Corgan and Reznor are the latest acts set to play the Bowie birthday-show; among the long line-up are big names including actor Gary Oldman as well as musicians such as Gavin Rossdale, Macy Gray, Judith Hill, Perry Farrell and many more. The musicians will each give their own rendition of one or more of the songs off Bowie’s extensive discography and it is expected they will bring unique and genre-spanning covers to the live-show.

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A post shared by David Bowie (@davidbowie) on Oct 27, 2020 at 7:38am PDT

The event will take place near the 5th anniversary of Bowie’s death and will follow the new-release of the album Metrobolist which is set to be released next month. This year, previously unreleased live-show recordings and re-cut songs, such as The Man Who Sold The World, have been given to fans and even last month saw a limited edition of the 1975 album Young Americans. 

Bowie has had great success from posthumous releases including winning multiple Grammys, selling over 5 million records in just the 2 years following his death and being named Rolling Stone’s ‘Greatest Rock Star Ever’. This upcoming live-stream concert will pay tribute to fallen star with collaborations and arrangements of his music spanning all the decades of his career.

Producers of the live-stream event include Kerry Brown, Stacey Sher and Bowie’s long-time producer Tony Visconti, and they are calling it ‘A Bowie Celebration: Just for one day!’. Past band-members and old collaborators are banning together in an alumni fashion to play as one in honour of Bowie.

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A post shared by David Bowie (@davidbowie) on Aug 6, 2020 at 10:03am PDT

This all-star band will include players such as the main band-members from his last touring act and other musicians including Carlos Alomar, Zack Alford, Alan Childs, Kevin Armstrong, Emm Gryner, Omar Hakim, Robin Clark, Clare Hirst, Tim Lefebvre, Erdal Kızılçay, Martha Mooke, Mark Plati, Holly Palmer, Charlie Sexton and Carmine Rojas.

Spanning the end of 2020 and into 2021 a collection of 6 live and unreleased albums from the years 1995 to 1999 will be available in a limited CD and vinyl form. This collection will be called Brilliant Live Adventures and will follow the release of the upcoming album Metrobolist.

Tickets for the Bowie livestream birthday celebration concert are available here and the early-bird pricing is at 20USD (15 GBP). All shows from the ‘Bowie Celebration Tour’ that was set to go off next year have been cancelled due to safety concerns surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic.

Rumours of a reunion had been around for a while, since Corgan posted a photo of himself in a studio with both James Iha and Jimmy Chamberlin on his Instagram page, hinting at the good times the former bandmates had shared in the past.

@smashingpumpkins: Not sure what cross-eyed spy took this photo, but we had a visitor to the studio the other day. So many memories when you put the three of us together. @jamesihaofficial @chamberdrums #WPC

A post shared by WilliamPatrickCorgan (@williampcorgan) on Jan 16, 2018 at 8:31am PST

 Now, Corgan has taken to Instagram once again, with a lengthy and emotional post, featuring an image of himself when he was a lot younger; the picture shows him with a full head of hair, so is likely to be from around the time of the release of the band’s seminal Siamese Dream. You can check out the full post below, but what’s notable is the photo’s caption, which reads:  

I’ve had a crazy life. Good crazy, but crazy nonetheless. For example. I saw this picture of myself the other day. Besides having a generally good idea of when it was taken (1993 or 1994) I don’t remember actually taking the photo, nor do I remember countless others like it between the years 1991-2004. Now, perhaps that says something about my inability or desire to remember, but I’d argue it’s an unfortunate result of the blur of those years. Which leads me to this time, or this moment, where like so many, I share a window (curated as it is) into my crazy life. As an example, we are currently in the studio with Rick Rubin. But unless I show you a picture of Rick sitting Buddha-like at a mixing desk, you probably wouldn’t know that. Or when I, in a very naive way, post a shot with a needle in my arm and ramble on about making peace with God and time left on dear ‘ol Earth, it sent some signal to friends and associates alike that I was sick or wanted other’s sympathy. (As fact, it was an IV full of vitamins and homeopathy to assist in getting over this vicious flu). So yes, was sick, and no, not serious in any way nor would I share such info here because this window I’d prefer to be one where you see the sunlight streaming through. The only addendum to that is when I saw how others were reacting to their perception of my misguided and poorly worded message, I chose not to react in kind; in essence I let the shadows cast be whatever you-they-them want to believe. Because we live now in a world where perception often outweighs reality, and that’s fine. So to that, here’s a new pic I just took of me with my sandy-brown, curly hair flowing in the studio breeze. Lots of love, WPC #wpc

A post shared by WilliamPatrickCorgan (@williampcorgan) on Jan 27, 2018 at 10:23am PST

“I’ve had a crazy life. Good crazy, but crazy nonetheless. For example. I saw this picture of myself the other day. Besides having a generally good idea of when it was taken (1993 or 1994) I don’t remember actually taking the photo, nor do I remember countless others like it between the years 1991-2004. Now, perhaps that says something about my inability or desire to remember, but I’d argue it’s an unfortunate result of the blur of those years.

“Which leads me to this time, or this moment, where like so many, I share a window (curated as it is) into my crazy life. As an example, we are currently in the studio with Rick Rubin. But unless I show you a picture of Rick sitting Buddha-like at a mixing desk, you probably wouldn’t know that. Or when I, in a very naive way, post a shot with a needle in my arm and ramble on about making peace with God and time left on dear ‘ol Earth, it sent some signal to friends and associates alike that I was sick or wanted other’s sympathy. (As fact, it was an IV full of vitamins and homeopathy to assist in getting over this vicious flu).

“So yes, was sick, and no, not serious in any way nor would I share such info here because this window I’d prefer to be one where you see the sunlight streaming through. The only addendum to that is when I saw how others were reacting to their perception of my misguided and poorly worded message, I chose not to react in kind; in essence I let the shadows cast be whatever you-they-them want to believe.

“Because we live now in a world where perception often outweighs reality, and that’s fine. So to that, here’s a new pic I just took of me with my sandy-brown, curly hair flowing in the studio breeze. Lots of love, WPC.”

Notable by her absence was original bassist D’Arcy Wretzky, who has revealed that she won’t partaking in this prospective reunion, apologising to fans when speaking to BlastEcho, saying “My apologies to all of the Smashing Pumpkins fans out there who are excited about this oncoming reunion tour of the original members of the band.

“I know this is a huge disappointment for me, as well, but it’s not going to happen [with me].” Wretzky added that she had “only just found [out] yesterday that the band has decided to go with a different bass player.”

Corgan was also optimistic that the rest of his former bandmates would be interested in the reunion, saying “There’s a willingness for us to play, but also the world’s changed a lot since we didn’t play […] So the reunion thing is always a bit weird because people come in with their expectations […] So my whole thing is if we’re gonna do it, I think we do it to make people happy and not go against the tide of what people would want to hear in that type of stuff, but my interest in it is sort of limited. I’m not gonna do it for like 14 years of my life.”

The plans for a reunion seem to have been in Corgan’s mind for quite some time, as was seen in a Facebook vlog last summer, where Corgan told fans “There’s some big stuff happening. We’re making plans. I can’t give that away, but it’s going to be interesting.” Consequence of Sound also reports that an industry source suggested that Corgan is trying to book the reunited Pumpkins for shows and festival dates for summer 2017.

If a tour was to materialise, it would mark the first time the classic line-up has played together since the year 2000. In the years since the break-up, the often fiery Corgan has managed to be insult,and “make peace” with many of his former bandmates.