Because you’re young – you’ll meet a stranger some night…
It was thirty years ago to this day that a 25-year-old David Bowie and photographer Mick Rock met for the very first time. Friday March 17th 1972 was the date, and the picture above is one of a handful that Mick took of the young Ziggy looking a tiny bit nervous before he went onstage at Birmingham Town Hall.
Both the pictures on this page are previously unpublished, and you can look forward to the rest of the shots Mick took that evening, and a detailed account of the meeting, in ‘Moonage Daydream’, the signed limited edition book which David and Mick are co-authoring.
Meanwhile, on page 151 of Mr Rock’s Syd Barrett book,
“When I first met David Bowie we swapped anecdotes; he wanted to hear about Syd and I wanted to know about Lou Reed and Iggy Pop. We talked about how Syd had had it all. Syd and David were similar in the way that neither of them sang like an American. At that time there was a big American influence on music, but Syd and David went against that and sang in a British way.
David was very aware of Syd; very interested in him. Of course, in 1973 David did a cover version of ‘See Emily Play’ for his Pin Ups album. There were many parallels between Syd and David early on; although clearly David had a much tougher psyche. David’s ‘The Man Who Sold The World’ always makes me think of Syd. It’s a perfect description of him.”
As I say, Mick goes into more specific detail about the meeting in ‘Moonage Daydream’, which is nearing conclusion and is in fact on track for publication by Genesis Publications in June this year. Join the mailing list for ‘Moonage Daydream’ by clicking on either of the images above.