Bowie (36 page)

A series of pictures of him as a ten-month-old child, glittering with personality, a different expression for every frame; the song sheet for “Liza Jane,” with him grinning at the camera, fresh-faced, brash, confident; a picture of him as Pierrot, his turquoise leather boots; the lyrics of “Ziggy,” scrawled in blue ballpoint pen in a school textbook, his writing full of loops, all attesting to his tendency toward fantasy; fashion dummies dressed in the Ziggy quilted costume; a picture of him and Angie at Haddon Hall, the epitome of
la jeunesse dorée
, yet with a waxwork quality about them—the potpourri of his life and career as one of the most influential artists of the twentieth and twenty-first century. Among the museum exhibits was a page from the performers’ directory
Spotlight
that read “David Bowie, 5 ft 10 and a half inches. Kenneth Pitt Management, 35, Curzon Street.”

But while there is no evidence that David Bowie ever once set foot in the exhibition dedicated to his life, his art, his times, late one evening, when the Victoria and Albert Museum had closed, a frail and emaciated ninety-year-old gentleman, David’s former manager, Ken Pitt, was escorted into the exhibition.

And as he gazed at the memorabilia of David’s life, the incontrovertible evidence of his kaleidoscopic creativity, his talent, and his glory, Ken Pitt’s thoughts may well have strayed to an April afternoon in 1966 when he looked up at the stage of the Marquee Club and first set eyes upon the nineteen-year-old David Bowie, brimming over with talent, sex appeal, and charisma, never dreaming that one day in the near future, this glittering boy would become the man who changed the world.

Star quality: Davie Jones at about seven years old.
Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy

The pouty Prince Charming of Pop.
Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy

The newly minted David Bowie with Phil Lancaster and The Lower Third.
Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy

A cool looking Norman Bowie, whose last name David may well have borrowed.
Barnardo’s

David and his teenage love, Dana Gillespie.
Getty Images

Angie and David at their wedding, with uninvited guest—David’s mother Peggy—1970.
Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy

Pretty Thing: David in a dress and posing outside his and Angie’s then home, Haddon Hall.
Mirrorpix

David (or is it Ziggy?) pays oral tribute to Mick Ronson’s guitar.
Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy

Modern family: David, Angie, and Zowie, 1974.
Pictorial Press Ltd/ Alamy

Ziggy Stardust in all his glory.
Photofest

Elizabeth Taylor paying court to David.
EPA/Kote Rodrigo/Alamy