Legendary singer, actor, musician, writer and painter David Bowie has died at the age of 69 from cancer. His son, film director Duncan Jones, confirmed the news and a statement was issued on his social media accounts. Bowie was no stranger to the strange and here we take a look back at things you might not know about David Bowie…
10. Bowie got the idea for the Ziggy Stardust persona after a chance encounter in London’s Carnaby Street with washed-up pop star and acid freak Vince Taylor.
09. Bowie claims he had a ‘horrible’ incident with a cup of tea when he was 5, and refuses to drink it to this day.
08. The song ‘Under Pressure’ – a collaboration between Bowie and Queen – evolved from a collective jam session at Bowie’s studio in Montreux, Switzerland. He’d originally intended to sing backing vocals on a different Queen song, ‘Cool Cat’.
07. At the height of cocaine psychosis, Bowie was so addled and paranoid from drugs, he allegedly stored his own urine in the fridge in case a wizard stole it.
06. A fake Twitter account was set up in David Bowie’s name in January 2009. Despite it only ever having featured one tweet (“Cheers from a snowy Berlin! Working on some new material!”), the account has over 41,000 followers.
05. Bowie left school with just one qualification, an O Level in art. He declined the CBE in 2000 and a knighthood in 2003.
04. Bowie plays saxophone on ‘To Know Him Is To Love Him’ from Steeleye Span’s Now We Are Six album.
03. A teenage Bowie was interviewed on a BBC programme as the founder of The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Long-haired Men. He complained: “It’s not nice when people call you darling and that”.
02. David Bowie was born David Robert Jones in Brixton, London, on 8 January 1947. He shares the same birthday as Elvis.
01. Bowie’s first hit in the UK – 1969’s Space Oddity – was used by the BBC in its coverage of the moon landing.
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