No musician is more closely associated with London or left more footprints than Bowie, and you can trace its influence on his life and work (and vice versa) through a series of landmarks from the suburbs to the centre. Author and curator Paul Gorman has just published an annotated street-map – David Bowie’s London - listing the places that played a formative role in his world and music, the places he rehearsed, performed, filmed and recorded, the homes of friends and managers, his schools and the addresses where he lived, worked and was photographed, made connections, bought clothes and generally raised the temperature. We talk here about many of those old haunts and the stories attached to them, which include…

… mysterious manager Ralph Horton who got him to change his name to Bowie and then vanished from the face of the earth.

… the fate of Heddon Street, home of K-West and the Ziggy phone-box.

… Marc Bolan refusing to let him sing at an all-night benefit at Middle Earth.

… “the Fairy Godmother of the New Romantics” at the WAG Club.

… when Lionel Bart came to Haddon Hall.

… Bowie and Steve Marriott auditioning for the Lower Third.

… how he levered his way into a Fabulous magazine fashion shoot.

… “the end of the age of Showbiz”: performing Chim Chim Cher-ee at the Marquee when at a crossroads between rock and roll and cabaret.

… the magical piano at the Trident Studios.

… a chance encounter with the otherworldly Vince Taylor whose ‘UFO map’ helped inspire the concept of Ziggy Stardust.

… the legend of Mr Fish, creator of the man-dress on the cover of The Man Who Sold The World.

… the days when people had a white Rolls Royce and matching Alsatian – and “the Great Sarong Scare of the ‘90s”.

… and various fringe figures including his art teacher Owen Frampton, Konrads agents Bob Knight and Eric Easton, muse and heartbreaker Hermione Farthingale, producers Shel Talmy and Tony Hatch (“the original Mr Nasty from Opportunity Knocks”) and slum landlord and racketeer Peter Rackman.

Order Paul’s street-map here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/David-Bowies-London-Paul-Gorman/dp/1068523476

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We first saw Eddi Reader singing with the Gang Of Four on Whistle Test in 1982. This eventful pod traces her story from seven kids in a two-bedroom council flat (“me in the toilet with a guitar singing Your Cheating Heart”), to the Scottish folk clubs, busking with circus acrobats on the Left Bank, to radio jingles, life as a backing singer and the rapid rise of Fairground Attraction who reformed last year, 34 years after they split in 1990. It's highly entertaining from the kick-off, not least ….

… snogging the Earl of Moray’s son during Dylan at Blackbushe.

… the jingles she sang on ‘80s radio ads.

… what she learnt from Annie Lennox when touring with Eurythmics.

… backing singer stage-wear etiquette.

… performing Love Me Tender aged eight in the school classroom.

… singing Three Drunken Maidens and Lord Franklin at the Irvine Folk Club, over the road from Amanda’s Wet T-Shirt Night.

… busking in Paris and the songs that pulled the most money (eg Tupelo Honey and All Along the Watchtower).

… “men you put on the shoulder-pads for.”

… what Billy Bragg called “a civilian”.

… Chou Pahrot, Cado Belle, Café Jacques, Stone the Crows and other great lost Scottish bands.

… Hamish Imlach’s advice about how to project onstage.

… how to use a pencil as a pop-shield.

… and her Grandad “who loved his wife so much he nearly told her”.

Eddi Reader tickets here: https://eddireader.co.uk/gigs/

Fairground Attraction’s Beautiful Happening album: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beautiful-Happening-Fairground-Attraction/dp/B0CZ7NMJYV

https://eddireader.co.uk/

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Passing the Dutchie 'pon the left-hand side, we sift through this week’s events, rants and theories which absorbingly include …

… that Drake v Kendrick Lamar beef in full!

… was Bowie only as good as his collaborators?

… Kingmaker, Toploader, Feeder, Slayer, Longdancer, Widowmaker …. has there ever been a good band with a name ending ‘-er’?

…… seeing the Jam at the Hope & Anchor.

… John Lennon was not a working-class hero. Bob Marley shot no sheriffs. Joe Strummer’s daddy wasn’t a bankrobber. Starship patently never built any cities on rock and roll. Monstrous rock and roll untruths exposed!

… why Film Star Good-Looking is different from Rock Star Good-Looking.

… one glove, a swan dress, comedy specs, a snake, a bat …. Pop stars with a cartoonable signature.

… Woody Allen, Lisa Kudrow, Scarlett Johansson and the Kanye West clip that was never sanctioned.

… JD Salinger, Scott Joplin, Thomas Pynchon, Banksy – people whose voices we’ve never heard.

… the gripes of Taylor Swift.

… ‘An Interminable Appetite For Spite’ and other album titles in waiting.

… and Buffy Sainte-Marie and the perils of misrepresentation.

Plus birthday guest Chris Lintott remembers seeing Bowie as a mime artist.

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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