Bowie: A Biography - JFK247

everything? By Friday? So I wrote this thing and
thought, ‘There, that should sort them out.’ Maybe got
my management to phone up their people.”
Ian Hunter had worked in a factory and knew well
that being in a band was better. “It’s a question of
alternatives, it’s as simple as that,” he says. “I’ve
been in factories, I know what that is and I don’t want
to go back there.”
Mott didn’t absorb into the Bowie circle as
smoothly as the already perverse Iggy Pop or the
opportunistic Reed, but they were won over by his
drive and talent. “I think Bowie was more analytical
than we were and definitely more ambitious. He was
a planner. And he’s an extremely bright individual,”
Hunter says. “There was obviously something
different with David right from the off. I mean, we
were doing all right but David was meteoric at the
time. And he still had time to be pretty unselfish. He
liked Mott so he therefore gave more to us. If I had
been David I wouldn’t have given. He helped a few
people along the way.”
Mott dutifully put on the glam drag as well. They felt
funny about it but realized it was necessary to
succeed. “People were going to grab it and use it,”
Hunter says, “because there were thousands of
bands trying to get on. David took it to the extreme,
you know; we sort of did it, but it worked. Otherwise
you’re going back to the factory.”
Rock shot a video for Bowie’s new single “John,
I’m Only Dancing” during sound check for Ziggy’s
sold-out show at the Rainbow in August. Lindsay