{"id":42377,"date":"2018-11-09T20:57:00","date_gmt":"2018-11-09T20:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/?p=42377"},"modified":"2019-04-23T22:10:34","modified_gmt":"2019-04-23T21:10:34","slug":"stardust-memories-last-spider-standing-woody-woodmansey-on-keeping-bowies-music-live-with-holy-holy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/2018\/11\/stardust-memories-last-spider-standing-woody-woodmansey-on-keeping-bowies-music-live-with-holy-holy\/","title":{"rendered":"STARDUST MEMORIES – Last Spider Standing Woody Woodmansey On Keeping Bowie’s Music Live With Holy Holy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Between 1970 and 1973 Mick “Woody” Woodmansey<\/strong> played drums on four successive David Bowie<\/strong> albums, which saw the Starman skyrocket from relative unknown to international superstar.<\/h4>\n

Now the Yorkshireman is hooking up once again with longtime Bowie producer\u00a0Tony Visconti\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Heaven 17<\/strong> frontman\u00a0Glenn Gregory<\/strong> to bring the best of that music to live audiences once more.<\/h4>\n

The last surviving member of The Spiders From Mars<\/strong>, Woodmansey got involved with the supergroup\u00a0Holy Holy<\/strong> – named after an early Bowie song<\/a> <\/strong><\/span>– quite by accident.<\/p>\n

Invited to do a live interview as part of the\u00a0ICA<\/strong>‘s Bowie exhibition in 2014, he met up with an embryonic version of Holy Holy, then comprising members of Spandau Ballet<\/strong>, The Alarm<\/strong> and Bob Geldof<\/strong>‘s backing band, with Blondie<\/strong>‘s Clem Burke<\/strong> on drums.<\/p>\n

They got on so well that Woodmansey guested on a couple of tracks with the band at the Latitude<\/strong> festival later that year and when Burke was recalled to touring duties he became a full member and co-leader.<\/p>\n

Woodmansey got Visconti, who played bass on\u00a0The Man Who Sold The World<\/strong><\/em>, on board and he suggested Gregory – an admirer and friend of Bowie’s – and the spine of the band was in place.<\/p>\n

Successful tours of the UK, Japan and North America followed and, with the band preparing for more British shows in February, Woodmansey tells\u00a0Matt Catchpole <\/strong>about the man behind Ziggy Stardust and why he never tires of playing those songs.<\/p>\n

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The Spiders from Mars: (L-R) Trevor Bolder, Woodmansey. Bowie and Mick Ronson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Born in Driffield, East Yorkshire, Woodmansey first met Bowie when he was invited to replace John Cambridge <\/strong>as drummer in\u00a0The Hype\u00a0<\/strong>– the band that would soon transform into\u00a0The Spiders From Mars<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Curious, but yet to be convinced that this was the project for him, Woodmansey called at the London flat, which would later become home to the entire band.<\/p>\n

“For me, it was a matter of does he look good? can he sing? can he write? is he intelligent?” Woodmansey remembers.<\/p>\n

“I was wearing denims and a tie dye T-shirt and hair down my back. He opened the door and he had red corduroy trousers on and blue shoes with red stars on them he\u2019d obviously painted on himself, a rainbow T-shirt, bangles and long hair. I thought well\u2026 it\u2019s a bit of a culture shock, but he looks good.”<\/p>\n

The pair spent a few hours discussing music and Woodmansey was impressed with Bowie’s knowledge, but when the singer began playing some of his back catalogue things took a downward turn.<\/p>\n

“It wasn\u2019t my cup of tea. It was more folky and there were no loud drums on it, so I wasn\u2019t that interested (laughs). I thought oh, maybe I\u2019ve made a mistake here.”<\/p>\n

What turned it around was Bowie picking up his 12-string acoustic to play a more recent composition.<\/p>\n

“He played me a track called Wild Eyed Boy From Free Cloud<\/strong><\/em><\/a> <\/span>and by the end of that I was like: ‘Ok, I can tick all the boxes. He can<\/em> sing’.<\/p>\n

“He was one of the first people I\u2019d met that was really determined that he was going to make it. But he hadn\u2019t yet really figured out how he was going to do that.”<\/p>\n

With guitarist\/arranger Mick Ronson\u00a0<\/strong>already on board and\u00a0Trevor Bolder <\/strong>taking over from Visconti on bass, Bowie now had three no nonsense Yorkshiremen in the band – something he was quick to embrace.<\/p>\n

“Luckily he was able to understand the Yorkshire viewpoint, the Yorkshire humour \u2013 his father was born in Doncaster, I think, so it obviously came through the genes somehow. And he would talk to us in a Yorkshire accent sometimes,” Woodmansey recalls with a smile.<\/p>\n

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Gene Genie – It gradually dawned that the band were in the presence of genius<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bowie’s confidence and talent were evident from early on, but by degrees Woodmansey began to realise that the man he sat behind on stage might just be a genius.<\/p>\n

“It was in gradual steps,” Woodmansey says. “The first album \u2013 The Man Who Sold The World<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 it was like, he can write and it was a fantastic album to record. Then after he\u2019d been to America, he came back and he had a piano in the bedroom, his acoustic guitar in the lounge and he\u2019d be in one of those places writing. We\u2019d be making toast in the kitchen in between and he\u2019d just shout: ‘\u2019ere I\u2019ve finished one!’. And that was the start of Hunky Dory<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

“The songs were so good and they were complete. When he did The Man Who Sold The World <\/em>we didn\u2019t get completed songs, but Hunky Dory,<\/em> they were all finished \u2013 all the lyrics, melodies and everything. They seemed all very different, but they were all good. I think he was really trying to say ‘I\u2019m a songwriter’ with that album. When it got to Ziggy<\/em> it kind of kicked into the rock \u2018n’ roll thing a lot more.”<\/p>\n

By the time it came to recording Life On Mars\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>it was clear that Bowie and the band were heading for the stratosphere.<\/p>\n

“Finishing Life On Mars<\/em> was one of the high points. David gave it to [engineer]\u00a0Ken Scott<\/strong> to mix, then Ken called us in to hear it. The four of us just sat and listened and it was so different and so good that you almost forgot you’d played on it. I remember saying ‘Is that really us?’. That song particularly made us think he\u2019s got even more to come than what he\u2019s done already.”<\/p>\n