I’m the perfect Bowie substitute

David Bowie’s long-term collaborator Tony Visconti is adamant that the rock icon will not play live again.
Absolute BowieAbsolute Bowie
Absolute Bowie

Bowie stunned the showbiz world by releasing his first new music in a decade on his 66th birthday in January, followed by his comeback album, The Next Day, which topped the charts all over the world two months later.

“I think Visconti’s right, what would the motivation be for Bowie to come back on to the stage again,” said Bowie doppelganger John O’Neill, who brings his five-piece tribute band Absolute Bowie to Clitheroe’s Grand Theatre on Saturday.

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“He is an incredibly wealthy man, and apparently Bowie has told friends he is experiencing nerves over the prospect of returning to the stage.

“Bowie has not performed since 2006 and stopped touring after a heart attack on stage a couple of years earlier.

“I’d love to see it happen, but I don’t think it will.”

O’Neill, who shares the same birth date as Bowie, has played the thin white duke in copyists Hunky Dory and Diamond Dogs, however Absolute Bowie are the only tribute band to have landed a personal endorsement from Woody Woodmansey, Bowie’s drummer who played on The Man Who Sold the World, Spiders from Mars and Aladdin Sane albums. “It is nice to have that seal of approval from somebody who was involved with Bowie for so many years,” added O’Neill.

Absolute Bowie propel their audience on a journey through the many phases of Bowie’s music and fashion with incredible attention to stage and costume detail.

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“His voice, style and song-writing technique influenced a generation, and that influence is still as strong today.

“He was the greatest rock chameleon.”

Absolute Bowie, Clitheroe Grand Theatre, November 16. £12 adv, £14 on the door. 01200 421599.

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