Back to index
"Wagon Wheel" (Bowie): Uncredited
Bowie song which appears on Lou Reed's TRANSFORMER (1972).
"Waiting for The Man" (Lou
Reed): Velvet Underground song covered by Bowie at Ziggy Stardust concerts and
performed together by Lou Reed and Bowie at the Ziggy Stardust concert at the Royal
Festival Hall, London on 8 July 1972.
Wakeman, Rick: Pianist on Hunky Dory
and also the "Space Oddity" single. Later of YES and solo fame.
Ward, Brian: Photographer who shot
the album sleeve photographs for THE RISE AND FALL OF ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM
MARS (1972) album. Ward was contracted to take photos for RCA from 1970 to 1972 and also
shot the album cover for THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD (1970), HUNKY DORY (1971) and various
other pictures of Bowie in this period. Bowie had specifically asked to work with Ward,
having admired his work with Jethro Tull. In the 1970s Ward would also work
with Bowie-influenced singer Gary Numan.
Warhol, Andy: American pop artist
and playwright who Bowie met in New York in 1971. A number of the English cast from his
underground play Pork which toured the UK were hired by the MainMan
organisation as Ziggy Stardust entourage/publicists.
"Watch That Man" (Bowie):
Song on ALADDIN SANE (1973) and performed on the 2nd
US Tour, the Japanese Tour, and the 3rd UK Tour.
"Watch That Man" was very much a
Stones-sounding thing, with the vocal used as an instrument rather than as a lead.
When it came to mixing the track, to get the sort of power of it, I just put everything up
front, which meant losing the vocal. So I did the mix the way I felt. When we
delivered the tapes of the album, I heard from MainMan, "Great, but can we get
another mix on "Watch That Man" with the vocal more up front so we can hear a
bit more of David? So I said, "Fine" and did the mix with David more up
front. The problem though is that with the vocal more up front, the other
instruments have to drop back. Then, a couple of weeks later, I get a phone call
from RCA, and they said "You were right in the first place. We'll go with the
original " - Ken Scott (1999) on the mixing of "Watch That Man"
Watts, Michael: British journalist
who interviewed Bowie for the famous Melody Maker article on 21 January 1972
("Oh, You Pretty Thing!") in which Bowie declared himself to be bisexual/gay.
Weiner, Dore: MainMan secretary on
the 1st US Tour.
"Where Have All the Good Times Gone?"
(Ray Davies): Kinks song recorded by Bowie on his PIN-UPS (1973)
tribute album to British Sixties groups.
"White Light/White Heat"
(Lou Reed): Velvet Underground song covered by Bowie and performed on the 1st
UK and US Tours and the 2nd UK Tour.
"Width of a Circle, The" (Bowie):
Song from THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD (1970) which was performed on all Ziggy Stardust
concert tours in 1972 and 1973. The lengthy Ronson guitar solos were used by Bowie at
concerts as an opportunity to make costume changes.
"Wild-Eyed Boy From FreeCloud"
(Bowie): Song from THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD (1970) which was performed on the
1st and 3rd UK concert tours.
Wilson, Anya: Promotional lady for
Mainman in 1972.
Wilshaw, Brian: Saxophone player on
the 2nd US Tour, the Japanese Tour and the 3rd UK Tour.
WMMS: FM radio station in Cleveland
whose disk jockeys - Denny Sanders and Kid Leo heavily promoted THE RISE AND FALL OF ZIGGY
STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS (1972) by playing it almost non-stop due to fan demand
for every track.
"You rarely see albums like that. The Rolling
Stones you could play every track, maybe the Who, and it was unusual because he was so
new. But boy, when Ziggy Stardust came out, all of those songs were so strong. Every track
went on the air, and every track hit." - Denny Sanders
Woodmansey, Mick (Woody):
Drummer in The Spiders From Mars. His stage
name for the Ziggy Stardust concerts was Gilly (see lyrics to "Ziggy Stardust". Along with Trevor Bolder he was a member of Mick
Ronson's previous band called The Rats and later Ronno.
The 
Companion
