was on splendid form. After a brief rest where those of us in need to empty bladders had to leave the building to use a toilet (who knew Ripon Cathedral has no toilets) the band came back to another rapturous reception. This time Charlie was decked out in the striking blue suit like that worn on the ‘Reality’ tour in 2003/ 2004. The band coped with problems smoothly and easily with Charlie breaking his guitar strap and a backing track failure. There were so many highlights from the performance. The best for me were probably “Changes”, “Starman”, “Oh You Pretty Things”, “Fame”, “Space Oddity”, “All The Young Dudes”, “Ashes To Ashes”, “Little Wonder”, “Absolute Beginners” and a towering take on “Stay” from the ‘Station To Station album. the latter opened the whole show in spectacular style. But just pipping all of those were a gorgeous and emotional version of “Wild Is The Wind” and a powerful show closer with a magnificent “Heroes”. We all sang along and so many of the crowd danced throughout the whole show. Even if you don’t like tribute bands, I am not a huge fan of them, but when they are as good as David Live they deserve to be seen!

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