The origin of David Bowie’s ‘Ashes to Ashes’ clown
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Credit: Mitch Ikeda
The advice David Bowie gave Noel Gallagher the last time they spoke
Noel Gallagher only met David Bowie once, and it was an opportunity that he felt he wasted. Thankfully, he did get the chance to have one more interaction with Bowie in 2014, which he didn’t take for granted, and he’ll never forget the piece of advice he was given during their final conversation.
The first encounter Gallagher had with Bowie came in 1995 when Oasis headlined London’s Wembley Arena for the first time. It was the hottest ticket in the English capital, and Bowie wanted to see what all the fuss was about for himself. All of Noel’s wishes were coming true, and because of the wild lifestyle he’d become accustomed to, the gravitas of the situation became lost on him.
Noel recalled on Absolute Radio in 2015: “Somebody came up to me and said would you like to come and meet David. And I was like, ‘Yeah of course.’ There’s a picture of it, of me and him and I’ve obviously said something funny to him, because he’s in hysterics and I’ve no idea what I’ve said to him. Had that picture not existed I don’t think I’d have any recollection of ever meeting him.”
He continued: “Apart from where I remember being taken into his dressing room and it was like I was too young and too wasted for it to dawn on me that I was meeting one of the greats.”
Thankfully, almost 20 years later, he was given a chance to make amends for the missed opportunity and reconnect with Bowie. At the BRIT Awards in 2014, Bowie was the recipient of ‘Best Male Solo Artist’, which made him the oldest winner in history, and Gallagher picked up the award on his behalf alongside Kate Moss.
“You maniacs didn’t think that David Bowie was actually going to be here?” Gallagher asked the crowd. “David Bowie’s too cool for that. He doesn’t do this s***!” Moss then read out a message from Bowie that ended with a message to Scotland ahead of the independence referendum, which read, “Scotland, stay with us.”
“The very next night, I got an email pinged through on my iPad,” Gallagher later revealed. “It just said, ‘Thanks for the shoutout last night. Keep writing, love David.’ And I was thinking, ‘David? Who’s David? I don’t know anybody called David.’ And then it slowly dawned on me, so I emailed back straight away, ‘Oh, no problem mate…’ And then he emailed back straight away, and I was like, ‘Am I in a conversation with David Bowie?'”.
Gallagher added: “Turns out it was in fact David Bowie, and he was like ‘Oh, keep writing,’ and I was like, ‘Start gigging.’ He was a dude. A bit too tall for my liking, but still, a bit of a dude”.
Unfortunately, Bowie’s health prevented him from listening to Gallagher and returning on the road. Thankfully, Noel stayed true to his side of the bargain and similarly to Bowie, he’ll continue writing until he draws his final breath.
