It is half a century since Ziggy Stardust—a character that turned David Bowie into an intergalactic star and revolutionised sexual politics in the process—crashed onto Earth
The "Starman" costume from David Bowie's appearance on "Top of the Pops" in 1972 on display at the "David Bowie is" exhibition at the Victoria and Albert (V&A) museum in central London
Image: Leon Neal / AFP©
It is half a century since Ziggy Stardust—a character that turned David Bowie into an intergalactic star and revolutionised sexual politics in the process—crashed onto Earth.
The London singer had spent a decade trying to refine his stage persona, but despite a couple of hits—1969's "Space Oddity" and "Changes" two years later—he had yet to achieve the stardom he craved.
"He had failed in everything he tried since the beginning of his career," Jerome Soligny, one of the world's leading Bowie experts and author of "David Bowie: Rainbowman", told AFP.
But on June 16, 1972, "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars" finally pulled together all the elements he had been absorbing.
There was the dirty rock of Iggy Pop and Lou Reed whom he had met in New York, the mime and theatre he had studied in London, boiler suits from "A Clockwork Orange", and wild, androgynous styles from the underground gay clubs he frequented with his wife.