The music of certain artists is destined to live on long after their death. David Bowie is one such artist. Celebrating David Bowie began as a one-time tribute concert shortly after his passing and evolved into a worldwide touring entity featuring some of music’s biggest names. One of the men behind it is guitarist Angelo “Scrote” Bundini who recently took some time from tour rehearsals to talk about the current touring version of Celebrating David Bowie.
Please press the PLAY icon to listen to the MisplacedStraws Conversation With Scrote:
On how he discovered David Bowie – So with Celebrating David Bowie, it’s kind of a funny way that I connected all of this for me personally. I’ve been a long-time fan, but I started in jazz and classical, and I was always into experimental music, so I went to the University of North Texas, was doing jazz performance when I was there, which is a pretty heavy bebop school. At that point, I got to a point where I wanted to check out some other things, orchestral things and electronic music to end up switching over to contemporary 20th-century orchestral music and electronic music. So I’m in that, and then coming out of that, the guitar play into noise music as well, so the feedback and transistor, it’s all seeing a world fishing around there. So getting out of college, I looked at the landscape and I was asked if I wanted to be a professor, I was like, “Well, no, man, I’m into live music and I actually kinda want to rock out”, but I didn’t have a connection or see a path for me into the popular music, rock music particularly, at that time. Then I had heard Bowie. I was always a fan, I started noticing different guitar players doing things and I was like, “What? Okay, what’s that?” Then I started checking out and then I heard, I was at a record store, and they put on a record that was a new King Crimson record Discipline at the time. “Wow, who’s that? What is that? What’s going on there?” Then the same week, unrelated, Talking Heads album Remain In Light came across to me, it was probably out a year or so, but I discovered and there’s Adrian Belew playing the solo on “The Great Curve” song on there, and I was like, “Wow, who is that?” Then I find out that’s the guy from King Crimson thing. Then I look a little deeper and go, “Oh, he played with Bowie, what’s going on here?” Then it dawned on me how I would fit in the scene. Then that held forever with Bowie. Always great guitar players and the cool writing and the style and everything. So Bowie is actually my entry into that world of music, and I never imagined, aimed, or thought I would actually be playing Bowie music with Adrian. I still have to go, “Okay, well, how did that happen? I was doing something else.” But it all came about naturally, and here we are a few years into it and having a good time. People love David’s music, and I try to bring on the best artists and players in the world to do it, some justice and respect, and yeah, we have a good time. So we just keep going. 1:09
On how the tour started – It’s a funny thing. I started this in 2016, and it was going to be one show in Hollywood for artist friends and musician friends. We were all kind of heartbroken with David’s passing. So that included people who played with David, like Seal and Ewan McGregor. So pretty high-profile, but it wasn’t meant to be anything, just people getting together. That went viral around the world, so all these inquiries came in, and I thought, “This is crazy”. Gary Oldman, a good pal and close with David, and we talked about it and he was like, “Well, let’s go over the world do it”. I was like, “Hold on, chief.” I said, “Well if Adrian Belew will do it, I’m game. I’ll put it together”. So I contacted Adrian, he said, “Absolutely”. Then I ran it by the estate, make sure we weren’t stepping on toes, and they were cool with it. Then I started putting together and David has fans, on and off stage, worldwide, so I was actually turning people away, prominent names. When you produce a show, it’s gotta have a vision, and it all has to fit naturally. You can’t force people in. I also have to weed people out. Some people who come to it, they just see an opportunity to perform or promote something, and I totally get that and respect that, but I want to keep it to people who, as big as the names are, are big Bowie fans. So that’s always been the aim. Then it’s kind of fumbled forward with me running the whole thing on and off stage, and we made our way around the world all over the place, five comments, and 17 countries. Then when Covid hit, we were about to do this tour, it’s pretty much the same lineup, and the Covid hit. Didn’t know what was going on, I thought, “Well, maybe that’s the end of it. Okay, maybe that’s done”. Then I heard about Miles (Copeland) (who) had been producing tours and reached out and it was such a perfect fit. So his team does what I don’t really wanna do, I do what they don’t wanna do. So far, it’s a match made in heaven. So this was actually a lineup before him, but also now that we’ve been working together a little bit, we’ve been able to come together on reaching out to artists together, with Miles, you don’t get any heavier than that. That helps the stamp of approval. His team and what they all do takes a load off of my back so I can concentrate solely on creative. 5:24
On if he’s surprised by the enduring legacy of Bowie’s music – Yes, it always does. I’m, most of my life, a fan of Bowie. I always get a record, I don’t care what it is, I’ll learn something even if I don’t connect with a tune, I’ll learn something from it. So when he passed away, that night I remember someone broadcasting that he had 26 studio albums and I thought, “Wow, that’s crazy, 26 albums. How many do I have?” I had 23. Then you saw the outpouring, and then I was in a very, very unique position, and still am, of having my foot, I hung out with him once and I recorded and played with many of his band members at that time when he passed away, and so I had one foot in Bowie world, and one foot out. So I was able to be in a spot where I could approach the music without agenda, or half-fan and half-pro, without some kind of agenda from the past, just kinda looking at it flatly. When it came about touring, I thought, “Why do this? Okay, it’s a huge undertaking”. I could feel the fans, especially that first year, really almost two years, needing something to gather around, just like we did on the first show in LA. I saw it as an opportunity to raise some money for charity and give fans something, and that was my sole agenda. But with that, it takes a lot of work and everything going, so by the time we get on stage, I had been working on the tour, particularly with fans, but focused on work, so get on the tour and get on stage, and then look out at the audience, you see everyone singing along. It takes me right back to when he passed away and the emotion they have, and then it kinda makes me emotional. We’re singing “Life on Mars” and we’re right back into the emotional space of losing him as a fan I suspect that it’ll happen on this tour, and it’s been 5-6 years now. 9:17
On choosing a setlist – Well, that’s kind of a happy circumstance with who I am in the situation because I’m well known for being a music director and bandleader who takes big complex catalogs and performers and makes sense of it in a way that the performers can see it and relate to it and makes it simple for them and encompasses this whole catalog. So I’ve kind of taken advantage of that and not debated it, but didn’t wanna go where it’s like just a 70s period or an 80s period. I’m not saying we won’t do that in the future, but right now, I feel like if we don’t hit later Bowie then we’re leaving out people. The 80s, Let’s Dance, the biggest period, biggest sales he ever had. So I don’t wanna leave that out, and I love all that stuff. So this one, and on every tour has been a different setup, but it has covered something off most of his records on every tour. A little more weight towards one way or another on each tour. 12:22
On the song “Win” – David never played it live. We actually did it around the world in 2017. I brought on a gospel choir at every stop. So we had the Harlem Gospel Choir in New York, we had the London Community Gospel Choir, which is like the one in the UK. We had them in London, incredible, we even had a gospel choir in Tokyo. So we did “Win” on that, all those, it was spectacular. 15:41
On guest stars as the tour goes on – We just announced that Joe Bonamassa will be joining us in Beverly Hills. I just sent a note out, “Hey, man, you want to jump up for some Stevie Ray Vaughan kind of thing?” He was all over it, so he’ll join us in Beverly Hills. Also, Eric Schermerhorn who played with Iggy Pop then went on to play with Tin Machine with David, tour with him, he’s joining us in Beverly Hills. A young keyboardist (Chris Fishman), who played with another person Bowie worked with, Pat Matheny, this keyboard player is jumping up. So, there are different things that will pop up and be announced as go. With Covid, we had to pull back a bit on that. I was ready to fill out every stage. I actually had to pull some people back and say, “We’ll do it next time”. People will pop up. There’ll be some really good surprises along the way. 16:54
Watch a special livestream of the King Crimson documentary, In the Court of the Crimson King on October 22nd on nugs.netOn the split that led to 2 Bowie-related tours – That was a drag. I wasn’t going to keep going, and then I kinda got pulled back into it. I was just gonna do the international dates in 2017 and had Mike (Garson) and Earl Slick on as well, and a few other different Bowie Alum. Then when we finished, they wanted to keep going, and they tried to re-launch and I was gonna go back to what I was doing, but they couldn’t get off the ground. Finally, I said, “Okay, let me do it this way”. Adrian was on the whole time, and I brought Mike back on and Gerry Leonard, Mike, Gerry, and Carmine (Rojas). So we did Europe, and then I couldn’t do the US, so we brought Slick back on. So it’s like ever-shifting. Then at the end of that, they wanted to keep going in their own direction. Mike wanted to lead his own band and be centered around him, and I didn’t want it centered around anyone. I wanted it to be about David, not Bowie band members. So they charged off, and unfortunately, decided to pick a similar name and use a lot of our wording and stuff like that, and so I was like, “Man, don’t do that. That’ll just confuse everybody”. But they went that route, and then they kept going and wanted to ride it all out, play as much as they possibly could, and people started falling off. It’s not a job for us. Their group was kind of more sidemen who continued to work. With our group, it’s people who were busy with their own careers. It’s a marvel to me this day that I can get these people all in one place at the same time. Todd (Rundgren), Adrian, and Angelo Moore never stop touring. They tour all year, and we all have albums coming out too, I have a new one coming out that’ll be on this tour. Adrian just released a new album. Todd has a new one and the first single.s with Adrian, and they got together after we put them together for Celebrating David Bowie in Iceland. So it’s a funny mix match and how it all happens, and then Royston (Langdon) was just on tour as well, and so it’s a really, really crazy busy group. Nobody looks at it as a career or a job or anything like that, just is something we like to do. We love the music. We all love David, and it just feels right. 18:40
