The BBC is said to be lining up a major televised tribute concert honouring David Bowie this summer, stepping in to fill the gap left by Glastonbury’s fallow year.
Insiders have told The Mirror that the broadcaster is preparing a star-studded celebration of the late music legend – who died aged 69 in January 2016 following a private cancer battle – featuring a roster of high-profile performers backed by an all-star band and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Organisers reportedly want the event to serve as a long-overdue national salute to Bowie, whose influence continues to shape generations of artists.
One source described the project as “a thank you to David Bowie and a celebration of his continued influence among today’s artists,” adding that the scale of the show will be unlike anything previously staged for the late icon in the UK.
All proceeds from the concert will go to the Teenage Cancer Trust and the music-therapy charity Nordoff and Robbins, echoing Bowie’s long association with charitable causes.
With Glastonbury taking a year off, the BBC is said to be treating the tribute as the centrepiece of its summer music programming.
A source claimed: “They see this as the jewel in the crown of their summer music plans in a year without Glastonbury. They are throwing everything at it.”
Despite Bowie’s towering legacy, the UK has never hosted a tribute concert of this magnitude. The largest to date took place at New York’s Carnegie Hall four months after his death in 2016, featuring performances from Debbie Harry, Cyndi Lauper and Michael Stipe.
The report comes days after it was revealed that the Bowie supergroup Holy Holy are bidding farewell with a UK tour for September 2026, marking the final chapter for the band dedicated to preserving the sound and spirit of his early catalogue.
Formed by drummer Woody Woodmansey of the Spiders From Mars and Bowie’s long-time friend and producer Tony Visconti, Holy Holy have spent more than a decade performing Bowie’s music exactly as it was originally created.
Visconti played on Bowie’s first two albums and went on to produce ten more across his career, while Woodmansey remains the last surviving member of the Spiders lineup.
The group will perform material spanning Bowie’s 1970 breakthrough through to his final album Blackstar.
Joining Woodmansey and Visconti on stage are Glenn Gregory of Heaven 17 on lead vocals, guitarists Paul Cuddeford and James Stevenson, Visconti’s daughter Jessica Lee Morgan on 12-string guitar and saxophone, and pianist/keyboardist Janette Mason.
The 12-date run begins in Glasgow on September 3, and concludes in Hull on September 19, with a London show at the O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire on September 10.
