JEFF Duff wants to make one thing clear for the uninitiated: “I’m not a David Bowie impersonator. I don’t try to sound like Bowie. I do my own thing.”
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It’s just that Bowie fans – around the world – can’t get enough of Duff’s captivating renditions of the Bowie back catalogue.
It’s why Duff is currently involved in three David Bowie shows.
There’s the symphony orchestra show that plays big rooms such as the Sydney Opera House.
There’s the ‘British Invasion’ show alongside artists who perform the songs of Rod Stewart and Elton John.
And there’s the Bowie Unzipped show, which Duff and his band will take to The Art House, in Wyong, on Friday, February 16.
What’s also clear is that Duff’s relationship with the Thin White Duke is complicated: Duff loves Bowie and his music, misses him deeply, but he’d rather not be known as “that guy who sings Bowie songs”.
“Coming back to Australia has been very disappointing for me. For most artists to make money in this country, you’ve got to sing covers,” he told the Lakes Mail from his home in Sydney’s Elizabeth Bay.
“Very few artists survive doing their own material.”
Duff has recorded 30 original albums, but he concedes few punters would know it.
Duff was also a regular on Countdown in the 1970s before he “fled Australia” to chase success in the UK where his androgynous stage persona and outrageous antics – on stage, and off – meant he became “infamous within a couple of months”.
Yet, it seems all the punters want to hear is Duff doing Bowie.
There’s a reason for that: he’s a consummate showman, and a masterful interpreter of Bowie’s songs.
“Just last month I was booked to go to Las Vegas to do a Bowie show,” he sighs.
Duff met Bowie several times.
Their first meeting was in 1979, at The Embassy, a club that Duff had performed at in London’s West End. Bowie had watched Duff perform and wanted to meet him after the show.
Duff’s first impressions of Bowie, the man?
“He was off his face. I think cocaine was his drug of choice at the time,” he said.
Years later the pair would become neighbours in Elizabeth Bay, where Bowie and his band at the time, Tin Machine, were residing while on tour.
When Bowie died in January 2016, Duff stood outside the place that Bowie had briefly called his Aussie home.
“I heard [the news of Bowie’s death] on BBC Radio from London at about 5 in the afternoon. Five minutes later David’s son, Duncan, came on and confirmed it,” Duff recalled.
“I was completely shattered. I stood out the front of his apartment and realised that one of my heroes was not here any more.”
Bowie’s death also affected Duff’s shows. And still does.
“I remember doing performances in the week he died. I broke down and cried on stage,” he said.
“I’d read out my own personal eulogy before we performed Lazarus which was on his last album, Blackstar.”
Bowie Unzipped will be performed at The Art House, Wyong, on Friday, February 16, at 8pm. Tickets cost $50. Visit thearthousewyong.com.au or phone 4335 1485.