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Zowie!  Its Bowie!

Popswop Annual (December 1972)

Little or nothing is known about the amazing Mr David Bowie, though he rates as one of the top names in the music world! We at POPSWOP didn't think this was right, so, we quickly got on the blower to the man himself, and gave him the third degree!

Unlike a lot of his fellows in the pop-biz, David didn't change his surname, purely for effect. His current surname came to him, some years back, when he was trying to get known in the pop world, with a line-up called, David Jones (that being his real name) and the Lower Third. "We were doing all right, I suppose, when another group - The Monkees - became a big hit, and of course, one the members was David Jones, so I thought it was time I had a change of name!"

One of David's great love's is art. "When I first left school I joined an advertising agency, as a commercial artist. I quite enjoyed the actual job, but I really found the whole business too cut-throat, so I quit to get some music together."

David's music is very original, he has a style of his own. We wondered if he'd always played this sort of music, or if he had arrived at his own style through various influences. "Well, I guess I've always played the sort of things I do know, though they used to be simpler. But, there was a time when I led a group called David Bowie and The Buzz, when we played progressive blue, very loudly!"

Did David ever get tired of the music machine, of the never ending run of tours, we asked him? "It's very exhausting and one often gets depressed. In fact, at one time in my career I did leave music altogether! I formed a mime troupe called Feathers. Then joined a troupe called the Lindsay Kemp Mime Company and was with them for eighteen months. At one of my London concerts, I used the troupe to do the theatrical interpretations of my songs!"

Did he get depressed very easily? "Oh God yes, though I try not to let it get me too down. You get so run down when your on the road, too little sleep, irregular meals, that it's really surprising that eventually you get very low."

If touring got him down so much, we asked him, now that he was a big name, why didn't he cut his tours down a bit? "Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike touring, quite the reverse, it's just very wearing, that's all. I really enjoy going on stage and performing. It was really the performances that got me known. My album's got a lot of critical acclaim, but, like, Hunky Dory, didn't sell as well as lot of people thought. So, my fame is really pretty recent!"

How did David go about getting together The Spiders From Mars, his backing group? "Well, I got the original members together when I asked guitarist Mick Ronson to join me, he'd been playing in bands for years, and he also played on Hunky Dory. Mick was at one time in a band called Ronno, and two other former members joined me as well, that's drummer Mick Woodmansey, who really knows his instrument, he's been playing drums since he was five, and bass player Trevor Bolder.

Now that he has the music biz all sewn up, had he any other projects he like to work on? "Well I hope to be in music forever! But I would like to do a few other things as well. I did start an arts lab at one time, I'd like to do that again and acting I'd like to do a lot more of that, but first and foremost for me is my music!" That's fine by us David!

---This page last modified: 13 Dec 2018---