LDR
I wanna be the whole world's girl
2008: Trailer park elegy
Stephen Troussé
Ziggy
Afterlife
Way back in the spring of 1971, in his first fevered rush of Ziggysongs, David intended the project to be fronted by someone else. And maybe, if he had found someone more competent than Freddie Buretti, the whole course of British pop would have looked very different. Years later he
Ziggy
Fall
Who kills Ziggy Stardust? In the spring of 1973 the smart money is on MainMan head honcho Tony Defries. The second leg of the US Tour has built to a rapturous climax at the Hollywood Palladium on 12 March, but with Aladdin Sane not to be released for another month,
Ziggy
Rise
17 September 1972 and Ziggy Stardust arrives in the new world. He’s spent a stately transatlantic week with Angie on the QE2, and when they emerge through customs he has plenty to declare. He’s left behind a land of Ford Cortinas, Bloody Sunday and Slade, and arrived in
Ziggy
Conception
13 February 1971, five miles above Monterey, and David Bowie’s heart and mind are racing. It’s not his fear of flying, which won’t really kick in for another couple of years yet, after a stormy flight back from Cyprus. And it’s not the imminent approach of
Ziggy
Birth
Saturday 8 January 1972, a bleak midwinter evening on the outskirts of south London. Derby County have beaten Southampton, on their way to an implausible first league title with Brian Clough. Dr Who has just encountered assassins from the 22nd century in the second episode of Day of the Daleks.
Beatles
Beatles 6: George
George Harrison is just getting warmed up. “People always say I'm the Beatle who changed the most,” he tells the man from the BBC’s religious affairs show, Fact or Fantasy? as he’s interviewed in his office in the Apple building, now an empty shell of its
Beatles
Beatles 5: Paul
Halloween 1967 and Paul McCartney is watching the sun set over Nice. He’s flown out with Mal Evans and cameraman Aubrey Dewar on what is, even by his own sensationally capricious standards, a whim - without money, luggage or even his passport, gliding past customs officials, hotel managers and
Beatles
Beatles 4: Ringo
Sitting in his English garden, Ringo Starr is dreaming. It’s September 1966, the last waning days of a glorious summer, and it feels like the first time he’s put his feet up in years. It’s been just four years since he skipped out on Rory Storm and
Beatles
Beatles 3: Brian
Brian Epstein is weeping. No one can see because of the Raybans he’s kept firmly in place all day, but gazing down at the crowds from the balcony of Liverpool Town Hall this sunny Friday afternoon, 10 July 1964, he just can’t keep it together. In truth he’
Beatles
Beatles 2: George Martin
1962 has been quite a year for George Henry Martin. As head of Parlophone, he’s had top ten hits with both Matt Monro and Bernard Cribbins. Under the name Ray Cathode, recording with Maddalena Fagandini from the Radiophonic Workshop, he’s launched “Time Beat”, an early probe into the
Beatles
Beatles 1: John
“Where we going Johnny?” It’s been their catchphrase for a couple of years now, ever since the three of them came together, top deck of an 86 bus one night back in the spring of 1958 - John and Paul joined by George, Paul’s cocky little mate with