Not in his wildest dreams could the 15-year-old Glenn Gregory imagine many years later he’d be singing the songs of his hero David Bowie.
Since 2014, with the blessing of the great man, Glenn has been fronting Holy Holy – a band which includes Bowie’s mainstay producer Tony Visconti on bass.
They’ve toured America two times and the UK twice with a third tour starting next month including a Glasgow date.
Glenn, 63, from Sheffield, best known as the singer for Heaven 17, said: “When I was a teenager Bowie was playing the Students Union in Sheffield and we forged some student union cards and got into the gig.
“You always have wild dreams when you’re a teen but not sure I could have even dreamt up doing this. It’s right out of the blue.”
Despite being in a hit band of the 80s with hits like Temptation and Let Me Go it was in the late 70s he met Bowie for the first and only time.
Glenn was backstage at an early Human League gig in London. He had been longtime friends with Ian Craig Marsh and Martyn Ware from the band who’d wanted him to be the original singer. He turned it down to pursue a career in photography and they brought in Phil Oakey.
Glenn said: “I was backstage in the dressing room when suddenly the door flung open and Bowie walked in.
“He grabbed me by the shoulders and said ‘they are f****** amazing. They are the future of music’. He was hugging me and holding me. He was so excited and exhilarated.
“I was like some dumbstruck kid and just agreed with him.” Two years later Ian and Martyn quit the Human League and invited Glenn to sing with them. This time he agreed and they formed Heaven 17.
David was still alive when Visconti asked Glenn if he’d like to front a band he was forming with Woody Woodmansey -– the drummer from the Spiders from Mars Bowie era.
Glenn said:”I’d met Tony making an album International Blue and he mentioned that there was something about my voice that reminded me of David and I was really chuffed.”
A few weeks later Tony asked him to front a group who’d play The Man Who Sold... The World album live for the very first time. Glenn added: “David was still here and it had his blessing. I didn’t have to think about it twice.”
The Best of Bowie tour, re-scheduled from 2020 due to the pandemic, kicks off in Birmingham on March 2 and won’t be Holy Holy doing just one album but a selection of songs Tony has had a hand in.
One song that always gets him – which again is sure to be on the setlist – is Life on Mars.
He said: “I still find it difficult to sing. It’s emotional. We were in New York in 2016 playing on David’s birthday. We didn’t know he was ill but Tony did.
“I got the audience to sing happy birthday and Tony phoned him on the mobile so he could listen.That night we got on the tour bus to Toronto for our next gig, woke up the next morning and David was gone.”
David had been suffering from liver cancer for 18 months and had just released his album Blackstar. The world was shocked by his death but Holy Holy were on tour and rather than stopping it all went a bit crazy.
Glenn said: “It was hard to sing any of his songs at the next few gigs. I don’t know why but Life on Mars just gets me. I get a lump in my throat everytime I sing it.
“After his death we carried on the tour and they added more and more dates. We ended up doing 24/25 without a night off.
“Sometimes it was really hard. There were people with posters or pictures stood in the audience weeping.”
Bowie’s legacy hasn’t faded since his death. Far from it with his lost Toy album released last month on what would have been his 75th birthday.
Holy Holy also keep the music live as well as alive. Glenn said:“I think people just love to come and hear Bowie’s music, played well and to see Tony and Woody.
“I’m not sure there is new generation of Bowie fans. I think it’s just always there.”
Sadly this time around though Woody won’t be behind the drum kit. Woody, who lost his wife just before the pandemic, has a medical exemption from taking the Covid 19 vaccination, and the decision was made he should sit out this tour.
Glenn said: “I hope we can sort it out for the next one. Woody framed it best when talking to Holy Holy’s manager saying it was because of ‘medical differences’ rather than musical differences. That’s very funny.”
As for Glenn. He can’t wait to get back out on tour – “We always have the best gigs in Scotland.”
The singer was also huge pals with Dundee’s Billy Mackenzie of the Associates who gave him his first whippet before his death in 1997. He still has a whippet to this day.
Glenn said: “Billy was an amazing person. Heaven 17 did a version of Party Fears Two at his memorial concert in London and did it again when we were in Glasgow. I think we made the connection in Scotland that night. We can’t not do it in Scotland. The audience feel cheated if we don’t do it.
“It’s hard for me to do as it makes me so emotional.”
● Best of Bowie comes to Glasgow O2 Academy on March 6. Info and tickets: www.holyholy.co.uk
