The David Bowie Experience. With nothing else to do on a Friday night in November I went along to the Tivoli Theatre to get the Experience. First time ever at this remarkable Aberdeen institution.
Getting in was easy enough, all I had to do was wave a piece of paper under the doorgirl's nose and in I was. Pity I actually paid £26 quid for it! Not even scanned.
Then up the stairs where I briefly took my seat before the urge to relax with some alcohol kicked in. So up a few more stairs and joined the queue, where I was able to reminisce over the photos in their frames of previous greats - Calum Kennedy, Peter Morrison (who, you might say) and Jimmy Shand. Oh well at least there was one great entertainer here before.
Back to my seat with my drink and soon the lights dimmed and the band came on, all eight of them. A slow start, with some shaky vocals, so much so that by song three I was beginning to wonder if I had been charged twice. And then came "Jean Genie" and the connection between singer and audience was locked into place. Every song afterwards was very good, some were masterpieces. "Let's Dance" sure as hell got the audience dancing.
And that's when my enjoyment of the show faded slightly with the woman sitting next to me deciding it was acceptable to intrude onto the borders of my personal space with flapping arms that a 20s flapper would be proud of. Oh yes, this woman could cut shapes; figures of eight, squiggles, triangles, you name it, those hands were something to behold. All cutting across my vision and threatening to take an eye out. On the second last song, she decided it was time to stand up, and the elbows were pumping like the bars on a train engine's wheel, all towards my seated face. Time to stand up I deduced before I got a black eye. Thanks, love.
However, female audience members were not the only troublemakers that night. Four guys in their fifties, who ought to have known better (and one in particular) had a group seating in those cup-shaped structures above and to the side of the stage. The drunkest thought it very amusing to stand and sway so much that even Bowie himself looked concerned that this eejit was going to fall 20 feet to his death. Very distracting for the audience. Even more distracting than madam next to me reliving her youth by cutting shapes. All at once, a very tall theatre bouncer arrived and ordered them to leave, which they duly did. Prize eejit no.1 took his last bow with a wave to the audience and a shout of "Bye". Yea, disappear please (and that's putting it politely).
A really good show witha great band and Bowie impersonator. Sometimes the music drowned out the singer, but that minor flaw didn't detract from an enjoyable evening.
I went home and cut a few shapes of my own, but unlike some, I kept them for the bedroom mirror.
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