Aladdin Soho: the swinging Sixties' streets that shaped a young David Bowie

David Jones was 16 when he first ventured into the heart of Swinging London. We follow in his footsteps around the record shops, coffee bars and clubs that helped turn him into a superstar
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18 March 2013

1. Charing Cross Station

1n 1963, 16-year-old David Jones’s first job as a trainee paste-up artist at advertising agency Nevin D Hirst in New Bond Street meant a daily commute from his family home in Sundridge Park, Bromley, to Charing Cross and was his entrée to a city that was just beginning to swing.

2. Dobell’s Record Shop
75 & 77 Charing Cross Road

David’s boss, Ian, a sharp dresser in Chelsea boots, often sent him to this treasure trove of imports and rare LPs to pick up records. Having bought himself The Folk Lore of John Lee Hooker (1961), David and schoolfriend George Underwood renamed their R&B group The Hooker Brothers.

3. Saville Theatre
135 Shaftesbury Avenue

In 1965, Brian Epstein, manager of The Beatles and former Rada student, leased the Saville Cinema to use it as a theatre and music venue. Pink Floyd, Fairport Convention and The Who were among the rock hopefuls he booked for Sunday night concerts. On May 7, 1967, Bowie was one of 1,200 gathered for the Jimi Hendrix Experience. David went backstage to chat to his musician friend, Bill Ritchie, who was sharing a dressing room with Hendrix. Three years after Epstein’s suicide in 1967, the Saville reverted to cinema use and London lost a major venue.

4. Denmark Street

Home to many music publishers, this 100-metre stretch of faded Georgian houses was London’s Tin Pan Alley. It was also a place to find work, meet musicians, go star-spotting, hustle journalists and buy instruments. In basic two-track recording studios, such as Regent Sounds (No 4), the Rolling Stones cut their first LP in 1964 assisted by Phil Spector. It was also the home of the two music trade bibles, Melody Maker (No19) and the New Musical Express (No 5).

In the Gioconda Café (No 9), which still trades today, David and his friend Mark Feld (later Marc Bolan), read through Musicians Wanted listings.

5. Bateman’s Buildings

Searching for a unique identity, Bowie’s ascension to superstardom owes much to his distinct theatre training. Following his first album, David Bowie (1967), he met Lindsay Kemp — dancer, actor and mime specialist, who lived in a flat above a strip club in Bateman’s Buildings, which remains ungentrified today. Kemp, pictured, helped Bowie expand his use of stagecraft, costume and make-up. The two performed together in 1968 in Pierrot in Turquoise.

6. Essex Music International Inc
68 Oxford Street

In July 1967, Bowie met Essex Music’s American producer, Tony Visconti, who had moved to London to produce T Rex. Visconti produced Bowie’s second album, Space Oddity (1969), except the eponymous single which he considered gimmicky. He went on to produce 11 Bowie albums, including his latest, The Next Day (2013). Close by is the 100 Club, where Bowie performed with The Lower Third in 1965.

7. The Tiles Club
79-89 Oxford Street

Across the road from the 100 Club, running since 1942, The Tiles Club opened in March 1966, and became, briefly, London’s main Mod venue. Bowie performed here in 1967 with The Riot Squad, showcasing his experiments with theatricality and makeup - his performance alter-egos were coming to life. While recording his own solo work, he also made a cover of the Velvet Underground’s Waiting for the Man with The Riot Squad. His involvement with the band was short lived and Tiles closed at the end of 1967.

8. Trident Studios
17 St. Anne’s Court

In the late Sixties, Trident, with its cutting-edge eight-track facilities, attracted everyone from the Beatles to Frank Zappa, Genesis and Queen. In the small studio, located down an alley, Bowie recorded Space Oddity (1969), The Man Who Sold the World (1970/71), Hunky Dory (1971), Ziggy Stardust (1972) and Aladdin Sane (1973). Crucial to the sound was the studio’s remarkable 100-year-old Bechstein piano, used on many of the greatest recordings of the period, such as the Beatles’ Hey Jude (1968), Elton John’s Your Song (1970) and Nilsson’s Without You (1972). Bowie also produced Lou Reed’s Transformer album here in 1972.

9. Marquee Club

Founded in 1958, the Marquee moved to 90 Wardour Street for its 1964-88 glory years, when it was arguably the most important rock and pop club in Europe. David played here in 1964-5 and in 1966 had a regular Sunday afternoon residency, The Bowie Showboat. He ended his show with the Judy Garland classic, You’ll Never Walk Alone, which so entranced Ken Pitt that he became his manager. After a gig on February 3, 1970, Bowie met brilliant guitarist Mick Ronson and formed a partnership which lasted until the demise of the Spiders from Mars in 1973. A blue plaque dedicated to Keith Moon of The Who marks the site, now a restaurant.

10. The Scene Club

Nightclubs in Ham Yard date back to 1922, when The Hambone opened. Despite wartime bombing, it was home in the Fifties to Cy Laurie’s Jazz Club, which in 1963 became the Scene, another Mod HQ, described as “seedy, dark and full of darker corners”, with a bar that didn’t serve alcohol, a dance floor and little else. By autumn 1964, the 17-year-old, still “Bowie-to-be”, had turned professional and was fronting the mod-styled band, The Manish Boys. On September 19, they played the Scene.

11. Heddon Street

For Bowie fans this is the site in London, rivalled in popular music history only by the Beatles zebra crossing in Abbey Road, and recalling a time when British music shaped that of the world. Photographer Brian Ward’s studio was at 29 Heddon Street off Regent Street. In January 1972, Bowie and the Spiders visited for a covershoot for The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. In drizzle, Bowie stepped outside to pose by the door of furriers K.West. Gary Kemp unveiled a plaque in 2012 to mark the 40th anniversary of the album that took Bowie to stardom.

12. Middle Earth
43 King Street

With the rise of psychedelia, clubs spilled over into Covent Garden, where Middle Earth, hosted by DJs Jeff Dexter and John Peel, occupied a large cellar. Its name recalls the early impact of Tolkien’s fantasy on the Sixties counter culture. Bowie performed in 1968 at a fundraising event for Gandalf’s Garden, a mystic spiritual centre. A drugs bust closed the club a few months later, and activity moved to the recently opened Roundhouse in Camden (where Bowie played in 1968 and 1970).

13. Drury Lane Arts Lab
182 Drury Lane

The Arts Lab, a short-lived experimental venue, was opened in 1967 by Jim Haynes, a leading figure in the counter-culture. Visitors included John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Bowie performed here on December 6, 1968, and set up his own version, stating, “I run an arts lab which is my chief occupation. It’s in Beckenham and I think it’s the best in the country. There’s a lot of talent in the green belt and there is a load of tripe in Drury Lane.”

14. UFO Club
30 Tottenham Court Road

When the UFO (pronounced Yoof-oh) Club opened on 23 December, 1966, “freaks came out of the woodwork from all over the city”, according to co-founder Joe Boyd. Located in a basement below the Berkeley Cinema, club nights ran until 6am, when the Tubes started. The club lived up to its tagline — “UFOria!” — with trippers and psychedelic lightshows. Pink Floyd, pictured right, made several early appearances and the band, especially Syd Barrett, made a huge impact on Bowie: “The first time I saw him … will forever be etched in my mind … He was the first guy I’d heard sing pop or rock with a British accent. His impact on my thinking was enormous.”

15. Boop-a-Doop Club

Thirty years before Bowie planned to make it big, his father “John” Jones had tried as well. In 1933, aged 21, John had inherited £3,000, which would be worth closer to £300,000 today. He had also met, fallen for and married Hilda Sullivan — his first wife — a young cabaret performer billed as “the Viennese Nightingale”, who had just fled the Nazi invasion of Austria.

John invested his inheritance in promoting his new wife, opening the Boop-a-Doop piano bar, named after the Thirties cartoon star Betty Boop. But his efforts failed and he lost all his money. After this failure, John left Hilda and married Margaret, who later gave birth to David. John died, aged 57, in 1969, just as his son made his name.

Map created by Geoffrey Marsh and Holly Harris for the David Bowie is exhibition at the V&A, SW7 (020 7907 7073, vam.ac.uk/davidbowieis). March 23-August 11. In partnership with Gucci, sound experience by Sennheiser.

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