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Here is a story about Johnny Rotten

Almways a great admirer of David Bowie - here is a picture of Johnny Rotten with red Ziggy hair and attire as at Bowie's appearance at the Russell Harty Plus Show in January 1973. Legend has it that a member or members of the Sex Pistols stole the P.A. system that was being used at Bowie's Ziggy Stardust Retirement Gig on the 2nd or 3rd July 3 1973!

The eyes and the bracelets tell all

Quite a number of published Ziggy Stardust photographs are shown the wrong way around - such as on the EMI cover for The Best of David Bowie 1969/1974 (the Sukita photograph has been reversed from the original).  For all images his left eye (the fixed and usually larger pupil) should be on the left side of his face and not his right side.  Similarly - when you view his concert photos from 1972 and 1973 - his wedding bands (two thin bracelets) which feature in almost every Ziggy Stardust photos - should be seen on his left arm.

6 June 1972 & 1992

David is married to Iman Abdul Majid. They married in Switzerland on April 24th 1992 at Lausanne registrar office with a civil ceremony. They also had a wedding blessing ceremony in Florence, Italy on 6th June 1992 - exactly 20 years after the release of the Ziggy Stardust album.

Ziggy on the screen, stage and theatre

David Bowie (The Old Grey Whistle Test - 8 February 1972) and "Robert" who appeared in "The Blue and The Green" (The Tomorrow People)

David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust character directly inspired the U.K. sci-fi show called The Tomorrow People (Thames Television), the creator of which, Roger Price, met Bowie and the Spiders From Mars on the set of TV's "Lift of with Ayshea" (where Bowie sang "Starman" on 15 June 1972). This programme, which ran from 1973-1978, was one of the UK's better children's sci-fi series (esp. from 1973-1975) and featured elite "gifted" teenagers (like the Homo Superiors from "Oh You Pretty Things"), who with an adult supervisor and a Hal-2000 like computer called TIM, teleported about (they called it "jaunting"), battled aliens and generally solved many of the world's problems. The show's creator Roger Price stated that he came up with the idea after meeting Bowie and reading a mind-expanding novel called The Mind in Chains, by Dr Christopher Evans. Evans became the show's official 'scientific adviser' and David Bowie? Well, by the look of the character "Robert" above (whose quilted clothes & Ziggy hairstyle were obviously inspired by Bowie) and some of the alien costumes, Ziggy Stardust was probably the wardrobe master.

In the Irish film Last of the High Kings (1977) - which included "All The Young Dudes" in it's soundtrack - the lead character, Frankie Griffin is a huge Bowie fan (a Ziggy poster is shown on his wall). In one scene he says "I'm sorry but Elvis is a has-been - Bowie's much better!".  When his mother throws his records out the window, they include "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars" LP.

On NBC's Today show on 6 August 1999, Sheryl Crow was featured as the musical guest performing in Manhattan. Throughout the segment, she was wearing a Ziggy-era t-shirt, complete with the David Bowie's name across the top. In a short interview, she mentioned her influences as Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones while keeping her arms folded over Bowie's face on the shirt. Later at another concert she again wore the same Ziggy Stardust t-shirt on stage.

Depeche Mode opened their European Singles 1986-98 tour in Helsinki with a homage to Ziggy Stardust. During their rendition of "Walking In My Shoes", the video screen flashed pictures of band member Martin Gore dressed in Ziggy Stardust garb (with the Aladdin Sane lightning bolt makeup).

Coronation Street - the UK's oldest TV soap and second most popular programme, featured Ziggy Stardust in one episode. A Valentine's Ball with the 1970s as its theme showed character Les Battersby dressed in a Aladdin Sane-type costume, complete with lightning bolt face flash.

On the television show Mystery Science Theater 3000 the three main characters (1 human & 2 robots) were watching a film which had a scene of a guy with reddish hair smoking a cigarette.  The robot Tom Servo responded by singing "And Ziggy played guitar!!!!!!"

In the rock opera Starmania, by Luc Plamondon and Michel Berger, one character is named Ziggy, because he fell in love with Bowie when he was younger.

On "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" the character Oz (played by Seth Green) once wore a red Ziggy Stardust t-shirt.

On HBO's comedy series Sex and the City, Sarah Jessica Parker, the main character, once wore a pink T-shirt with the Aladdin Sane album cover on the front.

Ziggy in 1993?

"Q" magazine cover photo (1993)
Click for larger image

This picture of David Bowie with the famous ALADDIN SANE lightning flash on his face appeared 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 1993. 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)

Footnote: On the front of "Q" #100 issue was a small shot of the REAL photo of Bowie before the flash on his face was added.

Ziggy Cocktails

A bright green-coloured Ziggy Stardust cocktail was invented by management at the Top Rank Suite, Hanley to mark Bowie's appearance there on 7 September 1972. The ingredients were advocaat, pernod, creme-de-menthe and lime and was served by scantily clad waitresses.

And here is the recipe for a Suffragette City cocktail. In a shaker half-filled with ice cubes, combine all of the following ingredients, mix and pour.

Light Rum 1 1/2 Oz.
Grand Mernier 1/2 Oz.
Lime Juice 1/2 Oz.
Grenadine 1/2 Tsp.

Aladdin Sane Cocktail
A more recent creation by Absolut Vodka and described by Cosmopolitan as: "Like the David Bowie alter-ego for whom the drink is named, the Aladdin Sane is a superior variation on a timeless classic."  The ingredients are: 1 oz Absolut Citron, Juice of 1/2 Lime, 1/2 oz Cointreau and 1/4 cup Fruit punch.

Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker 3/4 filled with ice. Shake, allow to chill for 5 minutes, re-shake, and pour into a martini glass.

Those Ziggy Questions

US television game show Hollywood Squares once had the question "What glam-rocker billed himself as Ziggy Stardust in the 70s?" The celebrity, Michael Boatman (Spin City), gave the correct answer "David Bowie."

Q. Who was the King of Glitter Rock?  A. David Bowie (from Trivial Pursuits Baby Boom Edition 1984).

Ziggy in other's songs

One of the most famous covers of this song is by Bauhaus.   They also contributed Bela Lugosi's Dead for the opening titles of Bowie's Goth vampire movie "The Hunger" but were reported to be "too scared" to do Ziggy Stardust.

Jason Huntington's Ziggy Stardust/Bauhaus tattoo

There are two songs that use the famous "Suffragette City" line "Wham Bam Thank You Ma'am!": 1) Glam Slam by Prince who sings "Glam Slam, thank you ma'am - you really make my day" and 2) Psych Out by The Seers who sing "Wham bam, thank you ma'am, out of my head, don't give a damn..."

Boy George's solo CD The Unrecoupable One Man Bandit includes a cover of Suffragette City, while one its tracks Who Killed Rock n Roll includes the lyrics "Ziggy played guitar for me ..."

The full title of the Ziggy Stardust album was parodied by Marc Bolan with his own album called "Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders Of Tomorrow" (1974) and less sympathetically by the Strawbs who released the 7" single "Lay Down/Backside" in October 1972 (A&M ref AMS7035) with "Backside" credited to Ciggy Barlust and the Whales from Venus.

Ziggy Stardust is mentioned in the song Herra Mirandos (Mr Mirandos) by a Finnish artist called Hector:

Ziggy tähtiin sukeltaa, pinnan alle uskaltaa, meidän kanssa tanssii huomiseen.
(Ziggy dives into the stars, dares to go under the surface, he dances with Meira into tomorrow)

Meira is one of Hector's (alias Heikki Harma) mystical female characters who appeared on his records in early seventies. Hector has been Bowie fan from those days, he even had Ziggy hair (although not red...) in the first part of seventies.

The Cleveland group Snake Rock have a song called No More Glamour Boys which has the lyrics "Glitter is Dead - Ziggy get off the stage..."

Cherry Vanilla, David Bowie's press agent during the Ziggy Stardust period recorded a UK album called Bad Girl (RCA 25122) in 1978.  It included the song Little Red Rooster which was reportedly written about David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust.

Gyllene Tider's CD release ("Gyllene Tider" 1990 - Parlophone (Holland) 7942192) has a song called Åh Ziggy Stardust (Var Blev Du Av?) roughly translated as "Oh Ziggy - what has become of you?"

A song by Bon Jovi on the Crush album is called Captain Crash and the Beauty Queen from Mars.  The refrain begins with...'All dressed up like Ziggy only he couldn't play guitar'

The Sweet wrote a parody of Ziggy Stardust and the song Star called Rock And Roll Disgrace

You're a heterosexual dream
a super phallic machine
Well who do you think you are?
Well you think you're a star
yeah a rock & roll star, you are

Oh you part your lips that way
Do you care what people say?
The chicks know what you are
Well they think you're a star
Yeah, a rock & roll star, you are

Rock & Roll
You're a rock & roll queen
Doncha know what I mean
Oh you know
You're a rock & roll queen
a young man's dream

Giving guitar's head
in a silver stream of red
Has it gone too far?
Now you know you're a star,
yeah a real superstar, you are

Rock & Roll
A rock & roll queen
Doncha know what I mean
Oh you know
You're a rock & roll queen
a young man's dream

Rock & Roll
You're a rock & roll queen
Doncha know what I mean
Oh you know
You're a rock & roll queen
a young man's dream

You're a heterosexual dream
a super phallic machine
Well who do you think you are?
Well you think you're a star
yeah a rock & roll star, you are
Well you think you're a star
yeah a rock & roll star, you are (X4)

Well you think you're a star
yeah a rock & roll staaaaaar...

Brazilian songwriter Alvin L. mentions "the B-side of Ziggy Stardust" in his Portuguese song Aprender on his first solo album. He cites it as one of the things that tried to tell him something.

The band Crash Pad, from the USA, does a song called TS/TV about the history of androgyny in rock which has the verse "Ziggy wore a lot of makeup, They said he was a lad insane, He made it with Weird and Gilly, But it didn't help to ease the pain ...".

The Bikini Beach Band released a 7" single called A Design for Life (STIM 012) which features a back cover just like the Ziggy Stardust album including identical fonts, colours and the famous words "To Be Played at Maximum Volume". The song itself also honours Ziggy by breaking into a few bars of "Rock 'N Roll Suicide" halfway through!

The American heavy metal/glam band L.A. Guns (http://www.lagunsweb.com) did a rather sweet and charged up cover of "Suffragette City" on their 1992 EP called "Cuts".

A Canadian band called Conscience Pilate (http://www.fadingways.com) did a cover of "Lady Stardust" on their 1996 EP called "Movie Scene Street".

Eurythmic's Dave Stewart's CD Greetings From The Gutter (East West 4509-975462) features the track Chelsea Lovers which has the lyrics "Stardust lovers in a Ziggy cartoon". The liner notes also say "thanks to Mr. B." which may explain the (uncredited?) Bowie sounding vocals on that album.

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---This page last modified: 10 Dec 2018---