From Space oddity to Ziggy Stardust, Diamond Dogs to The Thin White Duke, David Bowie remains cutting edge and legendary and is without doubt one of the most ground-breaking stars that Britain has ever spawned. Possessing a longevity very few in the volatile and fickle world of entertainment manage to maintain, the legendary David Bowie is into his 6^th decade as a performing artist.

You’re so swishy in your satin and tat!

In celebration of David Bowie’s unparalleled career, the Victoria and Albert are holding an exhibition to chart the career of the British singer.

The David Bowie London exhibition will run from 23 March until 28 July, 2013, and will feature original costumes, handwritten lyric, set designs and some of the singer’s own instruments.

Being one of the most popular and prominent British singers of the contemporary era, London’s V & A David Bowie Exhibition this year promises to a phenomenal success. As Martin Roth, director of V & A told the BBC:

“David Bowie is a true icon, more relevant to popular culture now than ever.”

A London boy

Similar to how London has created, nurtured and developed many legendary musicians, David Bowie’s relationship with the British capital has been collaborative and reciprocal.

The born and bred Londoner was born in Brixton in 1947 and was christened David Jones. In the fifties Bowie’s family moved to Bromley and by the early sixties David was studying saxophone. After playing in various groups throughout London in the sixties, David Jones had changed his name to David Bowie and began to run an arts laboratory at The Three Tuns pub on Beckenham High Street.

Making his mark on the London music scene early, in 1969 Bowie and several of his friends held a free festival on Beckenham Recreation Ground. The song “Memory of a Free Festival” was a tribute to this event and the song features on the hit album “Space Oddity”.

In fact the Space Oddity single was the first hit single for Bowie and was released in synchronisation with the world’s first moon landing by Aldrin and Armstrong in July 1969. There was no turning back for Bowie now, as a new character called “Ziggy Stardust” was lurking menacingly in the future, resulting in the London boy marching on as brave as a lion.

Ch Ch Ch Changes

David Bowie has always held fashion close to his groin. Even when he’s dressing down there is an underlying sense of sexual style, thrusting his pelvis towards the girls (and the boys) on the front row!

Bowie had been putting on costumes for many decades, even before the famed Ziggy Stardust years. In the sixties he worked with London mime artist Lindsey Kemp and this is where the costume fetish began.