1974 January February March April May June JULY August September October November December

MY WORLD by David Bowie A WEEKLY DIARY EXCLUSIVELY WRITTEN FOR MIRABELLE MAGAZINE

6th July 1974

   The Bowie household is currently in rather a confused state. Mrs. Bowie always the interior decorator, decided that what our house in New York needs is complete redecoration, from top to toe.

   I promptly forgot that Angie had even mentioned this to me until one morning (well, actually late afternoon!) I rolled out of bed and went downstairs to be met by teams of painters, upholsterers and carpenters, all busily attending to their respective jobs, and looking at me as if to say: 'Who let him into the house?' I was beginning to feel like an intruder and considered picking up a paint brush so I'd look like I belonged, when, suddenly, I tripped over a paint can, splattered paint all over the floor and rammed straight into a wall, getting fingerprints all over the wet paint!

   Everyone watching tried to suppress their laughter and, I must say, I was the only one in the room who didn't think this was funny. At this point Angie walked into the room took one look at me and knew that if she didn't get me away from the scene of the crime soon that there'd be fireworks. I was still not quite awake and sort of in shock, so I did indeed appreciate being rescued.

   Angie took me back upstairs and Corinne, who was watching the commotion from the kitchen, brought me up a cup of tea. Then they informed me that the entire family was moving to a hotel for the duration of the redecorating period. They assured me that when we moved back in, everything would be calm, peaceful and absolutely beautiful.

   So, here I am sitting contentedly in our hotel room, not daring to go back to the house to check on the progress. Mainly, because it's just too dangerous to be around there! There are only a few days left until the house will be finished, but I must admit that I'm getting rather attached to just getting anything I want from room service. When I go home, I'll probably drive Angie crazy by saying, 'Get me this' or 'Get me that', but she'll put an end to that pretty quickly I assure you!

   Oh, there's one thing I really must tell you before I go. A good friend of mine, Ava Cherry (she just happens to be a MainMan artist) has got her first role in a play. She's going to be playing Dorothy in a stage production of 'The Wizard Of Oz' and everyone is really excited about it. I'll tell you all about it after I see it.

13th July 1974

   I saw the most amazing sight just a few weeks ago. I was walking around Times Square, doing a bit of sight-seeing, just like a typical tourist (Times Square is sort of like Piccadilly Circus in London) when what did I spy from the corner of my eye (oh, I'm such a poet) but a huge, and I mean H-U-G-E, billboard displaying a gigantic picture of my old mate Mick Ronson!

   This picture of Mick - actually it was a very large painting - stood six-storeys tall and stretched right round the street corner. Well, the dimensions alone would have been enough to make passers-by stand up and take notice, but what made the sight even more amazing is that Micky-Baby (that's the nickname all his friends really call him) was totally shirtless all 120 feet of him. This I must say was a very daring sight for the middle of New York City. People aren't used to seeing gorgeous, blond-haired, muscle men posing right in the centre of Times Square!

   Of course, I wasn't a bit surprised to see old Micky-Baby up there in all his glory, 'cos I knew that our company, MainMan, was putting up this billboard to advertise Mick's album 'Slaughter On Tenth Avenue'. (The next person to be featured in this special spot is yours truly).

   Anyway, as I promised Mick, I took a pic of this work of art and sent it to him in England.

   I spoke to Mick right after he received my pic and he had to admit he was a bit embarrassed with all the attention this billboard has been getting. What most people don't know is that Mick is really quite shy! People have even accused him of being conceited and stand-offish but the truth is, he's just a little bit bashful until he really gets to know you. Once he does get to know you and like you, he's one of the warmest, most friendly, human beings in the world - and that's a fact!

   Right now, Mick's hard at work in the studio recording a brand new album. He tells me that he's putting all the songs he's done in his solo concerts (that are not included on his first album) on this new one. I've heard him do some of these songs and they're just fabulous! This album should give us all something to look forward to!

   Speaking of concerts, I'm so pleased with the way mine are going that I might even do some of them in England. That's not definite yet, of course, but you'll be the first to know when it is.

20th July 1974

   New York was fairly turned upside down the other night and I must say it was for a great cause. The Who - one of my all-time favourite groups - were doing their last concert in New York, and they had a super big celebration at the end of the night.

   First everyone went to see The Who perform at Madison Square Garden, a gigantic hall in New York which on this particular night was really filled to the rafters. Then after a fabulous show we all went to the place where the party was being held. As usual, I went with Angie and Geoffrey - and we had a great time getting really dressed up for the festivities. I must tell you though, if we knew then what the party was going to be like we'd have dressed a bit more casually.

   They'd hired belly dancers for the night, trained elephants to do tricks for all the party-goers and last, but not least, were going to have a roller derby!

   I must tell you what roller derbys are like. A big round rink is set up and the race is made up of about fifteen girls in numbered jerseys on roller skates. I've never seen anything like it! The girls get really fierce during the race and actually push each other off the course and sometimes even get thrown right out of the rink if they're going fast enough. They're all good friends, though, so you know all this pushing and shoving is to make it appear exciting. But it sure looked authentic to us! Every time anyone got pushed out of the ring we'd 'oooh' and 'aah'.

   Now comes the part where casual clothes could have come in handy. The derby ended and all sorts of pies started to be flung from nowhere. I'll bet you always thought I was a pretty dignified fellow. Well, I must tell you, I'm not too dignified to throw a few pies when it's in self-defence. My new suit was covered with coconut custard and chocolate cream!

27th July 1974

   The most amazing change has come over me lately. I've become what you might call a telly freak. Every free minute I have I switch on the TV and my eyes soon become glued to the screen.

   It all started when Angie went out shopping one day and I was left at home to babysit for Zows. To keep Zowie busy, I decided to let him watch a bit of TV (as they call it in America). I turned on the set and immediately I was hooked. I started switching channels madly so's not to miss anything. They've got seven channels here in New York you know, and they run day and night, so there's always something you want to watch.

   Well, pretty soon Zowie got a bit frustrated, went to play with his toys and left his daddy to continue with his frantic telly tuning. I started watching quiz shows first. They've got one really crazy one where people get dressed up in outrageous costumes, some of them are bananas, some are clowns, some are boxes of washing powder and the person who wears the most comical outfit gets a chance at the prizes. The prizes are sometimes sillier than the costumes. A person can win a year's supply of string or a bottle of cola or something like that, but sometimes they win trips to foreign places or cars or furniture and it all makes it worthwhile. The contestants go crazy, though. They jump up and down, scream and cry and kiss the compere when they win and just generally act like maniacs. It's all in good fun, of course, but you'd never get me in a banana suit!

   I've also taken to watching old movies. They've got tons of them on over here. I love all the old ones from the '30s and '40s. In fact, I've been taping all my favourite ones on my new toy which is a video tape machine and it records the picture as well as the sound. Now I've got my own library of old movies and I can show them to my friends whenever they come over to visit. We sit around for hours watching movie after movie and usually I'm the only one who can stay awake all through them. Not that they're boring, of course, it's just that everyone else has seen them hundreds of times, and the excitement has sort of worn off.

   I'm all out of space again, and so it's goodbye until next week.

Created: July 1997 © Paul Kinder

Last Updated: 7/1/99