Perhaps the strange ones in The Dome can lend us a book…
I was lucky enough to receive an invite for the preview of the
Visitors were teased on the walk from North Greenwich tube exit to the O2 itself with a series of huge displays such as the one above.
If you’re familiar with the former Millennium Dome you’ll know it’s a big beast and the trek to the site of the exhibition itself (The O2 Bubble) is as far from the dome entrance as North Greenwich tube exit is.
After a quick livener in the green room, I was ushered with a gaggle of other guests into a darkened space for a short explanatory film hosted by the very lovely Lauren Laverne.
Four minutes later the doors were opened and we swarmed in our different directions to the areas of greatest interest…needless to say, I made a beeline straight for Space #9, 1970-1976.
At the top of this piece is a good clear shot of the Bowie display, which I will now attempt to describe for you.
As I said in aforementioned news piece, and as you can see from the evidence above, there are three Bowie outfits in this space: the 1973 Ziggy numbers jump suit with red lace-up wrestling boots, the David Live suit from the 1974 Diamond Dogs Tour and The Thin White Duke‘s 1976 World Tour outfit.
As I mentioned in our earlier piece, the Natasha Korniloff designed Ashes To Ashes pierrot outfit is part of the display in the New Romantic’s section, sharing space with Adam Ant‘s Kings Of The Wild Frontier costume, and just to remind us what a big Bowie fan he is, Boy George‘s Culture Club stage outfit which is covered with large colourful numbers! Sound familiar?
Here’s a close-up of the pierrot outfit just to show you what a fine job Natasha made of this garment…
No doubt these Bowie costumes are what will appeal most to BowieNet members as they are always fascinating to see in the flesh…or more accurately, without the flesh.
Other equally interesting items for even the most seasoned Bowie observer include hand-written lyric sheets for both Five Years and Fame and a 1972 Ziggy set list, all illustrated above.
Also on display are two extremely rare and valuable posters, the first for the Diamond Dogs show at Madison Square Garden on July 20th 1974, the other a 1976 UK promo RCA poster for the withdrawn colour Station To Station.
There was also David’s own hand made mock up for the Young Americans album sleeve, original 1974 concert tickets and a Diamond Dogs ID Tag.
To be honest, the remainder of the items in the display won’t be of that much interest to hardcore fans and to my mind were a bit of a wasted opportunity.
There’s an unofficial Ziggy Lives comic that I think was actually published in the 90s or even the 00s…kind of irrelevant and not very good anyway. A 1973 tour programme, except it’s one of those flimsy unofficial ones that were on sale outside the venues instead of the official 1973 UK Tour Programme.
To remind people of the original setting for the 1974 suit there’s a battered Lifetimes reissue of the David Live cover and above that sits the iconic 1976 Bowie Rolling Stone cover. And just to prove I haven’t let my pedantry patheticness slip, the Gitanes packet in The Duke’s waistcoat pocket is the wrong design.
Sadly there were some teething troubles with some of the hi-tech stuff too. In front of each display cabinet is a fret board which lights up different areas of the display as you touch it and which gives extra information via a headphone set regarding the spotlit item…The spotlight’s weren’t working in either the Bowie or New Romantic displays.
Another grumble is the lack of information regarding the mock up for the Young Americans album sleeve…There is no audio information and it’s too small in the display case to get a good look at. It’s about the size of a gatefold CD sleeve with several pages inside, the content of which I will endeavour to find out.
Here’s a final photograph for now, it’s a close-up of the Diamond Dogs jumper, the exact fabric design of which has been debated by many Bowie fans across the years…I’m not sure this picture helps with a conclusion though…
Overall it’s a great exhibition if you have a few hours to spare and you can view it on a quiet day. I’m sure super fans will find fault with practically every display, but it’s a brave and serious attempt to celebrate the uniqueness and durability of British music from the fifties to the present day.
It would be wonderful to have a similar space dedicated to Bowie alone…lord knows he has enough of an exciting and colourful history to easily fill such a thing.
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