I’m guessing now that I must have seen David Bowie on that famous July Top of the Pops in 1972, when he performedd Starman, to explain me then sitting in Maureen’s women’s hairdressers a few weeks later, with my school mate Kirk Grieg, asking her for a ‘Ziggy haircut please’
GQUK editor Dylan Jones – ‘That is the performance that turned Bowie into a star, embedding his Ziggy Stardust persona into the nation’s consciousness’
That was the sort of impact Bowie had. I was ten and was already showing signs of a fashion/style leaning and someone like him, certainly made me think about what I wore, or did with my hair. ‘Just the cut Maureen’ my mum said ‘his dad will kill him, if he goes home with a purple rinse an’ all…’
I then spent the next couple of days in the school playground spitting on my hand and then running my fingers up into my hair to make it stand up.
To my young eyes Bowie looked like he’d landed from Mars as opposed to being born just up the road from us in Brixton. Of course, then I knew nothing of his work pre-Ziggy, though the ‘Major Tom’ song as we knew it had made some impact on the songs we sung in our school playground, along with Sweet and *cough* Gary Glitter.
So, he was one of South East London’s own then. Brixton born as mentioned, David Robert Jones came along a couple of years after the Second World War in January 1947. By 1953 the family were off to the leafier climes of Bromley. By then a young David was already displaying an artistic streak in his early formative years, mainly in his dancing in the ‘movement’ classes at school.
Then music strikes home. He hears Elvis, Fats Domino and his early favourite Little Richard. He begins avidly collecting records and then performs in skiffle bands. At 13, he takes up the saxophone and begins lessons with great British baritone player, Ronnie Ross.
David is off and running.
Early bands he was a member of include The Kon Rads. He then releases a single ‘Liza Jane’ as David Jones and The King Bees. It flops. His time in the The Lower Third, the Mannish Boys, the Buzz, and the Riot Squad also evades success. By now very ‘Mod’ in look, by ’66 he has picked up a manager having signed up with Kenneth Pitt.
Escaping the name confusion he is experiencing with Davy Jones of The Monkees, he becomes David Bowie, inspired by the American pioneer Jim Bowie and his popular knife.
1966 sees the song ‘Rubber Band’ released, though I recommend you check out the far superior B Side, namely the mod lifestyle anthem ‘London Boys.’
Two songs from 1967 see Bowie come up with what can only be described as inventive novelty tunes. ‘The Laughing Gnome’ under his own name – again with a far superior B Side, this time, ‘The Gospel According to Tony Day’ and ‘Over The Wall We Go’ which was first released by the group Oscar, which in effect was the singer /actor Paul Nicholas.
These songs are all leading the way to his debut album, released that year on the Deram label, in the same week as Sgt. Pepper by The Beatles. On show here were all the various elements that went into Bowies world. As the man himself said of the album later ‘It seemed to have its roots all over the place, in rock, vaudeville and music hall. I didn’t know if I was Max Miller or Elvis Presley.’
Other influences cited include the singer and actor Antony Newley – you can certainly ‘hear’ Newley in the vocal work – and also in there, a nod to early Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd.
It was an odd mix of tunes which failed to find an audience then, but listening back to it now, there is no denying there is some very inventive work on display, especially when you consider Bowie was just 20 at the time.
From the sessions on and around that album, songs like ‘She’s Got Medals’ ‘ When I Live My Dream’ ‘Uncle Arthur’ and the frankly creepy ‘Please Mr. Gravedigger’ are all worth checking out.
The album flopped however, only reaching number 125 in the charts. It cost Bowie his Deram contract and another two years would pass before any new Bowie records would see the light of day…
1968 saw the formation of a short-lived trio called Feathers, which included Bowie, his then girlfriend Hermione Farthingale and John ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson on guitar. They all appear on a 30-minute colour promo film called ‘Love You till Tuesday’ which was made in January 1969, though not commercially released until 1984. Bowie looks every inch the nascent star, as he mimes and performs his way through songs such as ‘Ching A Ling’ and an early version of ‘Space Oddity.’ Well worth a look.
In 2013, I along with thousands of others attended ‘David Bowie Is’ at The Victoria and Albert museum in London. I loved every minute of it and spent three hours wandering round and round.
Looking at the various hairstyles on show within all the photographs, I just couldn’t help but think back to Maureen’s in 1972.
The Mumper of SE5.
