Festival to broadcast David Bowie cover to space station astronauts

Astronauts on the International Space Station will tune in to listen to a Scottish rendition of David Bowie’s Space Oddity that is being beamed up from the Mull of Kintyre music festival.

The track was performed by Slainte Davaar Allstars and recorded on a runway at Machrihanish Airbase, which is aiming to become the UK’s first spaceport.

With the help of Nasa, the performance is due to be broadcast to the astronauts as they orbit the earth.

Commander of the International Space Station (ISS) Chris Cassidy and cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner have confirmed they will listen to the transmission on Saturday evening, according to the festival’s organiser.

Iain Johnston of JIG Events said: “The Mull of Kintyre music festival has encouraged people to visit Kintyre from all parts of the globe since its inception 28 years ago and we were naturally disappointed, like every other event organiser up and down the country, to have to cancel this year.

“However, what better way to turn it into a positive than to take our music interstellar?

“We hope the ISS astronauts enjoy their Scottish welcome just as much as we enjoyed making it.”

Another rendition of Space Oddity was famously recorded onboard the ISS itself by Commander Chris Hadfield in 2013, making history as the first music video to be created in space.

At the time, Bowie said it was “possibly the most poignant version of the song ever created”.

Referencing the video, Mr Johnston said “as far as stage backdrops go, (Machrihanish Airbase) might not be quite as impressive as Chris Hadfield’s, but it’s still pretty unique.”

As well as the transmission into space, the Mull of Kintyre festival will be broadcasting the video on their Facebook page from 7pm on Saturday.