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