Fifty years ago today, on the stage of London’s Hammersmith Odeon, David Bowie killed Ziggy Stardust. Of course, it was not a conventional murder: Ziggy was Bowie’s creation, a character he’d creat…
, a character he’d created, a vessel for his rise to fame behind his blockbuster 1972 album “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars,” which led to one of the fastest and most meteoric rises to superstardom in pop-culture history and created something of a self-fulfilling paradigm, involving the rise of the titular rock star whose fame went to his head and maybe died, maybe didn’t.
The audience’s shrieks can be heard in the live album and film of the concert. The news made headlines across the world: “Bowie Quits,” the New Musical Express trumpeted. It was as if the Beatles had announced their retirement from the stage of Shea Stadium in 1965.for Bowie, except pretending to be a character he’d grown bored with. The following week he’d board a train for France, where he and most of the Spiders would record a new album.
But that was just the beginning. As the group played a series of concerts across England cementing that popularity in the summer of 1972 and drove both the album and single toward the upper reaches of the U.K. charts, Bowie and Defries plotted the next phase: conquering America. After a pair of rapturously received, highly theatrical concerts at London’s Rainbow Theatre in August, Bowie boarded the QE2 at Southampton on September 12 and set sail for New York.
Adding to the expenses, the ultimately fatal discord within the band began when the core members of the Spiders discovered that virtuoso pianist Mike Garson, who’d joined the tour in September, was making literally ten times as much per week as they were. They received raises, but mistrust had been sown.
Not surprisingly, the group’s appearance attracted stares everywhere they went in early ‘70s America, recalls RCA staff engineer Mike Moran, who flew to Nashville to handle the “Jean Genie” session. “They all said they wanted to go [the popular restaurant] Lum’s for lunch,” he tells“I said ‘I’ll just order in’ — remember, this was the days of redneck Nashville. But they said, ‘No, we want to go out.’ So I said okay, and we get in the car.
“The flash on the original Ziggy set was taken from the high voltage sign that was stuck on any box containing dangerous amounts of electricity,” Bowie wrote in 2002. “I was not a little peeved when Kiss purloined it. Purloining, after all, was my job.” As if all that weren’t dramatic enough, on opening night, at the end of the show-closing “Rock and Roll Suicide,” Bowie collapsed as sounds resembling gunshots were heard. “Nobody knew it was part of the show,” Moran’s wife Linda, who was at the show, recalls. “You heard what sounded like gunfire, and then police ran down the aisles.” Accounts differ as to what actually happened — some say Bowie was exhausted, some say he became alarmed and fainted when a fan rushed the stage.
“After an unbelievably long and strenuous tour of the U.S. and Japan, I came to back to England via Russia, Poland and East Germany,” Bowie wrote in 2002. “I was utterly exhausted and the last thing I wanted to do was keep touring but…” A show in Bournemouth was filmed for a suitably outraged BBC documentary piece that Bowie later described as “one of their traditional ‘good heavens, whatever next?’-type reports. It was all too funny” At some point Bowie found time to tape a video for “Life on Mars?,” clad in a vivid light-blue suit and heavy makeup.
But on that night 50 years ago, despite the retirement, the show went on. A lavish tour-ending party was held at the Café Royale in Piccadilly, with Bowie seated at a table surrounded by Jagger, Reed, Beck, Ronson, drummer Aynsley Dunbar and singer Lulu.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Ven Jensen Will Tattoo Stardust On His Body If He Crowdfunds $50,000Stardust! Because once upon a time, Mark Millar tried to trick the internet by getting an elderly relative to act, posting comic book video reviews for a few weeks before declaring she had decided to get a tattoo of the then-upcoming Mark Millar comic book Starlight on her back. Which she then did. Of course, […]\n
Read more »
David Zaslav’s Hollywood Script: Fail Fast, Learn and Move OnDavid Zaslav has drawn criticism as he tries to turn around Warner Bros. Discovery. The latest example: His attempt to cut costs at Turner Classic Movies caused an uproar, prompting the company to walk back some of the changes.
Read more »
Madonna’s kids reportedly by her side amid hospitalization: Who are Lourdes, Rocco, David and Mercy?Madonna was hospitalized in the intensive care unit for a 'serious bacterial infection' on June 24. The 'Like a Virgin' singer is a mom to six kids, Lourdes, Rocco, David, Mercy, Stella and Estere.
Read more »
Texas Eats: Jumbo Wings, Juicy Burgers and Succulent SeafoodJoin David Elder for a double helping of chicken wings and some delicious coastal seafood.
Read more »
Former ESPN On-Air Talent Jalen Rose, David Pollack, Jordan Cornette & More React To LayoffsESPN has let go of about 20 on-air personalities who have now taken to social media to react to the news following the cuts. David Pollack shared a message with his followers on Twitter after news …
Read more »
Rece Davis has touching message after David Pollack’s ESPN layoff: ‘Class personified’After his ESPN layoff, David Pollack recorded a video for Twitter, and Rece Davis had a message in return for his former “College GameDay” teammate.
Read more »