EARL SLICK ROCKS ON STAGE DURING THE "CELEBRATING DAVID BOWIE" U.S. TOUR 2018
WRITTEN FEATURE ARTICLE
CELEBRATING DAVID BOWIE
by Tom Lounges
WHO: "Celebrating David Bowie" with Earl Slick, Mike Garson, Gerry Leonard, Carmine Rojas, Bernard Fowler, Gaby Moreno & others
WHEN: Friday, February 23 @ 7:30pm
WHERE: The Vic Theatre, 3145 N. Sheffield Avenue, Chicago, IL
HOW MUCH: $35 and up / 18 and Older
MORE: www.victheatre.com or www.celebratingdavidbowie.com
David Bowie lives! Not the man, but his music certainly lives on this weekend as the "Celebrating David Bowie" continues its run across North America on Saturday for an 18 and over 7:30pm show at The Vic Theatre (3145 N. Sheffield Ave.) in Chicago. Tickets: $35.00 and up. More: www.victheatre.com.
This tour is not unlike the popular "Experience Hendrix" or "Zappa Plays Zappa" tours that have kept the music and legacies of those two namesake artists alive, while introducing new generations to their contributions as pioneering artists. Bowie deserves no less. This is the second year of "Celebrating David Bowie" and likely there will be more years on the road for this ever evolving show to come.
"What we have for this tour is a number of original Bowie band members and people who were tremendously influenced by David," explained guitarist Earl Slick, who recorded and toured with Bowie on and off throughout the iconic singer's death in December of 2016. Slick's guitar work can be heard on such classic Bowie albums as "Diamond Dogs," (1974) "David Live" (1974), "Young Americans" (1975), "Station To Station" (1976), "Heathen" (2002), "Reality" (2003), and "The Next Day" (2013).
The former Bowie sidemen joining Slick on this tour are -- Mike Garson (keys), Gerry Leonard (guitar) and Carmine Rojas (bass) -- with an evolving cast of special guests. Two full time members of the Celebrating Bowie Band are singers Bernard Fowler, a longtime backing vocalist for The Rolling Stones and 2017 Grammy nominee Gaby Moreno. Slick did not reveal the names of guest artists schedule to pop up along the way as the tour moves from city to city, but a few the tour publicist listed were Corey Glover, Sass Jordan and Fantastic Negrito, although none of those guests were yet confirmed for the Chicago date at press time. Tour and guest updates are found at: www.celebratingdavidbowie.com.
"Mike started with 'Ziggy Stardust' and I started during the 'Diamond Dogs' period and did the 'David Live' album, so we go back with this music to 1972 and 1974, respectively," added Slick, who also recorded with John Lennon and is featured on the late Beatle's last two albums "Double Fantasy" and "Milk And Honey."
Slick said all eras of Bowie's music are represented during the just over 2-hour performance, which has no intermission. "We pretty much cover it all from the beginning to the end during this show. We don't do any of the Tin Machine music he made, because that was actually a band unto itself as opposed to the David Bowie records he did," explained Slick. "We have some tremendous performers up on stage playing the music that David left us and we do the songs the people want to hear and the songs we love to play."
"Bernard Fowler and I work together a lot and plan to do more together when this tour is over," continued Slick. Bernard is a great front man who does a remarkable job with this music. Bernard is one of the best two front men I've ever worked with, the other being David. He really connects with the audiences."
The "Celebrating David Bowie Tour" did really well in Europe last year and Slick expects it to do just as well here in the States. "David's music was universal and connected with people on many levels, and that has nothing to do with geography."
Email Tom Lounges at beatboss@aol.com
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