{"id":328064,"date":"2025-12-03T13:37:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T13:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/328064\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T13:37:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T13:37:14","slug":"david-bowie-ziggy-stardust-by-those-who-were-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/328064\/","title":{"rendered":"David Bowie: Ziggy Stardust, by those who were there"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over half a century on from his creation, Ziggy Stardust arguably remains the most beloved character from David Bowie<\/a>\u2019s illustrious six-decade career. Combining glamour and a then-outrageous sexuality, this bisexual alien rock star fell to earth as the 60s dream had turned sour in the wake of Altamont<\/a>, and the economic boom of the previous decade had finally burst.<\/p>\n

The music scene was becoming as grim as the outside world. In the UK Clive Dunn\u2019s mawkish Grandad was No.1 at the start of \u201971, and at the close it was Benny Hill\u2019s Ernie (The Fastest Milkman In The West). By \u201972 the likes of Donny Osmond and David Cassidy were hitting the singles top spot, while compilations dominated the album chart.<\/p>\n

Yet out of this morass of tedium came a glimmer of hope. First, the Marc Bolan-fronted T.Rex<\/a> brought the glitter to the pop kids, and Slade<\/a> stomped their stack heels hard. Then, as if from nowhere, former one-hit wonder David Bowie introduced Ziggy Stardust and swept aside all competition, and left a legacy that is still felt to this day.<\/p>\n

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\n

\"Lightning\n<\/p>\n

Having failed to crack America in January 1971, Bowie returned to the UK. Encouraged by his wife Angie and manager Tony Defries, Bowie developed the idea of the \u2018ultimate pop idol\u2019 by combining his underground heroes Lou Reed<\/a> and Iggy Pop<\/a> with cult British rock\u2019n\u2019roller Vince Taylor.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

David Bowie: I wanted to define the archetype messiah rock star, that\u2019s all I wanted to do. And I used the trappings of kabuki theatre, mime technique, fringe New York music \u2013 my reference was the Velvet Underground<\/a>. It was a British view of American street energy.<\/p>\n

Woody Woodmansey (drummer): Angie was a very flash-talking, buzzing American girl. She got him on what he wanted to do before anybody else. So when David had a few doubts in the beginning or when he said: \u201cI\u2019m thinking of doing this\u201d, she said: \u201cDo it, David!\u201d If she hadn\u2019t been there it might not have gone the way it did. She was very influential.<\/p>\n

Suzi Ronson (hairstylist, later Mick Ronson\u2019s wife): Angela really was a driving force behind David. She was very influential with the costumes. She made him brave. She would have her hair cut first if she thought that he wouldn\u2019t like it.<\/p>\n

Sign up below to get the latest from Classic Rock, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

Dana Gillespie (singer and confidante to Bowie): She was always encouraging him and always on his side. She would always be dressing.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Adoring\n<\/p>\n

Fans reach out to touch Bowie during the show at Hammersmith Odeon where he announced he was retiring his Ziggy Stardust alter-ego (Image credit: Steve Wood\/Express\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

In a January 1972 interview with Melody Maker\u2019s Michael Watts, Bowie unveiled his new Ziggy image and made an outrageous claim that reverberated across the nation: \u201cI\u2019m gay and always have been, even when I was David Jones.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mick Ronson (guitarist): When David came out, I felt a bit funny about it. My family took a bit of flak for it; I gave my mother and father a car, and somebody threw paint over it.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

Trevor Bolder (bassist): There were plenty of girls. I think he was spinning them along, but it sold papers and therefore records, so we didn\u2019t give a toss.<\/p>\n

While Marc Bolan spearheaded the glam charge with T.Rex by smearing glitter under his eyes, swapping his hippie gear for satin clothing and altering his music for a teen audience, and Slade\u2019s Dave Hill became ever more sartorially outr\u00e9, Bowie set about creating something unique.<\/p>\n

David Bowie: Ziggy Stardust was this surreal cartoon character brought to life. He was half out of sci-fi rock and half out of Japanese theatre. The clothes were, at that time, simply outrageous. Nobody had seen anything like them before.<\/p>\n

Mick Ronson: Just after Hunky Dory<\/a> and before Ziggy, there was a lull in the scene; it needed jarring and excitement. Bowie\u2019s dressing us up and the make-up was needed. It wasn\u2019t what I usually did, but it was exciting. On stage I became someone else.<\/p>\n

Trevor Bolder: We were his droogs. David edged us into [wearing the] clothes. Originally he wanted us to wear bowler hats and boiler suits like in the movie A Clockwork Orange, but we refused to do that so he commissioned our stage clothes.<\/p>\n

Woody Woodmansey: We were in Liberty in the material department, and David and Angie were passing rolls of material down. I thought: \u201cOh, nice, we\u2019re getting new curtains, but they\u2019re a bit bright.\u201d Then a few days later he got a friend of his in who\u2019s a really incredible fashion designer, and we started having the clothes made from the material. The hair came about a month later.<\/p>\n

David Bowie: Writing a song for me never rang true. I found it quite easy to write for the artists I would create. I did find it much easier, having created a Ziggy, to then write for him, even though it was me doing it.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Rock\n<\/p>\n

Bowie dressed as Ziggy Stardust in a hotel room in 1973 in New York City, New York (Image credit: Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Bowie\u2019s fourth album, Hunky Dory, was barely finished when he and the band swiftly reconvened at Trident Studios in London to begin work on the next one, which was eventually released in June 1972.<\/p>\n

Ken Scott (producer): One of David\u2019s talents was picking a team to give him exactly what he wanted at any given time. And that team knew what it was supposed to be. We didn\u2019t have to tell each other all the time, we just instinctively knew this is what\u2019s going to happen here, this is what\u2019s going to happen there.<\/p>\n

David Bowie: Mick Ronson<\/a> was very much a salt-of-the-earth type, the blunt northerner with a defiantly masculine personality, so what you got was the old-fashioned yin and yang thing. As a rock duo, I thought we were as good as Mick and Keith.<\/p>\n

Ken Scott: Ziggy Stardust didn\u2019t start as a concept album. It Ain\u2019t Easy was left over from the recording of Hunky Dory.<\/p>\n

Angie Bowie (wife and mover and shaker): David is a fantastic musician, because his approach is not studied, it\u2019s by ear. He has an ability to pluck a song from those first moments he plays with an instrument.<\/p>\n

Ken Scott: His greatest talent was performing in a studio. Ninety-five per cent of the songs he recorded were done first take, beginning to end.<\/p>\n

Woody Woodmansey: Mick didn\u2019t really know how good he was. He would do a solo first take, never played it before, and it would blow us away.<\/p>\n

Ken Scott: The mainstay of the whole story \u2013 the \u2018man coming from up there somewhere\u2019 \u2013 is Starman. That was the last thing recorded for Ziggy Stardust and\u2026 it was never meant to be on the album. The album was sent into RCA, and they said: \u201cThe album\u2019s great, but we don\u2019t hear a single. Can you go and record a single?\u201d Of course David could! He goes away and comes back with Starman, and then suddenly the whole album is a concept album.<\/p>\n

\n

\"David\n<\/p>\n

David Bowie performing as Ziggy with Trevor Bolder (rear) and Mick Ronson, on the Granada TV series Lift Off (Image credit: Shutterstock)<\/p>\n

With the album in the bag, Bowie took to the road in his new guise as Ziggy Stardust. Beginning in tiny clubs, the band\u2019s popularity began to rise throughout 1972, which culminated in two sell-out shows at the Rainbow Theatre in London.<\/p>\n

Kris Needs (journalist and author): David told me: \u201cNext time I come back [to Aylesbury Friars] I\u2019m going to be something different. I\u2019m going to be a big rock star.\u201d And sure enough, the following January, in 1972, he returned as Ziggy Stardust. It was the first time in the world he\u2019d played as Ziggy Stardust, and he came out to the Beethoven music from A Clockwork Orange in his silver jumpsuit, with the Spiders, and nothing was going to be the same again.<\/p>\n

David Bowie: During the very early days of Ziggy Stardust, we often used to play these fairly grotty clubs. Backstage one night I was desperate to use the bathroom. I was dressed in my full battle finery of Tokyo-spaceboy and a pair of shoes high enough that it induced nosebleeds.<\/p>\n

I went up to the promoter \u2013 actually I tottered over to the promoter \u2013 and I asked: \u201cCould you please tell me where the lavatory is?\u201d And he said: \u201cYeah. Look down that corridor. On the far end of that wall, you see that sink? There you go.\u201d I said: \u201cMy good man, I\u2019m not taking a piss in the sink.\u201d He said: \u201cListen, son, if it\u2019s good enough for Shirley Bassey it\u2019s good enough for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nick Kent (journalist): I went to the first official Spiders From Mars gig in London, at Imperial College. After four bars of Hang On To Yourself, the PA just stopped. Bowie was standing there, and for a split second, you could see the panic in his eyes, thinking: \u201cWhat the fuck am I going to do?\u201d<\/p>\n

What he did was put his hands on his hips in this really camp way, and proceeded to give a rundown of what he was wearing. He just did this camp routine. Then after about a minute the sound came back on. In that minute, Ziggy Stardust\u2019s destiny was manifest.<\/p>\n

Mick Rock (photographer): The fellatio picture is one of the most striking images from the Ziggy period. If you look at the picture, he\u2019s chomping on Mick\u2019s guitar. He was hugging Mick\u2019s buttocks in a cute way, but he only did that because of the way Mick was swinging his guitar around.<\/p>\n

Kris Needs: Bowie returned to Friars for a third performance on July 15.<\/p>\n

Trevor Bolder: Friars in Aylesbury on July 15 was the big one. That was sold out. Everybody wanted to see the band. So that was when we realised it was taking off.<\/p>\n

Lindsay Kemp (dancer and mentor): That Rainbow show was a big shock. When I saw how he captured an audience of thousands and knew exactly what to do. It was absolutely electric. I was numb from beginning to end.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Mick\n<\/p>\n

Ronson and Bowie on stage on the Ziggy Stardust tour, Earls Court Arena, London, 12th May 1973 (Image credit: Gijsbert Hanekroot\/Redferns)<\/p>\n

singles-orientedThe Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, to give it its full title, was released in June 1972. A loose concept album, it\u2019s held together by the idea of an alien, bisexual rock star who visits the Earth during the planet\u2019s last five years before he\u2019s killed by his fans. <\/p>\n

Straddling the serious rock album market and the singles-orientated pop chart, it rocks hard on Ziggy Stardust, Suffragette City and Hang On To Yourself, and revels in the pop sensibility of Starman and Soul Love. <\/p>\n

Crucial to Bowie\u2019s meteoric rise was his appearance on the July, 1972 episode of Top Of The Pops performing Starman. For many fans, this was the moment they irrevocably fell under Bowie\u2019s spell.<\/p>\n

Nick Rhodes (Duran Duran): I think people have forgotten the significance Top Of The Pops had throughout the seventies. It really focused the entire nation on music, on what was going on.<\/p>\n

Trevor Bolder: We went to the pub together; nobody knew who we were. Top Of The Pops changed all that.<\/p>\n

Joe Elliot (Def Leppard): Starman on Top Of The Pops, that blew me \u2013 and everybody \u2013 away.<\/p>\n

Trevor Bolder: We did Starman live, straight through, and then went to the BBC bar. People kept coming up to us and asking if we were in Doctor Who.<\/p>\n

Robert Smith (The Cure): I immediately put on some of my sister\u2019s make-up. I loved how odd it made me look, and the fact that it upset people.<\/p>\n

Mary Conelan: (writing to the David Bowie fan club) David Bowie on Top Of The Pops \u2013 it took hours for the grin on my face to wear off! Auntie Beeb has gone Bowie-mad! The establishment has now recognised you as a STAR, David. Long may it last!<\/p>\n

Trevor Bolder: It all happened after that night. We went out on the road and did a British tour, and where we\u2019d [previously been] playing to maybe fifty to sixty people a night in small venues, we were selling them out.<\/p>\n

David Bowie – Starman (Top Of The Pops, 1972) – YouTube
\n\"David<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

As Bowie\u2019s star rose, Tony Defries\u2019s MainMan management company, with whom he was signed, took on new clients including Lou Reed, Mott The Hoople<\/a> and Iggy & The Stooges. Reed\u2019s album Transformer and Mott\u2019s All The Young Dudes were produced by Bowie, and he mixed Iggy & The Stooges\u2019 Raw Power.<\/p>\n

Kris Needs: Bowie plugged into Mott the same way that he\u2019d plugged into Iggy and Lou Reed. He was inspired, but also vaguely frightened, by these highly influential people, so he ended up working with them. They were giving him something. Lou Reed gave him a New York attitude with his lyrics, Iggy gave him the wildest rock star-type mentality, and Mott gave him a sense of danger.<\/p>\n

Iggy Pop (Iggy And The Stooges): We did a session in a little room called Western Recorders in Hollywood. It was David Bowie, [Stooges guitarist] James Williamson and myself to mix it. And I think it was done in two days, or a day and a half. The mix on that sounds, to me, a lot like the records David was making at the time. He took off the bottom, and at the top and there was a lot of clarity. And you really, really heard the vocal and the lead guitar.<\/p>\n

Ian Hunter (Mott The Hoople): He played All The Young Dudes on an acoustic guitar. I knew straight away it was a hit. We grabbed hold of it.<\/p>\n

James Williamson (Iggy And The Stooges): I could never stand Bowie personally. I was one of the people saying I didn\u2019t like the mix [of Raw Power], but in retrospect it was actually a good job.<\/p>\n

Lou Reed: Transformer is easily my best-produced album. Together as a team, [Bowie and Ronson] are terrific.<\/p>\n

Angie Bowie: David was very smart. He\u2019d been evaluating the market for his work, calculating his moves, and monitoring his competition. And the only really serious competition in his market niche, he\u2019d concluded, consisted of Lou Reed and, maybe, Iggy Pop. So what did David do? He co-opted them.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Musician\n<\/p>\n

David Bowie and the Spiders From Mars band in 1973 (Image credit: Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

As the Ziggy Stardust tour and promotion continued to roll on, the character of Ziggy began to consume Bowie.<\/p>\n

David Bowie: It became apparent to me that I had an incredible shyness. It was much easier for me to keep on with the Ziggy thing, off the stage as well as on.<\/p>\n

Ian Hunter: He came in with an entourage and he\u2019d gone a bit weird. His clothes were more flamboyant and he was starting to live his image to the hilt.<\/p>\n

David Bowie: I wasn\u2019t getting rid of Ziggy at all. In fact I was joining forces with him. This doppelganger of myself was becoming one and the same person. And then you start on this trail of chaotic and psychological destruction. You become what\u2019s called a \u2018drug casualty\u2019 at the end of it all.<\/p>\n

Trevor Bolder: We lived and breathed the Spiders. As the tour went on, we actually became the characters, to go along with the Ziggy thing. So we tried to live up to people\u2019s expectations of us when we came off stage.<\/p>\n

David Bowie: I was having a ball at first, and then around the end of the Ziggy period I found drugs in a major way. If that hadn\u2019t happened, I wonder how different life would\u2019ve been\u2026 But I can\u2019t dwell on that. In all seriousness, that\u2019s why it all went wrong, then, when I was virtually on top of the world. I can\u2019t say it wasn\u2019t fun; the whole of that time was terrific.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Musician\n<\/p>\n

Bowie onstage during the Ziggy Stardust tour in 1973 in Los Angeles, California (Image credit: Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

With the British dates ending in triumph, manager Tony Defries booked a 28-date US tour. Employing the risky and expensive strategy of positioning David Bowie as a superstar, the tour fared well on the USA\u2019s east and west coasts, but less so across the Midwest. And while the addition of pianist Mike Garson widened the scope of the music, it unwittingly planted the seeds of the demise of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars the band.<\/p>\n

Leee Black Childers (MainMan US rep): He had two bodyguards and he dressed them up in karate costumes and they flanked him wherever he went. Everyone assumed then that he was just as big as Mick Jagger<\/a> or Elton John<\/a>. And of course he wasn\u2019t. We were having to create this myth.<\/p>\n

Woody Woodmansey: I was sat on an airplane with [Mike Garson], and I was reading a magazine and there was a Lamborghini in it. I went: \u201cOh, that\u2019s nice.\u201d And he went: \u201cWhy don\u2019t you buy one?\u201d I went: \u201cYeah, I wish.\u201d He said: \u201cYou must be able to afford one.\u201d And I went: \u201cActually, no.\u201d I went: \u201cWhat do you think I get?\u201d And he went: \u201cWell I know what I get.\u201d And he told me, and it was, like, three times what I got.<\/p>\n

Trevor Bolder: We went to Bowie and said: \u201cUnless things change and you give us the money, we\u2019re going home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Angie Bowie: David was furious, just furious. \u201cThey can\u2019t hold me up like that,\u201d he told me. \u201cI don\u2019t care who they are, I simply won\u2019t have that kind of disloyalty.\u201d From then on, his passive-aggressive machinery engaged gears and the lads\u2019 days were numbered.<\/p>\n

David Bowie – Rock \u2018N\u2019 Roll Suicide (Live at Hammersmith Odeon, London 1973) [4K Upgrade] – YouTube
\n\"David<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

A combination of MainMan\u2019s parlous financial affairs, the rhythm section\u2019s perceived mutiny and Bowie\u2019s increasing boredom with the music he\u2019d created saw him finally \u2018retire\u2019 Ziggy Stardust at their performance at London\u2019s Hammersmith Odeon on July 3, 1973. <\/p>\n

From the stage, he announced: \u201cOf all the shows on this tour, this particular show will remain with us the longest. Because not only is this the last show on the tour, but it\u2019s the last show that we\u2019ll ever do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scott Richardson (confidante to David Bowie and Mick Ronson): To break up a band like that is astonishing. I have to credit Bowie with having a lot of courage to say: \u201cI\u2019m not coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trevor Bolder: He\u2019s fuckin\u2019 sacked us! As all the children boogie, a trail of those who David Bowie influenced and whose lives he touched are like signposts on popular music\u2019s highway.<\/p>\n

Siouxsie Sioux (Siouxsie And The Banshees): Bowie was the catalyst who\u2019d brought a lot of us \u2013 the so-called Bromley Contingent \u2013 together. And out of that really small group of people, a lot happened.<\/p>\n

Robert Smith: I look back at some the things we\u2019ve done and I can see echoes of some of Bowie\u2019s stuff in it. I got my dream come true when he invited me to sing with him at his birthday in New York.<\/p>\n

David Bowie: I\u2019m very happy with Ziggy. He was a very successful character and I think that I played him well. .<\/p>\n

Additional Sources: Starman \u2013 David Bowie: The Definitive Biography by Paul Trynka; David Bowie: A Life by Dylan Jones; Melody Maker; Iggy Pop: Open Up And Bleed by Paul Trynka; Raw Power: An interview With Iggy Pop, Trey Zenker, Tidal; Mojo<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over half a century on from his creation, Ziggy Stardust arguably remains the most beloved character from David…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,216],"class_list":{"0":"post-328064","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}