THE ROCK & ROLL ARCHIVEDavid Bowie | The Complete History of David Robert Jones
CHAPTER FIVE
LONDON CALLING "THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD"
1970–1971
David Bowie had finally achieved something he had been chasing for years.
A hit record.
“Space Oddity” had reached the British Top Five and introduced the world to the strange young man from Brixton with the extraordinary imagination.
But Bowie wasn't about to settle down.
Instead, London became his laboratory.
From the pubs and rehearsal rooms of Beckenham to the clubs of Soho, the studios of West London and the emerging underground scene around Camden, Bowie was absorbing everything.
And somewhere between Haddon Hall, the Marquee Club and Trident Studios, David Jones was becoming David Bowie.
BECKENHAM | THE ARTIST'S LABORATORY
Bowie's home life was centred increasingly around Haddon Hall in Beckenham.
It wasn't glamorous.
But it was creative.
The house became a meeting place for musicians, artists, friends and hangers-on, while Bowie filled his days with writing, rehearsing and experimenting.
Nearby, at the Three Tuns pub, Bowie had helped create the Beckenham Arts Lab.
The Sunday sessions brought together musicians, poets, artists and performers.
This wasn't the London of West End theatres and television studios.
It was another London.
A London of back rooms, borrowed stages and experimental artists trying to create something new.
Bowie fitted perfectly into it.
The Arts Lab was important because it allowed him to combine everything that fascinated him:
music, theatre, poetry, mime, art and performance.
He wasn't simply trying to become a rock star.
He was trying to work out what an artist could actually be.
SOHO | THE NEXT BOWIE EMERGES
But Bowie was increasingly drawn back towards central London.
And particularly Soho.
This was the London of record shops, clubs, musicians, producers, photographers and characters.
The streets around Wardour Street, Carnaby Street, Dean Street and Soho Square were becoming part of Bowie's creative universe.
He knew the clubs.
He knew the musicians.
He knew the people who could get things done.
And he knew that if you wanted to make it in British rock music, Soho was one of the places where you had to be.
One building would become particularly important.
Trident Studios.
TRIDENT STUDIOS | WHERE BOWIE FOUND HIS SOUND
Tucked away in St Anne's Court in Soho, Trident was already developing a formidable reputation.
The Beatles had recorded there.
The Rolling Stones had used it.
Elton John would become closely associated with the studio.
And now Bowie was walking through its doors.
In January 1970 he recorded “The Prettiest Star” at Trident, with Marc Bolan contributing guitar.
Think about that scene for a moment.
Bowie.
Bolan.
Soho.
Two future icons of glam rock sharing a recording studio before either had reached the heights that were coming.
It was London rock history in the making.
And Trident would become even more important the following year.
ENTER MICK RONSON
On 3 February 1970, Bowie met a young guitarist from Hull who would change his career.
Mick Ronson.
The introduction took place around the Marquee Club in Wardour Street.
Ronson had been brought down from Hull by drummer John Cambridge.
Bowie met him.
They talked.
And then they went back to Haddon Hall in Beckenham to rehearse.
The chemistry was immediate.
Bowie had found the guitarist he needed.
Ronson had found the artist who could give his extraordinary guitar playing a new purpose.
The partnership would become one of the most important musical relationships of the 1970s.
THE MARQUEE CLUB
The Marquee Club was one of London's great rock institutions.
By the time Bowie was developing his new electric sound, the club had already become legendary.
It was a place where musicians could see one another, network and discover what was happening next.
Bowie understood the importance of these rooms.
The stage mattered.
But so did the audience.
So did the people standing at the bar.
So did the musicians watching from the shadows.
London's club circuit was effectively a living musical laboratory.
And Bowie was taking notes.
THE ROUNDHOUSE | THE HYPE
On 22 February 1970, Bowie and his new band performed at The Roundhouse in Camden.
The band had not yet become the Spiders from Mars.
This was The Hype.
And Bowie was already experimenting with something that would eventually become one of his greatest weapons:
the image.
The musicians appeared in superhero-inspired costumes.
It was strange.
It was theatrical.
It was ahead of its time.
And it didn't quite work.
But failure was never wasted on Bowie.
He learned from it.
The Hype experiment helped convince him that the visual identity of a band could be every bit as important as its music.
A lesson he would later take to an extraordinary extreme.
SOHO AGAIN | THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD
Bowie's music was becoming heavier.
The gentle folk influences of his earlier work were being replaced by something darker.
More muscular.
More dangerous.
Mick Ronson's guitar was central to the transformation.
With Tony Visconti on bass and Woody Woodmansey on drums, Bowie was developing the sound that would become The Man Who Sold the World.
The album was recorded partly at Trident Studios in Soho and at other London studios.
This was no longer the wide-eyed singer of “Space Oddity”.
This was something stranger.
Heavier.
More experimental.
THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD
Released in the United States in November 1970 and Britain in April 1971, The Man Who Sold the World was a radical step forward.
The title track.
“Width of a Circle.”
“After All.”
“Black Country Rock.”
“Running Gun Blues.”
The songs explored identity, madness, violence, sexuality and the darker side of modern life.
Bowie was discovering that rock music could be theatrical without becoming traditional theatre.
And that a song could contain a character without the character necessarily being Bowie himself.
That idea would become crucial.
Because Bowie was about to start creating characters who could live independently of David Jones.
THE LONDON IMAGE
The album's original British cover was another statement.
Bowie appeared wearing an extraordinary satin outfit designed by Michael Fish.
It wasn't the standard uniform of a male rock star.
And that was precisely the point.
London's fashion scene was changing rapidly.
The old rules were beginning to collapse.
Carnaby Street had already helped transform British fashion.
Boutiques were challenging traditional menswear.
Designers were playing with colour, shape and gender.
Bowie was watching all of it.
And he was beginning to realise that clothing could be another musical instrument.
HADDON HALL
Back at Haddon Hall, Bowie was writing constantly.
The house became a creative headquarters.
Here, away from the pressure of the London recording industry, Bowie could experiment with melodies, characters and ideas.
And this is where one of the great transformations of his career began.
The songs became more melodic.
The piano became increasingly important.
The writing became more sophisticated.
Bowie was moving away from the darkness of The Man Who Sold the World.
And towards something brighter.
More colourful.
More theatrical.
More unmistakably his own.
THE RISE OF THE SPIDERS
Mick Ronson remained at the centre of the new sound.
Then came Trevor Bolder on bass.
And Mick “Woody” Woodmansey on drums.
The three musicians would eventually become the legendary Spiders from Mars.
But before the name existed, they were simply young musicians rehearsing and playing wherever they could.
One particularly important location was Underhill Studios on Blackheath Hill in Greenwich.
In late 1971, Bowie and his new band rehearsed there.
The sound was developing.
The songs were developing.
And the band was developing.
The machinery was beginning to move.
TRIDENT | HUNKY DORY
Then Bowie returned to Trident Studios in Soho.
This time, something extraordinary happened.
During the summer of 1971, Bowie, Ronson, Bolder and Woodmansey began recording what would become Hunky Dory.
Rick Wakeman joined them on piano.
Ken Scott became the producer.
And suddenly Bowie had assembled a remarkable creative team.
The album was recorded at Trident between June and August 1971.
Inside that Soho studio, Bowie was writing the future.
“Changes.”
“Oh! You Pretty Things.”
“Life on Mars?”
“Queen Bitch.”
“Quicksand.”
“Kooks.”
“The Bewlay Brothers.”
The album was filled with characters, ideas and influences.
And although it sounded completely different from The Man Who Sold the World, it was being created by essentially the same restless artist.
That was Bowie's secret.
He never stopped moving.
“LIFE ON MARS?” | LONDON'S STRANGE BEAUTY
“Life on Mars?” is perhaps the perfect Bowie song for this period.
It takes ordinary life and turns it into something surreal.
A girl.
A cinema.
A song.
A world that seems familiar but somehow isn't.
That was Bowie.
He could walk through Soho and see something completely different from everyone else.
London was full of contradictions.
Old and new.
Beautiful and ugly.
Traditional and rebellious.
And Bowie was absorbing every contradiction he encountered.
THE MARQUEE, TRIDENT, HADDON HALL
By the end of 1971, you could almost draw a line across London's map.
Haddon Hall where Bowie wrote and imagined.
The Marquee where musicians gathered and new sounds were heard.
Trident Studios where the music was recorded.
Camden's Roundhouse where Bowie experimented with theatrical performance.
Greenwich where the band rehearsed.
Beckenham's Three Tuns where Bowie had experimented with the Arts Lab.
These weren't just addresses.
They were stages in Bowie's transformation.
London was helping create him.
“CHANGES”
“Changes” became the opening statement of Hunky Dory.
And the message could hardly have been more appropriate.
Bowie had already changed his name.
Changed his sound.
Changed his clothes.
Changed his band.
Changed his performance style.
And now he was preparing to change everything again.
Because somewhere inside those Soho recording sessions was another idea.
A character.
A rock star from another world.
A creature Bowie could use to explore fame, sexuality, performance, death and the mythology of rock & roll.
His name would be Ziggy Stardust.
But Ziggy wasn't quite ready yet.
First, Bowie needed to finish creating the songs.
Then he needed to find the clothes.
The hair.
The makeup.
The band.
The stage.
The story.
And the city.
Because when Ziggy finally arrived in London, he wouldn't simply walk onto a stage.
He would take over the city.
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