“Don’t think you knew you were in this song…”
The BBC were instrumental in promoting Bowie in the run up to the release of The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars.
From January 1972 right up to the release of the album, aside from catching Bowie live, the only way you were likely to hear any of the Ziggy material being performed would have been via various BBC radio sessions.
This culminated with Starman on the BBC’s Top Of The Pops (TOTPs) as we mentioned yesterday.
But before that, in February 1972, the very first sighting of Ziggy and The Spiders on TV was via the BBC’s The Old Grey Whistle Test (TOGWT). TOGWT was a late night TV show with a more ‘serious’ adult audience, but it didn’t have the reach of TOTPs.
Bowie and the band recorded Queen Bitch, Oh! You Pretty Things and Five Years, though OYPT wasn’t shown till many years later. So the very first televised Ziggy song was an emotional rendition of Five Years with Mick Ronson in less familiar role of pianist. You can watch it here.
Listen to Ziggy Stardust here now.
#FiveYearsBox #DavidBowie #ZiggyStardust #FiveYears