Bowie had a way wi’ words
Pop chameleon would switch to Yorkshire accent
HE may have been born in South London, but pop legend David Bowie’s accent would often head north to Yorkshire.
It all started when he and his band The Spiders from Mars – all from Yorkshire – went to see Leeds-born Malcolm McDowell in 1971 movie A Clockwork Orange.
Drummer Mick “Woody” Woodmansey revealed in Uncut magazine: “We all went and watched it together.
“It made sense as we wanted something solid, like a gang. We really were like that in the early days.
“He’d even start talking in a Yorkshire accent – and he did it quite well, to be fair.”
Spiders guitarist Mick Ronson and bass player Trevor Bolder were from Hull, while Woodmansey was from Driffield in East Yorkshire. When Bowie appeared on TV’s Parkinson in 2002 he said hearing the Barnsley-born host’s voice reminded him of his dad who was also from Yorkshire and then slipped into the accent.
Bowie – real name David Jones – then talked about the band: “So these guys all came from Hull. ‘We’re gonna play rock’n’ roll, we like the songs’. “I said ‘yeah, that’s great, but you want to see what we’re gonna wear?’ ‘No way I’m not putting that on’.
“I said ‘Believe me, you’ll look great. It will really suit you’. I dunno how I did it. I managed to talk them into it.
“A couple of nights later the girls are all over them. And suddenly the dressing room procedure was really different. It was ‘Right? Who’s got the blush? Eh, Trevor, have you finished with that mascara?’”
Bowie was a huge Elvis fan and flew to New York with Mick Ronson to see him in concert in June 1972.
Mick’s wife Suzi has revealed in her new autobiography, Me and Mr Jones: My Life with David Bowie and the Spiders from Mars, that the star was on edge about meeting Presley.
Suzi, who was also Bowie’s hairdresser, said: “David is full of nervous energy, pacing up and down, smoking one cigarette after another.
“All he talks about is meeting Elvis – how it will be, what he should say, what he should wear and, above all else, how can he look really young?
“He wants to be seen as the heir apparent. He’s planning a photo of him and Elvis where he’ll be looking up at the older man. ‘I’d sell my soul to be famous.’ It just comes out.”
But the pair arrived late to the concert and Elvis had started his set.