8 January: David Bowie

Born in Brixton, London in 1947, David Bowie (Bowie is pronounced to rhyme with Joey) would have celebrated his 70th birthday today, so here are ten facts about him.

1. His real name was David Robert Jones. He changed his name to David Bowie so people wouldn't confuse him with the Monkee Davy Jones.
2. It has been said that he had Heterochromia, a condition where a person's eyes are different colours. That wasn't the case. The reason one eye looked different from the other was that one eye had a permanently dilated pupil. That was the result of a fight he had at school with his friend George Underwood over a girl they both wanted to date. However, they patched up their differences and Underwood created the artwork for some of Bowie's early albums. Much later, in 2004, Bowie was hit in the eye by a lollipop thrown by a member of the audience in Oslo. The lolly had to be removed by a member of the crew, but that done, Bowie bravely carried on with the show. Another of Bowie's school friends was guitarist Peter Frampton.
3. Music wasn't his only passion. He loved art, too, both creating and collecting it. His one O level was in art and he drew, painted and sculpted in his spare time. His favourite artists were Tintoretto, John Bellany, Erich Heckel, Picasso and Michael Ray Charles.
4. His first record release was Liza Jane/Louie Louie Go Home in June 1964, under the name of Davie Jones with The King-Bees, one of ten bands he belonged to during his career. The other bands were The Konrads, The Hooker Brothers, The Manish Boys, The Lower Third, The Buzz, The Riot Squad, The Hype, Tin Machine and Tao Jones Index. He released his debut solo album, David Bowie, in 1967. In the same year he released the single The Laughing Gnome. While many of his fans say this is the worst song he ever recorded, when Bowie organised a phone vote as to which tracks he should play during his 1990 world tour, The Laughing Gnome was the most requested. Not for him a rigid "the people have spoken" response. He didn't play it. His first UK hit was Space Oddity in 1969, which the BBC used during their coverage of the moon landing. His first number one in the US was Fame, co-written by John Lennon and featuring him on backing vocals, in 1975.
5. Space Oddity was also recorded in Italian. The Italian version was called Ragazzo Solo, Ragazza Solo which means Lonely Boy, Lonely Girl.
6. His famous Christmas duet with Bing Crosby nearly never happened, because Bowie hated the song The Little Drummer Boy. He only agreed to take part if he could sing something else, which is why he is singing Peace on Earth as a counterpart to Bing singing Little Drummer Boy.
7. Bowie was an actor, too with numerous film, TV and stage appearances to his name. His first TV appearance was at the age of 17 when he was interviewed on a BBC programme as the founder of The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Long-haired Men. He went on to star in The Man Who Fell to Earth, play Pontius Pilate in Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ, Jareth The Goblin King in Labyrinth, an FBI agent in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me among others. He appeared on stage in 1980 as the Elephant man, and is also the voice of Lord Royal Highness in SpongeBob SquarePants.
8. David Bowie started playing the saxophone at the age of 12. He was a huge fan of jazz as a teenager, and later played the Saxophone on To Know Him Is To Love Him on Steeleye Span's Now We Are Six album. That wasn't the only instrument he played - he played many. In fact, he plays just about every instrument on his album Diamond Dogs, including the Guitar riff on Rebel Rebel.
9. There is a rumour, which I came across several times, which may or may not be true, that Bowie would never drink Tea after suffering a 'horrible incident' with a cup of tea at the age of five.
10. He declined the CBE in 2000 and a knighthood in 2003, but does have an Asteroid and a species of Spider named after him. The asteroid is 342843 Davidbowie, named in 2015, and the spider, discovered in Malaysia in 2009, Heteropoda Davidbowie. In 2016, some amateur astronomers in Belgium spotted a group of stars in the vicinity of Mars at the time of Bowie's death, which they said resembled the Lightning bolt on Bowie's face from the cover of his Aladdin Sane album.

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Secrets and Skies

Jack Ward, President of Innovia, owes his life twice over to the enigmatic superhero, dubbed Power Blaster by the press. No-one knows who Power Blaster is or where he comes from - and he wants it to stay that way.

Scientist Desi Troyes has developed a nuclear bomb to counter the ever present threat of an asteroid hitting the planet. When Ward signs the order giving the go ahead for a nuclear test on the remote Bird Island, he has no inkling of Troyes' real agenda, and that he has signed the death warrants of millions of people.

Although the island should have been evacuated, there are people still there: some from the distant continent of Classica; protesters opposed to the bomb test; and Innovians who will not, or cannot, use their communication devices.

Power Blaster knows he must stop the bomb from hitting the island. He also knows it may be the last thing he ever does.

Meanwhile in Innovia, Ward and his staff gather to watch the broadcast of the test. Nobody, not even Troyes himself, has any idea what is about to happen.

Part One of The Raiders Trilogy.

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