THE ROCK & ROLL ARCHIVE | David Bowie | The Complete History of David Robert Jones
CHAPTER SIX
ZIGGY STARDUST | THE CREATION OF A ROCK & ROLL MESSIAH
1972
By the beginning of 1972, David Bowie had something he had never really possessed before.
A plan.
The songs were there.
The musicians were there.
The manager was there.
The clothes were getting stranger.
The hair was about to get red.
And London was about to meet Ziggy Stardust.
Bowie had spent years searching for an identity.
Now he was going to create one.
Not a disguise.
Not simply a stage name.
A complete character.
A rock star from another world.
HADDON HALL | THE BIRTHPLACE OF ZIGGY
At Haddon Hall in Beckenham, Bowie and his circle were developing the ideas that would become the Ziggy Stardust story.
The house was still the creative centre of his world.
It was chaotic, crowded and full of artistic energy.
Bowie was writing constantly.
Mick Ronson was developing the guitar arrangements.
Woody Woodmansey and Trevor Bolder were becoming an increasingly powerful rhythm section.
And Bowie was thinking about the future.
He was fascinated by the idea of creating a fictional rock star and then allowing that character to take over the stage.
The inspiration came from everywhere.
Science fiction.
Japanese theatre.
British music hall.
American rock & roll.
The Velvet Underground.
Marc Bolan.
The flamboyance of London's fashion scene.
And the mythology surrounding rock stars themselves.
Bowie wasn't simply going to perform songs.
He was going to create a rock & roll theatre.
MARC BOLAN
One of the people Bowie watched closely was Marc Bolan.
The two had known each other for years.
They had shared recording sessions.
They moved through some of the same London circles.
But by 1971–72, Bolan was becoming a star with T. Rex.
His glitter, curls, platform boots and sexual ambiguity were helping create the new glam-rock aesthetic.
Bowie saw what was happening.
He understood the power of visual identity.
But he wasn't interested in copying Bolan.
He wanted to go somewhere else.
If Bolan was the electric pixie of glam rock, Bowie wanted to create something more theatrical.
More futuristic.
More dangerous.
THE SPIDERS FROM MARS
Mick Ronson, Trevor Bolder and Woody Woodmansey were now becoming more than a backing band.
They were becoming a unit.
And Bowie gave them a name:
The Spiders from Mars.
The name sounded like something from a science-fiction comic.
It was perfect.
Ronson's guitar would provide the muscle.
Bolder's bass would give the songs weight.
Woodmansey would drive everything forward.
And Bowie would stand at the centre.
The transformation was underway.
THE SOUND
The music was changing too.
Bowie's songwriting had become more direct.
The arrangements were bigger.
The guitars were louder.
The melodies were unforgettable.
And the songs were increasingly written as if they were scenes from a film.
“Five Years.”
“Moonage Daydream.”
“Starman.”
“Ziggy Stardust.”
“Rock 'n' Roll Suicide.”
This wasn't simply an album.
It was becoming a story.
TRIDENT STUDIOS | SOHO
Once again, Bowie returned to Trident Studios in St Anne's Court, Soho.
This was becoming one of the most important places in his career.
He had already recorded Hunky Dory there.
Now, during the autumn of 1971 and into early 1972, Bowie and the Spiders worked on the songs that would become The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.
Producer Ken Scott was behind the desk.
Ronson's guitar was becoming increasingly distinctive.
And Bowie was beginning to understand exactly what he wanted.
The songs needed drama.
The album needed a narrative.
And the character needed somewhere to live.
London was about to provide the perfect stage.
“FIVE YEARS”
The album begins with a countdown.
“Five Years.”
The world is supposedly running out of time.
Earth has five years left.
The opening drums crash in.
Bowie sings.
And suddenly the listener is inside the story.
This wasn't conventional rock & roll storytelling.
It was theatre.
Cinema.
Science fiction.
And the strange thing was that Bowie could make an apocalyptic story feel intensely personal.
The end of the world was happening around ordinary people.
Children.
Lovers.
Strangers.
People in the street.
People in London.
ZIGGY
So who was Ziggy Stardust?
Bowie described him as an extraterrestrial rock star who comes to Earth during humanity's final years.
But Ziggy wasn't simply an alien.
He was a projection of everything Bowie found fascinating about rock stars.
The ego.
The sexuality.
The adoration.
The costumes.
The screaming fans.
The self-destruction.
The mythology.
Ziggy would become a messiah.
And then, inevitably, the messiah would consume himself.
Bowie was creating a character who would eventually become bigger than the person playing him.
THE HAIR
Then came one of the most recognisable visual transformations in rock history.
Red hair.
Bowie's natural brown hair was replaced by an explosive orange-red style.
The transformation was created with the help of stylist Suzi Fussey.
Suddenly David Bowie looked different.
Alien.
Flamboyant.
Unmistakable.
But the hair was only the beginning.
The clothes were about to become even more extraordinary.
KANSAI YAMAMOTO
Bowie discovered the work of Japanese designer Kansai Yamamoto.
Yamamoto's designs were flamboyant, theatrical and radically different from conventional menswear.
Bowie was fascinated.
The clothes gave Ziggy a visual language.
Platform boots.
One-piece costumes.
Striking shapes.
Bright colours.
Androgyny.
The distinction between male and female clothing seemed increasingly irrelevant.
Bowie wasn't interested in fitting into fashion.
He wanted fashion to become part of the performance.
THE MAKEUP
And then came the face.
The Ziggy makeup would eventually become one of the most iconic images in popular culture.
A pale face.
Heavy makeup.
The transformation was complete.
David Jones had disappeared.
David Bowie was now playing Ziggy Stardust.
HEDDON STREET
Then Bowie found the perfect London location for Ziggy.
Heddon Street, just off Regent Street.
It was a quiet little street that looked nothing like the glamorous rock & roll world Bowie was creating.
That was precisely why it worked.
In July 1972, Bowie was photographed there by Brian Ward for the cover of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.
Bowie stood beneath the street sign.
A telephone box nearby.
A dark London street.
And above him, the famous sign:
K. WEST.
The photograph became one of the most iconic images in rock history.
It looked like Ziggy had simply landed in London.
And perhaps, in a strange way, he had.
“OH! YOU PRETTY THINGS”
The songs were beginning to take on a life of their own.
“Oh! You Pretty Things” introduced the idea of a new kind of humanity.
“Moonage Daydream” sounded like a manifesto.
“Lady Stardust” blurred the boundaries between performer and audience.
And “Ziggy Stardust” described the character himself.
Bowie was creating mythology in real time.
“STARMAN”
Then came the song that would change everything.
“Starman.”
The song was released as a single in April 1972.
It told the story of an alien messenger reaching humanity through the radio.
But its real power came from its invitation.
Turn on the radio.
Listen.
Something is happening.
For thousands of young listeners, something really was happening.
They just didn't know yet how important it would become.
TOP OF THE POPS
On 6 July 1972, Bowie appeared on Top of the Pops performing “Starman”.
And British television changed.
Bowie walked onto the stage with his bright red hair, makeup and extraordinary costume.
Then he put his arm around Mick Ronson.
It was a seemingly simple gesture.
But to a generation of young viewers, it was electrifying.
Bowie wasn't asking permission.
He was redefining what a male rock star could look like.
The performance became legendary.
And suddenly millions of people knew his name.
SOHO | ZIGGY TAKES THE STAGE
The Ziggy era wasn't created in isolation.
Bowie was performing across London's clubs and theatres.
Places such as the Rainbow Theatre, the Marquee Club and venues around the West End became part of the developing Ziggy story.
The audiences were growing.
The shows were becoming theatrical.
The clothes were becoming more outrageous.
And the Spiders were becoming a formidable live band.
Ronson in particular was beginning to emerge as a star in his own right.
He wasn't simply standing behind Bowie.
He was part of the spectacle.
THE RISE AND FALL
The album was released in June 1972.
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.
The title told the audience exactly what was coming.
A rise.
And a fall.
But nobody yet knew how far Bowie would take the idea.
The album became a critical and commercial breakthrough.
And Ziggy Stardust became more than a character.
He became a cultural phenomenon.
LONDON BECOMES ZIGGY'S CITY
By now, Bowie's London could be mapped almost like a pilgrimage.
Haddon Hall, Beckenham the creative home.
The Three Tuns the Arts Lab and the experimental years.
Trident Studios, Soho where the records were made.
The Marquee, Wardour Street the club world.
The Rainbow Theatre the stage.
Heddon Street the image.
And running through all of it was the same restless spirit.
London was not simply where Bowie lived.
It was part of the story.
It was the landscape through which Ziggy moved.
THE RISE OF ZIGGY
By the end of 1972, David Bowie had crossed a line.
He was no longer simply a successful recording artist.
He had become a phenomenon.
The audience wanted Ziggy.
The press wanted Ziggy.
The record company wanted Ziggy.
And Bowie himself was discovering the dangerous truth about creating a character:
The character can become more powerful than the creator.
Ziggy had arrived.
But Bowie wasn't finished.
Far from it.
The next year would bring America.
Massive tours.
Television appearances.
Aladdin Sane.
More controversy.
More fame.
And a growing obsession with the thin line between David Bowie and the characters he created.
The rise had begun.
And the fall was already written into the title.
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