Aladdinsane, The Sound & Vision of Bowie, widely acclaimed as the best Bowie tribute in the UK. They have played theatres, festivals and venues throughout the UK for the many years, with Paul Henderson performing as David Bowie, with audiences commenting how eerily close his voice, moves and mannerisms are to that as Bowie.
Widely acclaimed as the best Bowie tribute in the UK. Paul Henderson as Bowie & 12 string guitar, Franco Caprio on bass & backing vocals, Steve Beeston on keyboards, sax & backing vocals, Carl Stones on guitar, Rick Cook on drums. They have played theatres, festivals and venues throughout the UK for the past 17 years, with Paul Henderson performing as David Bowie, with audiences commenting how eerily close his voice, moves and mannerisms are to that as Bowie.
Paul Henderson born in Sunderland but spent most of his childhood growing up in Peterborough when he discovered Bowie, which led to buying and playing everything and watching everything available countless times. Paul started in music playing in local bands in the late 80’s and then embarking on his own material during the mid 90’s to 2002.
Being a life long fan of Bowie, Paul got to see him on tour numerous occasions and very briefly met him in 1997 during his Earthling tour. Paul first caught national attention when he appeared on Stars In Their Eyes in 1993, the first series hosted by Mathew Kelly, where he performed Space Oddity, dressed as Bowie’s legendary Ziggy Stardust. From there he performed at conventions around the country as Bowie.
After 1995 Paul embarked on playing his own material and spent the late 90’s recording his own songs. Around 2002 a friend asked Paul “why don’t you put a Bowie tribute together”. Paul replied saying “I would enjoy it too much and everything else I am planning will end up on the back burner”, and so it did as the start of Aladdinsane was in the midst. Aladdinsane was the classic album that David released in 1973, which was the first album Bowie album Paul got as a child from his parents, hence why he chose the name for the band.
Paul then embarked on finding the musicians required to cover a vast range of David Bowie’s single and classic album tracks. The line up of the band changed during the 2000s and now with Steve Beeston on keyboards, Carl Stones on guitar, Franco Caprio on bass and Rick Cook on drums and Paul as Bowie with 12 string acoustic, make up the sound of Aladdinsane the band as it is today.
Having played at some wonderful theatres and travelled to places like Bahrain, Qatar and Berlin where Paul played an acoustic set at Hansa studios where Bowie recorded Heroes, he said it’s like an ongoing rollercoaster.
With so many songs to chose from you can hear many hits like – Space Oddity. Changes, Ashes to Ashes, Heroes, Lets Dance, Drive In Saturday, Jean Genie, Life On Mars, Fame, Starman and Diamond Dogs to list but a few, including some classic album tracks from Bowie’s vast repertoire. Paul changes outfits during each show which can stem from any of Bowies tours from 1976 to 2003.
The songs are mixed with no chronological order so that the audiences are left wondering what could be next after each song which also gives the show a more exciting feel.
As the afternoon drifted on, with me mingling around various people I knew and the music filling the air, with Pink, followed by Blondie, it was time for David Bowie. Now I had heard that this guy was good. I know Bowie was good, so let’s see this tribute. Well, he was truly amazing. As he broke into Heroes, I closed my eyes and it could have been the real deal. The hairs standing on end on my arms told me this. He was truly incredible. Stage presence, vocals & generally talking like him! Incredible.
In the absence of the great man himself we are left with a burgeoning and constantly growing roster of tribute acts. I make appoint of trying to see them all on the basis that at least I know that I will like the music!. Last weekend was the famous Yarmageddon
, four days of live, original and tribute bands at a Great Yarmouth holiday camp. Four days, fifty bands, no sleep. The Thursday was Glam Night with Aladdin Sane providing the Glam. I had not seen them before so was excited at the prospect of new material. Aladdin Sane are the stage vehicle for Paul Henderson as David, erstwhile Mackem, but now from Peterborough.
They played with a lead guitarist, bass, drums and keyboards, Paul adding on guitar parts where needed. The good news for them was a captive 2500 audience, a good opening act, and four hours drinking time elapsed. However like most of the weekend acts they were allotted a strict hour set to play to an audience with widely diverse musical tastes, so not as easy as a theatre of fans who had paid to see them only.
Consequently the set list comprised mainly his best known hits with understandably few surprises. Boys keep Swinging
was a great opener and won the crowd over from the start. Paul was wearing an Earthling Era Union Jack frock coat and physically looked like 80’s Bowie with a Serious Moonlight
hairdo. Starman
was a wise choice, usurping Space oddity in th sing a long stakes, and the rockers lapped up Jean Genie
, Moonage Daydream
and Ziggy
. However it was a barnstorming Suffragette City
finale which won the day for them. What a great song- sung and performed with such enthusiasm.
A league table of Bowie tributes is an invidious task. Not least because the bar is being pushed ever higher for tribute shows. Abbas Voyage has changed what is possible as has the tactic of having several leads to cope with different eras as the Cher show so successfully did. Suffice to say that Aladdin Sane did not disappoint either casual music fans or the Bowie cognoscenti.
The day the world lost the most flamboyant, influential, iconic and trail blazing British singer/songwriter the universe has ever seen. After a career spanning five decades, every music lover I know was devastated by the loss of David Bowie. His music was, and of course still is, instantly recognisable. After his death, our airwaves were inundated with plays of his most famous hits, with no less than 8 of his songs ending up in the January 2016 top 100 UK charts. I never had an opportunity to see Bowie live, I don’t imagine many of you reading this did. By the time I was born, his musical career had already surpassed 10 years.
Billed as the greatest Bowie tribute in the UK and beyond, Paul Henderson and his band had big space boots to fill. Opening aptly with Space Oddity, which was indeed Bowie’s first top 5 entry into the UK singles chart in July 1969, Paul, dressed in simple white shirt and black waistcoat, took to the stage with the famous line of Ground control to Major Tom
and it became instantly apparent that the billing had been correct. Bowie used his natural baritone singing voice to story-tell his songs, often not even trying to hide his heavy English accent. Yet his pitch and range was phenomenal.
Paul was recreating that in his opening number, clearly showing years of dedication and real admiration for the man he was portraying. Paul once appeared on Stars in their Eyes, and having seen that performance, which in itself was spot on, its clear to see that since then, Paul has worked away at this persona and its paid off. So, an iconic song to open with, brave almost as its so well known, but absolutely the right choice to reel us in.
After greeting the crowd and announcing it was their first time in Worcester, we were treated to Starman and then into Ashes to Ashes. The guitar is put down and Paul is able to showcase the moves and mannerisms of Bowie, and as the song peaks, the actions are more dramatic, and the whole sound and vision of Bowie that his advertising posters claim to offer, are showcased to their full extent.
Although confident and out-going, I often thought Bowie always had a slight awkwardness onstage, which Paul carried out perfectly. The twitch of the head, the stilted but everso dramatic arm movements, it was uncanny. The tempo raised with a perfect rendition of Fame, fading out to strains of War, what is it good for?
, exaggerated dance moves only added to the experience we were being treated to. I didn’t know the next two songs, Be My Wife and Boys Keep Swinging but, I have no doubt they were as vocally close to the originals as we’ll ever be lucky enough to hear, but I was soon brought back to familiarity with Let’s Dance and Changes.
All gig dates will be added soon as part of our new website.