Bowie’s Back

Bowie’s Back is a collection of never-before-seen photographs of David Bowie live in concert as Ziggy Stardust at Friars Aylesbury (1972) and the Low/Heroes at Madison Square Garden (1978). Prior to this project, these images lived on contact sheets and Ron Gott had never seen them printed out. After seeing these, DB Burkeman immediately decided that they needed to be shared with the world.

“I made my first pilgrimage to London in the summer of ‘72. I had already been photographing bands for a few years and had a phone book full of musicians, journalists, and music company contacts. At a random gig at the Friars in Aylesbury, we did what so many American punters did: miss the last train back to London. That’s how the promoter Dave Stopps came into my life. Putting us up for the night, he invited us back the next week to see the “hottest tour in Britain”. Bowie was ending the first leg of his Ziggy tour and RCA was flying over a bunch of American journalists. So here I was, already at the venue as acquaintances Lenny Kaye, Lillian Roxon, and others filled in. The show itself was another one of those legendary performances you dream of being a part of that’s still spoken of today.” – Ron Gott