1974 January February March April May June JULY August September October November December

MY WORLD by David Bowie A WEEKLY DIARY EXCLUSIVELY WRITTEN FOR MIRABELLE MAGAZINE

6th July 1974

   I almost forgot to tell you about the wonderful party I went to just a few weeks ago. It was Zowie's birthday and Marion (Zows' nanny) and Angie spared no expense in making it a really truly memorable occasion. They invited all of Zows' little friends from his nursery school, and then everyone arrived at our house at about two in the afternoon to being the festivities.

   Angie engaged the services of a clown - Uncle Dandy - who amused the kids with magic tricks. Zowie kept getting eggs pulled out from behind his ears, which, really confused Zows 'cos he knew he didn't have 'em there when he woke up in the morning. Just proves the hand is quicker than the eye, Zowie.

   Anyway, when Uncle Dandy was through with his magic he took out his big bag which was loaded with costumes and hair-pieces and make-up. He let all the kids choose the costumes they liked most, and then put wigs and make-up on them to match the costumes. Zowie looked like an Italian gypsy, very debonair and I pretended that I didn't recognise him, much to his delight.

   After a puppet show it was time to eat. Angie is not only a good cook, she's a good baker, too, and for this special occasion, she baked one knockout of a cake. It was chocolate on the inside and the sides were frosted in vanilla marshmallow icing, but the top was the really wonderful part. Angie, armed with food colouring and that delicious marshmallow icing, had painted a picture of Zowie on the top, long blond ringlets and all. After Zowie blew out all three candles, Zowie's guests had a marvellous time fighting over which one would get the marshmallow eye and nose. Sounds a bit grizzly, doesn't it, but it was all in good fun. At this point it was time to unveil the present. All the kids, mums and dads had got together weeks beforehand to discuss what would be the perfect gift from all of them to Zows. They decided on... a gorgeous bright blue tricycle. Zowie was ever so pleased - he hasn't stopped riding it yet.

   So, that was Zowie's third birthday celebration. Something he'll certainly never forget!

13th July 1974

   I'm happy to say I'm on the road again - seeing new places, new things and best of all meeting new people.

   I've just finished the Canadian part of my 'Year Of The Diamond Dogs' tour and I must say Canadian fans are vey demonstrative! During one show when I was performing one of my most dramatic songs a very pretty girl in the front row grabbed my leg and just wouldn't let go! I was getting a bit frightened at this 'leg-napping', not to mention a little off balance (standing up on one leg and singing at the same time is not one of my greatest talents). Finally the girl let go of my leg and I don't mind telling you I was quite relieved. From then on the show continued with interruptions and everyone in the audience seemed to be enjoying it quite a bit!

   Anyway, Canada is quite beautiful and Montreal is one of my favourite Canadian cities. It's full of beautiful buildings, lovely churches, tree-lined streets and actually it looks quite like a beautiful old French city.

   It happens to have fabulous restaurants, too! I can vouch for that personally.

   After one of the first shows, Angie, the band and a few MainMan people and I went out to celebrate at a quiet midnight supper. Well, that's what it started out as, anyway. I should have known that with this gang nothing stays quiet for too long!

   Everyone was so relieved that the show had been good that we were all acting a bit silly. We all had prawn appetizers - and the prawns came with their shells, heads, eyes and feet still on them, so naturally we all had to dance our prawns around on the table, introducing them to other prawns and wiggle their tentacles at everyone in sight. Of course, we all thought that was hilarious, but the waiters and the host were definitely not smiling. Finally, even we got tired of dancing prawns and decided to eat the little creatures - after cleaning them, of course.

   Anyway, we all ate, drank and had a merry old time long into the night. Now I've got more shows and many more hilarious dinners to look forward to!

20th July 1974

   Most exciting news these days has to do with one lovely lady in my life, Angie! Angie has begun work on a book, the title of which is, 'The Effect Of Inter-Galactic Travellers On Our Awareness'. That means she's writing a book about people from other planets coming to visit earth. She keeps kidding me and saying the reason she knows so much about the subject is that she lived with someone called 'Ziggy Stardust' for so long! Anyway, we're both really excited about this book and Angie is even going to lease a small work studio so she can have a few hours of uninterrupted concentration each and every day for working on this new project. I'll keep you posted on her progress.

   Now, I must tell you about the new toy which I've just acquired. Actually, calling it a toy doesn't really do it justice. It's quite a beautiful musical instrument called a harpsichord. If you don't know a harpsichord is, now is as a good a time as any to learn. The harpsichord looks like a piano, but actually was invented before the piano was invented. It has keys like a piano, but when you strike the keys, quills inside the harpsichord pluck the strings and produce the notes. The tones are shorter and more abrupt than those made by a piano and some people think the notes produced are too tinny.

   I think the harpsichord is wonderful just because of the strange sounding notes it produces, and also because of the time in history it conjures up in my mind. When I play it, I can just picture women in elegant brocade ball gowns dancing with men in powdered wigs at some royal get together.

   Back to earthly things. I've gone and done it once again. I've changed my hair colour. What once was deepest red is now more like a strawberry blond thanks to the dye bottle. I couldn't stop there, though, oh no, not yours truly! I also have a bright, bright blond streak on the right side of my head and I must say, I think it does suit me. I've also taken to wearing a new side parting in my hair for a change. I don't know how long this new look will last, but it will be fun for a while, I'm sure.

27th July 1974

   New York was fairly turned upside down the other night and I must say it was for a great cause. The Who - one of my all-time favourite groups - were doing their last concert in New York, and they had a super big celebration at the end of the night.

   First everyone went to see The Who perform at Madison Square Garden, a gigantic hall in New York which on this particular night was really filled to the rafters. Then after a fabulous show we all went to the place where the party was being held. As usual, I went with Angie and Geoffrey - and we had a great time getting really dressed up for the festivities. I must tell you though, if we knew then what the party was going to be like we'd have dressed a bit more casually.

   They'd hired belly dancers for the night, trained elephants to do tricks for all the party-goers and last, but not least, were going to have a roller derby!

   I must tell you what roller derbys are like. A big round rink is set up and the race is made up of about fifteen girls in numbered jerseys on roller skates. I've never seen anything like it! The girls get really fierce during the race and actually push each other off the course and sometimes even get thrown right out of the rink if they're going fast enough. They're all good friends, though, so you know all this pushing and shoving is to make it appear exciting. But it sure looked authentic to us! Every time anyone got pushed out of the ring we'd 'oooh' and 'aah'.

   Now comes the part where casual clothes could have come in handy. The derby ended and all sorts of pies started to be flung from nowhere. I'll bet you always thought I was a pretty dignified fellow. Well, I must tell you, I'm not too dignified to throw a few pies when it's in self-defence. My new suit was covered with coconut custard and chocolate cream!

Created: July 1997 © Paul Kinder

Last Updated: 10/6/12