Today, the Mail on Sunday gave away a David Bowie compilation, the choices being by the man himself. They are rather eclectic, I only recognised two of them.

I missed the whole Bowie thing in my teens other than his singles as I was into contemporary stuff (Floyd, ELP, Genesis, 10CC, Supertramp etc.) and I don’t recall him playing Newcastle City Hall during my time there. I subsequently developed a huge liking for Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust because we had the Albums at our Hall of Residence and I used to play them loud whilst washing the floor in the Cellar Bar on Sunday afternoons.

The paper made a big thing about Life on Mars? being the full version so I stuck it in the car player for a listen on the way back from ASDA. I have to say that if that is the long version, I’ve never heard the short version, to me it always ends with the telephone ringing and “Bowie here” if you turn it up really loud. It was interesting to find out that the haunting piano was by Rick Wakeman and Wikipedia gives a bit more background to this song which still sounds incredibly fresh to me 35 years after it was released.