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When a legend and cultural icon like David Bowie dies, it's expected that the world will mourn. Yet the sheer amount of devastation his death provoked - cascading over our collective consciousness since news of his passing first broke Monday morning - is perhaps unparalleled to any other death in recent pop culture history. Musicians, artists, filmmakers, governments, politicians, your dad and probably your grandma have all been expressing their grief and reveling in fond memories of what Bowie meant to them. Countless media outlets - including ours - have been publishing pieces dissecting every detail of his influence on a myriad of arenas, from gender boundaries to fashion to musical chameleonism. All the people Bowie touched are in mourning—but what about the people Bowie touched so much that they devoted a large chunk of their life to him? For them, it's not even mourning: it's potentially a massive change in lifestyle that's about to occur.
In this case, we're talking about David Bowie tribute bands—and it just so happens that there's only one in Denmark. Best of Bowie have been around for eight years, regularly playing large venues like Amagerbio and even touring internationally. As a tribute band, not a jam band, they try to consistently deliver crowd-pleasers that stick as close to Bowie's hits and exact sounds as possible. We called up their guitar player, Flemming, to find out how they see Bowie's death affecting their band, their audience and the public demand for indulging in not-quite-accurate-but-satisfying versions of "Let's Dance" and "Blackstar".
Best of Bowie performing. Photos courtesy of Best of Bowie.
NOISEY: Hello, Flemming. How did your band react to David Bowie's death?
Flemming: We were pretty shocked in the band. We didn’t think it would happen—nobody did. We had just heard the new record and thought to ourselves, “wow, he’s back on track.” We’re super sad about it. We spent most of yesterday together, also because we were on the news. We met up in our studio, played some of his music and did some interviews.
How do you think his death will affect you as a band?
It’s very difficult to say because when you’re a tribute band, you have to play the big hits because the people who come to see the band want the old times back. We can’t play the new numbers because people don’t know them and they don’t have the same feeling about them. I don’t think it will affect us that much—maybe we'll take "Lazarus" on as a song we play. It’ll be very appropriate to play that number. We'll still have to play the old numbers primarily, though.
Have you already been getting more calls to play since yesterday?
(chuckles) Oh, yes.
How many, would you say?
Probably five since the death happened. It's a pretty big jump from the usual.
Why do you think they're calling you?
People want to make all sorts of memorials, of course, so we’re working on it. It’s very new to us. We had a pretty good schedule before this happened, even, so we're going to get busier.
Ultimately, we don’t make our livings as a tribute band. We do it for fun and because we want people to know about Bowie. It’s not a way of living and I don’t think it will become one now.
Now that he has died, does that put more pressure on you as a band to give people exactly what they want—to revive Bowie, in a way?
Yeah, but I haven’t thought about it too much. It’s still too new for me. I mean, I found out when a journalist called me yesterday in the morning when I was walking my dog. I'm glad that this will be an opportunity to get people to listen to Bowie again. Probably more young people will come – they know Bowie in Denmark and so they come and sing along already. I thought it would be an audience of 50+ but it’s not like that and it won't be now.
It seems weird that you guys are the only David Bowie Tribute Band in Denmark, given how much people love him. Why do you think that is?
Years ago there was a band in Jutland but Bowie is very difficult to play, and getting the money to play it is also difficult. When we go out we have to convince the venues, the bookers that we really can play Bowie. People think it cannot be done. That’s the first step: you have to convince people you can do it.
Why did you start the band in the first place?
In Denmark, there are tons of jam bands. We don’t jam; we try to keep the music super close to the original. I had this urge to get his music out there again. I thought that if I should play someone's music, it sould be Bowie's because there’s such a diversity of music genres you can explore. It’s a big challenge for a group and for me as a guitarist to try and get it together. There are so many ways to listen and to play Bowie. It’s a funny thing to play because if you play The Beatles, it’s all pop music. But Bowie is so special to cover and that’s fun, I think. It’s very challenging.
Has Bowie's death changed what you want to achieve as a tribute band?
We want to play more now. We still want to have fun with it. We don’t expect to start making a living from it just because he died. Every time we play a show, sometimes there are many people, sometimes not so many, so we think we’re on some sort of crusade doing this. We’re not about to stop the music because he’s dead. Quite the opposite.
Thanks, Flemming.