The man who sang the world
Michael Bell brings the music of David Bowie to the Market Hall stage
That voice, that style, that presence – everything about David Bowie appealed to the young Michael Bell.
“I’ve been a huge Bowie fan since I was a kid. I cut my teeth on imitating the guy in my teenaged years,” says Bell, who’s been performing since he was 12. “Vocally, he really raised the bar for me.”
This is the classic Bowie of the 1970s he’s talking about, albums like Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust, Heroes. “Scary Monsters was the ultimate album,” he says.
Bell brings Bowie back to the stage in his new live show, Bowie Lives, coming to Market Hall Feb. 18 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $25 plus fees, $30 at the door. Cabaret seating will be assigned.
Earlier in his career, Bell put together a full-on Bowie tribute show, complete with makeup and costumes, but as time went on, he focused on other things, other music.
“I lost track of him when I became an older adult,” Bell says of Bowie’s output from the 1980s on – more commercial music, hit singles like Let’s Dance and a tour with Nine Inch Nails. “I hadn’t listened to much of his later stuff.”
Bell, owner of The Wire Megazine here in Peterborough, decided 2 1/2 years ago to refocus on performing, to go on the road and develop new shows with a five-year plan that would take him to when his wife, a psychiatric nurse, retires.
Then, he says, they can travel, see the world and enjoy life as he performs.
His first live show was a wellreceived Michael Buble tribute. He’s also been doing solo shows in smaller venues – after teaching himself, in his 50s, to play piano – and working on other ideas. And then Bowie died. “I read the headline – but it didn’t really register until hours later, and I broke down,” Bell says. He remembered how much of an influence Bowie had been on him.
“Everything I know about performing and life in general, it came from him.”
As he toured with the Buble show, he was contacted by a promoter who had read a Toronto Star article about Bell that mentioned his costumed Bowie past.
So he got in touch with his musical director, Michael Be au clerc, who loved the idea, and assembled a band able to pull off live Bowie. With Beauclerc on drums, Jason White on guitar, Sandor Schwisberg on keys, Matt Lagan on sax and percussion and Chuck Daily on bass, Bowie Lives took shape.
Bell and the band premiered it in Oshawa earlier this year and it went over very well, he says.
The show is pure hits, Bell says. “Eventually, as this continues and we loop back around to some of the same markets, we may start pulling out the B-sides for the deep Bowie fans,” he says. “But for now, it’s the hits, right to the beginning – Golden Years, Heroes, Space Odyssey, Man Who Sold The World, Young Americans.” He’ll also perform Lazarus, the single from Bowie’s final album, Black Star.
Don’t expect costumes, though. Bell laughs, saying his quickchange, made-up days are over.
“This is Bowie at 55 – my age,” he says. “In a nice suit.”
He does, however, encourage Michael Bell the audience to come in costume, dressed as their favourite Bowie incarnations. “Can you imagine,” he says, “getting all the Ziggys in the audience to sing along?”
I’ve been a huge Bowie fan since I was a kid. I cut my teeth on imitating the guy in my teenaged years. Vocally, he really raised the bar for me.”