Longtime Ago People

Ziggy To Blackstar: How David Bowie Shaped A Generation

• M I L E S • Season 2 • Episode 5

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David Bowie - Rupert 1957
 
ziggy stardust/fan

Starman on the radio. Ziggy on the screen. A youth rewired in real time. In this episode, I dive in with Rupert to explore the moments where Bowie didn’t just soundtrack life — he edited it. We trace that rush from Space Oddity to Starman, the glam years that made risk feel normal, and the Berlin experiments that taught us how silence, texture and pulse can move you every bit as much as melody. It’s a listener’s journey through eras, not a museum tour: the missed tickets at Earl’s Court, the summer of Station to Station, the cigarettes and shirts we copied without thinking, and the way “Heroes” can still lift a room with a single line.

We talk about why the 70s remain such a creative apex — Low’s fractured beauty, “Heroes” as both anthem and art — and why the 80s deserve a fair hearing. Let’s Dance didn’t just top charts; it proved Bowie could bridge art rock and pop without losing his nerve. Along the way, we revisit films like The Man Who Fell to Earth, the shock of The Next Day arriving out of nowhere, and the stark brilliance of Blackstar. That final album feels like a coded letter — mortal, inventive, and deeply alive — with Lazarus turning farewell into craft.

Across favourite tracks and deep cuts — Life on Mars?, Rebel Rebel, Always Crashing in the Same Car, Joe the Lion — we keep circling the same truth: Bowie turned reinvention into a discipline and made curiosity a habit. His influence is everywhere: in fashion, in stagecraft, in the confidence to shift lanes when the work demands it. Press play to walk through the eras with us, remember the gigs, and maybe find a new doorway into a song you thought you knew. And if this conversation sparks a memory of your own, share it with a friend, subscribe for more, and tell me your gateway Bowie track.

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SPEAKER_00:

You're listening to Miles and listened long time ago people. Before I say who is my guest today, I think for people that don't haven't listened to his music through headphones, you definitely need to put your headphones on and listen to for me personally, Ziggy Style Dust and Space Odyssey. I think when those records came out, we didn't really have portable headphones. And then The Walkman came along, which changed everything. And so if you want to listen to some of his music, check out the Ziggy Style Dust and Space Odyssey in a headphone. The way it bounces around from ear to ear is absolutely amazing. Anyway, I am joined today by a good friend of mine, Rupert, who is in Sunny Folkestone. Rupert, we're gonna we're we're gonna talk about I mean who are we gonna talk about today?

SPEAKER_01:

Hello, Miles. We're gonna talk about David Bowie and really what it means to me and his persona, his artistic talents, and so on. So you fire away with the questions.

SPEAKER_00:

Exactly what we're gonna do. We're gonna we're gonna just maybe touch on some of the songs, the moments, the memories that probably still echo um around today. Okay, well, let's get straight into it. So did when did he enter first to enter your life, Rupert? What do you remember about that moment?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, he didn't enter my life sort of personally, of course, because I've never met him, but um, I think we get carried away with a lot of artists, and um whether they're actors or musicians or f you know, whatever. So I I was always a massive music fan, um, being the youngest of two brothers. Um, my eldest brother um used to bring back records from Germany because he was in the army. And I I loved all music. I mean, this was a massive uh part of my life. Uh, I wasn't actually conscious of um Bowie uh properly until Space Odyssey came out, and it came out in 1969. So it was in the charts and it played, and I liked it, and a lot of people liked it because they bought it. So that was the first introduction, that's when he came in. But of course, at that time there were so many other artists as well. So from 1969 till 1972, in between, of course, there were so many things happening in the in the British music scene, some in the US, but it was mainly the you know, it was the UK, whether you like the Who or Les Zeppelin. I mean, we had some fantastic bands really, and of course, at that time it was glam rock, it was it was Mark Boland. Now, Mark Bolan, of course, hold more records within a certain period of time, I think, than David Bowie. And of course, they were friends, they grew up together, absolutely loved Mark Bolan, Why Do I Swan, Hot Love, and so on. Actually, the first time that Bowie reappeared three years later, was in the summer of uh 1972. Yeah, I read the music press, I saw um uh pictures, I heard things on the radio, he may have had a song uh coming in, but uh, I think he announced that he was bisexual um in January, was it January 72? And that yeah, and that was a big thing. But you know, the Brits have always been kind of into cr uh men dressing as women through the theatre and music hall and so on and so forth. So actually, it wasn't really a big shock, and I can't remember my parents being shocked either. But um, so Starman, you know, uh July 1972, top of the pots. Um, god, how many people were transfixed by that? But it was a great song, and it made me very interested in him as an artist, and uh so I felt an immediate affinity to Bowie. Um, and um from then on, I remember in fact holiday for two weeks in the Isle of Wight, and it it was all Bowie, it was all Bolan, hot, you know, love. I think a few other singles as well, Alice Cooper, School's Out, and so on. Bowie was massive, and then he started building um his career, his record sales, uh um, and all you see, at that time I was quite young. Fifteen, fifteen. It was it was uh going to school and it was all centered on music. I can everything was centered on music and fashion.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Some sport, you know, football and things like that, but it was music and fashion which drove everything. We didn't have the internet, we had just had TV, some black and white, I'm sure. With all with all artists looking back, you know, there's so many I love, and I have a huge record collection. Well, not record, it's CD, or it's on my phone, you know. I'm not an obsessive with vinyl. However, I still have still kept a few Bowie albums, vinyl albums. He was massive. I remember applying with all my friends crazy on Bowie. And you used to get the the girls and the boys dressing like Bowie, you know, colouring their hair and so on. I wouldn't say I put makeup on, but it was okay to put makeup on. Yeah, no.

SPEAKER_00:

Do you think do you think he was the first artist ever really to do that?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, it was glam rock, and it was all about you know, uh uh mud, well actually mud weren't really, but sweet and and bolan and all these other bands. Bowie with Bowie and Bolan were the were the maiden uh almost popular, uh, and best artist as well, you see. Um, so you know, um I remember we applied as a group of friends at school to apply for tickets to Earl's Court. I think he played two dates at Earl's Court, sold out immediately. We in those days, you applied by writing a letter if you lived out of London, or going into the box office. And there was no fee, we just went in the box office. And so he must have had for Earl's Court probably you know six, seven times sold out. I never got a ticket. Um, but if you think about the magnitude, I mean he was unique, probably probably the most important British solo artist, ro rock pop artist of all time, really. Definitely eclipsed Bolan, who again, you know, was massively talented. But of course, the thing about Bowie is that he kept on changing and evolving. And then within between sort of September 72 and May 73, when he had uh Lansain and the final Hammersmith gig, he'd conquered America, pretty much conquered the whole of the world. Then he disappeared. Uh, and then I lost interest, not necessarily lost interest in what he was doing, it was always in the back of my mind. You know, what happened? Where's he gone? When he went to America fully and absolutely smashed it there, you know. So that's my introduction, really.

SPEAKER_00:

That's your introduction, okay. And what a what an introduction as well. So if I know you mentioned Starman, but if you had to pick one song or one album that feels most tied to your life, what would that be?

SPEAKER_01:

Ziggy was incredible. I've always loved Starman anyway, and I would say RCA, his record company, started re-releasing all his old stuff, that Space Oddity album, Man Who Sold the World and Hunky Dory. And I the album that I that w I loved and some of my friends loved with that lovely cover, and I got about three, I got about three CD versions of Space Oddity, because it was released as in the man uh man of words, man of music, and so on, and then or David. There's loads of versions, Lux versions. So I got about three copies of Space Odyssey. I really like that album because it it's kind of almost like an urban, urban Bob Dylan, UK style. So a bit of folk heek, really good musicians, really good production, good sound. Space Oddity is a fantastic track. So yeah, I I I I I probably like that one more than any other. I would put that in my, you know, if if somebody said my top seven or eight Bowie albums, Space Oddity would be there, and so would Ziggy Stardust. But I loved all of Ziggy Stardust, it was fantastic.

SPEAKER_00:

So early 70s albums.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, the early 70s album. But I do I do play Space Oddity. I just like the album, I like the feel of it.

SPEAKER_00:

I think to this day, Rupert, what people don't realise is that his music has been the soundtrack to not only our lives, but also that even younger people's lives. Because the fact that it's used in TV shows, sports events. Yeah. His music just surfaces everywhere, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And and we liked him, and he was a great, he was like a friend. I still kind of think of him as a friend, you know. Um I can really relate to him and his talents and his everything, his image, it's just cool, really. Uh and this is from a guy who's, you know, much, much older, but he was just cool, really cool.

SPEAKER_00:

It's very funny, he he sort of came onto my life, really. Uh I was a little bit late with Space Object. I think I'm just a couple years younger than you, but um I actually came across him with the man that sold the world. That's where I I saw the film, and then that sort of like brought him onto my radar.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I'm gonna correct you there. The album was The Man Who Sold the World, but the film, and I'm going coming into that, yeah. Was The Man Who Fell to Earth. Fell to Earth, that's right, yes. Now Bowie just kind of disappeared from my life because other things come in and you do things, you move, you start studying, you go to college, and so on and so forth. Bowie came back into my life about two years later, big time. Um we were living up north, and I and I missed Diamond Dogs and and all that, but got Young Americans came out. Yeah. Uh so I I went straight into Young Americans. I think David Live, which is that's '75, isn't it? Yeah. 74, 75. Uh I went right back into um David Live, Diamond Dogs, um, and uh Young Americans, which was absolutely fantastic. Um, and then after that, 75, 75, 76, I think the film changed again. It was all changing. He would um metamorphosize into something completely different, and the music would change. So he'll be constantly creating that that kept your interest above pretty much any other artist. And he went, yeah, Man of Fell to Earth was a fantastic film. Um, I I think it's his best film. I don't think that his particularly great actor, you know, was quite a good one, but some of his films I haven't liked very much. Actually, uh Merry Christmas, Mr. Merry Christmas to Lawrence. I was just about to say that, yeah. That was good. But Man of Fell to Earth was the was the best and everything, the cover and everything else. And then he disappeared again and he went to Berlin. I remember buying Lowe when it first came out, January 1977. So I was 20. Bowie usually put a lot of albums out on his birthday. So I was born 10 years and 10 days after him. Fact, he died, unfortunately, um, in 2016. So he died two days after his 69th birthday. Just by coincidence, I'm 69, and I uh my birthday was on Sunday, though. I I'm two I'm two years after my birthday, but I'm alive. You're alive, really much so. You know, he was obviously he was doing so much um uh into drugs in America, and he he he escaped that scene with pressure, massive pressure for artists. So Lowe was absolutely unbelievable. Lowe, so Space Oddity, Ziggy Stardust, and Lowe are included in my top seven or eight albums, and and also probably probably Diamond Dogs, not a Land Insane, or certainly uh Hunky Dory. I always had problems with hunky dory for various reasons. Lowe is incredible, so I've got load of versions of Lowe, you know. Yeah uh I've got the vinyl, I've got CDs, I've got the all the all the reissues, the bonus track, the whole lot. So that period between Lowe 76 778, and of course station to station before that. So 76 was all station to station, an incredible funk soul rock album. Got loads of versions of that. That that has to again be one of my favourite albums. Because every everybody, the summer of 76, was playing pretty much, all my friends anyway, were playing Station to Station. But we are so heavy this so heavily influenced more than any other period as we were growing up, uh, between 76 and 79. Everything fashion, uh, how we'd how we'd dress, because he used to he used to dress in. Yeah, when he used to he used to dress in things like lum lumberjack shirt and type jeans and shoes and short hair and so on and so forth. And he, of course, he used to smoke French cigarettes at that time. So we all started smoking French cigarettes. It was a massive jitans, so we smoked those, and all the discos were playing Bowie, they were playing punk, of course, but uh I remember uh an unbelievable advert that came out in 1977. There was an advert saying there's new wave, there's old wave, and then there's David Bowie. Yeah. And that was a fantastic advert. I think it sold so many of all his albums, but it was to promote Heroes, yeah, which was a which was a great album. Again, another one. So yeah, all that period, I think that was probably my my most intense period of being influenced, 76-79. And uh perhaps that remains my favourite period of Bowie's um music, yeah, but they're all great. Um, and then um yeah, so that that leads you up to the end of the 70s, really.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and I think for me, I might upset you here, but I love 80s Bowie. I mean, I absolutely love him. I love I love Let's Dance, I love China Girl, I I love that whole album, that album to me. I just thought it was amazing that it they'd all almost written him off at the beginning of the 80s, and then he just came in and he he he he just launched um Let's Dance and I thought that was um to me that was one of my favorites as well.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it I it's a really good I played it last night actually because it's I I've been playing uh Bowie constantly for the last two weeks. I'll probably go into something else and then won't play anything for three or four months by him.

SPEAKER_00:

But I did see him at the Iowa Festival, which was uh I think 2004, which was uh you know, which which which which was uh good good. He wasn't he wasn't on his best uh day that day, but I just was so happy that I saw him. He wasn't well, and then that came out a little bit later on. But let's just talk about performances. My favourite performance, without a shadow doubt, that I saw was the one that obviously more than half the world saw, which was obviously live aid, and I think he stole that day myself.

SPEAKER_01:

I remember the whole of the day and the performances. It was it's quite weird. Well, that was '85. Saw him live in 1983, Milton Keynes doing the let's let's dance tour, serious moon, serious moonlight tour. And that fact that that was celebrated in all the papers, I think the Times and a few others. 40-year anniversary, 40 year years. Um, it was a boiling hot day, and uh, I didn't even need to drink alcohol because it was such a great concert, and um it w it was it was really excellent. And then the 80s I liked. I so I didn't think actually I didn't think his performance was brilliant. I thought other artists were were stole the show more, not stole the show, but he was okay, you know. Um 80s weren't his strong period because he was doing other things like acting. And he he made a couple of great singles, but his albums weren't very good, like Never Let Me Down and Tonight, you know, and then the 80s and I got married and I lost in not lost interest, uh interested in other things, persuaded my wife to go and see Bowie in 1990. He was doing a kind of a greatest hits tour.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

We saw we saw them in um we saw Bowie in um so it was a Sound Envision tour, 1990s, I think it was September 1990, I think, at uh some arena in the East End of London, you know, Docklands. And uh it was really good. It was it was a really good performance. And I I think there are a couple of albums, but I must get them. How many times did you see him in the end then? Uh just twice. That's I lost him totally in the 90s for various reasons. We still listened to music, other things were coming through. Uh I didn't buy any of his albums. I knew he had things like Fantastic Single Jump, they say, and Hello Space Boy, which is my son likes, and so on. Still a bowie fan. Everything was cassette then, sort of his. I hold loads of cassettes. So, okay, I'm revisiting the nine. I wish I saw him. I've got all his I've ordered this, I've got this box set that came yesterday. Uh it's got all, it's got um, it's got Outside, it's got Hours, it's got Earthling, it's got Heathen, it's got Reality, all with an extra CD of special mixes and bonus tracks on each album. It's beautiful, it's beautiful, it really is. Cost quite a lot, but it's worth it. Uh so I'm I'm really looking forward to that. I'm so sad that I didn't see him live in the 90s. Every concert, every album was different. You saw reality, but the reality album, so I didn't really get back into him fully until the tail end of Heathen and Reality. I remember going out to uh a restaurant in central London, and this girl said, Um, would you like a copy, a promo copy of David Bowie's reality? I said, Well, how much do you want for it? She said, No, you can have it. We just get promo copies from record companies. I said, Okay, great, I still have it.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So that got that got me back into that, and then and then so on. So it's always been there, and sometimes you know, you feel so in intense about him, not just because he's die, because he was just so great, and you go back into playing all his music all the time, which I'm doing at the moment.

SPEAKER_00:

Has his music ever changed anything in your life, made you think in a certain way or act in a certain way?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. I think I think that um that comes through in his writing and his songs. Some of his songs are just fantastic. You can be anywhere, you can be in the middle of, you know, riding on a train somewhere in Central Europe and you just think of a song that comes out. It happens all the time, yeah. Station to station and all that sort of stuff. Yeah, it um I don't think there's one specific you can't put your finger on it sometimes. It's like a painting. You can't really why do you like that painting? Um why or why do you like that artist, or why do you like that book or that author? Uh it's just just the way they are, the way they write, the way they paint. Everything. He's just the most most amazing artist.

SPEAKER_00:

Is it is there any moment that that you associate with him, anything, you know, in our in our British history or uh I I I'm quite good with dates.

SPEAKER_01:

I can rem I remember or usually forget names, but I'm I'm quite good with dates, and I always remember dates, and but I'm always particularly moved. You know, when he was dying, it was in we didn't know he was dying at the time because he he released the single Black Star in November 2015. And I remember hearing it on a cold night at home. I downloaded it, it was ten minutes long, and as soon as I heard it, I thought something's wrong. Something's something's not right. I could feel the vibes coming out of that song. And of course, he was by that time he was very ill. And and also I admire him, I respect him because he you see he's had so much integrity and he was. A very brave man, you know. He died. Um, he knew he was going to die often. Well, we'll we all know we're gonna die, but he he pretty much knew the the timeline on it, you know, and he was just working to get his best albums. Black Star is uh absolutely one of my favourite Bowie albums. The more you listen to it, the better it becomes. Yeah, you know, the video of Lazarus and so on and so forth. So I knew, you know, as a person, he's a guy I'd I would like to have met, you know, and taken out for dinner or something.

SPEAKER_00:

What would you expank him for if you could meet him today? What would you say to him?

SPEAKER_01:

For all for all the wonderful songs and the moments in my life and growing up and how it brought whole groups together, you know, friendships and being really excited about it, uh so much excitement. Yes, I'm excited about some other artists, uh, but it's it's I don't think there's any other artist that's so exciting and interesting and full of good vibes, you know, full of love and incredible. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I think he I mean I I think I sent you some articles the other day, obviously, on the 10th anniversary, just you know, in the times and he's as big as he was now. Yeah, you did, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. I missed no, I bought I bought the next the next day was his other album that came out. The next the next day came out on his birthday in 2013. It's a good album, um some really good tracks on it, really good songs. That um Where Are We Now is a beautiful song. Uh mainstream rock rockers like that, you know, blues artists like that song. Eric Clapton's a big fan of that. In terms of yeah, you just mean he still means everything at my age. And I kind of think I have an affinity, he's kind of a bit of a friend, really, and you always remember him. So it made a massive impression on me, really. The other people who you uh made an impression, of course, were your parents naturally, who make a great impression on you. But everything about him was just brilliant. How cool he was. What great album! So, yeah, I had my favorite track. In fact, I'll probably do my favorite songs, maybe my top 20 favorite songs, you know. We like to do the things like that. But album, album-wise, it's got to be Black Star. I think his 90s work, I quite like Black Tie, White Noise, great. So I've got a couple of copies of those. I was never a massive fan of Heathen, but I'm going back into that. I got all the other albums, the 90s albums on uh cassette, but never really heard them. But Black Star is great. Um Let's Dance is a good album. But Bowie was a massive in 1983 on that tour. I mean, he was the world's biggest must have been the world's biggest artist, but he but he didn't like it. After the tour, he changed. He didn't like he didn't like being a massive rock and roll star, although he was. He wanted to do something a little bit different. Scary Monsters is a great album as well. Low and Heroes, Lowe, I think is just an exceptionally great album. So that that would be in my top.

SPEAKER_00:

Just to finish off, I'm gonna put you on the spot here, just to finish off. So um talking singles now. So if you're you're talking to a generation that may not know who he is or haven't listened to his music. Oh, I don't know if that's possible if you don't know who he is, but uh, I don't think that's actually a thing. My my kids definitely know who he is. What would you say? What were the five tracks you would get someone to listen to right now if they could? They can mine them all up on their iPhone. What would that be?

SPEAKER_01:

What who who don't know, Bowie? Yeah. That's a really tricky question.

SPEAKER_00:

It doesn't have to be it doesn't have to be in order of best, just what would be your go-to five tracks?

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, um, I would say Life on Mars. Yeah, I would say it's difficult. Either Ziggy Stardust or Starman. I love I love Aladdins as well. Just I mean, they're all good, those songs. Gene Jeannie is a great song, maybe that. Uh Low, always crashing in the same car is great. Heroes, yeah. Joe the Lion, I love. Uh, and also uh there's a track that he didn't that that was issued on the bonus. It's a rare track, which I I love it. Why didn't it go on the album of Lowe? It's called Some R. Some R is uh electronic track and it's uh it's on uh on the you can get it on i select David Bowie i Select, which which is on iTunes, um Black Star or Lazarus. I'm saying, you see, now I'm now I'm saying two tracks from you know the same era, either or so it's really it's really getting difficult. Golden Years has always been a great track from states.

SPEAKER_00:

These songs, as I said earlier on, they have just been used at sporting events and and TV shows like life on the world and ashes to ashes, brilliant.

SPEAKER_01:

I love Rebel Rebel, that was fantastic. That predated punk, it's like a Bowie Punk song. Yeah, definitely. That was huge. What a great song that is. So if you yeah, if if you if you'd asked me before and I prepared my notes, I would I would have come up with 10 tracks, or well, you said five, but it's it's really impossible, Miles.

SPEAKER_00:

No, you've done you've done very well all off the cup, so that's all good. Yeah, they're popping into my head, not even absolute beginners.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean that are again different styles of yeah, and and Vanessa likes Bowie, is cool. She knows why they go out with a girl, yeah who doesn't like Bowie. She she's yeah, she likes Bowie, she's got Black Star. I'm a Bowie nut. She yeah, she looks she loves Black Star and all those albums. Yeah, and she also likes she I played when she was here. This is not America, that's fantastic. This is not America's fantastic. She loves that. That was brilliant, but he also did another one called When the Wind Blows, which I like. I still got the 12-inch vinyl on that. Uh produced records for other people like Lou Reed and Iggy Pop, two two Iggy Pop albums from the 77 era, the Berlin for Life, The Idiot, brilliant. And I've seen Iggy Pop so many times live. So he did loads of other um supported loads of other artists as well.

SPEAKER_00:

Lulu, even you know, and so yeah, because she covered the song, didn't she?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So uh, you know, he managed to solve the world, yeah. But there we are, so that's my very um Rupert.

SPEAKER_00:

I'd like to thank you very much for your time. Good to uh talk to you and and talk and talk about one of our heroes. So uh thank you very much.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh yeah, end on heroes. Just for one just for one day, yeah. Just for one day. Yeah. As used in many sporting events.

SPEAKER_00:

Exactly, exactly. I'm gonna talk to you now um about uh Mr. Mr. Bowie, Bowie, Bowie Bowie. I say I say it either way, really. Someone said to me it's like like a it's like a Bowie knife. That's right. Um I didn't say I don't know if you have I I have, but it's it's definitely Bowie.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, um most people say Bowie anyway after after after the knife. It is, yeah. All good, all good, all good.

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Miles

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