Live Review: Liner Notes Live – The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars

Part of the 2019 Adelaide Cabaret Festival, Liner Notes Live is a fantastic concept – a diverse collection of artists paying homage to a classic album, with a spoken word focus that outweighs the musical performances. In tonight’s case, a collective of musicians, poets, authors and even scientists gathered to provide unique interpretations, deconstructions and personal recollections of David Bowie’s most famous album.

Michael Nolan is brilliant as Bowie, as singer/performer, but also as the show’s host and narrator – he’s the glue that holds the production together and keeps us thoroughly entertained throughout the two-hour show. Regardless of where each act takes the song they’ve been allocated, Nolan keeps things on track with wit and charm, delighting us with a collage of facts, anecdotes, rumours and even fan-forum chatroom transcripts.

Not every song from the 1972 Ziggy Stardust album got a look in. This probably wasn’t an issue for most. When prompted, not many in the audience were able to recall the name of the album’s opening track. Even Yana Alana admitted she hadn’t heard Five Years until recently, but did a fine job of interpreting the song with a modern twist. 

Sabrina D’Angelo brought some magic and mime to Soul Love, while show co-producer Sean M Whelan conducted a chilled-out reading of a poem inspired by Moonage Daydream in a spacesuit, of course. Professor Alan Duffy from Swinburne University put a thought-provoking spin on Starman (and thankfully didn’t sing much of it) and hip hop artist Mantra possibly stole the show with a humorous and touching personal tale of Bowie’s legacy.

Some performers barely touched the song they were performing, instead using it as a springboard for a reflection or train of thought on Bowie. Angie Hart, from Australian indie-pop band Frente!, has an angelic voice, but we only received a glimpse of it. Instead, her focus was a rusty guitar performance of Ziggy Stardust, apparently only her third time playing guitar live (and it showed).

Anyone expecting a traditional tribute show may have gone home disappointed, but thankfully the cabaret crowd was largely receptive to such an audacious homage to a timeless masterpiece. For balance, there were a few live performances that were faithful to the originals, including the chunky finale, Suffragette City, courtesy of the glammed up ‘house band’, the Spiders From Marden (an Adelaide pun).