How the Starman blew our minds

A new book on the late David Bowie charts fans’ experiences of the superstar’s gigs spanning almost four decades, including the recollections of many Scots

OUR fascination with David Bowie hasn’t dimmed 20 months after his death from liver cancer in January 2016.

His music continues to be repackaged and eagerly awaited.

At the end of this month, the third in a series of his box sets will collect his work from the late 70s and 80s.

A New Career in a New Town (1977-1982) includes five albums from the era, including Low, Heroes and Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps), an EP and a disc of rarities on 11 CDs.

And a new book, I Was There, by Neil Cossar, brings together fan accounts of the 1600-plus gigs the London-born superstar played from 1962 until his death aged 69.

Many of those dates were in Scotland – the first came in December 1964 with Bowie fronting The Manish Boys at the ABC in Edinburgh’s Lothian Road.

His last performance in Scotland was at the SECC in Glasgow in November 2003.

He was due to headline the following year’s T in the Park but pulled out due to illness.

He stopped touring after that and his last live performance was a charity event in 2006.

Here are some of the first-hand accounts of Bowie in Scotland. Fans’ recollections range from him refusing to eat a Fray Bentos pie, to axed gigs, the glam rock of Aladdin Sane and the star quality of his gigs at Murrayfield and Glasgow Barrowland. BONNYRIGG REGAL NOVEMBER 9, 1969 Sara Sanderson’s mum Valerie Jubb and her flatmates met the band at the bar afterwards as they waited to hitch back to Edinburgh. The band were staying in Broughton and invited her and her pals to the flat.

Sara said: “Mum pulled out all the stops with a Fray Bentos pie. She says David ate very little and none of the pie – it may have been her cooking, apparently. She always said he was incredibly polite but also distant. Got the impression he was coming to terms with impending stardom.” ELECTRIC GARDEN, GLASGOW NOVEMBER 10, 1969 Linda Collins said: “There were only about 50 people there. We sat on the floor to listen to him. He was dressed in a silver suit with silver boots and he sat on a stool and played the guitar. The only song we remember was Space Oddity. It was all very laid-back with people sitting on the floor and clapping at the end. Later he came into the cafe-bar and sat down with his friends for coffee.” ALBERT HALL, STIRLING NOVEMBER 11, 1969 Katrina MacLean got tickets for the front row as her friend was the first person to pay and book. But the show was axed. When they went to Hay’s music shop and got their money back – 50p each – and asked why, his reply was there was a “lack of numbers”. The start of the Bowie magic was still a few months off. MUSIC HALL, ABERDEEN NOVEMBER 12, 1969 Bill Cowie was in a record shop the day before David was due to play when the singer, wearing an Afghan coat, came in to talk to the manager. Bill said: “Then David left and the manager said to me, ‘It’s disappointing because we were the agents for selling the tickets for this concert tomorrow night but we’ve had to cancel the concert.’

David had had only one record out – Space Oddity – and it had only just come out the week before. The shop manager said, ‘We’ve sold hardly any tickets and not enough to justify going ahead.’ Nobody in Scotland had heard of this David Bowie.”

Although Bowie had a top five hit with Space Oddity in 1969 – it went to No1 on its re-release in 1975, for a while he appeared in danger of being a one-hit wonder.

But when he took on the persona of Ziggy Stardust, he reached the top 10 with Starman