The Erdal Kizilcay Band with Hanif Kureishi

Event information

The Erdal Kizilcay Band with Hanif Kureishi

"I met him at a club. I heard him playing and was amazed; he kept switching instruments all night long and he was great on everything he touched! So I asked him if he wanted to start working with me." David Bowie on Erdal Kizilcay, 1987

Erdal Kizilcay is one of most proficient pop and rock musicians of his generation. He recorded, toured and co-wrote with David Bowie for 13 years, and has worked with many great artists including Iggy Pop, Queen, Tina Turner and Jacques Dutronc. After a series of successful gigs in London last year, Erdal returns from his Swiss home to play a set of Bowie and Iggy songs with his band.

Legendary writer Hanif Kureishi will do a reading from his seminal novel 'The Buddha of Suburbia' at the gig, and Erdal will perform two songs from the album of the same name, inspired by the book, that he recorded with David Bowie. Hanif and Erdal are planning a big 'The Buddha of Suburbia' event in London later this year.

Renowned Spider from Mars Woody Woodmansey will make a very special guest appearance on drums with Erdal.

Erdal's fellow David Bowie and Iggy Pop collaborator Kevin Armstrong will join Erdal on guitar for three songs from Iggy's 'Blah Blah Blah' album, which they worked on together with Bowie and Iggy, including the Pop/Bowie composition 'Shades'.

Artist and singer Paul Fryer will also join Erdal on stage to take lead vocals on one song. Paul is best known in music for his 'Electric Elvis' and 'Bowie / Roxy' shows. He was the singer for Holy Holy's first gig at Latitude Festival in July 2013 and Paul designed Holy Holy's distinctive 'test card / Aladdin Sane' logo.

Spandau Ballet's talented multi-instrumentalist Steve Norman will make a special guest appearance on saxophone and vocals.

Singer Simon Westbrook will join Erdal on stage to sing Bowie songs that they had previously performed together as the Glass Spider Band last year.

Highlights of Erdal's career with David Bowie include the albums 'Never Let Me Down', 'The Buddha of Suburbia' and '1.Outside', as well as the Glass Spider (1987) and Sound & Vision (1990) world tours. Songs co-written by David Bowie and Erdal Kizilcay include 'Girls', which was covered by Tina Turner, 'When the Wind Blows' from the film of the same name and 'Too Dizzy' from Never Let Me Down, plus a number of co-writes with the rest of the band and Bowie on the Outside album. Erdal played drums, bass, guitar, keyboards and backing/harmony vocals on Iggy Pop's seminal 1986 synth pop/rock crossover album 'Blah Blah Blah'. In 2013 Erdal produced, wrote for and played on 'I Never Meant' the debut EP from London band Brazenhead.

The Erdal Kizilcay Band comprises Erdal on bass, trumpet, keyboards and vocals, Lisa Ronson on vocals, Luis Correia on guitar, David Donley on bass and Mike Connolly on drums. Lisa Ronson is the singer in New York based band 'The Secret History' and is the daughter of legendary guitarist, producer and Spider from Mars, Mick Ronson.

At Woody Woodmansey's invitation Erdal will also join Holy Holy on bass for their December gigs in London.

The Secret Society of Song

The Secret Society of Song is a clandestine group of musicians, singers and writers who each submit a song every week, inspired by a key phrase which is chosen by a nominated member of the Society.

The songs have never up until now been broadcast or performed in public. They are appearing live as a collective for the first time at this Water Rats gig to perform a number of these works.

Among the group are post punk legend Phil Rambow (the Winkies), Stephen Coates (the Real Tuesday Weld), Marcella Puppini (the Puppini Sisters), Malcolm Doherty (Holy Holy / GoKart Mozart / The Great Electric). It is possible that this may be the only gig ever by this highly secretive group.

Gillian Glover

Singer songwriter Gillian Glover makes a return to live performance in London with a short acoustic set. Gillian's critically acclaimed albums 'Red Handed' and 'Still Life With Music' elicit the blues, folk, Americana and World music.

The Erdal Kizilcay Band is a Tom Wilcox / Maniac Squat Records production.