My brother has just been to America, New Jersey specifically, and I tipped him off about a huge David Bowie mural there, and asked if he was able to get me a picture of it. He has and its brilliant. Before we get to that it was my day off today so I hit a few Bowie spots and made an afternoon of it. I live near Brixton and Bowie was born in 40 Stansfield Road, so I went past it today, no blue plaque or anything, but here it is.
Shortly after he died a mural by Jimmy C popped up just off the high street in Brixton, which I featured in the first few pages of this thread, seen again here:
Before they were famous, he and fellow future glam rock star Marc Bolan used to hang around a long gone coffee shop at 9 Denmark Street called La Gioconda. There are reports Bowie may have even lived temporarily in a converted ambulance on Denmark St. I featured Denmark St back on page 19 as it has a long and famous musical history, and was known as Tin Pan Alley. I got some Chuck Berry street art and reported that the Sex Pistols rehearsed at number 6, and some old Johnny Rotten graffiti found on a wall in a back room helped secure the buildings Grade 2 listed status, see here:
https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/street-art.221565/post-5012409
I found out today that the person who Malcolm Mclaren rented number 6 from for the Sex Pistols to rehearse back then was Bill Collins, dad of Lewis Collins of The Professionals fame. Before Lewis was famous he worked in a hairdressers in Liverpool alongside Mike McCartney, Paul from the Beatles' younger brother. He may or may not have approved of what follows.
54 years ago this month a BBC researcher sauntered into La Gioconda looking for young men to interview with this new fangled long hair that was sweeping the nation, even on men *gasp*. There they found a 17 year old Bowie, who was a stranger to hairdressers back then, having recently created the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Long-Haired Men, which resulted in an appearance on the Tonight show with Cliff Michelmore in 1964.
It turns out Bowie later signed to an agent who was based next door to La Gioconda at number 7 Denmark St, and he made his first recordings in Denmark St.
By the time of Bowie's breakthrough album, 'The rise and fall of Ziggy Stardust and the spiders from Mars' he was recording in Trident studios in Soho. By chance today, the 8th of November was the date he started recording it back in 1971. The cover for that album was shot in January 1972 outside 23 Heddon St, just off Regent St. Shot in black and white it had colour added afterwards to give it its distinctive look.
Its now a car-free street and looks completely different with expensive restaurants, the only thing that remains is the street light.
But it has a plaque to mark the spot.
So after all that build up time for my brothers pics. The artwork was done by Brazilian Eduardo Kobra. I have featured him before in this thread, he did the excellent John Lennon in Bristol I got back on page 18, seen again here:
And here's his Bowie
And I absolutely love this photo, the skies are amazing, cheers bro
I also discovered today that Eduardo has been credited in the Guinness Book of World Records with the creation of the largest street art mural in the world in Rio. Called 'The Ethnicities', it features faces from the 5 different continents represented by the Olympic rings, and was done as part of the Olympics in 2016, see pics here. Amazing work.
https://www.boredpanda.com/world-la...oogle&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic
Somewhere in Sao Paulo.
