2018 Dates Announced For ‘Celebrating David Bowie’

The “Celebrating David Bowie” tour is returning to stages in Europe and North America in early 2018, promising “friends, Bowie bandmates and world class players performing a career spanning concert of Bowie music, Bowie-style.”

The excursion is headed up by keyboardist Mike Garson, guitarist Adrian Belew and guitarist Gerry Leonard, who have more than 30 years experience between them of recording, writing and performing with the legendary singer/songwriter.

– Celebrating David Bowie

The tour will also feature bassist Carmine Rojas, who was on board for Bowie’s “Let’s Dance/Serious Moonlight Tour,” as well as Fishbone singer/saxophonist Angelo Moore and Guatemalan singer/songwriter Gaby Moreno, who took part in the 2017 edition of Celebrating David Bowie. Other former Bowie band members and special guests will make surprise appearances at select shows.  

“I have worked with over 1000 singers but never anyone like David,” Garson said in a statement. “He had an infinite source of music flowing through him, and his creativity was boundless. His sharing of the stage with his musicians was extraordinary, and he was a team player. That is why we need many singers to encompass his work.”

Celebrating David Bowie is expected to highlight “elements that influenced Bowie and that in turn Bowie influenced: pop culture experimentation, art, fashion, science and futurism.”

The 2018 outing kicks off Jan. 10 at Paris’ Salle Pleyel, followed by gigs in London, Manchester, Dublin and Amsterdam.  

The North American portion of the tour begins Feb. 10 in Silver Spring, Md., at The Fillmore Silver Spring. Cities on the routing include New York, Montreal, Toronto, Minneapolis, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles and Seattle.

VIP tickets go on sale Sept. 26. The general onsale starts Sept. 29 at 10 a.m. local time.

Looking back at Pollstar’s box office data from the previous dates, ticket sales for “Celebrating David Bowie” started off slow, with less than half of the tix sold for the debut show in March 2016 at San Francisco’s Regency Ballroom (689 tickets sold out of a capacity of 1,424, with a gross of $29,940) but the majority of the 2017 gigs played to packed rooms.

The 2017 tour included two sell-outs at the Sydney Opera House (2,507 capacity, with a gross of $546,038 / AUD $758,692) as well as a sell-out at the O2 Academy Brixton in London (4,751 capacity, with a gross of $350,480 / £284,105). The two gigs at Los Angeles’ Wiltern sold 97 percent of its tickets (2,000 tickets out of 3,877, with a gross of $334,630), while New York’s Terminal 5 show sold 72 percent (2,018 out of 2,800, with a gross of $141,170). Of course, the special guests varied per night so that might have had an effect on ticket sales. 

Click here to check out the routing for Celebrating David Bowie.