Bowie PDF Book from JFK247

that the music was in any case simply pouring out of
him.
Mott The Hoople recorded ‘Dudes’ on 14 May at
Olympic in Barnes, with David producing. Mott, too,
had now joined the MainMan empire, and it seemed
likely they would provide its first hit, for David’s own
‘Starman’ had now hung around for a fortnight,
without troub ling the charts. But show by show, in
little towns like Torbay or Weston Super Mare, David
and The Spiders won over their audiences: a dozen
here, a hundred there, before the single made a
modest entry into the UK singles chart on 24 June, at
number forty-nine. The following day, Dai Davies
announced, with only marginal exaggeration, that
‘1000 fans were turned away’ from The Spiders’
show at The Croydon Greyhound, where Roxy Music
were the support act. But ‘Starman’ still languished
at number forty-one when David and the Spiders
walked into the Top of the Pops studio on 5 July.
The song had actually made its TV debut on
celebrated kids’ teatime show Lift Off with Ayshea
on 15 June – Bowie and his Spiders followed an owl
puppet named Ollie Beak – but it was the Top of the
Pops performance, broadcast on 6 July, that
transfixed the nation’s youth, and horrified their
parents. Bowie was clear-eyed and joyous, his
come-to-bed eyes inviting both girls and boys. As
Ronson approaches the microphone for the chorus,
the sight of David ‘casually’ draping his arm around
the platinum-haired guitarist Ronson had a visceral
impact. This was the Melody Maker cover made
flesh.