The new David Bowie exhibition in London’s Lightroom has announced new live shows, pitch-black album playbacks and more.
The immersive David Bowie: You’re Not Alone experience is running now at the King’s Cross venue. It is showing daily until October, and now organisers have confirmed that evening screenings have been extended until January.
A special day of celebration has also been announced for January 8 next year, which would have marked Bowie’s 80th birthday.
Among the newly announced events is a series of Adam Buxton’s celebrated BUG Bowie Specials, which will be held on July 2, 3 and 4. The comedian and podcaster will celebrate Bowie’s music videos and screen work, alongside archive clips and his own commentary.
There will also be a series of live shows from cellist and composer Peter Gregson, who will offer a creative response to the work of Bowie, Brian Eno and their contemporaries from the Berlin era. Those concerts will take place on September 3, 4 and 5, with 7pm and 9pm performances on each night.
Gregson will play a programme featuring a newly arranged version of Steve Reich’s ‘Electric Counterpoint’ for electric cello, Eno’s ‘Music For Airports’, his own recomposed Bach Prelude and newly composed pieces. Each show will also include a unique Bowie covers section.
Elsewhere, Lightroom has partnered with Pitch Black Playback for three album listening parties in complete darkness, using the venue’s HOLOPLOT spatial audio system. ‘The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars’ will be played in full on July 28, followed by ‘Let’s Dance’ on August 4 and ‘Earthling’ on August 11. Each event will also include a viewing of You’re Not Alone.
Bowie Nights will also take over the opening night of King’s Cross Summer Sounds on August 13, with a free outdoor concert in Coal Drops Yard featuring Ashaine White, Jack Kaye – formerly of The Magic Gang – and a surprise headliner. Each act will include a Bowie cover in their set.
On September 25, Bowie’s former publicist Alan Edwards will interview the artist’s friend and collaborator Geoff MacCormack and co-author Jérôme Soligny about their new book David Bowie Music Lover, which explores Bowie’s inspirations through his record collection.
Tickets for all events are available here.
Lightroom chief executive Richard Slaney said: “Celebrating the multifaceted nature of art and artists is one of Lightroom’s central missions – that’s what these Bowie Nights are aiming to do.
David Bowie: You’re Not Alone was written and directed by Mark Grimmer, creative director for the V&A’s David Bowie Is exhibition, and Tom Wexler. It showcases some of Bowie’s landmark performances, using material selected from thousands of hours of film held in the vaults of the David Bowie Archive in New York.
Speaking to NME earlier this year, Grimmer said the show “vividly captures the human side of the icon”, while also tracing his creative journey “from Brixton to ‘Blackstar’”.
The touring exhibition, David Bowie: On Tour, will feature more than 100 items from the archive, including costumes, instruments, handwritten lyrics, photographs, unrealised projects and objects from Bowie’s final albums ‘The Next Day’ and ‘Blackstar’.
Bowie’s live band from Glastonbury 2000 are also reuniting for the Live On The Loch charity celebration at Cameron House on Loch Lomond on November 7 and 8, in another commemoration of the 10th anniversary of Bowie’s death.
Callum Beattie was recently added to the line-up for the event, joining Bowie’s former collaborators Earl Slick, Gail Ann Dorsey, Sterling Campbell, Mike Garson, Mark Plati and Holly Palmer.