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This picture of David Bowie with the famous ALADDIN SANE lightning flash on his face appeared (post-Aladidn Sane) on the front cover of "Q" magazine issue #80 in 1993.
The photo was taken by photographer Peter Gabriel (not the singer) in London, April of that year.

So was the photo compelling evidence of the then 46 year-old Bowie returning to his Ziggy roots? Well - not really.
The following explanation was provided by the editor in the "Q" 100th special edition published in January 1995:

"One of the problems with "Q" is that although we get fantastic access to huge stars, it's sometimes difficult to remind readers of what it was they loved about these people in the first place. This Bowie picture for the cover of "Q" #80 was, when it arrived with us, just a rather nice contemporary portrait. We needed somehow to link it into the glories of David's past. We had the idea of the cover of Aladdin Sane, and after much telephoning, discovered that a computer enhancement company called Jones Bloom, just down the road from us in fact, had the very frontier technology we needed to convincingly paint David's skin. They did a fantastic job. We didn't receive a single letter saying, That isn't the real Aladdin Sane flash. Indeed, dozens of people asked, "How the hell did you get him to agree to do that? I got a message back from Bowie himself saying that it was 'cheeky'."  - Danny Kelly (1995)

Later on the front of "Q" #100 was a small shot of the REAL photo of Bowie before the Aladdin Sane flash was added.

See also: Other Oddities and Ends

---This page last modified: 28 Dec 2018---