Ziggy Stardust & Beyond: The Ultimate David Bowie Tribute | Adelaide Fringe 2026 | Review

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️  5 stars for the closest thing you’ll experience to Bowie without a rocketship to Mars.

Review by Isabella Louey

If you love David Bowie, or just love live music, put this phenomenal show by Ashes to Ashes on your radar for when they return to South Australia in September and October – it’s the Ultimate David Bowie Tribute.

This one-night-only show was held at the Regal Theatre, a great venue, boasting an intimate yet spacious hall with enough room for dancing and comfortable seating. It provided an immersive environment that allowed the band to be visible from every seat. In the theatre foyer, there was a candy bar that provided alcohol, non-alcoholic drinks and an abundant selection of edibles. Not far to the left was the concert hall, very hard to miss.

Regarded as one of Australia’s best David Bowie tribute bands, Ashes to Ashes showed why this is the case with their amazing rendition of the opening song, Absolute Beginners. With Paul Matthews as the main vocalist and Cherie Moyle as a backup vocalist, their fantastic vocals were accompanied by a masterful use of keys, saxophone, synthesisers, guitars and percussion. Accompanying musicians included Guy Hunt on guitar, Marco Giardini on keys and harmonica, Brayden Leske on bass, Mark Hawkins on saxophone and percussion, and Matt Carter (filling in for the main drummer Paul Wheeler) on drums – delivering a sensational performance.

For the first act, Ashes to Ashes hit it off with some essential Bowie classics, such as Golden Years, Changes, Ashes to Ashes, Let’s Dance, China Girl and Under Pressure. Matthews certainly had the knack for re-creating every Bowie-esque vocal nuance whilst still applying his own brilliant style. For example, mimicking Bowie’s iconic falsetto in Young Americans, “…the one damn song that could make me break down and cry”.

Space Oddity featured the bassist Brayden Leske performing a pick scrape to create that iconic ‘blast off’ sound heard in Bowie’s original ‘60s track. Let’s Dance featured trumpets and tuned percussion, played by Marco Giardini. The experience was one-of-a-kind, with spectacular lighting and on the big screen, a montage of moments from Bowie’s life. This montage included footage of him on stage with his band, wearing his quintessential outfits.

Backup vocalist Cherie Moyle took Freddie Mercury’s part in Under Pressure, performing an impeccable glissando which had the whole audience applauding.

The whole show accommodated people of all ages, fostering a sense of belonging through its truly resonant music.

During the intermission, my companion and I were brought backstage to meet the band for photos. The reason? Our Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane-themed makeup, which the band seemed to love. This, in addition to the novelty of us younger people being present at their concert. We were even told we looked like Bowie’s China Girls. And the band was all together, as Bowie himself would say.

After the intermission, the band returned with Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars, a certain favourite among David Bowie’s fans spanning generations. The band’s mighty aptitude for inciting dancing got everyone in front of the stage boogie-ing to Starman, Suffragette City and Hang Onto Yourself.

The band finished with the album’s finale, Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide and perfectly captured the song’s daring and heartfelt nature with Mark Hawkins returning to the saxophone once again. In an encore, the band was applauded offstage but returned to perform “Heroes” as the final song of the evening. Ashes to Ashes’ vocalist Matthews descended off the stage to dance with the audience, an incredible end to an incredible performance.

The Adelaide-based band will return to South Australia later this year, performing at Marion Cultural Centre on 18 September 2026 and at the Goolwa Centenary Hall on 24 October 2026.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO

For more information and all enquiries please visit the Adelaide Fringe website.

At Play & Go Adelaide we make every effort to provide accurate information to the best of our knowledge at the time of publication. We recommend confirming times, dates and details directly before making any plans as details may be subject to change.

As per all our Play & Go reviews, this is not a sponsored post. The Play & Go team review via media accreditation and when kindly invited.

All photos by Play & Go Adelaide (unless specified)

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