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ChangesTwoBowie - Set Evolution


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I've just returned from rehearsal #2 which went just as well as the first.

The band came to an agreement that we would like to start playing live as soon as possible, even if it means playing a shorter set for a support slot of some kind. To that end we moved on to discuss set content for such a gig.

The songs below are pretty much good to go and we're looking to expand them by another eight in preparation for our first outing. The Bowie catalogue is so huge and packed with such classics we're spolit for choice. We would like to maintain a balance between early and late material. With this in mind, are there any particular songs that a hardcore Bowie fan would expect a tribute band to play and would be disappointed if they weren't?

Here's what we have so far:

1. China Girl (this went in because it was one everyone already knew)
2. Let's Dance (as above)
3. The Jean Genie
4. Rebel Rebel
5. Starman
6. Changes
7. Suffragette City
8. Rock & Roll Suicide
9. All The Young Dudes
10. The Stars (Are Out Tonight)

Already in for next time are I'm Afraid of Americans and The Man Who Sold The World.

Edited by hiram.k.hackenbacker
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Nice you're doing one slightly newer track, but there's nothing after Diamond Dogs all the way to Scary Monsters. Some of my fave albums are in there, although I would find it hard to pick tracks as I prefer the lesser known tracks, like I would do Beauty and the Beast rather than "Heroes" but how many people even know that track?

Edited by Mr Arkadin
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[quote name='Mr Arkadin' timestamp='1422319048' post='2671232']
Nice you're doing one slightly newer track, but there's nothing after Diamond Dogs all the way to Scary Monsters. Some of my fave albums are in there, although I would find it hard to pick tracks as I prefer the lesser known tracks, like I would do Beauty and the Beast rather than "Heroes" but how many people even know that track?
[/quote]
Mmm, I had to be quite strong about getting Stars in there. I wasn't particularly bothered that it was that track, but I wanted something from The Next Day in there as I thought it would be different bearing in mind Bowie himself hasn't toured it.
[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1422319291' post='2671233']
Moonage Daydream
Sound And Vision
Ziggy Stardust
TVC15
Fashion
Golden Years
[/quote]
Moonage Daydream is quite high up the list of to do's, but I love your other choices as well.
[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1422319447' post='2671234']
The list could be very long, but I'll just put in a vote for 'Space Oddity'.
[/quote]
Yes, the list of stuff we want to do is huge, but I think we need to get a nice balance with this truncated set. Love Space Oddity though.
[quote name='peteb' timestamp='1422319522' post='2671235']
More songs from Hunky Dory!
[/quote]
That's another issue, even if we did one song from every album we would still have to miss some albums out for the first gig.
At least Hunky Dory is represented already.
[quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1422320972' post='2671240']
There's nothing from Station to Station, Low, Heroes or Lodger - that's quite a big ommission.
[/quote]
As above really. The guitarist is working on Station to Station (the song), but that's going to be a work in progress I think.
Stay has been mentioned quite early on. Golden Years will almost certainly get done at some stage as will Wild Is The Wind. I'm not sure about the other two though.

I almost don't want to do Heroes (the song) as it's just too obvious. Is that wrong?

There is some great stuff on Lodger and that will come soon enough.

Everything seems to draw us back towards Ziggy. Three songs from that album are already in. Moonage Daydream has been mentioned more than once between us and the drummer is fairly insistent on doing Five Years. What to do!

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[quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1422320972' post='2671240']
There's nothing from Station to Station, Low, Heroes or Lodger - that's quite a big ommission.
[/quote]
Just made a new page on the spreadsheet in our Dropbox showing a chart of the spread of songs.
Six of the ten we have are from Diamond Dogs or older. Nothing between Diamond Dogs and Let's Dance (6 albums) and nothing between Let's Dance and The Next Day (8 albums).
[quote name='KK Jale' timestamp='1422325291' post='2671253']
Currently springing to mind: Sorrow, Lady Grinning Soul, Teenage Wildlife...
[/quote]
Now there's an interesting trio of songs.

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I was in a Bowie tribute for a few years before my current band - great fun.

The Ziggy album is an entity in itself; there are many people who only go to see the Ziggy stuff. As such, we ended up playing a few gigs where the first set was the Ziggy album in its entirety. This was a huge hit for those particular fans, who knew every word and every note which came next.

Other ones which went down really well were Life on Mars, Let's Dance, Modern Love, Heroes etc.

Funny that you all knew China Girl - i didn't know it and never warmed to it :-(

My personal favourites to play were Hang on to Yourself, Fame and Boys Keep Swinging

Good memories, and some great gigs

Edited by Roland Rock
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Difficult to get that balance of the later years: according to Wikipedia, since Absolute Beginners in 1986, he's had only 2 top 10 hits, Jump They Say and Where Are They Now.

Certainly while you are building up a following, you'll need to play things that the non-Bowie fans will be familiar with. That probably means including stuff like Dancing In The Street.

How good are your vocalists? I'd love to have a crack at Under Pressure, but we don't have anyone who can sing the Bowie part.

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Unless your singer is actually David Bowie, people are going to want to hear songs that they know and initially that means hit singles form the 70s and 80s. Even if you limit yourself to those that made the top 20 in the UK and ignored the novelty re-releases and duets that's still enough songs for two sets. If you want to expand the set beyond that, base your song choice on what you asked for. After a few gigs you'll get an idea whether the audience want you to play Ziggy in its entirety or if they'd prefer some of the newer material.

Of course if you really want to be eclectic in your choices you need to play at least one Tin Machine track!

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Here's the set list of the band that Roland Rock used to be in;
[url="http://www.rebelrebelband.co.uk/Set%20List%20&%20Tracks.htm"]http://www.rebelrebelband.co.uk/Set%20List%20&%20Tracks.htm[/url]

And since it came up on google here's the list from a USA based tribute of the same name!;
[url="http://www.rebelrebeltribute.com/set-list.php"]http://www.rebelrebeltribute.com/set-list.php[/url]

Might give you some idea of what's doable and is accepted by the public in a working band.

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[quote name='KevB' timestamp='1422355247' post='2671446']
Here's the set list of the band that Roland Rock used to be in;
[url="http://www.rebelrebelband.co.uk/Set%20List%20&%20Tracks.htm"]http://www.rebelrebelband.co.uk/Set%20List%20&%20Tracks.htm[/url]

[/quote]

Thanks for that Kev, trip down memory lane - and some tracks that I recorded that I had forgotten about!

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[quote name='Roland Rock' timestamp='1422342670' post='2671289']
I was in a Bowie tribute for a few years before my current band - great fun.

The Ziggy album is an entity in itself; there are many people who only go to see the Ziggy stuff. As such, we ended up playing a few gigs where the first set was the Ziggy album in its entirety. This was a huge hit for those particular fans, who knew every word and every note which came next.

Other ones which went down really well were Life on Mars, Let's Dance, Modern Love, Heroes etc.

Funny that you all knew China Girl - i didn't know it and never warmed to it :-(

My personal favourites to play were Hang on to Yourself, Fame and Boys Keep Swinging

Good memories, and some great gigs
[/quote]
We learnt China Girl last year for a charity gig which is where we the seeds of all this were born. The studio version is a little antiseptic, but we're playing more along the lines of this version....

[url="http://youtu.be/NEl6BBLwSa0"]http://youtu.be/NEl6BBLwSa0[/url]

I think the singer has done the whole of Ziggy before. I'm not saying never, but that could be a little way off yet.
Strange you should say Modern Love as I don't think that ever came over very well when Bowie did it live. Love the song though. I wouldn't mind having a crack at Cat People as well.

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