In pictures: David Bowie, Woody Woodmansey and the legacy of Ziggy Stardust
By Peter Ormerod
Published 28th Feb 2019, 14:03 GMT
As Bowie's drummer from the Ziggy days heads to Leamington to celebrate the great man's music, here are some striking images from the era - and a few treats besides.
Holy Holy, who also feature long-time Bowie producer Tony Visconti on bass, play at the Assembly on Saturday February 23. It's a chance to relive four years of sound and vision that helped shape popular culture. Visit leamingtonassembly.com to book.
Mick 'Woody' Woodmansey on stage with Bowie.
Woody Woodmansey came from Hull. His idols were heavy rock drummers - but he adapted swiftly to Bowie's more flamboyant sartorial demands. Picture: Mick Rock
Holy Holy play songs dating from between 1969 and 1973 - dating from Space Oddity through to the Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane albums.
Woody formed Holy Holy with Tony Visconti. The two had played on Bowie's 1970 album The Man Who Sold The World - which Bowie never toured.
The band were formed with Bowie's blessing - and phoned Bowie from the stage when they performed in New York on his 69th birthday.
Woodmansey's drumming can be heard many of Bowie's most popular songs - he appears on tracks including Changes, Life on Mars?, Starman and The Jean Genie.
"I've found that fans are not stupid," says Woody. "They really do know if you mean it. They know if you're playing by numbers. And we definitely mean it."
Success didn't come overnight for Bowie. Here he is at the BBC with his band The Manish Boys in 1965. They failed to make it big - and sustained success came only when he began working the band that would become The Spiders from Mars.
A pre-Ziggy Bowie pictured with Dana Gillespie in 1971 - the year Hunky Dory was released. It was the second of his albums on which Woodmansey played.
