Tony Fletcher
one half of TheMenWhoFell2Earth
Those of you who know us well will understand just how saddened we have been by the death of our hero David Bowie…
I was well into my teens before I discovered him (being a boy from Liverpool, The Beatles and very much John Lennon were my idols growing up), but it was around the time I was getting into the Britpop bands he had long before paved the way for that my passion for Bowie began.
It’s really hard to pinpoint exactly what it was that grabbed me about him (well there was that time my Mum took us all to see Labyrinth)… Not that he hadn’t already at this stage created all these dreamlike characters to be fascinated over… Or that he had these huge songs/video’s that I had grown up loving on the radio/telly… But i guess really thinking about it, his androgynous beauty (which I have always had a soft spot for) must have been a massive part of it during my deep down sexuality discovery too, as I certainly did fancy him long before I realised that I was actually gay.
Moving to London, where I got to dance to his music for the first time on the floors (and stages) of Duckie and Popstarz and a brief period living in New York where I spent hours at my now-favourite record store (Rebel Rebel in the West Village) gave me plenty opportunity to further indulge in this passion. Upon returning from this stint in NYC, I thought: “how great it would be to put my own little queer-Bowie-tinged parties on around London?”
What followed was beyond anything I could have hoped for and has, on many levels, defined the past 10 years. After teaming up with two great mates who shared in my musical tastes, we set on the difficult task of finding a home for this night out and almost gave up hope, before stumbling on an amazing basement of a little pub just off Cavendish Square, which is where our adventure together began.
“It has been a tough week, but it’s also been so wonderful to see the world’s response to his sad passing.”
Fast-forward a few months and with the help of some other RR kids we had involved along the way, we where throwing the most fun monthly gay indie disco, which was attended by the friendliest bunch of likeminded kids and I was up there playing my hero’s tunes to my heart’s content.
Rebel Rebel (the club that is) only actually ran for just over 3 years, but still many years on it did seem to have a really fond place in people’s hearts, which was the main reason we did the 10 year / last ever party last summer. We have since gone on to launch our other Bowie-inspired party TheMenWhoFell2Earth which has just celebrated it’s 5th birthday @ East Bloc and we are still DJ’ing around town under the same name, none of which would have been possible without his inspiration in the first place.
It has been a tough week, but it’s also been so wonderful to see the world’s response to his sad passing, the likes of which I doubt I will ever witness again in my own lifetime.
He certainly won’t be forgotten by any of us, thanks for everything Dave, wherever you have gone… #RIPdb
Princess Julia
Queen of the Scene
If you’re like me, somehow it doesn’t feel like Bowie has slipped from our mortal coil.
I keep reading stories and hearing tales of his escapades as though he’s still very much with us.
The mass homage we’re currently experiencing is testament to a person who affected generation after generation and decade after decade down the line much like he inspired me in ’72 as a very young girl watching Ziggy Stardust sing Star Man on TV.
“I also feel elated to have been alive on this planet the same time as Bowie and somehow be part of and experience the effect he has had on us.”
Like every fan, Bowie has created the soundtrack to my life, set the foundation and attitude to exploring numerous possibilities of self expression whether they be in music or style or indeed in written word, art and performance. Those Bowie tentacles stretch everywhere.
I feel sad like everyone else, I also feel elated to have been alive on this planet the same time as Bowie and somehow be part of and experience the effect he has had on us. He put the energy in, he continually looked at ways of expressing his sensibilities with a forward thinking attitude.
His legacy is a treasure trove still being discovered.
Carl Stanley
Author
David Bowie was the first pop star I was aware of. Not a fan of – not at first, anyway – but aware of. ‘Hunky Dory’ was released in ’71 – on December 17th, the day I should’ve been born coincidentally, except that I was two and a half weeks overdue which meant I ended up being a Capricorn, like David.
I was nearly two years old when ‘Hunk Dory’ came out. My mother bought it. ‘Changes’, ‘Oh, You Pretty Things’, ‘Life On Mars’, they all became instant classics, but it was the track ‘Kooks’ – Bowie’s paean to his infant son, Zowie – which made me smile and gurgle and toddle around in circles.
My mother’s brother, Kevin, seventeen years younger than her, was ten when I was born. Uncle Kevin was obsessed with Bowie. I mean OBSESSED. Every millimetre of his bedroom walls, even his ceiling, was covered in pictures of his idol.
We’d go to my grandmother’s every Saturday, and the first thing my elder brother and I would do is run up to our beloved, cool, Uncle Kev’s room, where he’d still be in bed, and leap on him like overexcited puppies.
I probably heard my first swear words from Uncle Kev. Each Bowie incarnation naturally ended up on Kev’s wall – I vividly recall Ziggy’s menacing stare looking down at me, Aladdin Sane’s futuristic red flash and downcast gaze, that sprawling half-man Diamond Dog with its genitals on display.
“I vividly recall Ziggy’s menacing stare looking down at me.”
Uncle Kev even had a mullet exactly like Bowie’s – and he was tall, skinny and handsome enough to carry it off. Then came ‘Young Americans’, and with it, Kevin adopted Bowie’s Soul Boy style, theThe Thin White Duke. Then Kev was diagnosed with Non Hodgkins Lymphoma. He died before his twenty-first birthday.
My brother and I inherited his records. It was ten months before ‘Scary Monsters’ was released. Kev never saw the ‘Ashes to Ashes’ video, co-starring the inimitable Steve Strange. But I did. I was eleven. It had a huge effect. I became obsessed with New Romantics, started dabbling with make-up, and within a couple of years I was a fully-fledged, nightclubbing New Romantic, dancing off my face to ‘Let’s Dance’, when I should’ve been having sleepless nights worrying about having done no revision for my impending O-level mocks.
I was living my own ‘Teenage Wildlife’ – hopefully Bowie would have approved. I never met Bowie, but I did do Iman’s make-up a few years back. She has a great sense of humour; we laughed a lot that day.
The biggest compliment I’ve ever had was Iman saying, ‘You remind me of my husband’. I still think of Uncle Kevin almost every day. I play Bowie almost every day. My world was sadder without Uncle Kevin.
The world would have been duller without David Bowie. But they’ll both live on forever in mine. Everything is hunky dory.
