Feathery

Hutch.

Hermione.

David.

The sixties super group that never, ever was: Feathers. Never mind, Dave, you'll be fine.

Your Lips Are Void Of History

A young David Bowie knocks out 'Let Me Sleep Beside You'.    

Flipping Awful

One of the things I've really enjoyed in 2011 has been the weekly repeats of every 1976 Top Of The Pops. It's not always easy to watch (how many weeks were Brotherhood of Man number one? A thousand?), but watch it we do - the rules in our house being no whizzing forward, and get up and dance if you want to. Simple pleasures.

Ruby Flipper were the multracial, mixed gender dance troupe replacement to the hugely popular Pan's People. They only lasted for five months. Why? Well, Ruby Flipper were perhaps a little too, um, experimental for prime time telly. Take their routine for Bowie's 'TVC15', for example. Any ideas?

Roll on Legs & Co. Now there's a vivid image.

I Will Be King

In 1972, about five minutes before 'Ziggy Stardust' came out, Marc Bolan said of his sort of mate David Bowie: "I don’t think that David has anywhere near the charisma or balls that I have. Or Alice has. Or Donny Osmond has got. He’s not gonna make it, in any sort of way."

Five years later, in what would have been a humiliating reversal of fortunes for anyone less insanely egotistical than Bolan, Bowie appeared on 'Marc' and promptly blew everything and everybody else that had appeared on the show so far into tiny shards of insignificance. David's presence always reminds me of royalty visiting a youth club, then cajoled into playing table tennis or deejaying for the press. The difference is, of course, that Prince Charles can’t DJ but David can, most assuredly, sing.

Mimes Gone By

I know I'm supposed to find David Bowie's early work laughable, but I never have. All I hear is clever, catchy songs with interesting arrangements and quirky, amusing lyrics. Most of his work of this era is not remotely cool, of course, and perhaps therein lays the problem - that, and the mime.

'Love You Til Tuesday' was made in 1969 to showcase Dave and his many talents. I think it's bloody good, and I'm surprised he didn't get a TV show out of it, I mean, he's a billion times better than Lulu. and she was on telly all the time.

Here he is performing 'When I'm Five'. It's all cutesy and cloying on the surface, but terrifying just underneath, with Bowie giving an excellent, extraordinarily creepy performance, perhaps inspired by Hywel Bennet's similar turn in 'Twisted Nerve' the previous year. 

David apparently wore a wig throughout this production after cutting his hair short for an audition for the film of 'The Virgin Soldiers' (starring Hywel Bennett, funnily enough). He didn't get the part, but did appear as an extra with a whopping two seconds of background screen time. 

Bowie, Knife

Here's a fairly lengthy clip from the aforementioned 'The Image' which will give you the gist. Director Armstrong described it as 'a study of the illusionary reality within the schizophrenic mind of the artist at his point of creativity', although I'm sure you could have worked that out for yourselves, you're intelligent and discerning people.

David Bowie's acting skills are often the target of some mockery, but I'll give this to him: he does baleful and creepy very well indeed.