I was in my teens when David Bowie came to prominence and to my attention. I thought his music was brilliant and his approach to the wording of his songs was incredible.
People say he changed their lives, for me he enriched my life with his music particularly during my formable years.
His death is to me incredibly hard to accept as his music has been such an influence during and since my teenage years - for me he will be sadly and greatly missed.
Born David Robert Jones on 8th January 1947 in Brixton, South London, to mother Margaret “Peggy”, a waitress, and charity worker Haywood “John” Jones. His older brother’s record collection introduced him to rock music at an early age.
His family moved to south-east London and he graduated from Bromley Technical High School at 16, when he was busy forming a number of bands and leading a group. He called himself Davy Jones, later changing his name to David Bowie to avoid confusion with Davy Jones of the Monkees. The name was reportedly inspired by a knife developed by the 19th-century American pioneer Jim Bowie.
He released three singles as a solo artist for Pye Records, and a debut album David Bowie, but did not achieve huge success and he retreated to a Buddhist monastery in Scotland in 1967.
After returning to London he started the arts troupe Feathers in 1968, then helped organise the Free Festival, a day-long free music event in Beckenham, South-East London, in 1969.
The same year he released Space Oddity, which went on to be his first UK No 1. The release the following year of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars made him an international star, and he conquered the US with his theatrical stage show.
He produced albums for Lou Reed and Iggy Pop, as well as writing All the Young Dudes, which he gave to Mott the Hoople who had a massive hit with it. In the late 1970s he produced three-album collaboration with Brian Eno, known as the Berlin Trilogy.
In 1970 he married Angie Bowie, and the couple had a son named Zowie Bowie, now known as Duncan Jones. They split in 1980. He settled in New York one year after marrying Iman.
Bowie continued to record and tour until 2003, when he released Reality, his 23rd album, which many assumed to be his last.
Bowie’s acting career took off with his performance in Nicolas Roeg’s The Man Who Fell to Earth, followed by roles in Labyrinth, The Last Temptation of Christ and Absolute Beginners. He also appeared as himself in the film Zoolander.
Bowie officially retired Ziggy Stardust in 1973, making the announcement during a London gig. But the hits kept coming, with albums including Aladdin Sane, Diamond Dogs and Pin Ups.
He changed direction with the soul-inspired Young Americans. His first US No 1 was a collaboration with John Lennon on Fame, which topped the charts in 1975.
He continued to sell millions of albums and pack out stadiums with the rise of the New Romantic scene in 1980s Britain. He embraced pop, finding chart success with songs such as Let’s Dance and Under Pressure, a collaboration with Queen.
Iggy Pop described him on social media as “the light of my life”, while singer Madonna tweeted: “Talented. Unique. Genius. Game Changer.”
The Rolling Stones hailed him as “an extraordinary artist and a true original”. Queen tweeted a link to the Under Pressure, with the words: “This is our last dance ... ”
David Cameron, speaking recently in North London, said: “Musically, creatively, artistically David Bowie was a genius.”
From glam to neo-soul to his mysterious final album, David Bowie remained one step ahead throughout a prophetic career that pushed sexual and social boundaries.
“I am not a natural performer,” Bowie said in a rare interview in 2002. “I don’t enjoy performing terribly much. Never have. I can do it and, if my mind’s on the situation, do it quite well. But, five or six shows in, I’m dying to get off the road and go back to the studio.”
In the same interview, he said: “During my entire career, I’ve only really worked with the same subject matter. The trousers may change, but the actual words and subjects I’ve always chosen to write with are things to do with isolation, abandonment, fear and anxiety, all of the high points of one’s life.”
David Bowie’s latest album, released to coincide with his 69th birthday, has been described as his “parting gift” as collaborators and friends paid tribute to the iconic star after the unexpected announcement of his death.
Bowie had kept news of his cancer diagnosis from all but a few close associates.
It was broadly known that Bowie’s onstage heart attack in 2004 had left him frail. But a sudden death was not foreseen, whatever the portents that can now be seen in Black Star title Lazarus which begins: “Look up here, I’m in heaven.”
Tony Visconti who produced a series of Bowie’s albums, revealed the significance to Bowie of Black Star, his 25th and final studio album. acclaim.
“He always did what he wanted to do,” wrote Visconti, who was a producer on Black Star as well as Young Americans and his seminal Berlin trilogy: Low, Heroes and Lodger.
“And he wanted to do it his way and he wanted to do it the best way. His death was no different from his life – a work of art.”
Black Star was the first Bowie release not to feature a picture of him on the cover: instead, a stylised black star heralded a darker work.
David Bowie 1947 – 2016
He will always be with us.
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