David Bowie: The Birth of Ziggy Stardust

2026 marks 10 years since the death of musical and cultural icon David Bowie. The National Portrait Gallery commissioned me to write this tour in homage to his early career and the music that propelled him to superstardom. And now I’m free to share it with the world.
It may surprise you, but the path to success was not easy for the young man whose real name was David Robert Jones. We’ll walk the streets and see the sites and studios that moulded a wannabe suburban teenager into an intergalactic rock god — from his earliest dabbles with music, a plastic sax and skiffle bands, through his fledgling recordings that barely tickled the pop charts, to his eventual rebirth as Ziggy Stardust.