Smash Hits

IN THIS TWO PART SMASH HITS SPECIAL, DAVID HEPWORTH RETRACES THE COLOURFUL
CAREER OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL POP ARTIST OF THE LAST TEN YEARS.
PICTURES AND MEMORABILIA COURTESY OF "DAVID BOWIE: AN ILLUSTRATED RECORD" BY ROY CARR AND CHARLES SNAAR MURRAY

(PUBLISHED BY EEL PIE: £5.95)

The David Bowie Story
A CRASH COURSE FOR THE RAVERS _ Part One: 1947-1972

DAVID Robert Jones was born in Brixton, South London on January 6th, 1947. His father was a Yorkshireman who worked as a PR man for Doctor Barnardo's Homes and David spent part of his childhood in Yorkshire before settling down in Bromley where he attended the local Technical High School. At the prompting of
his elder step-brother Terry he took up the saxophone and played his first gig at a school dance in 1962 as the leader of George And The Dragons.
A fight with a schoolfriend (concerning a girl) resulted in his undergoing eye surgery, treatment which left him with one grey and one blue pupil. Leaving school in 1963 with 0levels in Woodwork and Art he took a job as a commercial artist. After six months he quit. This was to be his first and last job.

1963 was a good year to be young, musical, ambitious and living in London. The Beatles had prised the door open for raw, home grown talent and hundreds of new groups were starting to pour through the gap. Some cheap equipment (easily secured on the HP), a repertoire of R&B standards (pinched wholesale from some import album on Chess), a few decent clothes and, with luck. anyone could make it.
Young David Jones soon ditched the beatnik jazz that had previously been his passion and, pausing only to get himself a mod haircut and a button down collar, formed The King Bees (name pinched from blues song). Having no desire to linger at the bottom of the ladder any longer than was necessary, David looked around for a backer. He fired off a letter to John Bloom, the most newsworthy magnate of the day, requesting financial support. Amused by his cheek, Bloom responded by putting the would-be star in touch with a music business contact of his who managed to get The King Bees a try-out with Decca Records. Thus did "Liza Jane" by Davie Jones And The King Bees see the light of day on June 6th, 1964.
"Davie's favourite vocalists are Little Richard, Bob Dylan and John Lee Hooker. He dislikes Adam's Apples and lists as his interests baseball, American football and collecting boots. A handsome six footer with a wan and engaging personality, Davie Jones has all it take to get to the showbusiness heights, including. . talent.

Despite the fond hopes of his backers, "Liza Jane" made no impression on the charts and David parted company with The King Bees to join up with The Manish Boys (another blues song). The Manish Boys managed one single on Parlophone in the autumn of '65 called "I Pity The Fool" but the closest they came to fame was via the publicity generated by Davie's refusal to cut off his flowing locks for an appearance on BBC-2's "Gadzooks". However they did manage to gain some valuable experience touring as a support act to more prominent hitmakers like The Kinks and Gene Pitney.

Having tried and failed with raw R&B and soul balladry, the next trend that David attempted to ride was mod. Linking up with The Lower Third he put out "You've Got A Habit Of Leaving" in the summer of '65, a record that owed more than a little to the brightest new band of that year, The Who. The Lower Third started to find work and at one of their regular Marquee gigs David was "spotted" in the time-honoured manner by a manager called Ken Pitt who was on the lookout for likely material for "grooming" as an all-round entertainer.

Pitt, aware that The Monkees (another group featuring a Davey Jones) were about to break in a big way, suggested a change of name and David came up with Bowie. Whether this choice was inspired by the famous American frontiersman or by an old Jones family connection is still uncertain. In any case the first David Bowie record, "Can't Help Thinking About Me", appeared on Pye early in 1966 and Ken Pitt signed the artist to a five year contract only a few months later.

ALTHOUGH commercial acceptance remained as evasive under Pitt's wing as it had done previously, Bowie began to broaden his range and his interests. Under the influence of drugs and other instruments of "consciousness expansion", the London mod scene was turning hippy and David was not immune to the changing atmosphere. He began appearing solo with an acoustic guitar. He discovered Eastern religion. He grew his hair and went on retreat from time to time to a Tibetan monastery in Dumfries. On the other hand Pitt was doing his best to smarten him up and get him work in films, encouraging him to develop every aspect of his talent, dancing and acting as well as singing. Apart from a couple of abortive art movies the nearest this came to anything was when Bowie featured prominently in a TV commercial for "Luv" ice cream.

His first album, "David Bowie", was released by Deram in 1967.
Although a couple of the songs faintly anticipated the achievements of later years, most of the material was so indebted to musical comedy singer Anthony Newly that the whole project sank under the weight of its own whimsy and, of course, didn't sell. (It has since become one of the most repackaged LPs of all time.)
Following a chance meeting with mime artist Lindsay Kemp, Bowie began to get more and more involved in the whole idea of presentation. As an occasional member of Kemp's circle he experimented with characters, eventually forming his own music and mime troupe. Feathers, and working the burgeoning underground club scene. For the first time he began to look for inspiration outside of the confines of pop. After seeing the space fantasy movie, "2001", he went home and wrote "Space Oddity", the tuneful but sinister tale of an astronaut who refuses to return to Earth.

Things began to happen quickly in both his personal and professional life. He founded and ran the Beckenham Arts Lab. He met (and later married) an American girl called Angela Barnett. "Space Oddity" was released as a single in mid-'69 to coincide with the first American moon landings and its continued use as a theme music for the BBC's coverage of the moonshot ensured that it got as high as No. 5. David Bowie had his first hit.

Unfortunately, neither the "Space Oddity" album nor the follow-up single were enough to fix his reputation and by early 1970 he was back to using an electric band. Christened Hype, they were to back him for the next few hectic years. Woody Woodmansey and Trevor Bolder made up the rhythm section but the really important man was the quitarist, Mick Ronson, an adequate musician but a
brilliant arranger and perfect foil for Bowie. "Space Oddity" was followed by another album, "The Man Who Sold The World", which was received favourably by American critics but it was clear that a major change of direction was needed if the big breakthrough was to be made.

B REAKING off with Ken Pitt, David put himself in the hands of a new manager, Tony De Fries, who brought to his career direction the imagination and sheer high handed arrogance that was to establish him as the premier pop figure of the coming decade.

De Fries packed his new charge off to America to publicise "The Man Who Sold The World". The sleeve of the album featured Bowie in a long dress with his hair styled like a woman's and it was decided to get as much mileage out of the resulting outrage and raised eyebrows as humanly possible. The value of such shock tactics was soon brought home to Bowie and it's a lesson that's stood him in good stead ever since. Press interviews got camper, photo sessions more extreme. Meanwhile he pretended to be surprised at all the fuss. An interviewer was told at the time:
"I went to America a few weeks ago to promote the album and as I knew I was going to Texas I wore a dress. One guy pulled out a gun and called me a fag. But I thought the dress was beautiful."
Whether this whole gay business was actually a part of David's personality or just dreamed up by De Fries as a ticket to fame has never been properly resolved. The effect was undoubtedly shattering. Homosexuality had long been legal: David Bowie almost made it compulsory.

But the music was at last strong enough to back up all the stratagems. Just one week before Christmas of 1971 RCA put out "Hunky Dory", the LP that was to establish him as the brightest new talent in Britain. Added to the Dylanisms of his previous work was a new brashness and relevance, a forceful, witty style which was made for the new decade. Songs like "Life On Mars", "The Bewlay Brothers" and "Queen Bitch" were dissected and rummaged through for hidden meanings: Bowie became the fashionable pop star. Seizing this new momentum they went on the road with a new stage show which was to form the basis of "Ziggy Stardust".

WITH their space age jump suits and garishly dyed hair Bowie and the band came on like Martian juvenile delinquents The sound was pure hard rock; tuneful, but
four square and utterly conventional.

De Fries meanwhile piled on the pressure. While David and Angie were still living in a £7 a week flat, he managed to give the impression that Bowie was already a major star. Ferried everywhere by limousine, surrounded by an equally weird and wonderful entourage (personal hairdresser etc.) and protected by massive security, Bowie was presented to the public as the direct opposite of everything rock and roll had come to be. Glam Rock was invented as a slap in the face of the old hippy values. All that "integrity", all that painstaking "musicianship", all that denim and honesty was ripped up and flung to the four winds. Instead, the whole thing was slammed savagely into reverse as David headed back to pure Hollywood.
"The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars", released in the middle of '72, was more than a great rock and roll album. It was also a vicious assault on everything that rock and roll had come to stand for. On stage Bowie and Hype were reborn as Ziggy and The Spiders, acting out the tragic, pathetic story of their decline and fall as a piece of electric theatre.
,The runaway success of "Ziggy" had a number of consequences. It set the keynote for the 70s: from now on in everything was to be gloriously artificial and slightly insane. It made David Bowie an international star. It also trapped him. Many of his fans found it impossible to distinguish between David Robert Jones and this fabulous, tragic character.
It's also said that Bowie himself lost sight of it all for a while. In interviews he was as straightforward as he ever is. "I change every day. I'm not outrageous. I'm David Bowie," he pleaded at the time.
But shaking off Ziggy was to prove to be more than a matter of just taking off the make-up.Next issue: From Ziggy to "Under Pressure" via Berlin and the movies.

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