“Became the special man”
This week we’re looking at 1972’s The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars album, ahead of the release of the David Bowie (Five Years 1969 – 1973) box set (due September 25th).
In January 1972 it seems BW was the first photographer to capture for eternity the beautiful creature we know as Ziggy Stardust.
Whether that BW was Brian Ward with his iconic Ziggy Stardust album sleeve session in Heddon Street or Barrie Wentzell’s pictures for Melody Maker, we’re not quite sure.
Either way, the Melody Maker piece (cover date January 22nd) was the first glimpse of Ziggy as the album sleeve wasn’t pictured anywhere for several months yet.
The popular British music weekly ran the first significant Bowie front page feature of the Ziggy era with their OH YOU PRETTY THING interview with Michael Watts. Two Wentzell shots were used, one on the cover and one inside accompanying the feature.
The session took place in the Gem Music offices, and, as you can see from our montage, the front cover picture was reversed, as indeed was the other picture inside.
The feature was possibly the first to mention the forthcoming album title, The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, too. The album played in the background during the interview, even though Hunky Dory had only been released the previous month.
The following year in another MM interview, Bowie highlighted the significance of this interview, stating: “Yeah, it was Melody Maker that made me. It was that piece by Mick Watts.”
Ziggy Stardust wouldn’t be released for another six months and in the meantime, there were many more sightings of Ziggy, including the first public performance of Ziggy with The Spiders (even if they weren’t billed as such yet), the following weekend at Aylesbury on January 29th.
Listen to Ziggy Stardust here.
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