A town called David Bowie?

A town called David Bowie?

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norman lebrecht

March 20, 2018

The market town of Aylesbury, where Bowie played his tentative first gigs in 1971, is putting up a statue to him this weekend.

A petition is being presented to the council to rename the town Aylesbowie.

 

 

Comments

  • Stephen says:
    March 20, 2018 at 12:08 pm

    I must confess to never having heard of Bowie but suppose he’s some sort of musician since he figures on Slipped Disc. If he’s a pianist and plays Sibelius I would be interested in hearing more about him. Changing the historical name of a town in favour of an obscure (to me) player seems a bit off.

    Reply
  • Bruce says:
    March 20, 2018 at 12:20 pm

    Considering the amount of “r = w” pronunciation I hear on the BBC World Service, it’s a safe bet that the town is already called (if not spelled) Aylesbowie by a fair amount of the population…

    Reply
  • Tommy says:
    March 20, 2018 at 2:01 pm

    Bowie started gigging in the mid-60s and his first big hit, Space Oddity, was in 1969.
    By 1971 he was a pretty experienced live performer. ‘Tentative’ was what he might have been 10 years earlier.

    Reply
  • Arthur Borrow says:
    March 20, 2018 at 2:26 pm

    “Bowie was an agent from the beginning, selling you a manufactured, distorted worldview packaged as progressive music. ………..although glam-rock would seem to be pretty fluffy, already by 1970 Bowie was selling a tonic composed of schizophrenia, paranoia, delusion, androgyny and bisexuality. That year’s album, The Man Who Sold the World, has a strange set of lyrics and a stranger cover…Bowie, dressed as a woman….”

    (Miles.W. Mathis: Essay, “A Game of Fakes”)

    So the statue has to be cross-dressed, right?

    Reply

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