Fanatical Friday – The One And Only: David Bowie

Yesterday Jim posted about it being 50 years of concert-going for him. A vast swathe of those concerts he’s experienced from the other side of the auditoria as being frontman of one of the world’s best bands (don’t tell him I said that – don’t want him getting a big head now! Lol. Too late!). 

The gig that started it all for him was by one David Robert Jones, aka David Bowie. In light of it being his birthday in a couple of days, as well as it approaching the other anniversary, I thought this week’s Fanatical Friday I would dedicate to David. 

On Facebook this morning I saw a friend share a post from Virgin Radio with a video clip showing songs that are having 40th anniversaries this year. In amongst them was Let’s Dance. It had me thinking about how long it has been since I have been a fervent Bowie fan and it is creeping ever nearer to the 40 year mark. And that makes me feel VERY OLD! Lol. 

I was aware of David Bowie when I was young. Songs of his I would hear on the radio I liked. My first memory of hearing Bowie on the radio and being familiar with David Bowie as a name and a voice I recognised was hearing Sorrow. Of course now I know it to be on the Pin-Ups album and a cover of his and not an original composition but to a 4 year-old me that mattered little. I remember being taken in by those opening lines of, “with your long blonde hair and your eyes of blue, the only thing I ever got from you was sorrow.” I adored that sax solo as well. Saxophones seemed to be used in music a lot back then. Not so much now it seems. Equally I had no idea what a great saxophonist he was then either. I’m not sure whether it’s his solo on the song either, as both he and Ken Fordham are on the personnel credits on sorrow for playing saxophone. 

I digress. 

So, yes, Sorrow on the radio is my first memory of hearing him and being familiar with who he was. 

Through the years of the 70s and into the early 80s that familiarity grew and I knew other songs like Ziggy Stardust, Starman, Rebel Rebel, Fame, Young Americans, Golden Years, Heroes, D.J., Ashes To Ashes and Fashion. I must have been familiar with Space Oddity then too, I’m sure. 

Then it was 1983 and his popularity through the release of Let’s Dance seemed to go stratospheric. He was EVERYWHERE in 1983. You couldn’t escape him even if you wanted to! And also because he had been staying in Oz, and Duncan was in school somewhere near Perth (I believe) at the time, there was a strong tie with Oz at that point. He also, obviously, filmed the videos for Let’s Dance and China Girl in Oz as well. So his name back home was bigger than it had ever been. Still then I didn’t really dive in too deeply. I was getting exposed to him well enough by that point without even trying – but I wasn’t that familiar with his back catalogue or anything. Much like how it was with Simple Minds, I knew a selection of his hits and that was as far as my exploration ever went. Until 1985.

My eldest brother, Roy, was having a house built and in the meantime he was living at his mother-in-law’s house with his wife. It was a small house with not much space for storing things. Roy had a decent sized record collection. He’d been keeping these records in his car, but as the summer months were coming, he was at pains to avoid having them in his car for much longer. As it was some of his records had already become warped for being stored in the car boot. He asked mum if he could store the records at her house until he was able to take them to his new house once it was built and he moved in. Mum said it was fine and lo, I was given most of Bowie’s back catalogue to explore in an instant. 

I started slowly at first. I played ChangesOne a few times initially. Then I think I started to look at what songs I liked most from there and the albums they appeared on. My favourites today stem from those formed from there. I’m trying to remember all the albums Roy had in his collection. Definitely Ziggy was in there and Aladdin Sane. Diamond Dogs was there too and Roy’s list of Bowie albums would NOT have been complete without Station To Station being there (that’s Roy’s favourite Bowie album). Stage was in it as was David Live – I wasn’t much of a live music connoisseur then but I liked Stage a lot. Of course there was “Heroes” and Low as well. I think also Lodger and Scary Monsters were in it too. 

Of all of these albums the “epiphany” (apt I should use that word today! Lol) happened while playing Low. Firstly, it was the most weather damaged of them. It was so warped I could only play certain parts of it. To this day I will never forget the emotion I felt the first time I heard A New Career In A New Town. I don’t think a piece of music had ever brought me to tears like that. I sat there shocked by the beauty of what I had just heard and just bawled my eyes out. It was then my diehard Bowie fandom was cemented. 

The years that followed and after Roy took his records back to his new house, I slowly built up my own collection of Bowie albums. Things that either Roy didn’t have or I had not explored as much became the initial focus. So I started delving into early stuff – all the Deram stuff – all the mid 60s Anthony Newley-esque stuff and onto the “Man Of Words, Man Of Music” (aka Space Oddity) album and then into The Man Who Sold The World and Hunky Dory. 

It was all CDs by then, so I started to build my collection on CD. When it came to the 1990s, I started to build up a collection of the Rycodisc CDs as they had several bonus and previously unreleased tracks on them. Ssoo different to the Bowie selling juggernaut there is today where there are multiple releases through the year giving you exposure to every version of a song imaginable. 

Of those Rykodisc versions, my prized ones were of Diamond Dogs with the alternate versions of Candidate (“a cock ain’t a cock on a twelve inch screen” – imagine my joy on hearing THAT line for the first time! Lol) and Dodo on it, Sweet Head and Velvet Goldmine on the Ziggy Stardust album, and Who Can I Be Now? and It’s Gonna Be Me on Young Americans. 

My biggest purchase was to get the Sound + Vision box set on vinyl. That cost me a pretty packet! 

Although I was well into diehard fandom by 1987 when he released Never Let Me Down (ironic album title, anyone?) – I don’t really remember being in a rush to buy it. I was too absorbed in exploring the back catalogue at that point. I do remember desperately wanting to go to the Glass Spider gig at the Sydney Entertainment Centre and trying to persuade Roy to go with me but he wasn’t interested and I was not the most ballsy 17 year old in the world and was reluctant to go alone so I didn’t end up going.

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My first experience of excitement over new material came in 1993 with the release of Black Tie, White Noise. I went into Liverpool (the major town in Sydney – officially a city itself in the outer south-western suburbs of Sydney – nearest where I lived) on the day of its release to get my limited edition digipak copy. Did I love it? At the time, yes! I played it A LOT! Do I still play it now? Now and again, yes. It hasn’t aged that well, I guess. There are still things I love about it. There are great things about it. And I love the covers – the homage to Scott Walker with covering Nite Flights and doing Morrissey’s I Know It’s Gonna Happen Someday waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better than Steven could ever do it himself.

I purchased The Buddha of Suburbia as an import from Glenn A. Baker’s Timewarp just down the corner from the QVB in Sydney. A princely sum of $50 it cost me! That’s a lot for one CD in 1993!

In 1995, David Bowie began a real “renaissance” period for me with the release of 1. Outside. I have a lovely but fleeting memory of coming home from work with my brother, David, and The Hearts Filthy Lesson being played on the radio. It was the first new Bowie song I’d heard on the radio for YEARS! I couldn’t believe a station was actually playing new material! To be honest, I had given up listening to the radio years before 1995, so this idea that Bowie had been snubbed by radio is largely an assumption as I just never listened to radio once I got to my mid teens because I didn’t want what I was listening to dictated to and sullied by the influence of commercial radio and its mediocre output.

It’s the dawning of the Internet age and Bowie’s right on the cutting edge of it too, establishing Bowie.Net and engaging with fans. I didn’t get a computer until 1997 and I was intimidated by its power but excited to explore. I was an absolute novice and didn’t dive in too deeply. I didn’t have the funds to be online and join the Bowie.Net subscription at the same time so I didn’t really have any of that enjoyment of any potential online engagement with David. I’d have fucking shat myself had he had ever responded to ANYTHING I’d have ever had the nerve to say. Like I said, all too intimidating as well as financially costly for me. The same year brought about something else though, and it was all down to that technology at my fingertips and the Internet age. 

Fast forward two years and I had moved to the UK. Bowie had released the album ‘Hours…’ and the love I had for both Outside and Earthling I could not show for Hours. I just didn’t feel it. There was a bit of a dip for me during this period. In 2000 he performed at Glastonbury. Myself and my Other Half were sssooooo excited about the coverage that was going to be on the BBC of his performance but as much as we wanted to love it, we came away deflated. Bowie had recently given up smoking due to the birth of his daughter, Lexi, and it showed in his voice and his physique. I mean, David was always a very lean man, and compared to others he was still a slim figure but for him personally at Glastonbury he was, dare I say it…? I can’t call him FAT. I mean geez! I’m fucking fat! I’m a fat fucker! But at that Glastonbury gig he was the heaviest I had ever seen him be and his voice was suffering. I don’t know whether he just had a cold or what the hay. 

No matter. In 2002 he produced one of the finest albums of his career and released Heathen. This, along with Low, are my top Bowie albums of all time. If I was to roughly list my most played albums in a jumbled list, it would look something like this…

Most frequently played albums: Outside, Earthling, Aladdin Sane, Diamond Dogs, Heathen, The Buddha of Suburbia, Scary Monsters. 

Frequently played albums: Low, Heroes, Ziggy, Hunky Dory, The Man Who Sold The World, Pin-Ups, Station To Station, Lodger, Young Americans.

Rarely played albums: David Bowie (aka Space Oddity – Man of Words, Man of Music), David Bowie (Deram album), Let’s Dance, Black Tie – White  Noise, Tonight, Reality, Blackstar, The Next Day.

Never played: Hours, Never Let Me Down.

This list is very up-to-date and based upon my listening habits over the past three years. The ‘rarely played’ list looks how it does due to the infrequency I have played these albums over the past three years and is not reflective of how I rate them in importance or for the quality of their musical content. The same can’t be said for the ‘never played’ list. I never listen to Hours because I just don’t like it. I don’t listen to Never Let Me Down as a whole album. I would listen to the first four tracks and then stop, but I haven’t even done that for some time now. 

In 2001, Bowie headlined the Move festival which was at Old Trafford Cricket Ground in Manchester. Others on the bill included The Divine Comedy (Neil Hannon can sing the phonebook to me, Jesus! There’s a mellifluous baritone voice for you right there!) and Suede. Suede were the act before Bowie and the heavens opened when they arrived on stage. It poured and we got drenched. I was freezing! Last year’s Nocturne gig seeing SM at Blenheim Palace is the only other time I’ve been wetter at a gig. When David arrived on stage, the clouds parted and the setting sun came out. Too low in the sky to have any warmth to it left but still bright enough to bathe Bowie in this golden light. It was magical and he was wonderful. It’s the only time I saw David Bowie live.

From there, Heathen came out, I fell in love with that. Reality came out in 2004 and although I liked it, I wasn’t as keen. The OH and I were going to see him play Wembley Arena for the Reality Tour, and had bought tickets but when it got closer to the date we decided that we couldn’t really afford to go and sold the tickets on. Hindsight, eh?! Had we known it was the last chance we’d have had to see him live, we’d have definitely changed our minds for just a few months later he quit touring and performing live altogether. 

Things went quiet as he concentrated on his health and his family. The Next Day in 2013 caught the world (and Bowie fans) by surprise, as did 2016’s Blackstar and how ill he was. His loss was HUGE. I had never cried over the loss of someone like that. But I did for David. 

There were many who couldn’t and still can’t bring themselves to listen to Blackstar, but I felt compelled to do so. Almost duty bound. He had finished this album while ill as a parting gift. I felt he would want me to listen to it. It is why he made it! He wanted it to be listened to and heard, so it was my obligation to do so. I have always found it an enriching experience to do so. It doesn’t make me feel mournful to listen to it. I celebrate his life by listening to it. I admit that I haven’t listened to it much in the past few years but on the whole I haven’t listened to much of any of his music in recent years. 

That will change this year. I really am beginning to miss him – in terms of the infrequency in which I have listened to him in the past several years. Some other band and exploring their back catalogue took much of my attention away from David in these past 8 years. I need to rebalance this. 

In my depths of fandom I recorded music videos off Rage and watched them over and over, I purchased movies he starred in or had cameos in on video. I bought and borrowed books about him and his music. I’d buy magazines that would feature articles on him. I’d study his lyrics and would pride myself in being able to sing along to songs like Cygnet Committee word for word without fault. I’d sing along with him all the time playing his albums. I wanted to know everything I could about him in terms of musical output.

When I moved to the UK, the first thing I wanted to do was go and see all the significant places of his life – Brixton, Plaistow Grove in Bromley, Kent where the Jones family moved to when he was young. Haddon Hall. To Denmark Street and stand under the K. West sign. I’ve not done any of these things! I did go to the unveiling of the Bowie statue in Aylesbury near the Friars in 2018 (see pic).

I did finally get to go to Bromley in 2015 – not for any Bowie specific thing (we didn’t even try and hunt down Plaistow Grove!) but to pick up the first big haul of Simple Minds music and memorabilia I got for myself. 

And there’s the thing too. I’ve gone to Toryglen. Walked around the streets (not the exact same streets as that part of Toryglen has been redesigned in the past several years) where Jim and Charlie grew up and yet all that stuff with David still eludes me. I didn’t even get to the David Bowie Is… exhibition. Tickets for London sold out before I could even get any. And I thought about flying down to Melbourne to see it when I was in Sydney in 2015 and decided against it because I didn’t want to see it without my OH.

David Bowie was, without doubt, the BIGGEST musical love of my life until 2014 and the Simple Minds epiphany happened. And it all started with some old warped records.