David Bowie himself put particular zest into his compostitions, battling bravely against troublesome loudspeakers. A friend Peter Horton, from Vienna, played a guitar performance of J.S. Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring. Mr Horton, who represented Austria in the 1969 Eurovision Song Contest. Also performing were Bridget St John, Appendix Part One, Comus, Nita and Dave Jones, Sun, Amory Kane, Kamirah, Giles and Abdul and Clem - a Beckenham Youth who played the sitar.

      

The pre - concert blurb advertised John Peel, the Radio One D.J. and Junior Eyes appearing but Peel did not turn up and Junior Eyes were off doing a gig in Germany. But it did not turn out so bad as those who did appear more than compensated for their absence.

But the lasting impession musically, was the Strawbs and Keith Christmas, they brought basic folk music with strong contemporary tones to the tiny band-stand. And Keith Christmas after an electric guitar solo swung into The Ballad Of Robin Head with gusto, enthusiasm and ability and was deservedley treated to the cheers of the audience.

The DJ on the day was Tim Goffe and he remembers..."I was a medical student at the time living in a flat in Charlton and was also social secretary at my medical school and booked all the bands for the regular social events dances, balls and college folk club, as well as running a disco. I had some spare rooms in the flat and advertised them in the newly launched Time Out. To my surprise, one of the sub-editors at the time replied and before long, he and his wife moved in. His name was Bob Harris and he and I, very briefly, started and ran a disco together. So maybe I helped launch whispering Bob on his career, or maybe that's just fantasy on my part!

Anyhow, he had a few friends in the music business including David Bowie and The Strawbs, and David's girlfriend at the time (later his wife), Angie, also was looking for somewhere to live, so she also moved into our flat and lived with us for maybe 4-6 months, so DB was a fairly frequent visitor! I played a bit of acoustic guitar at the time -I was never any good, but enjoyed singing in and visiting folk clubs - but had this rather nice 12-string, a Swedish Hagstrom, that was lying around the flat whilst I was at college. DB fancied it, borrowed it and played it for a while.

The picture of him at BFF shows him playing it and on the www.Hagstrom.org.uk website it is reported that he used it on Space Oddity. I'm not sure about that - I never discussed it with DB, but he gave me his 12-string, an old cherry sun-burst Gibson, for my Hagstrom in a straight swap. It was the Gibson (left) that was used on Space Oddity. I have often wondered what happened to my old Hagstrom and whether DB has still got it, or who has it now. Incidentally, he told me that the Gibson previously belonged to Pete Townsend of The Who. I can believe that, because it was in poor shape when I got it and it never played well. I did book David as a live act for a college "Hop" (The London Hospital Medical College, Whitechapel) around the time of the launch of Space Oddity -a sell out!

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