Holy Holy

How Holy Holy began

Holy Holy came together in 2014 when Tony Visconti and Woody Woodmansey, key collaborators from David Bowie’s early-1970s albums, reunited to perform the music they helped to make. The initial focus was The Man Who Sold the World, the 1970 set that never received a full tour at the time. Early UK dates in late 2014 quickly grew into more shows and international touring in 2015–16, as the group developed into a stable live band rather than a one-off tribute. Those first years established the format that still frames their concerts: an opening built from deep cuts and narrative set pieces, followed by a sweep of early-’70s Bowie and, increasingly, later favourites.

The work that matters: onstage, in sequence, and on record

The band’s calling card has been full-album performances and carefully sequenced ‘best of’ sets. In June 2015 they issued The Man Who Sold the World – Live in London, a double album recorded at Shepherd’s Bush Empire that documents the early iteration of the project and underlines the emphasis on fidelity to the source material without resorting to pastiche.

As the tours evolved, Holy Holy added other eras. In the late 2010s they performed The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars in full across UK dates; by 2025 their shows in Manchester and Oxford read like curated histories, beginning with the instrumental atmosphere of Warszawa (from Low) before pivoting to Woodmansey-era material and beyond. Reviews from 18 and 29 May 2025 noted the balance: Panic in Detroit, Drive-In Saturday, Changes and Time sat alongside Life on Mars? and Moonage Daydream, with the encores acknowledging Visconti’s later work with Where Are We Now? and a final surge into Rebel Rebel.

Right now: a final tour, September 2026

On 31 March 2026, Visconti confirmed that Holy Holy would undertake a farewell run in the autumn. The UK leg was announced on 10 March 2026 with dates from Glasgow (3 September) to Hull (19 September), before crossing to mainland Europe for Haarlem (23 September) and finishing with three Irish shows across Dublin (27 and 28 September) and Belfast (29 September). Ticket outlets list 13 concerts on sale across the run as of 6 September 2026, with venues including O2 Academy Glasgow, O2 Academy Leeds, O2 Academy Liverpool, O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, O2 Academy Bristol, O2 Ritz Manchester, XOYO Birmingham, O2 City Hall Newcastle, Connexin Live (Hull), The Academy (Dublin) and The Limelight 1 (Belfast).

The promotion bills it as The Final Tour – A Celebration of Bowie, led by Woodmansey and Visconti with Heaven 17’s Glenn Gregory on vocals. The booking notes emphasise the set’s historical core—1969–73—while leaving room for later Visconti-era pieces. The line-up for this lap, as flagged in March, includes guitarists James Stevenson and Paul Cuddeford, Jessica Lee Morgan on 12‑string and sax, and Janette Mason on piano/keys. Early attendees’ write-ups from the opening weekend in Glasgow and Leeds (4–5 September) point to a sold-out welcome and a set that ranges from Space Oddity to Blackstar-era material, weighted towards the early albums.

Who’s in the room: the 2026 touring band

The anchor points are the two figures who made these songs with Bowie in the first place. Visconti, who produced ten studio albums for Bowie and played bass on the first two, works as musical director onstage and on the business of sonics. Woodmansey, Bowie’s drummer during the Ziggy period and the last surviving Spider From Mars, drives the show from the kit. Gregory, who takes the frontman role without imitation, is the conduit for the songs’ character and crowd connection.

The road band has coalesced around familiar faces. Guitar duties fall to James Stevenson (Gene Loves Jezebel/The Cult/Generation X) and Paul Cuddeford, a pairing that can alternate between Ronson-esque bite and the warmer textures of the later albums. Jessica Lee Morgan—who has long been part of the project—adds 12‑string and saxophone, while Janette Mason handles the piano/synth palette that bridges early glam to Berlin-era timbres.

A Holy Holy show today

Reviews from the last UK tour before the hiatus (May–June 2025) describe a nearly two‑hour performance with a clear shape. The room drops to darkness and the band step out to Warszawa, Visconti and Woodmansey re‑establishing a tone Bowie used on his own 1978 dates. From there, Holy Holy lean hard into Woodmansey’s home turf—Width of a Circle, Lady Grinning Soul, Time—before opening the tap on crowd‑animating hits. In Oxford on 29 May 2025, 16 of the 19 songs came from 1969–73, and the encore paired Where Are We Now? with Rebel Rebel. Manchester two weeks earlier reported Panic in Detroit, Drive‑In Saturday, Changes, Rock ’n’ Roll Suicide, Life on Mars? and Moonage Daydream, faithfully arranged but with the looseness of a live band that knows when to push.

Between songs, Visconti and Woodmansey talk. In Oxford, the producer broke from the script to share studio memories before the drummer recalled photographer Mick Rock capturing the notorious Ronson/Bowie guitar moment at the Town Hall in June 1972. That blend of oral history and performance is central to the group’s appeal: original players, telling their story, while doing the thing they first did together. The early reports from September 2026 suggest the farewell run keeps that structure intact and ends, as ever, with a mass sing‑along.

Standing in the lineage

Holy Holy has always been more than a covers band. The presence of the original drummer and the producer who shaped so much of the recorded work makes this a living archive, and the insistence on full-album sets or carefully sequenced shows signals a historian’s instinct as much as a showman’s. The 2015 live album was proof of concept, but it was the long trail of theatres and academies—across the UK, Europe, Japan and the US—that turned the project into a fixture.

In 2026, a decade on, they are winding it down. The idea that began with a long‑un‑toured 1970 LP has become a way for the people who were there to close the loop in public. The final programme in September 2026 reads like a parting gift: a survey of songs that defined a generation, performed by two of the musicians who helped write the story.