David Bowie 70th Birthday Shows Set

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Bowie in Moscow in 1976

Update (Jan. 7): A second Los Angeles date–featuring Sting–has been added for January 24.Tickets are still available for many of the dates.

Update (Dec. 8): It appears that there will be more than one David Bowie tribute concert in early 2017. In addition to the London show set for Jan. 8, the date of Bowie’s birth, the English music publication NME reports that events are now planned for New York, Tokyo, Los Angeles and Sydney in January and early February. The dates given are:

London–O2 Brixton Academy (Jan. 8)
New York–Terminal 5 (Jan. 10)
Los Angeles–The Wiltern (Jan. 24 and 25)
Sydney Opera House (Jan. 29 and 30)
Tokyo Dome City Hall (Feb. 2)

The New York show, according to NME, will be a benefit for local charities and will feature more than two dozen local musicians. That particular show will feature Bowie collaborators Mike Garson, Adrian Belew, Earl Slick, Fishbone’s Angelo Moore, Kate Pierson of the B-52’s, Gaby Moreno, Bernard Fowler, Joe Sumner, and more, said the newspaper. Participating artists have not yet been announced for the other shows.

Here is our original item on the London show…
David Bowie would have turned 70 on January 8, 2017. To mark the occasion, a large crew of Bowie’s friends and associates will perform on that date at the O2 Academy in Brixton, Bowie’s birthplace. The tribute to Bowie, who died on January 10 this year, only two days after his 69th birthday, will be hosted by actor and Bowie friend Gary Oldman. According to a report from the Bowie camp, the show will be the first of a series of gigs around the world that will “take place in cities that have a strong connection with David Bowie and his work.”

The U.K. event, titled “Celebrate David Bowie,” will feature music by 30 core musicians from throughout Bowie’s career, joined by as many as “40 or more local musicians,” all offering music from throughout Bowie’s long career.

The London gig will reportedly feature musicians who played on Bowie’s final albums, The Next Day and Blackstar, along with former collaborators including Mike Garson, Earl Slick, Adrian Belew, Mark Plati, Gerry Leonard, Gail Ann Dorsey, Sterling Campbell, Zachary Alford, Holly Palmer and Catherine Russell, with more guests to be named later.

Proceeds from the London performance will go to the Children & the Arts foundation, which supports music education for the underprivileged in the U.K.

Oldman is a natural to serve as host of the Brixton event. The actor accepted the Icon Award at the 2016 Brit Awards on behalf of Bowie in February, describing Bowie as “the very definition … the living embodiment of that singular word icon.”

According to The Guardian, “The idea for the birthday gigs was inspired by the series of tributes which took place in the wake of Bowie’s death, most notably the two shows in spring this year, in which more than 70 artists and musicians in Los Angeles and San Francisco celebrated his career. The cast of those shows included Gary Oldman, Seal, Ewan McGregor, Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads, and Bowie band alumni from ‘Space Oddity’ to the latest Blackstar album.”

Watch as Annie Lennox and Gary Oldman honor Bowie at the 2016 BRIT awards