Bowie: A Biography - JFK247

Kemp and his troupe performed onstage behind
Bowie and the Spiders for the full theatrical effect. In
essence, the teacher had become the pupil. “David
gave me the music which he’d recorded for Ziggy
Stardust, and then as we played the songs I outlined
my ideas for the production,” Kemp said. Kemp
found David in the full flush of fame to be
recognizable, however. “David said to me, ‘Look,
you may not like some of the songs from Ziggy
Stardust because they’re very rock ’n’ roll,’” Kemp
tells me. “But I loved them all, obviously, I loved the
gentler, more romantic, say sentimental numbers like
‘Lady Stardust.’ That was the opening of the show.
But I mean, I staged them all. ‘Queen Bitch’ was me,
you know, wearing my Flowers dress actually. And
Starman was me as well. And we danced together
during those numbers. I just loved that world, but it
was also my world. I’ve always been kind of a rock
’n’ roller. Someone once said I was probably the
world’s most famous silent rock ’n’ roll star. Certainly
that world of hedonism and bright lights and living for
the moment appealed to me. I was terribly thrilled,
but I was also absolutely amazed, because it had
only been like, you know, a year since he was
performing for ten pounds a week.”
Meanwhile, both Iggy Pop and Lou Reed wound
their way to London, both struggling a bit with the
transition from American, urban toughs to slinky
glitter femmes. Iggy was writing lyrics for what would
become the Stooges’ third album, Raw Power, and
Reed had moved with his then girlfriend Bettye