David Bowie in NEO illuminates why David Bowie chose Cleveland to kick off his first-ever US tour, creating an international superstar, presented by Thomas Mulready and Vanity Crash.

Bowieologist Thomas Mulready, in collaboration with glam punk heroes Vanity Crash, trace the rise of David Bowie in Northeast Ohio, from the local Space Oddity-era fan club, to WMMS radio jocks Billy Bass and Denny Sanders pushing Hunky Dory 24/7, to his US debut at Music Hall, to his collaborations with Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails.

This multi-media event includes from special musical guests from the Cleveland and Akron performing seminal music from one of the most creative and influential artists of the past century, along with their own fabulous originals.

In addition to live music, the show features highly edited interviews with Bowie’s drummer Woody Woodmansey, and pianist Mike Garson, whose first gig with Bowie was that Cleveland debut show, and who plays on two original Vanity Crash tracks, plus others.

From Woody Woodmansey’s book, “Spider From Mars: My Life With Bowie:”

The tour opened at the Cleveland Music Hall on 22 September. The venue held 3,000 and had sold out in two days thanks to Denny Sanders, musical director, and Billy Bass, programme director at WMMS Radio, who had played Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust tracks repeatedly, introducing the area to our music and creating an enthusiastic fan base. We were already the talk of the town by the time we got to Cleveland.

We began the show with ‘Hang On To Yourself’ and the crowd loved it. Bowie had done a press conference earlier that day and had been a bit withdrawn, but by stage time he’d shed any inhibitions and stalked the stage like a madman.

The experience we’d gained on our UK tour, plus the addition of Mike Garson, really helped us find our feet and the sound of the band and the performance seemed to have moved up to another level. It was exciting and the audience let us know it was the same for them. At the end we received an ovation that lasted about ten minutes. We’d done our first US concert and it had gone down amazingly, the perfect start to the tour.

Bowie loved all this. He was still in control of the Ziggy persona at the start of the first US tour and was able to adopt and discard his onstage character with relative ease. He’d wanted to be famous for years, and had worked incredibly hard to achieve it – and here he was, the biggest star of the hour.

The live shows will feature special guests from Akron & Cleveland. A second set each night will feature live original music by musical hosts, Cleveland's glam punk superstars Vanity Crash.

Performances will take place at 8PM on the following dates:
*Friday, January 9, 2026 at BOP STOP, 2920 Detroit Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44113 *Saturday, January 10, 2026 at Jilly’s Music Room, 111 N. Main St, Akron, OH 44308
*Sunday, January 11, 2026 at The Beachland Ballroom, 15711 Waterloo Rd., Cleveland, OH 44110

Additional information, photos and interviews available upon request.

Everything is subject to radical change.
More information: https://VanityCrash.com
Photo of David Bowie in 1972 at Cleveland’s Music Hall by Anastasia Pantsios

Tickets: $20 in advance, $25 day of show (plus $2 per ticket processing fee). This show will not be livestreamed.

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VANITY CRASH:
Vanity Crash was born onstage in the smash Cleveland Public Theatre production of “Hedwig and The Angry Inch” about a botched sex change operation. Band front man Dennis Van Crash was the musical director of the play, which featured the fictional on-stage band The Angry Inch. The glam punk band was so tight and rocking, the decision was made to keep the band together and work on original material. Five releases later, Vanity Crash has been dressing up and throwing down with eye-popping synchronized light shows, outrageous stage costumes and provocative attitude, opening for the likes of the New York Dolls, Poison, the Darkness and Gogol Bordello. Their acclaimed presentations on David Bowie include timeless gems performed live alongside their own incendiary originals.

THOMAS MULREADY:
As creator of Cool Networks LLC, Mulready leads an influencer-driven multimedia content network utilizing sites, podcasts, videos, and e-blasts to promote economic development, arts, culture and technology in Northeast Ohio. After creating the Performance Art Festival+Archives, he co-founded the Ingenuity Festival of Art and Technology, and has served as Senior Vice President of National City Bank and worked at Management Recruiters International, Richardson-Vicks, and Campbell Soup. He’s played drums with Cats On Holiday and Vanity Crash, presented his performance art in New York and Paris, and served as a Senior Research Consultant in the United Kingdom.

Billy Bass is a true legend. A popular DJ at WIXY-1260 who then helped launch progressive rock radio as DJ and program director at the fledgling WMMS, Bass is credited with breaking artists such as David Bowie nationally by playing their music non-stop in Cleveland. He then went on to an epic career in the music industry in New York and Los Angeles, including serving as senior vice president of Chrysalis Records in the 1980’s and as manager of Grammy Award winning R&B star Luther Vandross, who began as backing vocalist and arranger for Bowie. Billy is also credited with coining the phrase, “Cleveland: The Rock & Roll Capital of the World.” Billy will be on hand to talk about David Bowie and to answer questions from the audience.