David Bowie

[The Stratmangler]

It's hard to believe that 40 years have passed since David Bowie released "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars".

I have been familiar with the album for 38 of those years, and it still hits the spot.

[floppybootstomp]

Aye, still hits the spot with me too and a few weeks ago I bought it again on vinyl, a used copy.

One of our local papers 'The Greenwich Visitor' has run a story for the last couple of issues pointing out that Bowie rehearsed for the Ziggy album at a local studio at the bottom of Blackheath Hill.

It's no longer a studio but I remember it well, I used to go there with a local band, Clark Hutchinson, and watch them rehearse. One day Jeff Beck came along as well which pretty much gobsmacked me.

The studio did in fact used to be an underground public convenience which I notice our local paper has failed to mention, it still had a thick glass tiled skylight in it when I went there.

Here's a link:

And in another little link me mate Roy bought Bowie's old Bedford transit-type van from him after Ziggy took off and he started getting famous, it had lots of magic marker messages on the inside walls, stuff like 'we love you David'.

I have only ever seen Bowie once, think I've mentioned this before but it was on a Saturday afternoon in summer in '69 at Bromley Gardens in North Kent, just him and an accoustic guitar and yes, he did sing Space Oddity.

[Dave the bass]

It's no longer a studio but I remember it well, I used to go there with a local band, Clark Hutchinson, and watch them rehearse.

Aww, I'd forgotten about CH.

This track you introduced me to via the medium of cassette tape!



DTB

[IslandPink]

I've always thought that Bolder and Woodmansey are under-rated in all the discussion of the great Bowie era . Their work on 'The Man who sold the World' is fantastic . Consistently interesting and hard-working .