As David Bowie fans gather around the world to mourn the death of the rock legend, tribute events are also cropping up in Australia.
Bowie had a significant relationship with Australia. As a 12-year-old, he was struck by an artist’s impression of Uluru that he found on a Stravinsky record and, in 1978, played his first Australian shows to stadiums in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. In 1983, Bowie bought an apartment in Elizabeth Bay, which he owned until 1992.
Bowie took regular trips to far north Queensland and to the NSW outback, where in 1983 he shot the clip for Let’s Dance and its companion clip, China Girl. “I had a really good time in Australia,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald in 2004, “Always do… I would come over for a month or so at a time, it was really, really fabulous.”
His legacy is felt by Australian musicians who came of age in the 70s and 80s as well as today’s emerging songwriters, and many are gathering in coming weeks to pay homage to the revered Starman.
Sydney
Sydney festival have announced a free tribute show at Hyde Park, where DJs will spin some of Bowie’s greatest hits and fans are invited to don Ziggy Stardust attire. A word of warning: this event took off on social media earlier this week, but only has capacity for for the first 2000 people.
- From 6.15pm, 13 January at The Bandstand, Hyde Park (Meriton Festival Village)
Cabaret artist Jeff Duff (a former Bowie neighbour in Elizabeth Bay) is well known for his Bowie tribute act, which incorporates a number of costume changes that do justice to the multifaceted artist. Duff and his band will take the audience to Planet Bowie, performing the likes of Space Oddity, Let’s Dance and Life on Mars.
- 4 & 5 February at Camelot Lounge, Marrickville
Bowie fans Alex Cross, Joshua Beagley and Triple J’s Tom Tilley will be leading Freda’s house band through Bowie’s back catalogue, for a night of covers and special guest appearances at the Cleveland Street bar.
- From 7pm, 30 January at Freda’s, Chippendale
Melbourne
A comprehensive collection of David Bowie’s lyrics, photographs, stage sets, costumes, videos and documents spent the better part of 2015 at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), in the form of the V&A’s David Bowie Is exhibition. Now, ACMI hosts a tribute to Bowie with Bowie Down Under at the ACMI Lightwell, where fans can sign a condolence book which will be sent to the official David Bowie archive.
- 6pm-10pm, 16 January at ACMI, Federation Square
To celebrate Bowie’s screen stardom, Cinema Nova is screening his acting debut in The Man Who Fell to Earth. In Nicolas Roeg’s 1976 sci-fi fantasy, Bowie plays stranded alien Thomas Jerome Newton, seeking to transport water back to his parched planet. According to the Guardian, he looks a little like “ET’s spindly, sexy older brother”.
- 14-20 January at Cinema Nova, Lygon Street
Bowie enthusiasts are invited to dress up and dance at the Ding Dong Lounge, featuring Bowie classics from 10pm until the early morning.
- From 10pm 14 January at Ding Dong Lounge, Market Lane
And Kate Reid (aka Lady Shakes) and Per Bystrom are on the decks at The Curtin this Friday, to spin an all-Bowie set in tribute to the Thin White Duke.
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From 10.30pm Friday 15 January at The Curtin, Lygon Street
Brisbane
Bowie was a man of action, who spoke through his art to address injustices in the world. In Australia, he shone a light on indigenous issues and influenced some of Australia’s finest musicians. The Foundry have joined up with Mucho Bravado to pay tribute to Ziggy Stardust, with proceeds donated to the Cancer Council, which works to eradicate the disease that ended his life.
- From 5pm Sunday 21 February at The Foundry, Fortitude Valley
For the second annual Melt festival, Queensland’s celebration of queer arts and culture, Brisbane Powerhouse presents a live take on David Bowie’s fifth studio album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. The album has been described as a “perfectly formed work of dystopian rock”, and launched the artist as an international superstar. Directed by James Lees, a cast of Brisbane’s rock’n’roll-cabaret musicians will belt out the Bowie hits.
- From 7.30pm Saturday 6 February at Brisbane Powerhouse
Adelaide
For the Adelaide Cabaret festival, German-Dutch cabaret star Sven Ratzke will dazzle South Australian audiences in his show, Starman, with the music of David Bowie, exploring his life from New York to Berlin across his greatest hits, and personas from the bizarre to the alien, through to 70s glam-rock.
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From 22-25 June at Space Theatre, Adelaide festival centre
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Know of a Bowie tribute event that we missed? Post the details in the comments.
