David Bowie on David Bowie
DAVID BOWIE: In his own words
On early influences:
"The first person I ever really listened to was Acker Bilk. There was a boom in trad jazz and Acker Bilk led it. I was playing tenor sax at that tim. I played in a modern jazz group, and also played in rock bands - intermixtures of anything that required a saxophone except dance music. I played extreme music - it was either rock or jazz."
On his first job as an advertising artist
"It was diabolical. I never realised that to be an artist meant buckling under so much."
On mime and ballet
"I met Lindsay Kemp, who was a mime in London. He was holding a one-man show and he played one of the records I'd made during the break as mood music. He said would I write some more music for his things, and I said, 'If you teach me mime.' He took me on as a pupil, and I started taking ballet and mime, and eventually I got into the company."
On his breakthrough
"With the popularity of Space Oddity I started getting the wrong kind of gigs. I was getting ballrooms and things - everything that goes with chart success. The intimacy was lost completely."
On how the USA changed him
"From England America merely symbolizes something, it doesn't actually exist. When you get off the plane and there actually is a country called America, it becomes very important. I haven't enjoyed myself so much for years."
OUR ROCK JOCKS ON BOWIE
Laura Marks: Any musician who can write the lyrics "Like some cat from Japan he could lick 'em by smiling", and who can carry off a bright orange mullet at the same time, is a genius. That's Bowie all over.
Tom Russell: I saw him on the Ziggy tour at the Glasgow Apollo. It's a gig that's fresh in my memory after all these years - it was simply stunning. I was reminded of it when the Loud and Proud Orchestra featured it as a highlight in their show I Was There: the Story of the Glasgow Apollo.
Paul Anthony: I've never been into Bowie in any way. Sorry!
Billy Rankin: As told to me by Spiders from Mars drummer Woody Woodmansey (best read in a thick Hull accent)... "So there I was on me weddin' day, right? 'Mick (Ronson) was me best man, Trevor (Bolder) pulled me sister and Mike (Garson) played t'weddin' march on t'church organ. No sign of Dave. Then at the reception, someone 'ands me t'bloody phone, and it's 'im! 'Allo Dave, says I, Aren't ye comin? No mate, says Dave. Can't make it, sorry Woods. By the way, yer f'ckin fired! Tell ya what, Billy, it didn't 'alf put a damper on me weddin' night!
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