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

3rd August 1974

   I must tell you about the wonderful night out on the town Angie and I just had. We decided to go out on a real date, just the two of us, like we used to do before we were married. So we left Zows in the capable hands of his nanny, Marion, and went forth into the big city. First we went to a quiet little Spanish restaurant. The setting was ever so romantic. Candles on the table, strolling musicians and wonderful food. I didn't like the idea of eating snails in green sauce at first, but once I had a taste of Angie's I found them absolutely delicious and wound up having two orders for myself. Thank goodness Angie is so adventurous with food, otherwise I'd be doomed to a life of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding!

   Anyway, after we just about stuffed ourselves with bread, wine and assorted other exotic dishes (I don't know how we both stay thin) we went to see a play which was written by one of our good friends, Tony Ingrassia, who also happens to be a MainMan artiste. Remember when I was writing my musicals, 'Ziggy Stardust' and '1984'? Well, Tony is the guy who was helping me write them. Tony's new play is called 'Fame' and it's about the '50s Hollywood movie queen, Marilyn Monroe. Angie has a special interest in the play because she was originally going to play the part of Marilyn. I think she would have been fantastic. She does look like a movie star, anyway, don't you think?

   The play was fabulous. I love stories about Hollywood and all the glamour and excitement. I've been in a few movies myself, you know, but now I've decided I like watching movies better than acting in them.

   Angie thought the play was great, too. She especially liked all the '50s costumes - swinging skirts, toreador pants and stiletto heels. She's got a wardrobe full of them already, and wears them whenever she gets in a '50s mood.

   After the play was over we went backstage to congratulate Tony and meet all the other actors. Angie told them they did an astonishing job (astonishing become Angie's favourite word, she uses it all the time) and then everyone thanked us for coming.

   We finished off this perfect evening by going to the 82 Club and dancing into the wee small hours of the night. We had such a great time that Angie and I have made a date to go out next week, too. In fact, if this keeps up we might even be going steady!!!

17th August 1974

   I must tell you right from the start that I've never been one to believe in ghosts or witches or anything like that, but a few very strange things have happened in my house recently, so I may be forced to change my opinion about the supernatural. When Angie, Zows and I first moved into the lovely little house we're renting in New York, we didn't notice anything suspicious at first. But as we started to love the house more and more and feel quite at home in it, there began a series of very peculiar occurrences. We'd hear strange noises coming from rooms that no one was in, and a few times Angie swore she heard footsteps on the stairs after everyone had gone to bed.

   At first I thought Angie was just trying to pull my leg about the footsteps until one night I stayed up really late by myself to do some work. I turned on the stereo to play some records and sat myself down with a cup of tea when all of a sudden I heard a tremendous knocking from the next room. I turned off the record only to hear someone walking from the room and out the front door (which I had locked quite securely myself a few hours before). "Aha!" I said. "It's Angie playing tricks on me."

   I raced upstairs to catch her sneaking back into bed, but lo and behold, she was absolutely sound asleep! Now that I think about it those footsteps didn't sound like Angie's at all, anyway! Zows is too young to be up to these pranks, and our house is absolutely burglar proof. So the only thing I have left to think is that we're being visited by - now don't laugh - ghosts! I'm sure you're probably thinking, 'Oh, the poor Bowie family has gone a bit mad. They've finally all flipped their lids', but we're not the only people who've witnessed these strange events!

   One night Angie and I invited some people over for dinner. We were all having a wonderful time chatting and laughing over old times, and after a while Angie said she was going to put dinner on the table. Angie started down to the kitchen and all of a sudden I heard screams of "David, David, come quickly!"

   The kitchen was an amazing sight! There was avocado dip on the floor, the walls and everywhere! The cupboard doors were all wide open and the cake Angie had just baked was lying on its side. No one could believe their eyes, least of all Angie, whose precious dinner was in a fine state.

   We've decided to stay to prove who's boss. We're determined not to let a silly little spirit scare us off and, anyway, it is sort of a privilege to live in a haunted house!

24th August 1974

   I was just remembering all the wonderful adventures I had on the tour I've just finished and one came to mind which I really must tell you about. You might already know that I've got a terrible case of agrophobia - that is to say I have a fear of being in high places. I don't like staying in the uppermost floors of hotels and I certainly never take aeroplanes which sometimes, I admit, does cause problems.

   On this past tour everyone, but yours truly, was flying from concert to concert while I took the long way and drove from place to place. On this particular occasion Geoffrey and Corinne accompanied me on the drive from Nashville, Tennessee, to Memphis. Everything was really good hunky-dory until midway between the two cities when our car broke down. Here we were in the middle of nowhere, no petrol stations for miles and absolutely no telephones to be seen. Also, we were in incredibly scorching heat trying to get to a concert, set for just a couple of hours away. We all realised that the only way we'd get to Memphis was by hitch-hiking. Well, I must tell you, hitch-hiking in the southern part of the States is not as thrilling as you think it might be. We all stood there for what seemed like ages while cars whizzed by not even giving us a second look.

   I must admit, we did look a bit strange for that part of the country, because I'm sure not many people around there wear their hair in such bright colours, standing straight up from their heads! Apart from that, we all had these crazy looks on our faces from desperation. (In fact, at that point, I think we were all suffering from a mild case of sunstroke.)

   Finally, we decided to let Corinne stand out in the road while we stayed out of sight with the luggage, and the next car stopped immediately for her. She asked the girl who was driving if she wouldn't mind taking all of us to Memphis. She was a bit surprised at seeing all us strange folk, but she said that she'd be glad to. The strangest thing was that she didn't know who we were, but just wanted to help fellow human beings in distress. When she did find out who we strangers were and what we were doing in the middle of nowhere, she was absolutely amazed!

   At the end of the ride we offered her some money to pay for all the petrol and for her trouble, but the only thing she'd accept were tickets to that night's concert. We were more than delighted to comply with this wish, because if it wasn't for her, there wouldn't have been any concert at all!

31st August 1974

   There's a brand new addition to the Bowie household. Her name is Miss Jones and she's a pretty little Persian kitten. To tell the truth, I've never been much of a cat fancier myself, but Angie and Zows are - so I was absolutely overruled when the family decided to get a cat. It's a good thing, too, 'cos I must admit this cat is a charmer and I've pretty well fallen in love with it along with everyone else.

   She's the tiniest little ball of white fur with the brightest blue eyes, and the high spots of every day for Zowie are Miss Jones' meal times 'cos Zowie gets to feed her all by himself. My only complaint is that I keep tripping over her all the time. I'm not used to watching where I'm going and Miss Jones has developed this nasty habit of chasing feet. I suppose that pretty soon she'll have me trained well enough to avoid mishaps.

   Another new event in the Bowie's lives is the fact that we've got cameras and are busy getting into photography. Angie bought me a camera to take on tour, and when she saw what fabulous pictures I'd taken of all our friends and all the places I'd gone to, she rushed out and got a camera for herself. She's decided that we should have a family album and I must say she's very good about recording all the happenings in our lives.

   I never knew how difficult it was to take really good pictures. I thought all you had to do was pick up the camera and sort of vaguely aim it in the right direction and shoot. After many pictures of people with their heads cut off and pictures of people's left arms, I realised there had to be more to it than that. Now, I'm getting into the right way of doing it, with a little help from my photographer friends, thank goodness - and I've advanced to the stage of making sure I've entire bodies and scenes into the camera's line of vision.

   Angie and I really are a sight in New York these days. We've taken to running around the city with our cameras slung around our necks, snapping pictures of unsuspecting persons and exciting things. We really do look like your typical crazy tourists.

   Actually, Angie learned how to take pictures quite a while ago when she was in school, so she's really quite good at it. Her favourite is of me after just getting out of bed, looking rather untidy and playing with Zows and the cat walking across my shoulder. I plan to make very sure that that picture never falls into the wrong hands!

Created: July 1997 © Paul Kinder

Last Updated: 4/5/2006