The English have given the world plenty of wonderful things. The adjustable spanner, the lawn mower, Bird’s custard, Katie Waissel and oppression. But one thing we should all be truly thankful for is David Robert Jones, who we all know as David Bowie.
Born in Brixton, London back in the black and white days (around 1947) “Davie Jones” showed great creativity from an early age. Whilst carrying the status of an “artistic” choir boy to start his musical life journey, he was thankfully introduced to a yank we now call the king. No, not that Scooby Doo villain, Jackson.The real king, Elvis Presley. An influence that had such an affect on Bowie, he later said of the hip shaking hound dog, “I have heard God”.
And as soon as one base persona was formed in “Bowie”, more were to follow. Originally based on the characters featured in songs just as Major Tom was in Space Oddity, but in 1972 the character Ziggy Stardust, a sort of glam version of Richie Kavanagh, only with talent, came to life on stage through Bowie himself. His intention for Ziggy being the ultimate pop idol, made up of the mannerisms of Iggy Pop and the musical ability of Lou Reed. An alter ego that literally took over Bowie’s life for a number of years. Thankfully though, the Ziggy tour that folded fired bowie into musical stardom.
The Berlin era which followed took Bowie through to 1979 and saw him living in West Berlin with Iggy Pop while at the same time managing to tone down his ever increasing lust for cocaine. Then came the 80’s, where the album “Scary monsters and super creeps” took Bowie to super-stardom. And in 1983, he finally went platinum in both the UK and the US with the Nile Rogers co-produced album, “Let’s Dance”. Other highs of the decade included his appearance in Wembley in 1985 for Live Aid, and in 1986 he co-starred in Jim Henson’s classic film “Labyrinth”