The Bowie Experience review

Pippa Marriott revisits her love of David Bowie through a musical tribute.

Exeter is alive with June Boom events, and The Bowie Experience at Exeter Phoenix brought out a wonderful range of Bowie fans. First-time-round old timers, later adopters, and sometimes two generations together – a Bowie baton being passed on. Various cheeks wore a slick of glitter, several Aladdin Sane t-shirts were on show and a fair amount of finery and leather jackets were in evidence, plus a touch of swishy satin. Sadly, not a single bipperty-bopperty hat.

The whole notion of a tribute band is an interesting one, sitting somewhere between celebratory re-enactment and karaoke. Often the names are the best bit: The Faux Fighters, Oas-ish, Nearvana, Maroon 4, and (apparently) a Christian band named Nuns and Moses. There are a couple of acts that I’ve witnessed over the years that really do bring the magic (The Bootleg Beatles and Cloudbusting), but last night I wasn’t sure what to expect. One thing was for sure: I knew I’d like the music.

The Bowie Experience, first established in 1997, brought the songs and some impressively Mick Ronson-esque guitar playing, and Laurence – our Bowie for the night – can certainly ‘do’ the voice. But did they bring the magic? 

The set-list included a varied, non-chronological shimmy through the Bowie decades to please a spread of fans no matter when they’d been beamed aboard the Bowie starship, and the band clearly know their stuff musically; apparently, they are the only tribute act permitted to perform Bowie's music by the estate holding his catalogue. Really, though, the magic and energy in the auditorium came more from the audience members who danced their way through most of the numbers. Suffragette City got folks moving, and the epic guitar break on Moonage Daydream was a real highlight; Life on Mars soared on the keyboard, and we got some nice saxophone on Sound and Vision.

While I missed a sense of David Bowie’s energy and charisma, I was reminded of some wonderful songs which stirred up both memories and sadness at the loss of a musical and artistic hero.

And since I got home, I’ve been playing Hunk Dory on repeat.