A longtime musician and primarily a guitarist, Brighton has been the leading and most renowned David Bowie impersonator for a decade now. Scoring endless accolades from fans, audience members and Bowie colleagues as well, his performance skills and his dedication to mastering every finite detail are staggering. Brighton’s intent devotion to masterfully channelling Bowie’s moves, mannerisms, facial expressions, and affects, are downright jaw dropping.
The Los Angeles-based performer was on a short break from his rigorous, in-demand touring schedule (which typically takes him all around the world) when he spoke to Creative Loafing Tampa Bay ahead of his eagerly awaited, repeat performance in Clearwater.
Tickets to see David Brighton’s “Space Oddity” at Clearwater’s Nancy and David Bilheimer Capitol Theatre on Saturday, July 15 are still available and start at $35. So, what does preparation look like before you go out on the road regarding rehearsals and things of that nature?
I don’t want to mention any song titles but we’re bringing some different songs into the mix. He’s got such a vast catalog, of course, that you cannot possibly put a dent into it in a two-hour show. Of course, you have the obligatory pieces that you have to do, so we try to squeeze in as many of the interesting album cuts as possible. So, we’re working up some more of those.
Is bringing in new songs a way to keep it evolving to keep it sharp? How do you satisfy your personal choices or those you’d like to cover in the show?
Absolutely. I bring in new costumes or different costumes. So, if it were up to me, I would just do the whole Man Who Sold the World album maybe, and then the whole Hunky Dory album or something like that…or all of Aladdin Sane. But again, you’ve got to do the hits and so forth and you really do have to cover all of the different eras as much as possible in a show because, as you know, he’s got so many fans, and many of his fans seem to focus on a particular decade. They might have grown up on him in the ‘80s or the ‘90s, maybe the ‘70s and some even in the ‘60s. So, that’s where they sort of linger. And so, he’s an interesting artist in that manner, because he did have such a long career. So, you’re juggling all of these different preferences and decades, so it makes it more interesting, of course.
A lot of people have their personal favorite eras of Bowie’s career. Do you think that that kind of lends itself to the time at which they became familiar with him or when they were introduced to him or? Do you think that’s the common denominator?
Yeah, I think with most of us, we gravitate toward the music that we grew up on; when we were in school or particularly those years, we somehow never escape even after we’ve grown up, you know what I mean? What’s nostalgic to us is a certain era of our lives. So, let’s say you’re a person who grew up with Labyrinth or, or Let’s Dance, that’s going to be something that really sticks with you. And, I could go to each different era and say the same thing.
What would you say is your personal favorite era of Bowie’s career? The Ziggy Stardust era?
Since I’m a rock guitar player and Mick Ronson is one of my all-time favorites, yes, it is. I love a lot of the other eras too; Station to Station and the experimental stuff he did and all sorts of things that he did. There’s always something great coming out of Bowie. I still talk about him like he’s still with us, forgive me.
Do you have a personal favorite song that you like to sing?
It might change from day to day. I wish I could choose one.
We do, because as you said, when we got to Europe the first time, I noticed that everyone knew every word to “Life on Mars.” Everyone knew every word to “Ashes to Ashes” as well as for other songs. “Life on Mars” was not a single at the time in the States. And then, in New Zealand, everyone knew “Sorrow.” When we did that, everyone went crazy. So yes, it’s, it’s very interesting how that works.
How long have you been doing the Bowie show? What’s the general feedback you’ve gotten from folks who have seen the show?
It’s been about 10 years. I remember when we started, I said I’ll probably do this for about five years and, years later, there’s a bigger demand for it than ever. So, we’re enjoying it.
Obviously, you felt like the demand was higher after he passed away, correct?
Yeah, it’s strange how we humans operate but, when something is gone, there’s more of a demand. On the day he died, the way I found out that he had passed is when the phone started ringing off the hook, very early in the morning and the emails were pouring in and, and texts are pouring in. And so, I was being inundated from all sides, and being asked “Can you play this day? Can you play here? Can you play?” And, and a lot of them didn’t say why, but it was just this massive flood and of course, eventually I saw an email that said that he’d passed and just like, ‘What?’
That just went on and on and on. It was very, very strange. And then the first week or so, in the audience, everyone’s crying and in costumes at the shows and it was a big catharsis.
We just did a show in North Carolina and our agent came to the show and asked me, “David do they always wear costumes and makeup at the shows?”
I said, “Yeah. Yeah, they do. Not everyone in the audience, but plenty.” I mean, that’s part of the fun.
I think it’s great that you do this in such a respectful and reverent manner because it serves such a great purpose. There are so many people who never got to see him live at all so just having this experience of getting to hear these songs performed live and done so well as you and your band do, that’s a big deal for a lot of people.
Well, this is in no way self-congratulatory. It’s all about Bowie and the incredible musicians he worked with. But occasionally we’ll really be surprised by an email that’ll come in after a show. Recently, someone with a terminal illness was in the audience that later thanked us so much. They told us that the music means so much to them and that they’d never been able to see him live. It’s just the incredible impact that it has on certain people.
I’m not taking any credit, but it’s wonderful to see people… the only word you can use is blessed…by music and, and we kind of forget sometimes how powerful music is, and how healing it can be. I don’t want to use these grandiose words like honor, but it is a privilege to be able to go out and share it. This is something great that was made and we’re, we’re very thankful to go out and perform it.
Well, thank you. We make the effort and again, we give full credit to the people who actually created it, but we certainly enjoy it.
Did you ever get any feedback from the man himself about your show?
Bowie was very supportive of what we did. He’d post about us on Facebook or on his official website and hired me to do a commercial with him. We work insanely hard to do what we do as we do. So, you have to be a little bit crazy to put in the amount of effort we’ve put in.
You leave no detail out. It blew my mind when I saw your performance how faithful you were to everything: every aspect, every move, and every note.
We try. Of course, you’re never going to be someone else. But you try to represent what you can, and we do it with respect, love, and honor because that’s how we feel about it.
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This article appears in Jul 6-12, 2023.