On this day, 17 years ago, DAVID BOWIE released the iSelect free compilation CD from THE MAIL ON SUNDAY newspaper.

In the liner notes, David Bowie comments on each of the twelve tracks he selected for the album. It makes fascinating reading...

David Bowie: 'For this CD compilation I've selected 12 of my songs that I don't seem to tire of. Few of them are well known, but many of them are still sung at my concerts. Usually by me. I'll start off with the hit.'

Life On Mars?

This song was so easy. Being young was easy. A really beautiful day in the park, sitting on the steps of the bandstand. 'Sailors bap-bap-bap-bap-baaa-bap.' An anomic (not a 'gnomic') heroine. Middle-class ecstasy.

I took a walk to Beckenham High Street to catch a bus to Lewisham to buy shoes and shirts but couldn't get the riff out of my head. Jumped off two stops into the ride and more or less loped back to the house up on Southend Road.

Workspace was a big empty room with a chaise longue; a bargain-price art nouveau screen ('William Morris,' so I told anyone who asked); a huge overflowing freestanding ashtray and a grand piano. Little else.

I started working it out on the piano and had the whole lyric and melody finished by late afternoon. Nice.

Rick Wakeman came over a couple of weeks later and embellished the piano part and guitarist Mick Ronson created one of his first and best string parts for this song which now has become something of a fixture in my live shows.

Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing.

I'd failed to obtain the theatrical rights from George Orwell's widow for the book 1984 and having written three or more songs for it already, I did a fast about-face and recobbled the idea into Diamond Dogs: teen punks on rusty skates living on the roofs of the dystopian Hunger City; a post-apocalyptic landscape.

A centrepiece for this would-be stage production was to be Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing, which I wrote using William Burroughs's cut-up method.

You write down a paragraph or two describing several different subjects creating a kind of story ingredients-list, I suppose, and then cut the sentences into four or five-word sections; mix 'em up and reconnect them.

You can get some pretty interesting idea combinations like this. You can use them as is or, if you have a craven need to not lose control, bounce off these ideas and write whole new sections.

I was looking to create a profligate world that could have been inhabited by characters from Kurt Weill or John Rechy - that sort of atmosphere. A bridge between Enid Blyton's Beckenham and The Velvet Underground's New York. Without Noddy, though.

I thought it evocative to wander between the melodramatic Sweet Thing croon into the dirty sound of Candidate and back again. For no clear reason (what's new?) I stopped singing this song around the mid-Seventies.

Though I've never had the patience or discipline to get down to finishing a musical theatre idea other than the rock shows I'm known for, I know what I'd try to produce if I did.

I've never been keen on traditional musicals. I find it awfully hard to suspend my disbelief when dialogue is suddenly song. I suppose one of the few people who can make this work is Stephen Sondheim with works such as Assassins.

I much prefer through-sung pieces where there is little if any dialogue at all. Sweeney Todd is a good example, of course. Peter Grimes and The Turn Of The Screw, both operas by Benjamin Britten, and The Rise And Fall Of The City Of Mahagonny by Weill. How fantastic to be able to create something like that.

The Bewlay Brothers.

The only pipe I have ever smoked was a cheap Bewlay. It was a common item in the late Sixties and for this song I used Bewlay as a cognomen - in place of my own. This wasn't just a song about brotherhood so I didn't want to misrepresent it by using my true name.

Having said that, I wouldn't know how to interpret the lyric of this song other than suggesting that there are layers of ghosts within it. It's a palimpsest, then.

The circumstances of the recording barely exist in my memory. It was late, I know that. I was on my own with my producer Ken Scott; the other musicians having gone for the night.

Unlike the rest of the Hunky Dory album, which I had written before the studio had been booked, this song was an unwritten piece that I felt had to be recorded instantaneously.

I had a whole wad of words that I had been writing all day. I had felt distanced and unsteady all evening, something settling in my mind. It's possible that I may have smoked something in my Bewlay pipe. I distinctly remember a sense of emotional invasion.

I do believe that we finished the whole thing on that one night. It's likely that I ended up drinking at the Sombrero in Kensington High Street or possibly Wardour Street's crumbling La Chasse. Cool.

Lady Grinning Soul.

Mike Garson's piano opens with the most ridiculous and spot-on re-creation of a 19th Century music hall 'exotic' number. I can see now the 'poses plastiques' as if through a smoke-filled bar. Fans, castanets and lots of Spanish black lace and little else. Sexy, mmm? And for you, Madam?

This was written for a wonderful young girl whom I've not seen for more than 30 years. When I hear this song she's still in her 20s, of course.

A song will put you tantalisingly close to the past, so close that you can almost reach out and touch it. The sound of ghosts again.

Win.

This is not, you may be speechless to learn, an ode to Winifred Atwell, though I almost wish it were for she was a real winner. In the Fifties in England it was virtually impossible for a ten-year-old to hear boogiewoogies and rags unless our Winifred was playing them on her 'other' piano.

At home in Trinidad she'd been brought up with blues and R&B and had played it for the American GIs who were based at what is now the main airport. Winnie was the first black artist in Britain to sell one million records. She was tops.

No, this song is about, er, winning. David Sanborn is on sax. He was experimenting with sound effects at the time and I'd rather hoped he would push further into that area, but he chose to become rich and famous instead. So he did win really, didn't he?

Some Are.

A quiet little piece Brian Eno and I wrote in the Seventies. The cries of wolves in the background are sounds that you might not pick up on immediately. Unless you're a wolf. They're almost human, both beautiful and creepy.

Images of the failed Napoleonic force stumbling back through Smolensk. Finding the unburied corpses of their comrades left from their original advance on Moscow. Or possibly a snowman with a carrot for a nose; a crumpled Crystal Palace Football Club admission ticket at his feet. A Weltschmerz [world weariness] indeed. Send in your own images, children, and we'll show the best of them next week.

Teenage Wildlife.

So it's late morning and I'm thinking: 'New song and a fresh approach. I know, I'm going to do a Ronnie Spector. Oh yes I am. Ersatz, just for one day.'

And I did and here it is. Bless. I'm still enamoured of this song and would give you two Modern Loves for it any time. It's also one that I find fulfilling to sing onstage. It has some nice interesting sections to it that can trip you up, always a good kind of obstacle to contend with live.

Ironically, the lyric is something about taking a short view of life, not looking too far ahead and not predicting the oncoming hard knocks. The lyric might have been a note to a younger brother or my own adolescent self.

The guitars on this track form a splintery little duel between the great Robert Fripp and my long-time friend Carlos Alomar.

Repetition.

By virtue of the instrument's classical baggage, Simon House's violin touches a vein of pure Goth on this recording. There's a numbness to the whole rhythm section that I try to duplicate with a deadpan vocal, as though I'm reading a report rather than witnessing the event. I used to find this quite easy to accomplish.

I decided to write something on the deeply disturbing subject of wife abuse in the manner of a short-form drama.

I had known more instances of this behaviour than I would have preferred to have been made aware of and could not for the life of me imagine how someone could hit a woman, not only once but many, many times.

Fantastic Voyage.

It's almost quaint, this one. It has a strong feel of the Fifties variety show to it. A cavil in passing - if I'd been in the position of the mid-Sixties Rolling Stones, I definitely would have gone on the Sunday Night At The London Palladium show's revolving stage.

They had refused to stand on the roundabout with the other acts at the end of the show, as it didn't fit in with their rebellious image. I was surprised to read that the American entertainer Judy Garland also refused a whirl, as she was too emotionally upset. Who knew?

I would have been shyly clawing my way past Jimmy Tarbuck to get on. I remember my mother being excited about the first time this show appeared on television in 1955.

My father had bought our set for Princess Elizabeth's coronation in 1953 and it had opened up a new world for us. Guy Mitchell was apparently an exciting part of this world as my mother went all schoolgirl when he came on screen and sang She Wears Red Feathers (And A Hula Hula Skirt).

This song's chord structure (Fantastic Voyage, I mean, not She Wears Red Feathers) appeared on the album Lodger in two forms. First, as it appears here and then further in as Boys Keep Swinging (they were men's dresses, I tell you). Both the tempo and top-line melody are rewritten.

I did this again on the album Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps). It proved nothing. Thinking about it, Guy Mitchell would have done this song proud.

Loving The Alien.

I'm trying to come up with a little-used word for each song entry. I've not got one for this song. And this song is not, it may surprise you to know, another ode to little green Martians. Oh, recidivism, that'll fit.

Time Will Crawl

There are a host of songs that I've recorded over the years that for one reason or another (clenched teeth) I've often wanted to re-record some time in the future. This track from Never Let Me Down is one of those.

I've replaced the drum machine with true drums and added some crickety strings and remixed. I'm very fond of this new version with its Neil Young of Shortlands accents. Oh, to redo the rest of that album.

One Saturday afternoon in April 1986, along with some other musicians I was taking a break from recording at Montreux studios in Switzerland. It was a beautiful day and we were outside on a small piece of lawn facing the Alps and the lake.

Our engineer, who had been listening to the radio, shot out of the studio and shouted: 'There's a whole lot of s*** going on in Russia.'

The Swiss news had picked up a Norwegian radio station that was screaming - to anyone who would listen - that huge billowing clouds were moving over from the Motherland and they weren't rain clouds. This was the first news in Europe of the satanic Chernobyl.

I phoned a writer friend in London, but he hadn't heard anything about it. It wasn't for many more hours that the story started trickling out as major news.

For those first few moments it felt sort of claustrophobic to know you were one of only a few witnesses to something of this magnitude.

Over the next couple of months a complicated crucible of impressions collected in my head prompted by this insanity, any one of which could have become a song. I stuck them all in Time Will Crawl. That last sentence rhymes.

Hang On To Yourself (live).

Ziggy and the Spiders had played around 50 UK shows total, and this Santa Monica performance, from October 20, 1972, would be our 12th in America.

Although of only bootleg quality and despite the drums and bass being casually miked, I hope you can feel our real thrill here of presenting the band to a radio audience for the first time. I necessarily took the most centre-stage position as easily as an old ham from Bromley Repertory would, though in reality I was deadly nervous.

This was our first live American radio broadcast, so it was a big deal. We fluffed a lot of stuff that night, but the enthusiasm and pride stand 10ft tall.

One astounding thing about Mainman, my management at the time, is that for the 18 months of the Spiders' life-cycle (and after, actually) they never arranged for us to play anywhere in Europe where Ziggy was a proverbial monster. No tours, no shows, not even Paris.

I never understood that and was pretty miserable about it at the time, but now realise how naive and unprepared my management was for the serious job of actually managing.

© David Bowie 2008.

On this day, 25 years ago, DAVID BOWIE performed at the BBC Radio Theatre, Portland Place, London in 2000 to a specially invited audience.

I wrote in my diary... 'An awesome performance tonight by David and the band, even more so considering David was clearly under the weather with "half a bronchitis on top of the laryngitis" and a ticklish throat. Ever the professional, he kept soldiering on, with the aid of a breathing type menthol thingy-inhaler... he even joked around with the inhaler doing Frank Booth impressions from the 'Blue Velvet' movie'.

The full set list ran as follows:

       01. Wild Is The Wind.
       02. Ashes To Ashes.
       03. Seven.
       04. This Is Not America.
       05. Absolute Beginners.
       06. Always Crashing In The Same Car.
       07. Survive.
       08. The London Boys.
       09. I Dig Everything.
       10. Little Wonder.
       11. The Man Who Sold The World.
       12. Fame.
       13. Stay.
       14. Hallo Spaceboy.
       15. Cracked Actor.
       16. I'm Afraid Of Americans.
Encore:
       17. Ziggy Stardust.
       18. The Jean Genie (instrumental fill in).
       19. All The Young Dudes.
       20. Starman.
       21. "Heroes".
       22. Let's Dance.

Check out his performance of The London Boys below, which wasn't part of the original broadcast on BBC.

On this day, 54 years ago, DAVID BOWIE performed at Glastonbury Fayre for the first time in 1971.

David is pictured here leaving the Eavises' farmhouse. For the performance he wore a blue Magician's cloak and a hat purchased from 'The Universal Witness' boutique on the Fulham Road in London.

Photographs © Gabi Nasemann...

      

ROLLING STONE magazine have launched a DAVID BOWIE online quiz, where they state: 'Take the World's Hardest Quiz: David Bowie'.

Are you an absolute beginner or a complete expert when it comes to David Bowie? Take the quiz and find out.

Visit HERE scroll down and click on 'Take Our Survey' and see how you get on - I'm pretty sure most of you will smash it.

If you missed DAVID BOWIE at the BBC Radio Theatre (2000) on last night's BBC Four TV, you can catch up via the BBC iPlayer for the next 29 days.

Songs include: Wild Is the Wind, Ashes To Ashes, Absolute Beginners, The Man Who Sold The World and Fame.

Visit BBC iPlayer website.

Whilst you are on the iPlayer, heads up, you can still watch these Bowie gems...

Inside Cinema Shorts: 84. David Bowie.
Imagine... David Bowie: Cracked Actor (16 days remaining).
Remembers... Bowie and Baal.
Parkinson (2003) in conversation with David Bowie, Victoria Beckham and Clive James.
Extras, Series 2: Episode 2.

• On this day, 53 years ago, DAVID BOWIE released his immortal The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars album in 1972...

• On this day, 8 years ago, DAVID BOWIE Cracked Actor (Live Los Angeles '74) 2CD was released in 2017...

• On this day, 8 years ago, DAVID BOWIE Be My Wife 40th Anniversary 7" Picture Disc Single was released in 2017...

All set for publication next month is the updated and revised edition of REBEL, REBEL: THE SONGS OF DAVID BOWIE: 1963 - 1976 by CHRIS O'LEARY.

This paperback contains 586-pages and is to be published on 8th July.

The legacy of David Bowie is roughly 450 songs, which he recorded or performed over half a century. They range from cabaret to psychedelia to folk rock to glam rock to Philadelphia soul, from avant-garde instrumentals to stadium anthems. Cataloguing Bowie's songs from the dawn of his career in 1963 to his Hollywood stardom in 1976, examining them in the order of their composition and recording, and digging into what makes them work, Rebel Rebel and its sequel Ashes to Ashes have become standard references for Bowie fans.

The new edition of Rebel Rebel is a fully-updated revision, taking into account Bowie demos and alternate takes released in the years after his death. It's enhanced by a decade's worth of new information about Bowie's recording process, his influences, his contemporaries, and his live performances, all of which shed light onto the evolution of his songwriting. It shows how Bowie exploited studio innovations, and delves into the roles of his supporting musicians, particularly major collaborators like Mick Ronson and Tony Visconti.

This book aligns Bowie's music with his times, planting his work in the context of its era. You'll see what Bowie's work owes to novelists like Keith Waterhouse, Jack Kerouac, George Orwell, Ray Bradbury, and William S. Burroughs. To films like Performance, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and A Clockwork Orange. To rival songwriters and performers like Marc Bolan, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Lou Reed, Scott Walker, Elvis Presley, The Bee Gees, Isaac Hayes, James Brown, Pete Townshend, and John Lennon. With guest appearances by everyone from Frank Sinatra to Cher.

About the Author: Chris O'Leary is a writer and editor based in western Massachusetts. He has written for Pitchfork, Slate, New York, Mojo, Billboard, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, and is the author of a previous book on the music of David Bowie: Rebel Rebel (Zero, 2015). Both Rebel Rebel and Ashes to Ashes are based on the blog that he created in 2009, Pushing Ahead of the Dame

You can pre-order Rebel, Rebel: The Songs of David Bowie: 1963-1976 NOW!

The DAVID BOWIE and MICK JAGGER Live Aid charity release 'Dancing In The Street' is to have a limited edition vinyl release.

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Dancing In The Street, a limited edition white vinyl 12" will be released on 29th August - two days after its anniversary, bringing together all of the song's mixes for the first time.

Speaking about the song, Mick Jagger said: "We had such a laugh doing Dancing In The Street with both the song recorded in the studio and the video done in one day. Remarkable how we pulled it off really. The video is hilarious to watch now. We enjoyed camping it up and trying to impersonate each other's moves, making it up as we went along. It was the only time David and myself collaborated on anything, which is a real shame."

30% of the retail price from the sale of this single will be donated by David Bowie, Mick Jagger and Parlophone Records to The Band Aid Charitable Trust (Charity Number 292199).

The tracklisting runs as follows:

DISC: 1
1. Dancing In The Street (Clearmountain Mix) [2025 Remaster]
2. Dancing In The Street (Instrumental) [2025 Remaster]
3. Dancing in the Street (Steve Thompson Mix) [2025 Remaster]

DISC: 2
1. Dancing in the Street (Edit) [2025 Remaster]
2. Dancing in the Street (Dub) [2025 Remaster]

You can pre-order Dancing In The Street 40th Anniversary Limited Edition 12" Vinyl NOW!

The surprise Live Aid promotional video has received an amazing official 4K newly remastered upgrade, and is available now for your viewing pleasure.

Upcoming at OMEGA AUCTIONS this month is their two-day auction on Monday 16th and 17th June.

Day 1: Audio Equipment and Music Memorabilia
Day 2: Rare and Collectable Vinyl Records

As usual there are plenty of DAVID BOWIE items including: On Stage 1976 tour press kit, Tin Machine Kouros promotional statue, A Reality tour crew shirt, 1973 tour programme with Earls Court Theatre ticket, Sound+Vision 1989 box set sleeve proofs, plus lots more.

Check out all the Bowie items HERE.

Next month on Tuesday 1st July is their Showcase Sale of Music Memorabilia and Vinyl Records, again Bowie items well worth checking out - VIEW HERE.

Brand new RECORD COLLECTOR presents magazine is to be published on 26th June...

Record Collector presents DAVID BOWIE... Starman 1947-1980.

Blow our Minds - Ziggy Stardust tour photos
All-New Interviews - Wood Woodmansey, Mike Garson, Carlos Alomar
Sound and Vision - The Albums, The Films, The Style Icon
Plus LGBTQ + Pioneer, memorabilia, on set with The Man Who Fell To Earth, London and Berlin Landmarks, 8-page Discography - 450 rarities valued

Strange fascination... David Bowie has enthralled the world for more than half a century, and the work he left behind arguably tells us more about ourselves today than it did during even the 70s, when he made the radical moves covered in this first instalment of Record Collector Presents... David Bowie.

In focusing on the years 1947- 1980, they chart Bowie's rise to fame and his subsequent rewriting of all known rulebooks, with key collaborators Mick 'Woody' Woodmansey, Mike Garson and Carlos Alomar adding crucial insight through all-new interviews.

Reviews of every album, plus a discussion of Bowie's influence on fashion and guides to the London and Berlin landmarks that shaped his music, provide further understanding of the changes he went through during his period.

Add an eight-page discography packed with rarities, and you'll have enough sound and vision to last several lifetimes.

For more details, visit recordcollectormag.com website.

Today marks the 33rd anniversary of DAVID and IMAN's wedding ceremony at Saint James Episcopal Church, in Florence, Italy in 1992.

The best man was David's son Duncan, with chief usher Alan Edwards.

Iman's maid of honour was her best friend Bethann Hardison.

Besides immediate family, among the sixty-eight invited guests were Yoko Ono, Brian Eno and his wife Anthea, Bono Vox, Eric Idle and his wife Tanya, Geoff MacCormack, George Underwood, Corinne Schwab, Jennifer Ichida (Duncan's then girlfriend), Hervé Léger (who designed Iman's dress), Thierry Mugler (who designed David's suit) and hair arranged by Teddy Antolin. Teddy was a very special guest - in a way responsible for what was happening that day, because it was he who introduced David and Iman at a dinner party two years previously in Los Angeles.

During the ceremony, Geoff MacCormack read Psalm 121 during the service and David's cousin Kristina Amadeus read from Corinthians.

You can click here to read an article from Hello! magazine entitled 'The Wedding of David Bowie and Iman' by Brian Aris from the BW press archive.

Today marks the anniversary of DAVID BOWIE's first ever lead vocal single release 'Liza Jane' credited to Davie Jones with The King Bees, which was released 61 years ago today, 5th June 1964 on the Vocalion Pop label (V 9221).

Featuring seventeen-year-old Davie Jones (vocals and saxophone), George Underwood (guitar), Roger Bluck (guitar), Francis Howard (bass) and Robert Allen (drums).

Although credited to Leslie Conn, David's then manager who negotiated a one-single deal with Decca Records, George Underwood said the song was originally an old Negro spiritual that the band played around with and came up with this R'n'B song.

Leslie Conn's recollection of the events in 1997:

"I can tell you that I have got a pretty retentive memory, but that is something I can't clearly recall. I used to write songs except that I don't write music and I don't play piano. When the boys were jamming to kind of come up with some ideas to make a record, they came up with some six bar blues, which everyone uses. As they were doing that, I came up with my own idea, which came from nowhere, and we improvised and the song came together. I mean, I would never take credit for something that I never did and I know David wouldn't have agreed for me to sign the contract as writer if he had wrote it himself. I would never have stolen someone else's song on principle. I know that I'm quite vague on that and I can't be absolutely sure how it all came about, but I know that I did come up with a lot of ideas. As for the production of the song that was most certainly me, I arranged and organised the whole thing and I always produced the material I was arranging with Decca at that time. George Underwood is definitely wrong on that point.

"There is a funny story while were still on the subject of 'Liza Jane'. When David and I parted company I went off to live and work in Majorca for a few years and one day I was on the phone to my mother and she said, 'what shall I do with those records I have in the garage' which were a few hundred copies of 'Liza Jane'. So I replied, 'Throw them out', and she did. The last time David came up here he said, 'Have you got any of those records we made, you know they're worth over a hundred pounds each!' I told him I got my mother to throw them all out! We had to laugh."

Backed with 'Louie Louie Go Home', written by Paul Revere and Mark Lindsay, which was incidentally pencilled in as the A-side, both songs were recorded in a seven-hour session at Decca Studios in Broadhurst Gardens, West Hampstead.

The single was re-released by Decca in September 1978 (catalogue number F 13807) and beware there are counterfeit Vocalion copies in circulation. Produced in the USA in 70s, the tell-tale difference between the original and the illegal pressings is the matrix number. On the original 1964 issue the matrix number is machine stamped on the vinyl and on the fake copies it is handwritten.

The official press release for the single from the press room of the Dick James Organisation in May 1964 read...

INTRODUCING DAVIE JONES WITH THE KING-BEES... AND THEIR FIRST DISC 'LIZA JANE'

Pop Music isn't all affluence. Just ask new seventeen year old recording star Davie Jones. Time was (two months ago, in fact) when he and his group were almost on their uppers. No money, bad equipment. Then Davie had a brainwave. "I had been reading a lot in the papers about John Bloom," says Davie. "So I put pen to paper and wrote him a letter." David told Bloom that he had the chance of backing one of the most talented and up-and-coming groups on the pop scene. All he had to do was advance the several hundred pounds it requires to outfit a pop group with the best equipment.

Davie didn't get the money, but he did get a telegram next day from John Bloom giving the phone number of Artist's Manager Leslie Conn. Davie got in touch, he was rewarded with a booking at Bloom's Wedding Anniversary Party. "We were a dismal failure", recalls Davie. "It was a dinner dress affair and we turned up in jeans and sweat shirts and played our usual brand of rhythm and blues. It didn't go down too well. Still we'll know better next time."

However, all's well that ends well. Leslie Conn liked the earthy type of music the group played, arranged an audition with Decca Records which resulted in a contract and the first release by David Jones with the King-Bees. "Liza Jane", released by Decca (Vocalion 9221) on June 5th.

DAVIE JONES WITH THE KING-BEES MET AT BARBERS

Davie Jones met up with his four member backing group the King-Bees when he visited his local barber shop in Bromley. In between clips he got chatting to the four lads, also there to be sheared, about their musical interests, and before you could say "Short back and sides", they decided to join forces.

The group specialise in hard-driving, uncompromising R & B, a brand of music that has won for them a dedicated following in the London area, a following which should soon be spreading throughout the length and breadth of England on the strength of their first disc.

"LIZA JANE", is a beaty, action packed disc which features the direct no-holds-barred Davie Jones vocal delivery. The King-Bees supply a hard core, R & B backing and the whole thing is crowned by a catchy chorus featuring the line "Little Liza Jane".

DAVIE JONES - Seventeen years old, fair haired Davie first got interested in pop music when he was ten. His father's secretary (Davie's father in P.R.O. for Dr. Barnardo's homes) who had previously worked for a disc company, sent Davie a 'Demo' copy of a new Little Richard disc. As the phrase goes, Davie was "knocked out", and when he had scraped together a few pounds of his pocket money, bought a plastic saxophone. Eventually he progressed on to the real thing. Lessons were the next step. "My idol on saxophone has always been Ronnie Ross", says Davie, "So I looked up his name up in the phone book and asked him if he would give me lessons." Ross agreed, but after Davie played him a few bars Ross's comment was: "Right now we can start working on you, that was bloody awful!" Davie gave up his music to take his G.C.E. at 15, then left school and joined an advertising agency as a commercial artist, where he still works.

When he left school Davie was able to concentrated on his music again, this time mainly as a vocalist, playing dance halls and clubs in and around the Bromley area. Then came the hair-cut and the letter to John Bloom...

Davie's favourite vocalists are Little Richard, Bob Dylan and John Lee Hooker. Apart from the saxophone he also plays the guitar. He dislikes Adams apples, and lists as his interests Baseball, American Football and collecting Boots. A handsome six footer with a warm and engaging personality, Davie Jones has all it takes to get to the show business heights, including... talent.

• On this day, 13 years ago, DAVID BOWIE released the 40th Anniversary Edition of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars album...

• On this day, 21 years ago, DAVID BOWIE performed at Tommy Hilfiger at Jones Beach Theatre, in Wantagh, New York, USA during his A Reality World Tour...

• On this day, 24 years ago, DAVID BOWIE held an official chat in the BowieNet chatrooms - [Read chat log]...

• On this day, 29 years ago, DAVID BOWIE performed at the Budokan Hall in Tokyo, Japan during his Outside World Tour in 1996...

• On this day, 35 years ago, DAVID BOWIE performed at the Starplex Amphitheatre in Dallas, USA during his Sound+Vision World Tour in 1990...

• On this day, 42 years ago, DAVID BOWIE performed at Wembley Arena in London, England during his Serious Moonlight World Tour in 1983...

• On this day, 47 years ago, DAVID BOWIE performed at the Scandanavium in Gothenburg, Sweden during his 1978 World Tour...

• On this day, 52 years ago, DAVID BOWIE performed at the Gaumont Theatre in Worcester, England during his 1973 World Tour...

• On this day, 53 years ago, DAVID BOWIE performed at the Public Hall in Preston, England during his 1972 UK Tour #1...

• On this day, 60 years ago, DAVIE JONES and THE LOWER THIRD performed at the Pavilion Ballroom in Bournemouth, England in 1965...

• On this day, 69 years ago, REEVES GABRELS was born. Happy Birthday wishes! Have a wonderful day...

• Exclusive BOWIE'S GALAXY International Auction is to be held next week on Friday 6th June at 87000 Limoges, France. Check out the lots at interencheres.com website. The catalogue is also viewable online at drouot.com and invaluable.com websites...

• This month the 13th ANNUAL BOWIE FAN CHARITY EVENT a night of live music plus auction and raffle takes place at The Water Rats, 328 Grays Inn Road, Kings Cross, London WC1X 8BZ, England on Saturday 14th June - More details

• ★ saxophonist DONNY McCASLIN is bringing the BLACKSTAR SYMPHONY to Nashville this month (18th June). There are also upcoming shows in San Francisco (26th and 27th). Tickets are available now via the donnymccaslin.com website...

• The final gig for TONY VISCONTI and WOODY WOODMANSEY - HOLY HOLY featuring GLENN GREGORY - A Celebration of Bowie, takes place at O2 Academy in Bournemouth on Friday 6th June - more details

For those of you who use FACEBOOK - check out the private DAVID BOWIE WONDERWORLD Group.

Feel free to join in with the other 98,300 plus members, add yourself and invite your Bowie fan friends. You never know what might get posted, or who you might meet...

The stage production LAZARUS written by DAVID BOWIE and ENDA WALSH opens in Japan this month...

Directed by Shirai Akira, the cast includes: Matsuoka Mitsuru, Toyohara Erika, Suzuki Emiko, Konan Mayuko, Sakiyama Tsubasa, Toyama Yusuke, Yanagisawa Akarisa, Torai Miyu, Ogata Sakura, Watanabe Gota, Uehara Rio.

[Dancers] Nami Monroe and Anri Kanna.
[Band] Bandmaster: Masuda Tosh / Keyboard: Philip Wu / Drums: Matsubara 'Matsukichi' Hiroshi / Guitar: Hank Nishiyama / Keyboards: Mio Yusuke / Bass: Fuyumikawakami (Ofuyu)
[Swing] Shio Kenji and Kase Tomone

With performances in Yokohama at KAAT Kanagawa Arts Theatre and Osaka at Festival Hall.

Tickets are on sale now!

Visit the official Lazarus-stage.jp website for more details and information.

• CARLOS ALOMAR presents THE D.A.M. TRILOGY Tour 2025 begins 7th November with performances in Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, Switzerland, France, Belgium, England, Scotland and Ireland - more details

• COLLABORATION: FRANK OCKENFELS 3 x DAVID BOWIE by FRANK OCKENFELS 3, hardcover and Kindle, 256-pages - to be published on 6th November - more details

• FAR ABOVE THE WORLD: THE TIME AND SPACE OF DAVID BOWIE by PAUL MORLEY, hardcover, Kindle, 320-pages - to be published on 6th November - more details

• BOWIE'S BACK by RON GOTT, paperback, 60-pages - to be published on 16th October - more details

• The DAVID BOWIE CENTRE opens on 13th September at V&A East Storehouse, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Stratford, London E20 - more details

• DAVID BOWIE IS: FOREVER AND EVER by VICTORIA BROACKES and GEOFFREY MARSH, paperback, 320-pages - to be published on 11th September - more details

• DAVID BOWIE RAINBOWMAN 1967-1980 by JÉRÔME SOLIGNY paperback edition, 704-pages, English version - to be published on 11th September - more details

• DAVID BOWIE - THE YEAR OF THE SCAVENGER luxury collector's book from MAYAK PUBLISHING covering the 1974 period - coming soon - mayakpublishing.co.uk

• DAVID BOWIE and MICK JAGGER Dancing In The Street, 40th Anniversary Limited Edition 12" Vinyl - to be released on 29th August - more details

• DAVID BOWIE BY DENIS O'REGAN: With Rare and Unseen Images from His Official Tour Photographer, hardcover, 276-pages, special edition limited to 100 copies, signed by the author, slipcased and includes a giclee print - to be published on 5th August - more details

• DAVID BOWIE BY DENIS O'REGAN: FROM THE MAN WHO PHOTOGRAPHED HIM MOST by DENIS O'REGAN, hardcover, 276-pages - to be published on 22nd July - more details

• Updated and revised edition REBEL, REBEL: THE SONGS OF DAVID BOWIE: 1963 - 1976 by CHRIS O'LEARY, paperback, 586-pages - to be published on 8th July - more details

BOWIE ODYSSEY 75 by SIMON GODDARD, hardback and paperback versions, 192-pages, published 3rd April - hardback (23% discount) and paperback (25% discount)

AN ILLUSTRATED BOOK OF DAVID BOWIE'S RECORDS by Shinko Music Entertainment, 251-pages, Japanese / bilingual, out now! - more details

Exclusive DAVID BOWIE lino-cut print available to PURCHASE - don't hang around, these are ALL the remaining original left-over stock from 41 years ago, once they've gone, they've gone!