Gavin Mitchell discusses accepting David Bowie’s posthumous entry to the Barrowland Ballroom Hall of Fame in Glasgow

We speak to Still Game star Gavin Mitchell on accepting an award on behalf on his hero David Bowie.

Transcript

00:00Hello, my name's Gavin Mitchell. You probably know me better as well. I've been on Sob Signs,

00:05but most people know me as Bobby the Barman or even Troy the Gardiner.

00:10How did it feel to collect David Bowie's Barrowland Hall of Fame Dam Award?

00:15It was a huge honour. I collected the award my own at Barrowland.

00:19And yeah, it kind of blew me away because he's been my hero as long as I can remember.

00:23Huge influence, but he was kind of my northern star.

00:26So, being untrained, he was somebody I looked up to that proved that you could do anything

00:31and be anybody that you wanted to be.

00:34There were no limits, whether it be fashion, sexuality, art, acting, music, everything.

00:43And so, yeah, like everybody kind of blew me away when he passed,

00:47but I didn't expect to be asked to accept the award on his behalf.

00:52So it was hugely emotional and meant a lot to me, especially being in the Barrowland as well,

00:56as the venue means a lot to me.

00:58And then it was through that I passed it on, Errol Slick was playing in the ABC,

01:03doing the whole of the Station to Station album.

01:05And I managed to get a hold of it. It's a long story, but I managed to eventually get in touch with Errol Slick,

01:10and I thought the old board should rightfully go to somebody who was in his band, not me, really.

01:16And so he graciously said he would accept it.

01:19And so I gave it to him on stage at the ABC.

01:22And from that, it opened up lots of doors.

01:25So I ended up with Mike Garson, who was Bowie's pianist for over 40 years.

01:29I ended up backing vocals later with Mike Garson and his Aladdin Sane tour celebrating that album.

01:36And any time that members of the band have been here, I meet up with them now.

01:41And I sang with, well, it was Mike in Iggy Pop's band at the time I was singing with and stuff.

01:45So I mean, it was kind of mind-blowing to do all these kind of things.

01:48Bittersweet at the end of the day, because none of it would have happened if Bowie hadn't passed away.

01:54So that's the only sad kind of thing about it.

01:57It would have happened if he hadn't passed. But yeah, but incredible.