I wrote about when I first heard “The rise and fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars”, and when I saw David Bowie at Ziggy’s penultimate gig, a while back

http://terenceruffle.co.uk/20090805-david-bowie-at-the-hammersmith-odeon-july-2nd-1973

And I hope my review of “Toy” turned a lot more people onto what for me is one of the great unreleased albums of all time

http://terenceruffle.co.uk/20110407-david-bowie-toy

And my ramblings on DB’s influence elicited some excellent reactions

http://terenceruffle.co.uk/20140104-the-monsterous-offspring-ofziggy-stardust

I’ve lived with DB’s music for most of my life: it continually delights and fascinates me in equal measures. With my pre millennial band, thee Light Brigade, I was able to live out my Ziggy fantasies to great effect, with three other musician friends who were seriously excellent players and Bowie fans. We played almost 100 gigs around the south east of the UK, and earned ourselves a brilliant reputation as hard rockin’ Bowie/Glamtastic noise merchants.

And with the coming of my solo shows 15 years ago, with the limited assortment of DB karaoke tracks available then, I’d routinely tribute DB at pretty much all of my shows. Flashing forward 15 years there’s an incredible array of Bowie karaoke tracks available now ( and before any one winces at the word “karaoke”, firstly if you think it’s easy, please give it a go and get back to me! And secondly, my quality control is second to none, the Man who sold the World/Ziggy tracks are simply phenomenal ) and with David’s death, I decided to do 2 complete sets of Bowie material.

Let’s get this straight: I don’t look like DB ( and no, no amount of pleading is going to get me wearing the lightening flash Aladdin Sane stylee! ) and I don’t try and sound like DB, but I guess my regular voice is Essex/Cockney, and the “proper” elocution lessons I received at grammar school, and my Mother’s desire for me to “speak nicely” infused with that, adds up to my natural singing voice sounding pitched some where between DB and Syd Barrett.

 

Here’s the first of a few home demos:

 

 

If you’d like to book my show “Terence Ruffle sings David Bowie” please email me via my contact page.

Here’s how the first set runs:

All the Madmen

Black Country Rock

The Man who sold the World

The Supermen

Five Years

Soul Love

Moonage Daydream

Starman

Hang onto Yourself

Ziggy Stardust

Suffragette City

Rock’n’Roll Suicide

 

 

 

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