7 January 2007

FROM ZIGGY TO SIXTY

EXCLUSIVE

Mirror.co.uk By Louise Gannon

 

JUST a few days ago, a distinguished-looking Englishman walked into a family bookshop in Greenwich Village, New York, and politely requested help in choosing a children's novel.

 

Putting a copy of the French children's classic Madeline on the counter, he asked the owner if the story was "absolutely suitable" for his six-year-old daughter, before handing over a credit card bearing the name Mr David R Jones.

 

In rock'n'roll terms, this is not an anecdote that would ever add to the great David Bowie myth.

But for a superstar who took sex, drugs and rock'n'roll to the extreme (and then some), it says everything about the man who turns 60 on Monday - and has finally found happiness as a father and family man.

 

Unlike his contemporary - and alleged former lover - Mick Jagger, Bowie's 60th birthday isn't being marked by a series of parties full of sexy models and expensive gifts.

Instead, Bowie will spend the day at home in his high-rise loft apartment, in downtown Manhattan.

 

His six-year-old daughter Lexi has made him a card, while Iman, his wife of almost 15 years, plans to cook his favourite dish, shepherd's pie.

 

Then the man formerly known as Ziggy Stardust will curl up on the sofa with Lexi to watch their favourite cartoon, SpongeBob Square Pants.

 

Bowie's 35-year-old ad director son, Duncan Jones (formerly Zowie Bowie) is due over in the evening along with Iman's daughter, Zulehka, 28, for a family celebration.

 

"David is going to be 60 but he's not freaking out about it," admits Iman, 51. "I guess that's because he's happy.

We just lead a very simple family life."

 

This was not a future Bowie predicted for himself back when even his image was banned from American record albums for being too wild.

 

Born in Brixton, South London, the young David Jones did anything he could to escape normality. After learning to play the saxophone at his school in Bromley, Kent, he realised that the only way to get noticed was by being a lead singer in a band. "I had a repulsive need to be more than human," he says.

 

Tall, thin and with two different coloured eyes - the result of a playground fight - he was the first of his generation to understand that image was key.

 

Before Madonna even existed, Bowie was the ultimate pop chameleon, morphing from Ziggy Stardust to Aladdin Sane to The Thin White Duke, outraging the public with his exotic make-up, subversive lyrics and talking openly about his sexual affairs with both men and women.

 

"Actually, back then I lied," he says now. "I said I was gay when actually I was bisexual." When he married Cypriot-born artist Angie Barnett, she famously complained he spent too much time in bed with Jagger.

 

Bowie admits that as his fame grew, his behaviour spiralled out of control as his addiction to drink and cocaine took over his gilded life.

 

He moved to Los Angeles in the 70s and spent most of his time being driven around in limos, snorting industrial quantities of cocaine and pushing the envelope of decadence.

 

"The night I met Iggy Pop and Lou Reed we all sat at a table together in Max's Kansas City not speaking. We were all out-cooling each other. It was all about attitude," he recalls.

 

"A lot of it was to do with my trying to function behind what really was an extremely shy personality. Like most people who get deeply involved in drugs, I felt it helped me to break out of my inhibitions but it just throws you into a quagmire of emotional hell."

 

HE adds: "It was an awful period. I couldn't even eat. I weighed just 95lbs and it still amazes me I managed to survive.

 

"The only escape for me was to finish my association with cocaine."

 

Throughout the 70s he released hit after hit album, from Ziggy Stardust to Diamond Dogs to Young Americans to Low and Scary Monsters. Coke addiction gave way to alcoholism following a move to Berlin in 1977. And the 80s saw his most commercially successful time when, on the back of Let's Dance, he became a true stadium superstar, in what he now calls his "Phil Collins" period.

 

But personal happiness had always eluded him, until he met Somali-born supermodel Iman.

 

They were brought together by a mutual friend at a dinner party in LA in October 1990. Eighteen months later, Bowie proposed on boat trip through Paris and they wed in Florence in April 1992.

 

It was Iman's subsequent struggle to conceive that changed the superstar's life.

 

She went through IVF several times before giving birth to Lexi in August 2000. Since then, Bowie has turned his back on his celebrity lifestyle.

 

He bought a 64-acre country retreat in upstate New York - where he goes to write and paint - and sold off his "rock star" homes in Switzerland and Mustique.

 

Two years ago, after a heart operation, he cut down on work again.

 

"David really does lead the simple life," says a friend. "He's at home a lot. He walks Lexi to school and picks her up.

He's totally vice-free - the last thing to go were the fryups and cigarettes, which he gave up four years ago. But having known David for four decades, I can say he's happier now than ever. Lexi is the light of his life and he's as much in love with Iman as he was when they wed.

"They are not part of the New York party scene. Yes, they may go out to eat with friends such as Lou Reed but he's happiest with his family."

 

Recent projects included designing a child's lunch-box and vocal stints on Lexi's favourite show, SpongeBob, as well as a part in the children's film, Arthur And The Invisibles, which also features Madonna and Snoop Dogg.

 

Bowie himself admits he is now "a lot more David Jones", adding: "I'm now probably truer to my real nature than I ever have been. And it's wonderful."

 

I think I'll take this as an excuse to post a lot of his video's up. :dance:

cant believe hes gonna be 60!!! he only looks abut 40!

 

im such a bowie fan, ive got evry album of hes apart budha of saburbia.

 

best bowie song: cracked actor

best album: diamond dogs or young americans

OK I'm going to find 60 Bowie (related) performances:

 

1. Space Oddity (1st TV performance 1969 UK#5 & UK#1 in 1975)

 

2. Changes (1971 - VH1 Performance 2003)

 

3. Queen b**ch (1971 - Old Grey Whistle Test Performance 1972)

 

4. Life On Mars? (1971 UK#3 in 1973)

 

5. Five Years (1972 Old Grey Whistle Test Performance 1972)

 

 

6. Starman (1972 UK#10 TOTP Performance April 1972)

 

7. Ziggy Stardust (1972 Live Ziggy Stardust OST 1973)

 

8. Moonage Daydream (1972 Live Ziggy Stardust OST 1973)

 

9. The Man Who Sold The World (1970 Live Reality Tour 2004)

 

10. Rock'N'Roll Suicide (1972 UK#22 in 1974 - Live Sound & Vision Tour 1990)

 

 

11. John I'm Only Dancing (1972 UK#12)

 

12. The Jean Genie (1973 UK#2 Live The 1980 Floor Show (1973)

 

13. Drive-in Saturday (1973 UK#3 Live Russell Harty Show 1973)

 

14. Time (1973 Live The 1980 Floor Show 1973)

 

15. Sorrow (1973 UK#3 Live The 1980 Floor Show 1973)

16. Rebel Rebel (1974 UK#5)

 

17. Cracked Actor (1973 Live Bowie At The Beeb 2000)

 

18. 1984/DoDo (1974 - Live The 1980 Floor Show 1973)

 

19. Sweet Thing/Candidate (1974 - Cracked Actor BBC Documentary 1974)

 

20. All The Young Dudes (1973 - Live 1996 Performance)

21. Fame (1975 UK#17/US#1 - Live The Cher show 1975)

 

22. Young Americans (1975 UK#18, US#28 - Dick Cavett Show 1974)

 

23. Golden Years (1976 UK#8 US#10 - Live Serious Moonlight Tour 1983)

 

24. TVC15 (1976 UK#33 SNL performance 1978)

 

25. Stay (1976 - Beat Club performance 1978)

personally ive never been a fan of his music, though 'ashes to ashes' and 'john im only dancing' were good... however i cant deny his talent and his contribution to british music. an all time great.

I think his later stuff is really grim. He has some ok songs though.

26. Station To Station (1976- video Christiane F OST 1982)

 

27. Wild Is The Wind (1976 - video shot 1981 UK#24 hit)

 

28. Sound and Vision (1977 UK#3 - live performance 1999)

 

29. Be My Wife (1977)

 

30. Heroes (1977 UK#24 - Live 2004)

31. Sense Of Doubt / Beauty & The Beast (1977 - B&TB UK#39 in 1978 Live Beat Club performance 1978)

 

32. Boys Keep Swinging (1979 UK#7)

 

33. D.J. (1979 UK#29)

 

34. Look Back In Anger (1979)

 

35. Alabama Song (1980 UK#23 - Live 2002 Performance)

36. Ashes To Ashes (1980 UK#1)

 

37. Fashion (1980 UK#5)

 

38. Scary Monsters (1980 UK#20 - Live MTV Performance 1997)

 

39. Under Pressure (with Queen) (1981 UK#1/US#29 - Remix Video version)

 

40. Drowned Girl (1982 Baal EP UK#29)

 

41. Cat People (Putting Out Fire) (1982 UK#26 - Live Serious Moonlight Tour 1983)

 

42. Let's Dance (1983 UK#1/US#1)

 

43. China Girl (1983 UK#2/US#10 - Live at Glastonbury 2000)

 

44. Modern Love (1983 UK#2/US#14)

 

45. Blue Jean (1984 UK#6/US#8 Alternative video)

46. Tonight (duet with Tina Turner) (1984 UK#53/US#53 but huge hit in Europe)

 

47. Loving The Alien (1985 UK#19 - Reality Tour 2003)

 

48. This Is Not America (1985 UK#14/US#32 - Live at the BBC 2000)

 

49. Absolute Beginners (1986 UK#2/US#53)

 

50. Underground (1986 UK#21)

51. Never Let Me Down (1987 UK#34/US#27)

 

52. Pretty Pink Rose (with Adrian Belew) (1990 Promo only)

 

53. Jump They Say (1993 UK#9)

 

54. The Heart's Filthy Lesson (1995 UK#35)

 

55. Hallo Spaceboy (with Pet Shop Boys) (1996 UK#12)

56. Little Wonder (1997 UK#14)

 

57. I'm Afraid Of Americans (with Nine Inch Nails) (1997 US#66)

 

58. Thursday's Child (1999 UK#16)

 

59. Everyone Says Hi (2002 UK#20 - Live Jonathan Ross show)

 

60. Never Get Old (2004 UK#45 - Live Jay Leno show)

 

 

 

 

 

 

and one more for luck......... :D

 

"Pug Nose Face" (2006 from Ricky Gervais' Extras)

Sixty things about David Bowie

By Jody Thompson

Entertainment reporter, BBC News

 

To mark the 60th birthday of David Bowie, here are 60 facts about the iconic singer, actor and artist.

 

 

CHILDHOOD

 

1. David Bowie was born David Robert Jones in Brixton, London, on 8 Jan 1947. He shares the same birthday as Elvis.

 

2. Bowie's family moved to Bromley when he was six years old.

 

3. He went to Bromley Technical High School, now called Ravenswood School.

 

4. Rock guitarist Peter Frampton was Bowie's friend at school - his dad was head of the art department. He's gone on to play guitar with Bowie many times during his career.

 

5. His right pupil is permanently dilated - due to his friend George Underwood punching him in the eye while the pair were still at school. The fight was over a girl.

 

6. Underwood and Bowie remained good friends with Underwood doing artwork for some of Bowie's earlier albums.

 

7. He started playing the saxophone when he was 12 years old.

 

 

PRE-FAME

 

8. His first ever release was Liza Jane / Louie Louie Go Home in June 1964, under the name of Davie Jones with The King-Bees.

 

9. He later changed his name to Bowie to avoid confusion with Monkee Davy Jones.

 

10. Bowie is pronounced to rhyme with Joey.

 

11. At the age of 17, he was interviewed on a BBC programme as the founder of The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Long-haired Men. He complained: "It's not nice when people call you darling and that".

 

12. Around 1967, he wrote songs for actor Paul Nicholas of Just Good Friends fame, who was then recording under the name Oscar.

 

13. He released his debut album, the self-titled David Bowie, in 1967 after playing in a host of pub and club bands.

 

14. 1967 also saw the release of a single, The Laughing Gnome, which many fans argue is the worst song he has ever recorded.

 

15. When Bowie suggested that his fans should vote via phone which tracks he should play for his 1990 world tour, The Laughing Gnome was the most requested. He didn't play it.

 

 

STARMAN

 

16. Bowie's first hit in the UK - 1969's Space Oddity - was used by the BBC in its coverage of the moon landing.

 

17. The fictional character of Major Tom has appeared in three Bowie hits - Space Oddity (1969), Ashes To Ashes (1980) and Hallo Spaceboy (1996).

 

18. Bowie's first US Number One was his single Fame in 1975. It was co-written by John Lennon and features the late former Beatle on backing vocals.

 

19. Model Twiggy features on the cover with him for his 1973 album Pin Ups.

 

20. Around the time of Bowie's 1975 Young Americans album, Chic founder Nile Rodgers auditioned to play guitar in Bowie's band. He didn't get the part.

 

21. But Rodgers later produced the biggest-selling album of Bowie's career, 1983's Let's Dance.

 

22. Bowie is believed to have sold in the region of 140 million albums over his career.

 

23. He was voted Number Four in the recent BBC Culture Show public vote to discover Britain's Greatest Living Icons. Above him were Sir David Attenborough at Number One, Morrissey (2) and Sir Paul McCartney (3).

 

 

THE PERFORMER

 

24. Bowie was hit in the eye by a lollipop while on stage in Oslo, Norway in 2004.

 

25. Toni Basil of Oh Mickey fame worked as Bowie's choreographer on his Diamond Dogs tour in 1974. She later worked on his Glass Spider tour of 1987.

 

26. In 1970, when Bowie briefly formed The Hype, everyone in the band dressed up as super heroes. They were booed off everywhere they played.

 

27. Director Nicolas Roeg cast Bowie in his first leading role, as a stranded alien in The Man Who Fell to Earth, in 1976.

 

28. He is to be the voice of a character in an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants this year.

 

29. In the 1986 Jim Henson movie Labyrinth, Bowie plays Jareth The Goblin King.

 

30. He has most recently appeared in The Prestige, alongside Hugh Jackman and Scarlet Johansson.

 

31. In 1969, Bowie formed his own mime troupe, Feathers, as well as an experimental art ensemble.

 

32. Bowie appeared as Pontius Pilate in Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ.

 

33. Among his oddest film roles are: The Shark in Yellowbeard and a sinister FBI agent called Philip Jeffries in David Lynch's Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.

 

 

PERSONAL LIFE

 

34. David is 5 feet and 10 inches (178cm) tall, according to most sources.

 

35. Bowie declined the CBE in 2000 and a knighthood in 2003.

 

36. Bowie married Somalian supermodel Iman in 1992. They have a daughter Alexandria Zahra Jones, born in 2000.

 

37. Iman has a Bowie knife tattooed on her ankle in tribute to her husband.

 

38. Bowie's schizophrenic half-brother Terry killed himself in 1985.

 

39. Nine years older than David, Terry was the inspiration for songs including Aladdin Sane, All The Madmen, The Bewlay Brothers and Jump They Say.

 

40. In 2004, Bowie underwent emergency heart surgery in Germany to treat a blocked artery.

 

 

THE MUSICIAN

 

Bowie has released 26 studio albums

 

41. Bowie co-produced some of the best tracks on Lou Reed's legendary album Transformer.

 

42. His hit Ziggy Stardust is about Vince Taylor, who wrote Brand New Cadillac - later covered by The Clash.

 

43. David recorded a version of Space Oddity in Italian titled Ragazzo Solo, Ragazza Solo - which literally means Lonely Boy, Lonely Girl.

 

44. The Lodger album's Move On track is a backwards rewrite of his All The Young Dudes.

 

45. He has been in 10 bands - The Konrads, The Hooker Brothers, The King Bees, The Manish Boys, The Lower Third, The Buzz, The Riot Squad, The Hype, Tin Machine and Tao Jones Index. (Some of these have performed under other names).

 

46. Bowie's song The Man Who Sold The World has been covered by Lulu and Nirvana.

 

47. Bing Crosby recorded his last ever single with David Bowie. Their duet version of The Little Drummer Boy was recorded for Christmas 1977. It was a hit five years later.

 

48. Bowie wrote the soundtrack for the 1993 dramatisation of Hanish Kureishi's novel Buddha Of Suburbia.

 

49. Bowie plays sax on To Know Him Is To Love Him from Steeleye Span's Now We Are Six album.

 

50. He plays just about every instrument on Diamond Dogs - including the famous guitar riff on Rebel Rebel.

 

 

MISCELLANEOUS

 

51. He was the final guest on Marc Bolan's ITV music show, Marc, in 1977. Bolan was killed in a car crash in south west London shortly afterwards.

 

52. Steve Strange, recently of BBC's Celebrity Scissorhands, was in the video for Bowie's 1980 Number One hit Ashes To Ashes.

 

53. Bowie's favourite current bands include Arcade Fire and TV On The Radio.

 

54. Mary Hopkin of Those Were The Days fame sings the "doo doo doo" backing vocals on Sound And Vision.

 

55. Almost a decade before The Cocteau Twins popularised the approach, Bowie sang in a completely self-invented language on the 1976 Low album track, Subterraneans.

 

56. His image appears on every single one of his album covers - except the UK release of The Buddha Of Suburbia.

 

57. He is mentioned in Kraftwerk's song Trans Europe Express ("Meet Iggy Pop and David Bowie - TRANS EUROPE EXPRESS!") and Backside by the Strawbs ("The boy stood on the burning deck, his back against the mast. He did not dare to turn around till David Bowie passed").

 

58. In 1997 David Bowie broke new ground, yet again, with the internet-only release of his single Telling Lies. A year later, he launched his own internet service provider, Bowienet.

 

59. Bowie draws, paints, sculpts and writes in his spare time. His favourite artists are Tintoretto, John Bellany, Erich Heckel, Picasso and Michael Ray Charles.

 

60. David got just one O Level, in art.

 

 

my favourite artist of all time :) there's no doubt he influenced loads of artists in the 80's, 90's and 00's.

 

Thanks This is Pop a great selection of videos to watch :D