{"id":667385,"date":"2026-07-01T05:31:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T05:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/667385\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T05:31:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T05:31:09","slug":"saxophones-song-charts-and-a-rejected-simpsons-script-david-bowie-archive-to-tour-the-uk-david-bowie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/667385\/","title":{"rendered":"Saxophones, song charts and a rejected Simpsons script: David Bowie archive to tour the UK | David Bowie"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kansai Yamamoto\u2019s costumes for Ziggy Stardust, Bowie\u2019s Berlin apartment house keys and his childhood saxophone are just some of the artefacts that visitors around the UK will be able to see when the V&A\u2019s David Bowie<\/a> archive goes on its first national tour this winter.<\/p>\n

More than 100 pieces from the 90,000-item Bowie Centre at the V&A East Storehouse in London \u2013 some of which have never been publicly displayed before \u2013 will make up David Bowie: On Tour, which commences at the V&A Dundee in November.<\/p>\n

V&A contemporary performance curator Harriet Reed said that the archive revealed \u201can artist in constant motion \u2013 a restless, forward-looking mind at work beyond the music and images we know\u201d.<\/p>\n

David Bowie\u2019s first instrument, a Grafton Alto saxophone, dating from around 1961. Photograph: David Parry\/PA<\/p>\n

The exhibition will comprise four parts: Bowie Through a Lens will examine the role of photography \u2013 by artists including Mick Rock, Terry O\u2019Neill, Masayoshi Sukita and Brian Ward \u2013 in shaping Bowie\u2019s identity. All the Somebody People considers Bowie in the studio and onstage, including handwritten notes for albums from The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, Lodger and Blackstar, stage designs from the Let\u2019s Dance era and the koto Bowie played on the Heroes song Moss Garden.<\/p>\n

Hooked to the Silver Screen will illuminate Bowie\u2019s cinematic work, with sketches and treatments from music videos, contact sheets, clapperboards and Polaroids from film roles from Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence to Labyrinth, The Snowman and even The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie \u2013 as well as a script for an episode of The Simpsons that he declined to star in.<\/p>\n

David Bowie\u2019s passport, dating from 1988, is prepared at V&A East Storehouse in London ahead of its inclusion in the V&A\u2019s David Bowie: On Tour project. Photograph: David Parry\/PA<\/p>\n

The final part, I Can\u2019t Give Everything Away, looks at Bowie\u2019s own instinct towards archiving: how he kept his first saxophone and the harmonica mic from his final tour; fan art, a 1988 passport, an early copy of the Velvet Underground\u2019s 1967 single I\u2019m Waiting for the Man, various lists, inventories and Post-it notes for future archivists; song charts and handwritten plans for projects that never came to fruition, including the previously revealed TV film The Catastrophe Cabinet.<\/p>\n

The V&A director, Sir Tristram Hunt, called the tour a \u201clandmark national partnership for the V&A\u201d in a press statement. \u201cWorking with our colleagues in museums and venues nationwide, we\u2019re opening up Bowie\u2019s story in the places connected to his life and legacy, ensuring people across the country can experience these remarkable objects where they live, and be inspired by his enduring creativity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bowie played Dundee, the first stop on the V&A tour, on the Ziggy Stardust tour in 1973. Blackpool\u2019s Showtown is the second stop: in 1966, David Bowie and the Buzz performed on the south pier. The connection to the third stop, the Bowes museum in County Durham, isn\u2019t quite so intimate: he played nearby Sunderland in 1987.<\/p>\n

David Bowie: On Tour then moves to the Ferens art gallery in Hull, the city where his Spiders from Mars backing band hailed from. Initially known as the Hype, they formed when drummer John Cambridge tracked down Mick Ronson working as a parks department gardener for the city council. The Ziggy Stardust tour also stopped in Bristol in 1973 \u2013 after earlier Bowie performances in the city \u2013 the current final stop for the touring exhibition, although more venues are to be announced.<\/p>\n

The V&A first showed Bowie\u2019s archive in 2013. That exhibition toured globally, with 12 stops across Europe, North and South America, Japan and Australia, lasting until 2018. Last September, the V&A opened the permanent Bowie Centre at its new East Storehouse location in east London.<\/p>\n

Music-based exhibitions have proven a winner for the V&A, with previous shows highlighting the careers and innovations of Annie Lennox, Taylor Swift, and Pink Floyd, as well as club culture, Black British music and grassroots music venues.<\/p>\n

The tour dates so far<\/p>\n

V&A Dundee: November 2026 \u2013 February 2027<\/p>\n

Showroom, Blackpool: June \u2013 September 2027<\/p>\n

Bowes Museum, County Durham: October 2027 \u2013 January 2028<\/p>\n

Ferens art gallery, Hull: February \u2013 May 2028<\/p>\n

Bristol museum and art gallery: June \u2013 September 2028<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kansai Yamamoto\u2019s costumes for Ziggy Stardust, Bowie\u2019s Berlin apartment house keys and his childhood saxophone are just some…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":667386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-667385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=667385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/667386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}