Who’ll love Aladdin Sane?
MOJO celebrates its centenary with the March edition of the magazine, and they’ve marked the event by asking 100 celebs to “name their hero and tell of the effect they’ve had on their life.” Here follows excerpts from the entries of three people who chose David Bowie as their hero.
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Echo & The Bunnymen, front…erm…Bunnyman, Ian McCulloch
“Bowie changed the face of music and the world. Everybody’s got dyed hair or mad clothes now, but until he kicked in in ’72, it was rare to see that kind of flamboyance. I was 12 when ‘Starman’ came out and I remember hearing it on the radio before going to school. It connected with me in a way no other ever had.
I saw him on Top Of The Pops, it was like “bloody hell”. The presence of it. I’ve met loads of people since who say it changed their life as well. He met me a few times (laughs). We supported him as Electrafixion. He was lovely…looks amazing, I preferred his old teeth though.”
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Ian Astbury of The Cult
“My musical hero is David Bowie. I’ve consistently bought every album he’s made since I was 11 years old and he’s just made my favourite records, records I keep going back to. He’s one of the most progressively-minded artists, the one with the most vision, and he’s done everything.
I love him so much, it’s been like a rite of passage. Every single major event in my life has been around a Bowie record coming out. I got to meet him in ’87 – we played on his Glass Spider tour…and he was one of the most eloquent, gentle people I’ve ever met and he gave me a lot of inspiration. Bowie was a real gentleman.
And I even like stuff from his last album, ‘hours…’ is a really good album. So I consistently go back to him as a major influence. I like the fact that he’s English and he’s had international success and influenced so many people around the world.”
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Travis Bassist, Dougie Payne
“When I was a kid my sister Jill got em into ‘Hunky Dory’ ‘The Bewlay Brothers’ terrified me; all those squeaky voices. ‘Kooks’ and ‘Oh! You Pretty Things’ are amazing, too. His version of ‘Port Of Amsterdam’ on ‘Pin Ups’ (Blammo note: must have been the Ryko re-issue) turned me on to Scott Walker and Jacques Brel, and he also made me check out the Velvets. Then ‘Low’ led me to Kraftwerk. He sent me off on tangents.”
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There ya go….Well we all knew about Ian McCulloch and Dougie Payne, but Ian Astbury? Who’d have thought it, eh Susans? Good stuff!