Davie Jones’ Rocker

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 with an array of quickly developing musical talent, the young Jones spent his school years experimenting with a multitude of new and innovative sounds, jumping from band to band. Unfortunately all of which enjoyed as much commercial success as DJ Spiral. But in the year 1969 when Jones became a solo artist under the new name David Bowie, he emerged with “Space Oddity”, which would be the title of his second studio album, and announce himself proudly onto the scene.

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.

In 1976 a new persona was created in “the thin white duke”, a visual extension of the character Thomas Newton which Bowie played superbly in the film ‘The man who fell to earth. Realistically tho, he looked like a formally dressed concentration camp survivor. Legendary all the same.

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”

The 90’s saw Bowie reach more highs, in 1992 he preformed at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert, charged the number 1 spot again in 93 with the album “Black tie white noise” and in 1996 he  was inducted into the Rock and Roll hall of fame. Which cemented him into music history as an iconic Legend. Since then he has featured in several more acting roles and even turned down the role of Bond villain Max Zorin in A view to a kill. Some memorable appearances he did take include his catwalk judging cameo in the hit Ben Stiller flick Zoolander, and playing the quirkey scientist Nikola Tesla in Christopher Nolan’s “The Prestige”.

An inspiration to many, a musical inventor, a production genius, a style pioneer…

… A freaky old bastard.