Bowie was a man who truly left his mark on the cosmos.
The very first time I saw David Bowie as a child was in his role as Jareth, the Goblin King, in the 1986 Jim Henson classic, Labyrinth. His outwardly villainous nature was accompanied by an unmistakable charisma and mystique I simply couldn’t look away from. His crazy hair, his mysterious contact juggling tricks, and his alarmingly tight pants ensured I never forgot his face or voice. If Bowie were with us today, he would have just turned 74 years old, and so his fans around the world have taken the time to remember his one-of-a-kind voice and presence.
Over the weekend, a tribute gig will be livestreamed by Bowie’s bandmates, as well as some of his closest friends and admirers in the musical scene. The gig, titled “A Bowie Celebration: Just For One Day,” is set to begin tonight at 6:00 PM Pacific time. Tickets to the virtual event are available for $25 from Rolling Live Studios, $2 of which will be donated to one of Bowie’s favorite charities, Save the Children. Special guests for the event include Boy George, Duran Duran, Trent Reznor, Adam Lambert, Gary Barlow and actor Gary Oldman.
Ahead of the show, Duran Duran released a new cover of Bowie’s classic song, Five Years. In a separate statement, Duran Duran singer Simon Le Bon remembered listening to Bowie’s music.
“My life as a teenager was all about David Bowie,” Le Bon said. “He is the reason why I started writing songs. Part of me still can’t believe in his death five years ago, but maybe that’s because there’s a part of me where he’s still alive and always will be.”
Remembering the Starman who once walked among us. 👨🎤💫
Happy birthday, David Bowie! Born on this day in 1947. ✨💕 pic.twitter.com/hg4zx2u8SX
— Letterboxd (@letterboxd) January 8, 2021
A David Bowie special will also be airing on BBC Four tonight. In the special, Bowie: Dancing Out in Space, producer Tony Visconti reminisced about the first time Bowie met John Lennon.
“He was terrified of meeting John Lennon,” says Visconti. “About one in the morning I knocked on the door and for about the next two hours, John Lennon and David weren’t speaking to each other.
“Instead, David was sitting on the floor with an art pad and a charcoal and he was sketching things and he was completely ignoring Lennon.
“So, after about two hours of that, he [John] finally said to David, ‘Rip that pad in half and give me a few sheets. I want to draw you.’ So David said, ‘Oh, that’s a good idea’, and he finally opened up. So John started making caricatures of David, and David started doing the same of John and they kept swapping them and then they started laughing and that broke the ice.”
Finally, a biopic about Bowie’s life, Stardust, is set to release next week.