David Bowie & the Story of Ziggy Stardust Page #7

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so...

By February 1973,

Aladdin Sane was completed

and Bowie was straight back

into another American tour.

In the space of just 18 months,

he'd released three

of his greatest albums,

played two extensive tours

and was about to embark

on a new live schedule

that involved nearly 100 gigs.

# She'll come, she'll go

# She'll lay belief on you. #

It was exhausting

cos we were doing two shows a night

and he constantly did...David

had to do all the interviews,

had to do all the press,

had to do everything else,

and then go out and perform

and do that. That must've been

really hard for him.

I don't think he was healthy

by the end of that tour, you know.

His entourage were getting very

concerned about his physical health

because he wasn't eating properly,

he wasn't sleeping.

Bowie said of that period,

he couldn't stand the noise

of the band ringing in his ears,

whether he was on stage or not.

I wasn't getting rid of him

at all, in fact,

I was joining forces with him.

The doppelganger and myself

were starting to become one

and the same person.

And then you start

on this trial of chaotic

psychological distraction, you know,

and you become what is called

a drug casualty at the end of it all.

#..star. #

When it really hit big

and people wanted interviews,

they didn't want to talk

to David Bowie,

they wanted to talk

to Ziggy Stardust,

and you could see the struggle.

Bowie was giving interviews saying,

"I seem to have created this monster

"and it is taking me over and I

don't really know who I am anymore."

It was always Ziggy.

Even when you're in the car,

you kind of had Ziggy with you.

After two months in America,

the tour moved to Japan.

There was already a big buzz

surrounding Ziggy's arrival

because of his use

of Kabuki make-up and clothes.

Bowie also wore outfits created

by the country's leading fashion

designer, Kansai Yamamoto.

When the tour came to Tokyo,

Kansai presented Bowie

with a whole load of specially

designed Ziggy regalia.

In the BBC documentary Cracked

Actor, filmed a year later in 1974,

Bowie explained their significance.

Aladdin Sane was a schizophrenic,

that has accounted for lots of the...

why there are

so many costume changes,

because he had so many personalities

that, as far as I was concerned,

each costume change was a different

facet of his personality.

# Oh, yeah! #

Released in April 1973,

Aladdin Sane went straight

to the top of the UK charts.

It was Bowie's first

number one record

and it wasn't long before

all his previous albums charted too.

The next month, the momentous tour

rolled into Britain

for its final stretch.

I had said all I could say

about Ziggy and I thought, "Well,

"I am very tempted to go further with

this Ziggy thing only because it's

"so popular, but actually it's

not what I really want to do."

I mean,

I've created this bloody thing,

how to do I sort of get out of it?

The extensive UK tour

drew in hordes of teenage Ziggys,

many desperate to see

their idol in the flesh.

and every ticket sold.

# So, come on

So, come on

# You've really got

a good thing going

# Well, come on

Well, come on

# If you think

you're going to make it

# You better hang on to yourself! #

The audiences were screaming,

people jumping off the rafters.

You saw people getting knocked down

coming on stage by the bodyguards.

The level of enthusiasm and the joy

of the audience was

more honest and deeper than the US.

# Watch that man

# Oh, honey, watch that man. #

Being there in the front,

I just remember being lost

in the whole kind of emotion

of the whole thing, you know.

It was incredibly powerful and I'd

never seen a band like that before.

You really wanted to be a part of it

and it was part of belonging

to something, as well as being

part of a culture, part of a gang.

I used to run David up, get him

in the car, get the band in the car.

Within a couple of months, it was

a mob scene. It was the same...

It was like the Beatles!

You know, there we were,

and people were climbing on the car.

It wasn't just the fans that were

struggling to catch a glimpse

of Britain's biggest star.

In fact, the last tour

we ever did with him,

we'd only see him on stage.

We'd walk on stage,

we'd play the show,

he'd get in his limousine

and clear off.

And we'd all go back to the hotel

and we would see him

the next day on the stage again.

We thought it was odd.

We had started out as a band.

Really, that's what he wanted

was a band.

And then the bigger and bigger

it got, the less we saw of him.

The tour was set for a triumphant

end at the Hammersmith Odeon.

The whole event was filmed by

documentary maker D.A. Pennebaker,

who had been commissioned

by Bowie's record label to capture

history in the making.

The BBC was there too,

filming for the Nationwide

current affairs programme.

What's it like with all these girls

loving your husband so much?

Absolutely fabulous. Wouldn't you

love to be loved by so many?

Nearly a decade after he had

started on his quest for fame,

David Bowie was the most famous

pop star in Britain.

Amongst the excited Ziggy clones

queuing outside, celebrities

arrived to catch the conquering

hero at his homecoming gig.

Can I ask you why you've come

to see David Bowie?

He's a fine performer, isn't he?

As usual, he went through his

extravagant pre-show preparations.

Everything was set

for an electric performance.

And Bowie delivered

with cool composure.

# Making love with his ego

# Ziggy sucked up into his mind

# Like a leper messiah

# When the kids had killed the man

# I had to break up the band. #

Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders

From Mars were playing

the concert of their lives.

Both the band and the audience

were high on the energy

buzzing around the venue.

Backstage was buzzing too,

with the rumour

of a special announcement.

Just before we went on stage,

David came round to me

and he said,

"Don't start Rock 'N Roll Suicide

until I give you the note."

It was decided in Japan.

Mick was sworn to secrecy.

"And if you do this for us,

you're going to be the next star,

"you're going to be doing this next

thing, but you can't tell the boys."

Just before the final song, David

Bowie approached the microphone

and with a few words,

broke the hearts of millions.

Of all the shows

on this tour, this...

this particular show

will remain with us for the longest

because not only is it

the last show of the tour,

but it's the last show

that we'll ever do.

Thank you.

We all went, "What the f***

is he talking about?"

Um, quite shocked.

I kept looking at Woody

and Woody was playing away going,

"I don't know what's going on,"

you know.

It didn't quite connect

with what we'd been talking about

three days earlier.

So we didn't know

whether that was true or not.

Everybody knew except

for Woody and Trevor. I knew.

The sound guy knew. I think that was

horrific to have done that to them.

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