Debbie Harry, Cyndi Lauper and Michael Stipe were among the stars who honoured David Bowie at a special concert last night (31.03.16).
A host of musicians took to the stage at Carnegie Hall in New York for the first of two special shows in the city, which were originally intended as a retrospective of the ‘Jean Genie’ singer’s life and were announced just hours before his death from cancer in January.
Blondie singer Debbie performed ‘Starman’, while former R.E.M. frontman Michael teamed up with Karen Nelson for a rendition of ‘Ashes to Ashes’ and Cyndi belted out ‘Suffragette City’.
Other performers included Pixies, who sang ‘Cactus’, Jane’s Addiction rocker Perry Farrell, who performed ‘Rebel Rebel’ and the late John Lennon’s son Sean, who teamed up with J. Mascis on a version of ‘Quicksand’.
After singing ‘Heroes’, Jakob Dylan said: "God bless David Bowie."
A second show, at Radio City Music Hall, tonight (01.04.16), will be live streamed online for fans to watch in exchange for a charity donation of £15.
Mumford & Sons and Miley Cyrus are among those scheduled to perform this evening.
Proceeds from the concerts – which sold out in just two hours – will go towards helping raise money for music education schemes for underprivileged children.
Michael Dorf, who produced the show, previously admitted they had to turn away some artists who wanted to be involved following the iconic singer’s death.
He said: "We felt kind of awkward because we are usually so humbly grateful to anyone who wants to participate in this."
Stars honour David Bowie at gig
