David Bowie collaborators announce 70th birthday celebration

Musicians who worked with the late David Bowie will hold a benefit show to celebrate what would have been his 70th birthday on January 8, 2017.

Mike Garson, Earl Slick, Adrian Belew, Gail Ann Dorsey, Sterling Campbell and Gerry Leonard and many more who recorded and performed with the late star over the decades will appear at the event at Brixton’s O2 Academy in London. Actor and close friend Gary Oldman will also be a special guest.

Proceeds from the event will go to local charity, Children & The Arts. Further shows in cities that have a “strong connection” with Bowie are being planned – and each date will feature the 30 core musicians, in addition to 40 or so local performers.

Celebrating David Bowie organisers say that Bowie’s last touring band had “refrained from further opportunities to honour him as it was still too emotional.”

But they add, “As word reached them about the sincerity of this particular group with Gary Oldman, they slowly decided to come on board to say goodbye to David properly in a grand show, keeping in line with his tremendous legacy.

“Far from a tribute and never referred to as one, this ensemble includes David Bowie people, playing David Bowie music and in David Bowie style.

“This is the first and last time this inner circle will do anything like this and these shows are likely to be the last time that they perform his music together; sadly, this may be the closest anyone will come to a David Bowie live experience ever again.”

O2 Priority presale go on sale on November 16 at 9am, with tickets available to the wider public on November 18 at 9am.

Last month, one of Bowie’s final tracks Killing A Little Time was released from the Lazarus Cast Album – a record which includes tracks from Bowie’s off-Broadway show Lazarus. It was recorded the day after Bowie’s death at the age of 69 after a long battle with cancer.

David Bowie emojis included in latest Apple software update

Former TeamRock news desk member Christina joined our team in late 2015, and although her time working on online rock news was fairly brief, she made a huge impact by contributing close to 1500 stories. Christina also interviewed artists including Deftones frontman Chino Moreno and worked at the Download festival. In late 2016, Christina left rock journalism to pursue a career in current affairs. In 2021, she was named Local Weekly Feature Writer of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards.