STARMAN IN COLOUR

NEW IMAGES OF BOWIE’S GRANITE CITY GIG

It was one of the most iconic and historic gigs to take place at the Music Hall – May 16 1973 – when David Bowie arrived on his Ziggy Stardust tour.

Many people are familiar with the old black and white image of Bowie, lunging forward as he belts out a number to a packed audience of adoring fans.

But never-before-seen colour photographs of that memorable concert have now emerged, taken by a teenager in the audience who managed to dodge security to snap away at the front of the stage.

They show Bowie, in a red jumpsuit, as he was morphing into Aladdin Sane, with the unmistakable frescos of the Music Hall behind him, while others show Spiders from Mars guitarist Mick Ronson.

The snapshots were taken by a then 17-year-old Doug Anderson on a Kodak camera.

Doug, now 63, and an aviation agent at Aberdeen

Airport, said: “I had to avoid the security folk to get up to the front to take the pictures.

“It was packed to the roof, just mobbed, and Bowie was his usual flamboyant self.

“He went through a few costume changes. He had that red jumpsuit, and then he came on in what was almost like hotpants.”

Doug remembers that Bowie played two shows at the Music Hall that day and he went to both.

“I saw it advertised in the paper that there were two on the same night and I thought ‘I’m going to have to have some of that’,” he said.

“That was the final Ziggy Stardust tour. I didn’t know that at the time. The band didn’t even know, apparently, so I was lucky to catch it.”

The gig sparked a lifelong passion for concerts in the Granite City that has never left Doug. But he doesn’t actually rate the Bowie gig as the best he’s seen.

“The best one I remember was Black Sabbath with

Van Halen in support at the Capitol in 1978,” he said.

“I wanted to see Sabbath. I had never heard of this other lot, but Van Halen blew them off the stage.”

Also at the Bowie concert was Graeme Thain, then a 14-year-old pupil at Robert Gordon’s College.

“My parents weren’t going to let me go,” said Mr Thain, former proprietor of Thain’s Bakery.

“They didn’t think he was a good influence on kids because of his controversial lifestyle. I just rebelled and went anyway.”

Not only did he and his friends attend the gig – in school uniform – they found themselves captured on camera, on the balcony behind Bowie in one of the gig’s most memorable images.

Mr Thain, now 61, secured his prime seats from the legendary Telemech record store on Marischal Street, and added: “It was one of the most amazing experiences in a young boy’s life.”

Another at the Bowie concert was one Barney

Crockett, these days better known as the lord provost of Aberdeen.

Back then, though, he took on the role of a steward at the gig as a favour to a friend.

“It was stunning,” he said. “By modern standards it would be not dramatic, but at that time to have sudden changes of costume – Bowie’s clothes split in half to reveal another persona underneath – was unusual.”

He said another thing which might surprise modern gig-goers was the young age of the audience.

“People just didn’t believe me that it was mainly schoolgirls who went to concerts at that time, but the picture from the Bowie concert shows that.

“It was cheap to get into concerts then. You went on tour to promote your record and get on TV.”

Mr Crockett said the Ziggy tour had been the breakthrough moment that transformed Bowie into a superstar.

“It was one of the standout gigs Aberdeen has ever seen,” he added.

A STARMAN IS BORN: Singer David Bowie onstage at the Music Hall as his alter ego Ziggy Stardust in 1973

Picture courtesy of Doug Anderson Bowie appears in his red jumpsuit after a quick costume change during the Music Hall concert in 1973.

Picture courtesy of Doug Anderson Guitarist Mick Ronson captured on what would be their last tour.