SO, THEN… David Bowie and Meat Loaf.

The Man Who Sold the World and The Man Who Looks as Though He’s Just Eaten It; The Thin White Duke and the Bat Out of Hell.

Two huge stars, two unique artists with a vast army of fans, immense back catalogues of material and countless millions of units sold globally.

Two contrasting styles: the ever-innovative, stylish, constantly ch-ch-changing Bowie, the bombastic behemoth that is The Loaf.

But could they have ever worked together? They were of a similar age, both being born in 1947, and Bowie certainly performed or recorded with a number of varied artists in his career, including Lulu, Cher, Marc Bolan, Annie Lennox, Freddie Mercury, Bing Crosby and, lamentably, Mick Jagger.

So why not Meat Loaf? Sadly, following Bowie’s sad passing in January we will never know.

But there is a chance to see what would have happened if their paths had crossed this Sunday, April 24, at Weymouth Pavilion when two of the country’s leading tribute acts combine for an exclusive performance of The Show They Never Did.

Terry Nash is rightly acclaimed as one of the top Meat Loaf tribute acts with his powerful voice and stage presence, and he’s teamed up with Laurence who has been homaging Bowie for some 20 years to a frighteningly accurate and authentic degree Since appearing on Stars in Their Eyes in 1996, Terry’s star has been on the rise, but this project is a new departure for him.

“I’ve been working in theatre for a number of years, usually for other people,” he tells me from his home in Bournemouth.

“But this show has been my passion, my inspiration, for a while now. It’s very much my brainchild and, although I’m not a musician, I’m a singer, I know what I want to hear,” he says.

“I’ve known Laurence for many years but we’ve never been on the same bill.”

It could be the start of a series of interesting concepts for Terry.

“The thing is with tribute acts, you can do whatever you want, put together people that never performed together. They could be from different eras or different musical styles.

“For example, I’d love to stage a Rod Stewart and Tina Turner show and I’m working on Meat Loaf and Cher together.

“There’s also Meat Loaf singing with the Eagles and, ultimately, I’d love to do a Meat Loaf/Elvis spectacular.

“It’s a post-modernist supermarket of ideas!”

Such is Terry’s desire to be as accurate as possible, he even duets with his daughter Arianne on I Would Do Anything For Love, just as the real Loaf has done.

Terry has certainly come a long way from his days in London as an engineer and electrician.

“It was the days before karaoke so I used to get up and sing with bands that I knew in pubs just for fun. It was suggested I entered Stars In their Eyes, I managed to get on the show and secured an agent and I’ve never looked back,” he says.

So how does the other half of this unlikely alliance view the coupling?

“I agree it’s not a pairing that immediately springs to mind,” says Laurence, who is acknowledged as one of Europe’s top Bowie tribute acts.

“But it seems logical in a way because Terry and I share a number of musicians in our respective backing bands so they are familiar with both repertoires. Admittedly, they are radically different performers, but they do share a sense of theatricality.

“Terry’s very much the Meat Loaf sledgehammer, but I’m Bowie’s velvet glove,” he adds.

It must be an extraordinary difficult thing to deal with, when the person you are paying tribute to, and how you make your living, passes away, I ventured.

“Indeed and for me personally, I’m very much a fan and I was quite devastated,” says Laurence.

“Obviously, I can’t speak for everyone, but I get the impression many people feel they had an individual relationship with Bowie, more so than with any other artist.

“Professionally, it’s a very bitter sweet thing. Yes, I’m working more and playing bigger venues, although I still work solo in pubs but have also played to a crowd of 60,000 at the Matthew Street festival in Liverpool. But I am also aware of some of the vulture-like fans who have only appeared since David’s death.”

A tribute artist of Laurence’s skill, acumen and professionalism will never be short of work, but things have really taken off for him recently.

“We go out on a nationwide theatre tour starting in May, something I started planning a year ago, and we head to Sweden and Norway later in 2016.

“We’re also touring Ireland and Spain in 2017,” said Laurence.

So after countless shows over almost 20 years, has he noticed a change in the audience since January’s sad news?

“Yes, I have,” he says. “Some nights, it’s like a wave, a collective yearning, like the audience is reaching together in an attempt to turn back the clock.

“Not just to when Bowie was alive, but in a way they are mourning the passing of time, and the passing of their own lives and what Bowie meant to them.

“It’s as if everyone is trying to feel and experience the music to such an intensity in an attempt to salve the wound.”

Laurence performs a huge range of Bowie’s material, from the pre-Ziggy days all the way through to songs from Blackstar, his final album released just two days before his passing.

And I remind him of the loud gasp of the audience at his Mr Kyp’s concert back in February when he emerged sporting the facial bandages and metal nuts in the place of his eyes, exactly as Bowie wore in both the videos for Blackstar and Lazarus, which proved to be his final release.

“There is a strong feeling of melancholia that runs throughout his work,” Laurence says, “which stems from the knowledge that life is fleeting, transient.

“We are surrounded by death and decay, but knowing that inevitability, we must enjoy life for what it is, and while we still can.

“I felt comfortable doing Lazarus. I’m not frightened of emotions and I was crying behind those bandages.

“I fully expected to feel that way about it too,” he adds.

As Bowie himself sings in Quicksand from Hunky Dory: “Knowledge comes from death’s release.”

Laurence then relates a story he’d heard from someone who worked on the set of the Lazarus video.

“Apparently, Bowie was unsure how to end the film so it was suggested he walked back into the wardrobe,” he says.

Bowie thought about it and, squeezed into the diagonal striped cat suit he wore during his Man Who Sold the World era and fully and secretly aware of the cancer inside him that would claim his life in a matter of weeks, shuffled and jerked backwards into the wardrobe, closing the door behind him, in a jaw-dropping and poignant climax to the video.

“Ha! That’ll keep ‘em guessing,” laughed Bowie from inside the wardrobe.

n Bowie and Meat Loaf: The Show They Never Did is at Weymouth Pavilion on Sunday, April 24. Tickets at £18.50 are available from the box office on 01305 783225. There will be a collection during the evening for cancer charities in memory of David Bowie.