There was quite a break until my next music event and even that was an unplanned, near-last-minute thing.
I get regular Facebook updates from venues I've visited and for a few days I was getting them for a band called "Holy Holy", but it was probably on the third or fourth alert that I noticed that it featured Glenn Gregory of Heaven 17 fame, a performer who still puts on a great performance.
This piqued my interest, so I read more and it turned out that Holy Holy are a Bowie tribute supergroup with a twist. Tony Visconti, long time Bowie producer and sometime Bass player, and Woody Woodmansey, former Spiders from Mars drummer, also feature.
When I noticed this was the farewell tour, I had a quick listen on YouTube and liked what I heard, so bought a ticket.
I'm certainly not a hardcore Bowie fan, but I like some of his material and I like Glenn Gregory, so I figured it was worth taking a punt. At least, at The 1865, they serve decent beer at fair prices (Yet O2 venues, I'm looking at you!).
With no support and an on-stage time of 8:30 (nice feature of the 1865 is the Whatsapp updates they send on the day), I arrived about 7:30, but found the local on-road parking packed, so it took me 15 minutes or so to find somewhere to park and get to the venue.
It was already busy, but I made my way to the bar and bought a beer, before making my way back down to the floor. I managed to find a space about 5 rows back from the front, slightly off to the left of the stage, looking at it.
The audience was predominantly older people, most older than me, I'd say, with a smattering of younger people, but they were definitely the minority.
At about 8:30, the music on the loudspeakers stopped and the stage was moodily lit in blue.
The band, all 9 of them, climbed the step to the stage (hard to make a dramatic entry here) and started the performance.
As I said, I'm far from a hardcore Bowie fan, so there were a lot of songs I didn't know in this, what I'm told is a 'Visconti era' heavy, set.
That said, I enjoyed most of the songs, the overall sound was loud (I can't recall the last time my ears rang the next morning! Shame I forgot my newly acquired earplugs...) and far rockier than I expected, with the odd exception.
Glenn Gregory, wisely, makes no attempt to mimic Bowie's vocals, but his style suited the material well, I thought.
Five Years was pretty good, but the next few didn't stick in my memory until we got to a powerful performance of "Ziggy Stardust", which was, unsurprisingly, greeted with a raptuous response from the audience.
This was followed up with a song I didn't know, called "Time", which Glenn said was one of his favourite Bowie tracks.
"Changes" and "Ashes To Ashes" followed shortly. I've never really like "Ashes To Ashes" as a recorded song, the overblown video that accompanied it probably didn't help, but it always sounded a bit over-produced. Live, though, it seemed far more exciting and I have to say I greatly enjoyed it.
"Rock 'n' Roll With Me" was another song that sticks in my memory, which was shortly followed by a 'hits crescendo', featuring "Space Oddity", "The Man Who Sold The World", "Starman", "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide" and finished on "Life On Mars?".
At this point, Glenn said "We usually go off for a few minutes and then come back, but pretend we've done that and come back", to which the crowd cheered as if they had done just that, which seemed to amuse the band.
The encore featured "Moonage Daydream", Bowie's last(?) single "Where Are We Now?" and finished on th rocking "Rebel Rebel".
Before they left the stage, Tony Visconti and Woody Woodmansey said a few words. I'm sure they tell every audience they were the best, but the Southampton crowd were definitely energetic for such an elderly one!
Overall, I enjoyed myself. I'm a Heaven 17 fan and Glenn Gregory's voice is still strong and powerful, he was a good choice to perform these tracks, while the band were great.
I don't recall all the names, but the two guitarists (James Stevenson and Paul Cuddeford) were excellent, while a woman on keyboards was equally so. Tony's daughter, Jess. proved very versatile, providing some backing vocals, saxophone and guitar on various tracks. I can't find out who the backing vocalist was, but she was decidely eye-catching (in a good way) and provided excellent vocal support to Glenn.
Tony seemed to enjoy himself playing his 'very expensive' bass, while Woody belied his age with an extremely energetic performance on the drums.
Personally, I'd have skipped some of the lesser known tracks for some other hits (Where was "Young Americans" or "Putting Out Fire with Gasoline", for example?), but it's their gig and I did enjoy hearing some songs I was less familiar with, even so.
A highly enjoyable evening, then. If you want to see them, you better be quick, as they say this is their last tour.
Setlist:
Five Years
The Width of a Circle
Lady Grinning Soul
Ziggy Stardust
Time
Quicksand
Changes
Ashes to Ashes
eight line poem
Panic in Detroit
Rock 'n' Roll With Me
Drive-In Saturday
Space Oddity
The Man Who Sold the World
Starman
Rock 'n' Roll Suicide
Life on Mars?
Encore:
Moonage Daydream
Where Are We Now?
Rebel Rebel
