A musical walking tour to celebrate the music legend
Sunny Sunday afternoon. Oxford Circus is swarming with tourists from all around the world who are visiting one of the most popular areas in London. Seems like a typically busy weekend in the heart of London.
A young man with a guitar on his back appears from the station and stops by the group of people who are waiting for him. “Thank you so much for coming today!” he says to the crowd as he shakes hands with everyone.
His name is Nick Stephenson and he is the guide for the Soho’s Original David Bowie Musical Walking Tour. Stephenson and his wife Katie established the idea of a walking tour in Brixton dedicated for David Bowie in 2016 and started it a year later, on the anniversary of Bowie’s death. In 2018 they launched a new walking tour in Soho.
Stephenson has been a fan of Bowie since his teenage years. “I always used to listen to what parents did, but they were never a fan of Bowie. When I discovered him, Bowie opened a new world to me,” says Stephenson.
“I still get the sense of adventure when I listen to him. The sense of individuality and variety of what he was doing,” says Stephenson.
The tour starts at Oxford Circus, gradually making its way through the most popular and important places associated with Bowie. As Stephenson starts playing the guitar, people shyly murmur the lyrics of “Changes” around the corner of our first stop, NatWest Bank on Regents Street.
You may think that it is just an ordinary-looking building with a bank on the ground floor but back in the 70s, Bowie’s management had an office there. Michael Watts, a British journalist, was interviewing Bowie for a weekly music magazine Melody Maker.
“I am gay and always have been,” Bowie tells Watts. Back in 1972, it was not a common or even a normal thing to say especially for a man who was married and had a child, but it marked the beginning of Ziggy Stardust, an alter ego of Bowie.
According to Stephenson, even though Bowie never enjoyed shopping in regular shops, he used to hang around the Soho area quite a lot and raid through the bins to find clothes and to make them his own. “Soho was a slurry yet exciting district,” says the guide.
The tour continues through the streets of Soho and stops at Trident Studios on St. Anne’s Court where many legendary musicians recorded their songs, such as “Hey Jude” by the Beatles, “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen and “Life on Mars” by David Bowie himself. In 2017 BBC Local Radio and The British Plaque Trust unveiled a plaque in honour of David Bowie.
“This is one of his most significant tracks,” says Stephenson as he starts playing the accords of “Life on Mars” which is followed by a pint at the “Ship” pub around the corner from the studios where Bowie used to come after recording sessions.
Many other music venues are included into the tour, such as The Marquee Club, famous jazz club Ronnie Scott’s and O’Neills which in the 80s was known as The Wags Club. Every stop had a musical performance and a background story which helped the listeners learn more about one of the most famous musicians.
“I enjoy that the guide plays the guitar which makes the tour even more interesting,” says Alexandra Polette, a David Bowie fan from Germany. She came to London to meet a fellow David Bowie fan from Israel after they found each other in of the fan community groups.
After walking and singing for three hours the tour comes to an end. The last stop is Heddon Street, a tiny street full of restaurants and bars that does not initially appear to be related to David Bowie.
But above No 23 is a plaque dedicated to Ziggy Stardust, which was unveiled in 2012 to honour the 40th anniversary of “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars” album where the cover picture was taken. The plaque is one of the rarest plaques in the country – coloured black, not blue - as it is dedicated to a fictional character.
David Bowie was and still one of the most influential music icons. “Bowie connects people from all over the world,” says Polette. “He was my first love. I fell in love with him when I was 6 and saw him in the 1986 movie “Labyrinth”.”
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