LEGENDARY producer and bass player Tony Visconti, drummer Woody Woodmansey and Heaven 17 singer Glenn Gregory are performing David Bowie’s The Man Who Sold the World album and another set of classic Bowie songs from 1969 to 1973 at The Welly in Hull tonight.

Bowie bandmates Visconti and Woodmansey reunited for four dates last September; the first time they had played together since 1970, this time with Gregory fronting the band.

The shows were so well received that the trio decided to stage 14 more from June 12 to 30 this summer with the primary focus on Bowie's 1970 album, with its themes of annihilation and a totalitarian machine and sonically heavy sound that combined Mick Ronson's robust guitar with futuristic synth sounds. Ronson died in 1993 but his daughter Lisa and niece Hannah are performing on the 2015 tour with Visconti, Woodmansey and his band Holy Holy.

“In September last year, Tony and I had the pleasure of joining forces as a rhythm section for the first time since 1970 when we recorded the album with David and Mick. At the time we were all looking forward to presenting it to audiences in a live situation as we felt it would be exciting for us and them," says Woody. "Unfortunately this never came to pass ….until September last year. Due to numerous requests for more shows we're back and I'm more than excited."

The spark for re-visiting Bowie's past works was a phone call to Woody a year and a half ago. "I got a call from the director at the Institute of Contemporary Arts on The Mall, who said, 'Look, I've got this idea of interviewing you in front of a live audience', and I said, 'That sounds a bit intellectual; what would it be about?'. He said, 'Your contribution to David Bowie's albums and his impact on music'. It still sounded a bit highbrow but I did it and it went well.

"It also turned out that a band had been put together with Steve Norman from Spandau Ballet, Glenn Gregory from Heaven 17, James Stevenson, from The Cult, and Clem Burke, from Blondie, for the Latitude festival to promote the ICA's Bowiefest. They asked me if I would do two songs with them as a guest and I thought, 'Why not? We could have some fun.

"I didn't realise I would be standing at the side of the stage watching Clem Burke do all my old drum parts! I was thinking, 'I want to throw you off stage! Get off! This is my party! But we've become good friends."

From this start, Woody was invited to assemble his own band, forming Holy Holy to perform Bowie's The Man Who Sold The World, duly linking up with Visconti and Gregory for last September's shows. "We were packed out every night with 16 year olds to 65 year olds, with everyone singing along to songs I'd never thought of as singalong songs as they were quite depressing," says Woody.

Woody's memories linger from those 1970 sessions. "We had Mick Ronson, on guitar, from Hull; Tony Visconti was on bass and producing, as he'd just produced T Rex," he recalls. "David had just got married to Angie, so he was a bit preoccupied, leaving us to get on with the music, after he gave us initial ideas, so we were jamming and having a great time.

"We were living on £7 a week; David had no record contract and he was changing manager at the time, and the four of us really wanted to go out on the road with the record but it never happened, though we did a couple of numbers on the Ziggy tours."

Now, 45 years later, The Man Who Sold The World is being played live after all with Woodmansey and Visconti reunited.