Became the special man…
The very lovely Jimmy King, our man in New York, has kindly been in touch with a bunch of tasty snaps and a brief report from the Bowie tribute night on Halloween in NYC. So I’ll now put you in his safe hands for the rest of the journey…
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Sarah Mucho’s front woman performance was very charismatic, she has a powerful and versatile voice which is very listenable, Janis Joplin sprung to mind at times with some intense notes quite unexpected from her stature. She and the other musicians did the songs real justice while making them their own.
The show has a sense of cabaret with a theatrical narration from Mark Bailey while the music is totally live band energy all combined with the directional talents of Aaron Mark. It didn’t need ‘bells and whistles’ to accommodate the small ‘Hells Kitchen’ theatre which allowed the performers to spill over into the audience keeping it inclusive.
It was great fun, performed by a talented and eclectic group. The audience were very responsive and loved it as did I.
Here’s the setlist…
Five Years
Soul Love
Moonage Daydream
Starman
It Ain’t Easy
Lady Stardust
Star
Hang On To Yourself
Ziggy Stardust
Suffragette City
Rock N Roll Suicide
The Man Who Sold the World
Fame
Watch That Man
Additional material by Sarah Mucho and Aaron Mark
Directed by Aaron Mark
Ziggy Stardust was played by Sarah Mucho (That’s her in the montage above)
Starman was played by Mark Bailey (Wearing white shirt and leather trousers in the montage at the top of this item)
The Spiders were: Michael Isaacs (Guitar, Vocals, Piano), Kurt Leege (Lead Guitar), Pouth (Drums), Rob Malko (Bass), Clare Cooper (Piano, Vocals), Liz Lark Brown (Vocals)
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Spoken narration by Mark Bailey:-
As the world was ending, his story was just beginning…As if out of thin air, he appeared one day. A symbol of hope, born of so much despair, desperation, and the realization of his own isolation. We must not forget the story of Ziggy Stardust.
Yes, we are here to remember Ziggy Stardust. The songwriter, the rockstar, the international icon who rose from complete obscurity to become the voice of a generation during a time of extreme fear and unrest. But Ziggy was much, much more than that and meant far more than that to his people. Because Ziggy saw what no one else could see.
So the wheels were in motion. Ziggy knew what he must do: Catapult himself into fame. Gather his musicians, his”apostles”, and disguise himself as a superstar in order to reach the masses where they dwell. To infiltrate their culture. To become their leader.
Ziggy did become the voice of his generation and that was not an accident; he made it so. The Spiders from Mars were a tool to Ziggy, nothing more. The very people spreading his message would be the first ones to be forgotten.
Ziggy became too big for his own good. He was bigger than life and that, what ever supernaturalism surrounded him, was why he was here: For the living. But he forgot. He became consumed with a lifestyle that was only meant to be a guise. And so, he began to self-destruct.
As we have seen, the laws of the universe won’t let one person change the world and die happy. Perhaps the role of the profit is too much for a man. In Ziggy’s case, he lost sight of his purpose, which was the only reason he was still alive.
What happens once your soul is ravaged? What’s left? For Ziggy, all that was left was what he started with, an Isolation. The longing to connect and the inevitability of the end.
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Thanx for that Jimmy, would love to have seen it.
I should point out that the characters on the left of the montage at the top of this item are audience members…including the green lady alien, the adult baby and the colourful collection of seated misfits.
We’ve got a whole other bunch of Jimmy’s pictures to post from last month’s BowieBall yet too…just waiting on some words from the organiser, Mr Deryck Todd himself!