“SHE WAS THE OIL”

Visconti on Angie Bowie’s role in Bowie’s early breakthrough

“ANGIE was the best thing to happen to him. She had balls. She made him leave Ken Pitt and then before Tony Defries came along she did all the work. She got David to put himself out a bit more. He was always very mild-mannered, a real English gentleman, and quite shy. Angie spoke on his behalf and made appointments with the labels. She’d tell them what was needed, and when we needed a touring band she managed to get a record deal for Hype that gave us guitar, amps, PA system, a van and Roger the roadie.

“Angie was the oil. She deserves more credit for that. They had an open relationship, so infidelity was never a problem, but things went sour. Angie wanted more attention for herself and that wasn’t permitted. She was told her career didn’t count, and that’s where the rift began. I think that if it wasn’t for that they might have had more together and grown up together, but David had learnt what ambition was and had gotten a little ruthless. Even the nicest pop star in the world is a ruthless person – you have to be if you want to get to the top. You can’t carry everybody, and David became that sort of a person. I had a lot of time for Angie, she was a sweet person, but first marriages rarely work. It took me three.”