Appendix Part One

Bill Leisagang said he knew Bowie fairly well at the time, we used to go round to the flat he shared with Mary Finnegan in Foxgrove Rd and jam, then we became early adopters of the Arts Lab. Neil, our vocalist was very friendly with David, he gave Neil a load of records inc Buddy Miles  Expressway to your Skull and he also gave him a white sax.

Bowie used to get people up on stage to play or do mime, or do their own thing! One day he  gathered a bunch of us 16 yr old hippies and took us into Beckenham Place Park - where we re-enacted various scenes from Lord of the Rings! A light aircraft was circling overhead and kept hovering, so David got us all to form a gigantic V sign to tell the pilot to 'F' off!

He was planning on a procession down Beckenham High St with everyone dressed as giant penises, as well as a street fair to coincide with the festival. The people involved were Neil Holmes, Chris Redwin, Mick Udell, Steve Jeffries, Pete Legon, Amanda Jennings, Judy? Larry Frane, Spud Murphy and Bob Bland. Unfortunately this is a tragic list as most of the people here have passed into another world. I miss them dearly.

Soon after The BFF Bowie played in Bristol at the Colston Hall as warm up for Humble Pie and I went to see him to say hello before the gig. He said "oh are you on the bill too?" "I wish”. But No” anyway he had a test pressing of Space Oddity which he dearly wanted to play to Steve Marriot, and asked if he could borrow a record player, David and I bowled over to my flat in Bristol in the tour bus (' transit van’) and I lent him my mate’s trusty Dansette. After the gig we went backstage, to find everyone had left, but Steve Marriot had done a Pete Townshend on the Dansette, which lay in little pieces over the dressing room floor! I’m sure David was not a party to this. He was more arty and less rock n' roll than humble pie!

Quite a few years later (1987) I ended up on the same bill as David Bowie at an open-air festival in Hamburg. David was headlining with his glass Spider stage. I was looking forward to meeting him again, but he was surrounded by so many security guys whilst doing the soundcheck, it was impossible to get Anywhere near the guy! It didn't even help that David's tour manager was on our US tour for 2 months, He couldn't swing it that I could have a brief chat about times in Beckenham. I just wanted to make David aware that half the people that frequented the Arts Lab had passed away. Unfortunately not a happy ending to the Arts Lab and festival vibe that we had back then. I managed to survive thankfully as my family had moved to Bristol, which was more conservative than London at that time.

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