I’m happy, Hope you’re happy too…
The Krug Happiness Exhibition is on at the Royal Academy in Piccadilly, London. Various celebrities have donated objects which represent an idea of personal happiness for a charity auction which takes place on Tuesday.
Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys has gone way beyond the call of duty by giving a rare promotional print of David Bowie from 1972, signed by both Bowie and Mick Ronson. Not to mention Neil’s personal copy of an original Ziggy Stardust vinyl album too.
There’s no doubt that these items have been a constant source of happiness for Mr Tenant over the years, but it’s a brave thing to do to give them away and I’m not sure I would have been happy doing the same.
Anyway, here’s the lead PSB’s account of how he obtained the item…
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“In June, 1972, I went to see David Bowie perform at the City Hall in Newcastle on his Ziggy Stardust tour. At the climactic moment of the concert when Bowie sang “Wham! Bam! Thank you ma’am!” in the song “Suffragette City”, the audience was showered with these promotional posters of Bowie as Ziggy and I grabbed one.
Later my friends and I waited in a crush of fans outside the stage door. Bowie emerged and signed my poster in pencil. The late Mick Ronson, his legendary guitarist and musical arranger, signed it also. I was very happy.”
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The album-sized poster/print/flier is rare enough in itself and if it’s like the version I have it will look like the above on the reverse. Some were simply blank on the back so I can’t be certain, though this does list the June 2nd show Neil acquired it at, listed at the top of the schedule.
I’ve enhanced the all-important signatures from the front in the image below and with the provenance and the fact that the item belonged to Neil Tennant, I think it should easily sail past it’s reserve of £2,000…and that would make everybody happy.
All pieces are for sale in a ‘silent auction’ format. Visitors can bid at the exhibition itself (6 Burlington Gardens), or you can call the Mission directly to make a bid on 020 7845 7800. The last bids can be made on the 20th December when the exhibition closes.
Here’s a link to a slideshow of some of the other items up for grabs. Thanks to Matt ‘The Muscle’ Hinton, The Planet’s Biggest PSB Fan, for the pointer to this item.
I’ll leave you with a picture from 1996 when the chart success of Hallo Spaceboy made David Bowie and both PSBs very happy indeed!