There are multiple David Bowie tributes acts around but Holy Holy have the distinction of featuring original Spiders from Mars drummer, Woody Woodmansey, and Tony Visconti who not only played bass with Bowie in the late 60s but produced, or was involved in, almost half of Bowie’s albums, including The Man Who Sold the World, “Heroes”, Heathen, The Next Day, and Blackstar.
Holy Holy have been performing the songs of Bowie since before the legendary singer’s death and had his full blessing. Tonight’s show, led by singer Glen Gregory, from Heaven 17 – hence several call-outs for ‘Temptation’, sees a superb eight-piece piece band which includes guitar from Gen. X / Cult guitarist James Stevenson and saxophone duties, admirably handled, from Visconti’s daughter, Jessica Lee-Morgan.
Taking to the stage to the brooding Bowie instrumental ‘Warzawa’, the band kick-off with 1970’s prog-rock ‘Width of a Circle’ before stunning versions of ‘Lady Grinning Soul’ and ‘Time’. Gregory doesn’t try to be Bowie, thankfully, but owns the songs as a fan and is clearly moved and in awe of singing such amazing songs on the same stage as Woodmansey and Visconti. His physical presence is huge and he is clearly well accustomed to working a crowd, though given the adoration from the audience for anything Bowie half the job was already done.
With 16 of the evenings 19 songs drawing on Bowie’s 1969-1973 period, the set is primarily focussed on the songs Woodmansey was involved in creating and bringing to life. The songs are faithfully reproduced and adored by the crowd. ‘Space Oddity’, ‘Ashes to Ashes’, ‘Moonage Daydream’, the list goes on. The setlist is full-on hits and the crowd sing along to each and every one, there is no let-up in the middle, it’s just wham bam thank you ma’am. Given that Woodmansey is 75 years old, watching him hammer the drums for almost two-hours is an impressive feat, and he even has time and smiles to come out and meet/signs afterwards – a true gent!
Towards the end, Visconti takes the microphone to regale the audience with some of his personal memories of working and being friends with Bowie, whilst Woodmansey also expresses his thanks and regales the audience with how the legendary Mick Rock captured the moment Bowie appeared to go down on Mick Ronson guitar, at Oxford Town Hall back in June 1972. You can’t imagine the shock-waves that photo sent across the country, but Woody remembers it well!
As an encore the band perform Bowie’s 2012 comeback single, which Visconti had produced, ‘Where Are We Now?’, which sadly Bowie never had the opportunity to perform live himself, before a riotous ‘Rebel Rebel’. With so many acts performing Bowie songs from across his illustrious 50+ year career an act needs to be on the top of their game to stand out, thankfully Holy Holy manage that throughout the show. Over the last ten years the band has performed a number of tours and on the strength of tonight remain at the top of their game, performing timeless songs to audiences who adore the songs, the stories and the band. The only down-side of such a great show is that it serves as a reminder that Bowie is gone. We will never hear him sing these songs live again, which is perhaps even more reason to hold onto Holy Holy, not as a tribute but as people that were there, involved in the creation of these songs, who shared their creation, and still want to share the joy that they bring.
(This article was originally written for Oxfordshire Music Scene – www.back2left.co.uk)
