This was the third time I has seen Bowie Experience, this night also clashing with the England  V Norway World Cup quarter final clash precipitating a 10pm sharp finish.

Confusingly the band’s name still intentionally clashes with that of The Bowie Experience a band fronted by Laurence Knight whom I have also seen. Essentially the former outfit is the original band minus Knight, the latter a different band with him.

Bowie Experience has now existed for five years with Knight’s replacement-  Oliver Slee. He is at pains to point out that the show is  attribute to  Bowie’s music, not an impersonation, that is just as well. Oliver’s Ziggy Era red wig makes him look like Janet Street Porter, the post Aladdin sane blond wig likening him to Adam Rickets

This show I enjoyed least of the three I have seen. Slee enjoyins a similar lean physique and  as Bowie. Has a repertoire of David’s moves , but is not as a good a singer, a shortcoming most notable exposed on “Life on Mars?”

A video  back wall has images which are either cliched or random projected onto it.

“Space Oddity”  opened well for the first half featuring Bowie’s older material , a set I found more satisfying than the second. Tthe eight piece ( Slee on vocals and occasional guitar), lead and rhythm guitar, keyboards, bass, drums and two backing singers one of whom plays saxophone, the other a multi instrumentalist make a pretty hefty sound in their own right.

Although I loved the older material, as did the veteran cognoscenti, the eighties hits era  fans were noticeably subdued.

The Man Who Sold the World was imaginatively rearranged featuring an exquisite sax solo from Sarah who should have been given more time out front, particularly during “Sorrow”, Suffragette City was surprisingly insipid, “Life on Mars” missed a powerful enough orchestration and   suffered from a weak vocal

First half

Space Oddity

Queen Bitch

Changes

Sorrow

Ziggy

Moonage daydream

Man Who Sold the World

John I’m Only dancing

FIve years

Rock n Roll Suicide

Jean Genie

Suffragette City

Life on Mars?

Second Half

Rebel rebel

Station to Station

TVC15

Golden Years

Young Americans

Sound n vision

Boys keep Swinging

Ashes to Ashes

Fashion

Lets Dance

China girl

Blue Jean

Under Pressure

Absolute Beginners

Heroes

All the Young Dudes

For the second half, Rebel rebel was a great opener, but I found the newer material less satisfying. TVC15 is a great live number , “Boys keep Swinging” and Blue jean were awful. china Girl as a pop song i hate.The home straight of Heroes and “Dudes” was euphoric stuff with the crowd baying for more . The crows loved it, the second half, more than the first..