Since David Bowie departed this earth in January, it seems like everything has gone wrong: a host of other celebrity deaths - including fellow musical legend Prince -and more political craziness than House of Cards on steroids.
Yet the series of tributes - the Grammys, the Brits, the multiple Glastonbury performances - that have taken place to the Starman have helped keep up our spirits up by reminding us of the brilliance of his music, which will outlast us all.
However, there's one more taking place tonight, and it promises to be very special.
No lesser institution than the BBC Proms is honouring the Thin White Duke with a full concert taking place at the Royal Albert Hall. The venue actually saw Bowie's last-ever UK performance, when he joined Pink Floyd's Dave Gilmour in May 2006, to perform the Floyd classics Arnold Layne and Comfortably Numb.
The concert, which is sold out, will be curated, conducted and directed by Andre de Ridder, will span Bowie's entire career, from Space Oddity to Blackstar, and will feature the likes of Laura Mvula, John Cale, Neil Hannon, Conor O'Brien and French counter-tenor Philippe Jaroussky.
They won't be performing straight-up covers though - as befits the Proms, they'll be reinterpreting the material in a variety of ways.
Andre de Ridder told the BBC. "In the process of making the arrangements we found, for example, that a lot of the songs that have a very strong beat in the originals don't necessarily need that. Harmonically and melodically they have so much intricacy that maybe, in some of these arrangements, is brought out a little bit more. We really tried to bring in a great variety of composers and singers and interpreters from different genres and styles."
So put your feet up tonight, tune in to BBC Four, Radio 3 or 6 Music from 22:15 tonight (Friday 29 July), and take another chance to bask in the brilliance of a musical legend.
(Image: Rex)
[via BBC]
