Born:
January 8th, 1947.
Real
name: David Robert Haywood Jones
Family:
Margret (Peggy) Mary Burns (mother), Haywood Stenton (John) Jones (father),
Terry
Burns (brother), Myra Ann Burns (sister), Anette Jones (sister).
From Diamond Dogs to a
glam alter ego out to save the world from destruction, David has done it
all.
David Bowie's music started
when his brother, Terry, brought him to Soho introducing David to Jazz,
the
Beat poets and Jack Kerouac.
David then started taking
saxophone lessons with Jazz musician Ronnie Ross. This was also when David
met
Peter Frampton who's
father, Owen Frampton, was David's art teacher at Bromley Technical High
School.
David and his friend,
George Underwood, then started their first band. It was called The Kon
Rads. David
called himself Dave Jay.
The bands name later changed to The Hooker Brothers.
The Hooker Brothers never
took off as they would've hoped to. So, David and George Underwood created
another band call The
King Bees. This band included Dave Howard, Roger Black, and Bobby
Allen. Finally,
they released a single,
'Liza Jane/Louie Louie go Home'. This was David's first recording. After
recording their
second single, 'You're
Holding me Down/I've Gotta', David left to join The Manish Boys.
The Manish Boys were booked
to tour with Gene Pitney, Gerry and the Pacemakers, The Kinks and
Marianne Faithful. During
all of that, they released a single, 'I Pity the Fool/Take my Tip'. They
then
appeared on 'Gadzooks!
It's all Happening' on the BBC. After less then one year, The Manish Boys
broke up and David joined
The Lower Third.
The Lower Third consisted
of Dennis Taylor, Grahams Rivens, and Phil Lancaster. TLT released 1 single
in their short career,'Can't
Help Thinking About Me/And I Say to Myself' David also released 3 solo
singles during this time,
'Do Anything You Say/Good Morning Girl', 'I Dig Everything/I'm Losing You',
and 'Rubber Band/The
London Boys'. As fate may have it, The Lower Third broke up on January
29th,
1966. David then advertised
for some new musicians. He got Derek Fearnley, Derek Boyes, and John
Hutchingson. David sacked
them all after 10 months.
On April 14, 1967, David
released his 4th solo single, 'The Laughing Gnome/The Gospel According
to
Tony Day'. After that
(on April 25, 1967), David signed a 5 year management contract with Ken
Pitt.
Finally, on June 1, 1967,
David released his first LP, 'David Bowie'. He was the first British
artist to ever record
an album without first having a hit single. On June 11, David moved in
to
Ken Pitts flat at 39
Manchester Street, London.
On July 14th, 1967, David
released his 4th solo single. Love You Till Tuesday/Did You Ever
Have a Dream?.
On September 13th, David
made his first film. It was 14 minutes long and he spent 3 days working
on it.
It was called, Images.
Here is where a great
event in David's life happened. In my opinion, it has affected his style
and music in
many ways. On November
10th, 1967, David started taking mime classes taught by Lindsey Kemp at
The Dance
Centre in Covent Garden.
Lindsey then asks David to write some music for Pierrot in Turquoise.
In 1968, David and Lindsay
Kemp presented Pierrot In Turquoise to Rose Hill Theatre, Mercury Theatre,
and Little Theatre.
Around this time, was
when David met Hermione Farthingale. David's first 'true' love. They met
each other. It
is said they met when
filming the BBC TV play The Pistol Shot, I think perhaps they had met earlier
though.
In August 1f '68, David
and Heromione moved to a flat at 22 Clareville Grove in South Kingston.
Soon, they
meet up with Tony Hill
and created the mime/dance act Turquoise.
This group brought David
and Hermione very close.....perhaps too close. Turrquoise soon changed
to
Feathers and Tony Hill
was replaced by John Hutchinson.
During their career, Feathers
appeared at The Round House, Hampstead Country Club, The Arts Laboratory
(Dury Lane, London),
Sussex University, and again at The Round House. This was when things started
to
go wrong between David
and Hermione. She wanted to become a ballet dancer and she left David to
pursue her aspirations.
It is said that she changed her name and didn't make it on the ballet circuit.
David was absolutely
heart broken. He really did love her. David designed Feather's act around
Hermione's
dancing. Some people
say they'd make the perfect couple.....I think they did, but Hermione just
couldn't
let her dreams go.
With Hermione gone, Feathers
made one last appearance at Sussux University on February 11th, 1969 and
that was that.
At one of Feathers
appearances at the Round House, they were seen by Angela Marie Barnette
and Calvin
Mark Lee. Angie describes
David as Very pretty. Beautiful actually; his hair cut and permed in tight
little
curls around that fallen
angel's face, his body lithe and strong, his muscular dancer's legs in
tight, reveal
all trousers, his sexy
ass, his natural grace.....A lovely man, I thought. Fans' heart's would
flutter.
Angie's intention's that
night were supposedly good. She wanted to help Calvin Mark Lee (one of
her bedmates and, might
I add, David's too) to get David into the music business.
During all of this chaos
with Feathers, David felt that his sources of income weren’t large
enough to suit his needs.
So, he therehence took a job as an operator of a photocopying machine
at Legastat, which was
a stationary shop in Carey Street.
About the eyes: David
Bowie, (if you didn't already know) has two different sized pupils. This
happened
in the Spring of 1961.
David and George Underwood got into a fight over a girl. Underwood was
wearing
a ring and when he struck
at Bowie, it hit him in the eyes. David was out of school for 8 months.
He had
several surgeries to
try to fix his eyes, but they could only salvage the right eye leaving
the left pupil
permanently dilated.
If you were to look through that left eye, it would look brownish and blurred
going
into a blind spot in
the center. Ironically, this has become a 'trademark' of Bowie. Note: after
the fight,
David got the girl!