Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Keeping the music alive
Celebrating David Bowie to take the stage at Parker Playhouse.
When David Bowie hired keyboardist Mike Garson for the “Ziggy Stardust” tour in 1972, the contract covered eight weeks of shows but failed to mention Garson would play Bowie’s “guinea pig” in concert. At New York’s famed Hammerstein Ballroom in 1973, Bowie asked Garson to “test the room” and perform a solo piano cover of “John, I’m Only Dancing” for an audience that included Barbra Streisand and Elliot Gould. Much later, in 2000, Bowie did it again. Before his headlining set at England’s Glastonbury Festival, the British rock icon grew nervous backstage when told the audience’s size: 250,000 people.
“So he tells me, and he’s smiling, ‘Go out there, Mike, and play some [of composer George Gershwin’s] ‘A Foggy Day (In London Town)’ before I come out,’ ” Garson recalls with a laugh from a hotel in Mesa, Ariz.
“I go out and play, and nothing comes out of the keyboard,” Garson says. “Can you imagine the humiliation? It turned out the mike was off, so no problem. But it’s one of my favorite moments with him, because I was his guinea pig. He was a character. Very funny, great sense of humor.”
More than 45 years after the “Ziggy Stardust” tour, Garson is still awed by his musical kinship with the late Bowie. A confidant of the singer and a longtime collaborator, the 72-year-old Garson played on nine Bowie studio albums, from 1973’s “Aladdin Sane” through 2003’s “Reality,” and toured with him until his final public performance in 2006.
Lately, Garson and key members of Bowie’s various bands have been keeping the music alive as Celebrating David Bowie, which will perform Wednesday at Parker Playhouse in Fort Lauderdale for an evening of stories and Bowie hits.
Garson is the driving force behind Celebrating David Bowie, which formed shortly after the icon’s death in January 2016 and unites singer Earl Slick (multiple albums, from 1974’s “Diamond Dogs” to 2013’s “The Next Day”); guitarist Gerry Leonard (who appeared on 2002’s “Heathen” and 2003’s “Reality”); Rolling Stones backing vocalist Bernard Fowler; 2017 Grammy nominee Gaby Moreno; and a revolving door of guest performers. The Fort Lauderdale date will also feature singerbassist Joe Sumner and Jay-Z collaborator Mr Hudson.