New world as new life

Bowie's fascination with all things unusual was stimulated by a man named Lindsay Kemp, a dancer and mime with whom the young musician met: "He lived on his emotions and had a wonderful influence. His daily life was the most theatrical of the performances I have ever seen. For me, he was a living embodiment of bohemian life. I joined the circus. "[28] Kemp, in turn, recalled: "I did not really teach him to be a mime artist, but rather to be himself beyond the everyday… I helped him free the angel and demon that make up his essence." Studying the dramatic arts under Kemp, from the theatrical avant-garde to pantomime and comedy del arte, Bovi immersed himself in the creation of characters, images and characters presented later in the world. In 1967, Bowie sold his first songs to another musician named Oscar (an early version of the pseudonym for actor and musician Paul Nichols). Bowie wrote Oscar's third single, "Over The Wall We Go," which ridiculed life in a British prison. Bowie's other song, Silly Boy Blue, was released by Billy Fury the following year. After Kemp brought Bowie and Hermione Fartingale together to compose a poetic minuet, the couple began dating and soon began living together in an apartment in London. Hermione, who played acoustic guitar, formed a band with Bowie and bassist John Hutchinson. From September 1968 until the couple's divorce in early 1969, the trio gave several concerts, combining folk, beat, poetry and pantomime. In late 1968, Bowie's next manager, Kenneth Pitt, produced a half-hour promotional film called "Love You Till Tuesday" starring Bowie, who performed several songs but remained unreleased until 1984.

Deram Records' contract with Decca's subsidiary Deram brought David some popularity, but the single and well-publicized debut album by David Bowie found few fans. It was a mixture of pop music, psychedelia and music hall. Bowie even tried to boost his popularity by recording the humorous single "The Laughing Gnome", in which he used the accelerated vocals of the Chipmunk style (the effect of "chipmunk vocals"), but this did not open the way to the charts. After that, Bowie did not enroll for two years. His material from the Deram Records label, album and various singles will later be released in numerous collections.

Dissatisfied with The King Bees and their repertoire based on compositions by Gavlin Wolf and Willie Dixon, Bowie left the band less than a month later to join the Manish Boys, another blues band that performed folk and soul songs. "I dreamed of being their Mick Jagger," the musician recalled. The next single "I Pity the Fool" was released by the record company Parlophone. The Manish Boys and Davy Jones were named as performers. The song was more successful than "Liza Jane". Bowie soon changed the band again, joining the Lower Third blues trio, which was heavily influenced by The Who. Their Got a Habit of Leaving sold no better than Bowie's previous singles (it was released under the title David Bowie (and The Lower Third), by Pye Records), marking the end of his contract with Conn. Announcing that he was leaving show business "to study at the Sadler's Wells pantomime theater", Bowie, however, remained part of the Lower Third. His new manager, Ralph Horton, who later played an important role in the musician's transition to solo work, soon witnessed Bowie's transition to another band, Buzz, with whom he released his fifth failed single, "Do Anything You Say". ». Staying with Buzz, he also joined Riot Squad; their recordings, including Bowie's composition and The Velvet Underground, have not been released. Ken Pitt, led by Gorton, took over as Bowie's manager. He worked with him until the end of the decade. Early in his career, Bowie went through blues and Elvis-style music, working with many British pop artists.

In the early 1960s, Bowie performed under his own name, or under the pseudonym "Davey Jones", which had two spellings - Davy and Davie, which created confusion with Davy Jones from The Monkees. To avoid this, in 1966 he took the nickname Bowie after the hero of the Texas Revolution: as a big fan of Mick Jagger, he learned that "Jagger" means "knife" in Old English, so David took a similar nickname (Bowie is a type of hunter). knives, named after James Bowie) [26]. David Bowie's birthday is considered to be January 14, 1966. It was on this day that he first appeared under that name with The Lower Third on the cover of "Can't Help Thinking About Me". Conn quickly began to advance Bowie. The singer's debut single "Liza Jane" was released under the title Davie Jones and the King Bees and was not a commercial success.

While in school, Bowie was a member of the school amateur group "George & The Dragon" [23]. His participation in this group was interrupted by a fight with Underwood and a damaged eye. Moving from a plastic saxophone to real instruments in 1962, at the age of 15, Bowie formed his first professional band, The Kon-rads, which played guitar-based rock 'n' roll at local parties and weddings. There were four to eight participants, and Underwood was among them. A year later, he left Bromley High School and informed his parents of his intention to become a pop star. The mother quickly found a job as an electrician's assistant. Frustrated by the limited ambitions of his bandmates, David left The Kon-rads and moved to another team, The King Bees, after which he wrote a letter to new millionaire John Bloom, who made a fortune selling washing machines, asking him to "do it for us." what Brian Epstein did for the Beatles, and… earn another million. ” Bloom did not respond to the offer, but passed it on to Leslie Conn, a partner of Dick James (who published the Beatles with Epstein), which led to David Bowie's first contract with the manager.

Bowie studied art, music and design, including typography and typesetting. His half-brother Terry introduced David to modern jazz, and he fell in love with musicians such as Charles Mingus and John Coltrane. At the age of 8-9, David first heard Little Richard and had a dream of becoming a saxophonist. This prompted him to buy his first saxophone - "Selmer" - made of pink plastic. For the sake of such a purchase, David was forced to deliver orders for a butcher's shop. And in 1961 his mother gave him a white plastic alto saxophone for Christmas; he soon began taking lessons from local musicians. When Bowie was 15, he and his friend George Underwood had a fight over girls: Underwood, who was wearing a ring on his finger, hit Bowie in the left eye, forcing him to leave school for four months to see doctors. , who feared that he would lose his sight, were able to perform a series of operations and prevent blindness [18] [19]. While David was in the hospital, his brother Terry brought him books to introduce Kerouac and Orwell. Doctors were unable to fully restore vision, resulting in a defective perception in the depths of the field of vision. Bowie said that although he can see with his injured eye, the perception of color is lost (there is always a brown background). The pupil of the injured eye became mydriatic, which gave the impression of different eye color in David [19]. Despite the fight, Underwood and Bowie remained good friends, Underwood created illustrations for his early albums

Bowie's biographer Christopher Sandford describes this unusual technical school as follows:
"Despite its status, at the time David arrived to study (1958), the institution had many secret rituals, like any [English] public school. There were faculties named after 18th-century statesmen Pitt and Wilberforce. Particular attention was paid to languages, sciences and design. The university atmosphere flourished under the auspices of Owen Frampton. According to David's recollections, Frampton had great influence in the school because of his strength of character, not his intelligence. His college classmates had neither. They gladly gave their most talented students to the arts, where the order was quite liberal. Frampton actively encouraged his own son Peter to pursue a musical career with David. Their partnership was briefly renewed 30 years later (during the Glass Spider Tour)

In 1953, the Bowie family moved to the neighboring suburb of Bromley. There, David attended Burnt Ash Junior School, located on Rangefield Road (now known as Burnt Ash Primary School). From 1957 to 1958 he played for the school's football team. David's vocal abilities in the school choir were assessed as "satisfactory", playing the recorder as better than mediocre [11]. At the age of nine, he began attending open music and choreography classes, where he showed amazing creative abilities: teachers called his interpretations "brightly artistic" and his coordination "amazing" as a child. That same year, his interest in music received additional impetus. The father brought home a collection of American records by Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers, The Platters, Fets Domino and Little Richard. Bowie later said of Tutti Frutti: "I heard God." He was very impressed by Elvis Presley: "I saw my cousin dancing to Hound Dog. I had never seen anything make her get up and start moving before. The power of this music made an unforgettable impression on me. I started buying records right after this incident "[14]. By the end of the following year, Bowie had acquired a ukulele and a homemade bass and began participating in skiff sessions with friends. At the same time, David became interested in playing the piano. His stage performances were in the style of Presley and Chuck Berry, whom he adored. Members of the local scout movement Wolf Cub [en] describe them as "hypnotic - as if performed by an alien" [14]. Meanwhile, Bowie failed the national final exam, then went to Bromley High School, now known as the Ravens Wood School.

David Bowie (name at birth - David Robert Jones) was born in London's Brixton district. His parents married in September 1947, shortly after his birth. David's mother, Margaret Mary Peggy (nee Barnes), has Irish roots. She worked as a waitress in a movie theater, [7] and his father, Hayward Stanton, John Jones, worked in the human resources department of Barnardo's Charitable Foundation. [8] The family lived at 40 Stansfield Road, located between the south of London - Brixton and Stockwell. One neighbor recalled: "It is impossible to imagine a worse place and time for childhood than London in the 1940s." Until Bowie was six years old, he attended Stockwell Preparatory School, where he earned a reputation as a talented and purposeful child, as well as a naughty brawler.

David Bowie (real name David Robert Jones, David Bowie; born January 8, 1947 in London, United Kingdom; died January 10, 2016 in Manhattan, New York, United States) is a British rock singer. musician, singer, producer, audio engineer, composer, artist, actor.
He played many musical instruments: saxophone, guitar, keyboards, harmonica, koto, mandolin, viola, violin, cello and stylophone. He has also acted in films - his filmography includes more than 30 films.
Over the course of his career, Bowie's albums have sold more than 136 million copies, according to a 2003 Sunday Express report, and Bowie was Britain's second-richest musician since Paul McCartney. In 1996, his name was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and 6 albums were featured on Rolling Stone Magazine's List of the 500 Best Albums of All Time.