0:00:23 > 0:00:25There was a double-page advert for the Bowie album
0:00:26 > 0:00:31Just as punk was imploding, the ad showed him dressed
0:00:32 > 0:00:34as a clown, with the tag line, "often copied, never equalled."
0:00:35 > 0:00:39And those four words may perfectly sum up the life and work of David
0:00:40 > 0:00:43He is actually a very difficult artist to describe.
0:00:44 > 0:00:47He was a singer who loved mime, an actor who said he didn't enjoy
0:00:48 > 0:00:51the stage, a 70s star who embraced every new piece of technology.
0:00:52 > 0:00:58He wrote the most brilliant songs; he sang about love,
0:00:59 > 0:01:04He may well have been the greatest solo musician British pop
0:01:05 > 0:01:10Perhaps you only need two words to sum him up: rock star.
0:01:18 > 0:01:24# We could be Heroes # Just for one day... #
0:01:25 > 0:01:28David Bowie released his 25th album on Friday, Blackstar, coinciding
0:01:29 > 0:01:37with his 69th birthday. He was a big bang in his own right, his creative
0:01:38 > 0:01:43DNA is everywhere.
0:01:44 > 0:01:49We could be Heroes... was his 1977 single.
0:01:50 > 0:01:52Bowie was the hero, an icon to music fans of every stripe whose influence
0:01:53 > 0:01:57seemed to encompass teenage pop lovers and the musical avant-garde
0:01:58 > 0:02:01with equal ease. He played his first gig as David Bowie here at what was
0:02:02 > 0:02:08London's Marquee Club in 1965. Before that, he'd been known as
0:02:09 > 0:02:11Davey Jones but changed his name to avoid confusion with the lead singer
0:02:12 > 0:02:14of the Monkees, the first re-Birt in what would become a career
0:02:15 > 0:02:18characterised by relentless revolution.
0:02:19 > 0:02:23# Ground control to Major Tom # Take your protein pills... #
0:02:24 > 0:02:29Four years later in 1969, he produced his breakthrough hit, Space
0:02:30 > 0:02:36Oddity, a top-5 single. The songs were a precursor to the alter ego
0:02:37 > 0:02:42he'd unleash a few years later. Do you get nervous? I'm shaking,
0:02:43 > 0:02:47yes. The rise and fall of Ziggy Stardust
0:02:48 > 0:02:49and the Spiders from Mars captured the imagination of pop-loving
0:03:00 > 0:03:03British teenagers but it broke boundaries, not just because of the
0:03:04 > 0:03:09music. I was never confident of my voice you see, as a singer. So I
0:03:10 > 0:03:12thought rather than just sing them which would probably bore the pants
0:03:13 > 0:03:15off everyone, I would like to portray the songs.
0:03:16 > 0:03:24# There's a Starman # Waiting in the sky... #
0:03:25 > 0:03:28This 1972 Top of the Pops performance featuring Bowie with his
0:03:29 > 0:03:32arms slung around Mick Ronson's shoulders is cited by many as the
0:03:33 > 0:03:39moment the '70s exploded bringing into the living rooms a conversation
0:03:40 > 0:03:44the country itself wasn't yet ready to have about sexuality, gender and
0:03:45 > 0:03:47outside culture. The reason I do things that I do is because I like
0:03:48 > 0:03:53startling people. Startling? Yes. Something to do. By the mid '70s,
0:03:54 > 0:03:57Bowie reinvented himself once again. He travelled to Berlin in a bid to
0:03:58 > 0:04:01escape his drug problems. The trilogy of albums he produced
0:04:02 > 0:04:04between 1977 and 1979 would go on to change the face of contemporary
0:04:05 > 0:04:08music. At the time, they took many fans by surprise. His sound was
0:04:09 > 0:04:12darker and more daring and once more brought the cutting edge into the
0:04:13 > 0:04:17mainstream. He collaborated with Brian Eno and
0:04:18 > 0:04:23Iggy Pop, was influenced by confident craftwork and was inspired
0:04:24 > 0:04:30by disciplines outside music too. Using William Burroughs cut-up
0:04:31 > 0:04:33technique to create lyrics. 1980 brought the new wave, but rather
0:04:34 > 0:04:38than being swept away, Bowie was going along for the ride. Ashes to
0:04:39 > 0:04:42Ashes introduced the new romantic movement to a global audience with a
0:04:43 > 0:04:52ground-breaking video ready made for the MTV age.
0:04:53 > 0:04:56# Pressure pushing down on me... # The following year, his
0:04:57 > 0:05:00collaboration with Queen Under Pressure, would give him his third
0:05:01 > 0:05:05number one. His dark side was under control for now. He was slick, soul
0:05:06 > 0:05:09influenced and a huge success. Niall Rodgers produced the next album
0:05:10 > 0:05:15Let's Dance, a Transatlantic success that surprised Bowie.
0:05:16 > 0:05:19# Put on your red shoes # And dance the blues... #
0:05:20 > 0:05:25His new sound was at home on huge stages, the success of his serious
0:05:26 > 0:05:32moonlight stadium tour was followed a few years later by an iconic
0:05:33 > 0:05:36performance at 1985's Live Aid. During the 90s, he experimented with
0:05:37 > 0:05:40electronic, Ne-Yo classical and industrial sounds, worked on sound
0:05:41 > 0:05:43tracks and continued to perform live, include an appearance at
0:05:44 > 0:05:47Glastonbury in 2000. But four years later, after
0:05:48 > 0:05:53suffering a heart attack on stage, Bowie withdrew from the public eye.
0:05:54 > 0:05:58There were rumours of ill health and occasional collaborations, but other
0:05:59 > 0:06:05than that, silence. Then in 2013, came The Next Day. A hit with
0:06:06 > 0:06:09critics and fans, it saw Bowie revisiting his musical past and
0:06:10 > 0:06:12alter egos. The lyrics acquire add new poignancy and there was a sense
0:06:13 > 0:06:17of a man taking stock, making peace with his past.
0:06:18 > 0:06:21# Look up here # I'm in heaven... #
0:06:22 > 0:06:25The final release, Blackstar, now seems like a parting gift. After the
0:06:26 > 0:06:30news of his death broke this morning, fans shared the lyrics to
0:06:31 > 0:06:37lead single Lazarus, a transen Dan goodbye apparently written to be
0:06:38 > 0:06:42delivered posthumously, as long-time producer Tony Visconti wrote this
0:06:43 > 0:06:48morning, his life was no different to his death, a work of London 2012.
0:06:49 > 0:06:55Extraordinary images in that video. Why do you think we have seen such a
0:06:56 > 0:06:58reaction today? Well, I mean a few reasons, obviously it's
0:06:59 > 0:07:02proportionate to his influence, you know, a huge reaction just mirroring
0:07:03 > 0:07:08the massive influence that David Bowie had. We went on air on 6 music
0:07:09 > 0:07:11this morning from 10 and for three hours we just received message after
0:07:12 > 0:07:15message, hundreds and hundreds from listeners. It was similar for you at
0:07:16 > 0:07:19Radio Two. What was interesting to me was that these were people who
0:07:20 > 0:07:24love all different kinds of music and that came up frequently. Bowie,
0:07:25 > 0:07:27whether you were into electronic music, dance music, classical music,
0:07:28 > 0:07:32avan gart music, you were just a pop fan, there was an access point for
0:07:33 > 0:07:34you, he was also an artist that influenced generation after
0:07:35 > 0:07:39generation. For many of my listeners today we had several people talking
0:07:40 > 0:07:42about the way that he's tied up with their family memories. Obviously
0:07:43 > 0:07:45that just makes it incredibly personal, it's a personal loss to
0:07:46 > 0:07:48music fans because David Bowie changed the way that we saw the
0:07:49 > 0:07:52world and do you know what, even if you are not a big music fan, he's
0:07:53 > 0:07:56one of those artists that has become part of British culture. There's a
0:07:57 > 0:07:59certain point where an artist is so kind of ingrained in who we are as a
0:08:00 > 0:08:05country and obviously now we talk about soft power and what Britain
0:08:06 > 0:08:09actually is, he's Mart of our national identity -- part. He's a
0:08:10 > 0:08:14huge loss. The second thing is just shock. Nobody knew this was coming.
0:08:15 > 0:08:18There's been this really moving poignant reflective mood on the last
0:08:19 > 0:08:23two albums, certainly. But nobody expected this today.
0:08:24 > 0:08:24Thank you, Lauren Laverne We began by talking about the music,
0:08:25 > 0:08:27but David Bowie was also Whether it was his album covers,
0:08:28 > 0:08:36or sessions with photographers, the way he dressed on stage or just
0:08:37 > 0:08:39when he was out and about, the image of David Bowie
0:08:40 > 0:08:42was always cutting edge. He was an artist for the eye
0:08:43 > 0:08:45as well as the ear. And he became a fashion icon,
0:08:46 > 0:08:52as our Arts Correspondent Rebecca . His sound took him to the top of
0:08:53 > 0:08:58the charts but his look helped make David Bowie a star.
0:08:59 > 0:09:06# The make-up on his face... # From the mod style of his teens,
0:09:07 > 0:09:10through the glam rock of Ziggy Stardust, to the tailoring of the
0:09:11 > 0:09:14then White Duke, David Bowie understand the importance of fashion
0:09:15 > 0:09:17as a means of self-expression. A 17-year-old David Jones has just
0:09:18 > 0:09:22founded the Society for The prevention of cruelty to long-haired
0:09:23 > 0:09:26men... This was after all the man who when interviewed by the BBC back
0:09:27 > 0:09:32in 1964 was already challenging conformity. For the last two years
0:09:33 > 0:09:37we've had comments like darling and, can I carry your hand bag thrown at
0:09:38 > 0:09:42us. It has to stop now. The photographer, Terry O'Neill, worked
0:09:43 > 0:09:47with him regularly. When it came to photographing him, he always
0:09:48 > 0:09:49provided the clothes. I mean, I always trusted him because he'd
0:09:50 > 0:09:53always have his look planned and what he wanted to look like, so I
0:09:54 > 0:09:58went along with it. I didn't always agree wit but I always went along
0:09:59 > 0:10:02with it. How did you come to photograph Elizabeth Taylor and
0:10:03 > 0:10:07David Bowie? When I was in LA, Liz Taylor rang me up and said, I would
0:10:08 > 0:10:11love to meet David Bowie, bring him down to the house. So I did.
0:10:12 > 0:10:14Unfortunatelies he was four hours late and so she was on the verge of
0:10:15 > 0:10:19walking out and of course she never gave him the part in the picture,
0:10:20 > 0:10:22but later on they became really, really good friends. It was
0:10:23 > 0:10:29impossible not to have a friendship with David Bowie once you met him.
0:10:30 > 0:10:33At times, he reflected total masculinity, but other times he
0:10:34 > 0:10:38looked very feminine, you know, and very, that was part of his appeal.
0:10:39 > 0:10:42He was loved by men and women. I mean, everyone, I can't think of a
0:10:43 > 0:10:47person in my life I've met who doesn't like him. Ever.
0:10:48 > 0:10:52The retrospective exhibition at the V A museum in 2013 documented
0:10:53 > 0:10:58David Bowie's influence on fashion, design and sexuality. With his
0:10:59 > 0:11:01flamboyant make-up, clothes and hair styles, he rejected conventional
0:11:02 > 0:11:07masculinity. David Bowie made it cool to be different. I wanted to
0:11:08 > 0:11:09turn people on to new things and new perspectives he once said. "I'm not
0:11:10 > 0:11:13content just writing songs. ". Because Bowie operated
0:11:14 > 0:11:16under so many guises, he is a very hard
0:11:17 > 0:11:18artist to pin down. He was the Ziggy Stardust,
0:11:19 > 0:11:21then The Thin White Duke, then the bleach-blonde '80s pop
0:11:22 > 0:11:24star of Let's Dance. He had lighter pop years,
0:11:25 > 0:11:27and serious Berlin years, So for us, Sean Keaveny, who does
0:11:28 > 0:11:33the Breakfast Show on BBC 6 Music, From the album Aladdin Sane,
0:11:34 > 0:11:51he's chosen Jean Genie. # A small Jean Genie
0:11:52 > 0:11:54snuck off to the city # Strung out on lasers
0:11:55 > 0:11:58and slash-back blazers # Ate all your razors
0:11:59 > 0:12:01while pulling the waiters # Talking 'bout Monroe
0:12:02 > 0:12:11and walking on Snow White A staggering piece of footage from
0:12:12 > 0:12:151973, a live Top of the Pops performance from Ziggy Stardust and
0:12:16 > 0:12:19the Spiders from Mars and Bowie and you can tell it's live. You can
0:12:20 > 0:12:23listen to Mick Ronson's guitar sound and the way it sounds, like a van
0:12:24 > 0:12:30full of police dogs. Unbelievably violent. Like the Stooges, MC 5
0:12:31 > 0:12:36meets the Beatles. That was the mixture that got David where he got
0:12:37 > 0:12:50to very, very quickly in 1972-73, with this kind of music.
0:12:51 > 0:12:54# The Jean Genie loves chimney stacks
0:12:55 > 0:13:01# He's outrageous, he screams and he bawls (Jean Genie)
0:13:02 > 0:13:07It's ambiguous, up for grabs and they just don't know they are
0:13:08 > 0:13:10getting off with each other. It looks possible to me. I love the
0:13:11 > 0:13:22ambiguity of this particular clip. Just take a look at the man. This is
0:13:23 > 0:13:261973, a colossal culture shock for everybody, this, the shock of the
0:13:27 > 0:13:34new, that's what we are seeing here. A wonderful thing to see. Shirtless,
0:13:35 > 0:13:41total confidence. Brilliant. It's kind of a play on Jean Genie, a
0:13:42 > 0:13:45revolutionary French novelist and playwright who used to talk in a
0:13:46 > 0:13:51fort right manner about homosexuality, so there's that
0:13:52 > 0:13:56running through it. But Jean Genie is supposed to be relevant to Iggy
0:13:57 > 0:13:56Pop as well. It's one of the greatest rock'n'roll performances of
0:13:57 > 0:14:20all-time. There has been a global reaction to
0:14:21 > 0:14:25the death. Bowie spent his last years and days in New York. You can
0:14:26 > 0:14:28see now the scene outside his apartment in the Soho area of
0:14:29 > 0:14:33Manhattan. You can see the flowers there and well-wishers who have
0:14:34 > 0:14:39arrived. Radio stations are playing Bowie records and the city very much
0:14:40 > 0:14:45Bowie's home now and for some years. And where he spent his final days as
0:14:46 > 0:14:51well. USA, the place where he forged that plastic soul when he did his
0:14:52 > 0:14:59album Young Americans in 1975. That's the scene in New York.
0:15:00 > 0:15:09Now to the LA and Mike Garson joins us.
0:15:10 > 0:15:16Did you have a sense of his creative power, Mike? It was the highlight of
0:15:17 > 0:15:20my life. Every time I toured with him and on every album I played
0:15:21 > 0:15:26because he was the best producer I have ever worked with because he
0:15:27 > 0:15:30didn't micromanage, he had a vision, he would gently say it, and the
0:15:31 > 0:15:35music flowed out of my fingers on to the piano and into the recording
0:15:36 > 0:15:39studio. I mean, it was magical working with him on every single
0:15:40 > 0:15:46album we did and every tour we did, which had to be 10 or 15, plus these
0:15:47 > 0:15:5218 albums over the years. I had a blessing to really get to create
0:15:53 > 0:16:00with him and co-create with him over his long stretch of time, from 2000
0:16:01 > 0:16:04- well, 1972 to 2005 when we finished our last tour. It was a
0:16:05 > 0:16:08very long period you spent with him. Was there any particular album where
0:16:09 > 0:16:17he almost brought you into that creative process and you saw it
0:16:18 > 0:16:22happening? It happened on the outside album because he brought in
0:16:23 > 0:16:27Brian Eno, myself, Carlos, and he wanted to sit and improvise in
0:16:28 > 0:16:34Montreux at the studio that Queen used to record in and he wanted us
0:16:35 > 0:16:38to improvise for, like, two weeks, four hours a day, and then he would
0:16:39 > 0:16:46cut that all up and made a beautiful album from that. We were all
0:16:47 > 0:16:49co-composers of the music, Stirling Campbell was playing drums. He was
0:16:50 > 0:16:54trying to make sure he never stayed in his comfort zone, and he made a
0:16:55 > 0:16:59point to say that he had some slower times in the '80s and he felt he had
0:17:00 > 0:17:04been compromised and he wanted to get back to his roots, so we called
0:17:05 > 0:17:10all his favoured musicians, and I was flattered to be one of them.
0:17:11 > 0:17:14Thank you very much, Mike Garson, in Los Angeles. One of his biographers
0:17:15 > 0:17:16said Bowie's influence had altered more lives than any comparable
0:17:17 > 0:17:20figure. But his origins were modest, in
0:17:21 > 0:17:21Brixton, in South London. And in his early years he sang with
0:17:22 > 0:17:23a very London twang in his voice. He became such a huge
0:17:24 > 0:17:25global star that he's not, perhaps, immediately
0:17:26 > 0:17:29identified with any postcode. And in Brixton let's
0:17:30 > 0:17:41see what's happening. Lucy Manning? They have come in
0:17:42 > 0:17:45their hundreds to remember the Brixton boy. What a better way to do
0:17:46 > 0:17:50it than to sing and to listen to Bowie songs. For those of us who
0:17:51 > 0:17:53have Bowie posters on our walls, who had the excitement of seeing him
0:17:54 > 0:17:57live in concert, who knew his songs as soon as they came on the radio
0:17:58 > 0:18:03from the first few bars, it is why his death is so significant. If you
0:18:04 > 0:18:08were born in the '50s, the '60s, the '70s, the '80s, and possibly later,
0:18:09 > 0:18:15his appeal stretched across the generations. The man who created The
0:18:16 > 0:18:20Thin White Duke and Aladdin Sane, he has gone, but the songs - well, just
0:18:21 > 0:18:23play them loud. I spent the day reminiscing with some Bowie fans.
0:18:24 > 0:18:26# Ziggy played guitar, jamming good with Weird and Gilly,
0:18:27 > 0:18:32When Ziggy played guitar Viviene Gyte was in the audience
0:18:33 > 0:18:41When I was 15, 16, and he started on the Ziggy Stardust tour,
0:18:42 > 0:18:49And I spent the rest of that year, and the following year -
0:18:50 > 0:18:51I think I managed to get to about 20, 22 dates
0:18:52 > 0:18:57I'd left school, got three jobs so I could save up to go.
0:18:58 > 0:19:11All my old concert tickets with his autograph from David Bowie there.
0:19:12 > 0:19:15Everything that David Bowie said, I used to want to take on board,
0:19:16 > 0:19:21Even when he shaved his eyebrows, I shaved my eyebrows off
0:19:22 > 0:19:43I've actually lived a bit of the lyrics.
0:19:44 > 0:19:46I've lived in Ibiza and grew up near the Norfolk Broads.
0:19:47 > 0:19:49# See the mice in their million hordes.
0:19:50 > 0:19:57The Man Who Fell To Earth was actually very underrated.
0:19:58 > 0:20:01I had been crying since 7.00 this morning.
0:20:02 > 0:20:04Something died in me today the same time as David Bowie.
0:20:05 > 0:20:07Growing up in dull, leafy suburban Sussex,
0:20:08 > 0:20:10he gave me inspiration there was a big bad world to go
0:20:11 > 0:20:13and see out there and it inspired me to be different,
0:20:14 > 0:20:22We all decided in the playground that the question to ask was how did
0:20:23 > 0:20:27What did he think of Bowie lookalikes?
0:20:28 > 0:20:32He was very erudite and he was very charming and said that he was glad
0:20:33 > 0:20:40that he could inspire people to be different.
0:20:41 > 0:20:41# Oh don't lean on me man, cause you can't afford the ticket
0:20:42 > 0:20:45# 'Cause you ain't got time to check it
0:20:46 > 0:20:50As Bowie played Suffragette City at Hammersmith Odeon,
0:20:51 > 0:20:54fan Graham Brown caught what he threw into the crowd.
0:20:55 > 0:21:00This maraca landed at my feet in July 1973,
0:21:01 > 0:21:08It became a very important possession to me.
0:21:09 > 0:21:26So a constant soundtrack to my life, it's a cliche, but it's true.
0:21:27 > 0:21:31In 1976 Bowie moved to Berlin, then divided between East and West
0:21:32 > 0:21:34It was a city filled with Cold War tension and,
0:21:35 > 0:21:36as an artist, he evidently fed off that.
0:21:37 > 0:21:39He stayed for three years and brought out three albums that
0:21:40 > 0:21:42in places still sound hugely experimental.
0:21:43 > 0:21:45Among the tracks was Heroes, perhaps the standout song
0:21:46 > 0:21:51The city influenced his songs years after he left.
0:21:52 > 0:21:55When he released The Next Day in 2013, the lead single,
0:21:56 > 0:21:58Where Are We Now, was seen by many as a reminiscence
0:21:59 > 0:23:26# Where are we now, where are we now?
0:23:27 > 0:23:40# The moment you know, you know, you know. #
0:23:41 > 0:23:42Christian Fraser is outside David Bowie's former Berlin home
0:23:43 > 0:23:54What a city in terms of Bowie's backstory, Christian? Yes, very
0:23:55 > 0:23:59important to David Bowie, this city, Jeremy. Across the road, that is the
0:24:00 > 0:24:03building where he shared an apartment with Iggy Pop. The feeling
0:24:04 > 0:24:06that he had for Berlin is reciprocated by the hundreds of
0:24:07 > 0:24:11people who have come here today, to lay their flowers, tributes and
0:24:12 > 0:24:14messages. In the Bar 70, which stands there now beneath the
0:24:15 > 0:24:17apartment, they are playing the entire back catalogue of Bowie
0:24:18 > 0:24:21today, which is drifting out on to the streets. There is a message
0:24:22 > 0:24:25among those flowers which says, "Thank you, David, you changed our
0:24:26 > 0:24:32lives forever." That is ironic. David Bowie probably came here in
0:24:33 > 0:24:371976 to change himself. Gone was Ziggy Stardust, he had come here to
0:24:38 > 0:24:42find the man who he was. It was a different city to LA and the glamour
0:24:43 > 0:24:46he left behind, much more dark, and it was a city where you could get
0:24:47 > 0:24:51lost but also find yourself, too. Out of that trilogy, the Berlin
0:24:52 > 0:24:55Trilogy, came Heroes. Fans will know a song which was about two lovers
0:24:56 > 0:25:02that stole a kiss at the Wall. When he came back in 1987, to play in
0:25:03 > 0:25:06front of 70,000, it was almost a split concert with hundreds pressed
0:25:07 > 0:25:13up against the Wall on the Eastern side. That was why there was this
0:25:14 > 0:25:17tweet today from the Foreign Ministry, "Goodbye, David Bowie, you
0:25:18 > 0:25:19are among heroes." With me now is Lauren Laverne
0:25:20 > 0:25:29and the BBC's arts editor, He is hard to pin down and agree on?
0:25:30 > 0:25:32He is. I suppose the classic post-modernist artist, he had a
0:25:33 > 0:25:37superficial persona which he changed time and time again so he couldn't
0:25:38 > 0:25:40be nailed down. There was a constant theme. He had something to say, and
0:25:41 > 0:25:45something important to say. Like any great artist, he was able to reflect
0:25:46 > 0:25:49the world back to us and not only make sense of it for us, but to
0:25:50 > 0:25:53guide us. That is why we are all so deeply sad about his passing today.
0:25:54 > 0:25:58We have lost a crucial guide in our life. To make some sense of this
0:25:59 > 0:26:00crazy world that we live in... Yet he touched people so personally,
0:26:01 > 0:26:04that's been clear today. Putting those two views together is quite
0:26:05 > 0:26:09difficult? For me, they fit together. When we went on air this
0:26:10 > 0:26:13morning, that was what I said, when somebody dies, what is desperately
0:26:14 > 0:26:20sad is that you lose a world. You lose the way that they see the
0:26:21 > 0:26:24world. There's a kind of lovely symmetry between those thoughts. We
0:26:25 > 0:26:27lose his perspective and also there is something about that generation,
0:26:28 > 0:26:31you know. He is this leading light of the generation who taught us what
0:26:32 > 0:26:34it is to be an adult now, how to be a grown-up in the modern world,
0:26:35 > 0:26:38which involves not growing up. We don't want him to go. David, you
0:26:39 > 0:26:42need to tell us what to do! You can't go. That is one of the things
0:26:43 > 0:26:46that is so terribly and personally devastating about it. He is not
0:26:47 > 0:26:49allowed to go, he is this figure which is so present in our lives,
0:26:50 > 0:26:54and even though he withdrew himself over the last decade, after heart
0:26:55 > 0:27:00issues, he still felt very big in our lives. When he came back with
0:27:01 > 0:27:04the album The Next Day and Lazarus, these are powerful pieces of art. I
0:27:05 > 0:27:09described him as the Picasso of pop, and that is what he was. Forget
0:27:10 > 0:27:15about him being a pop singer, he elevates above that, so a great
0:27:16 > 0:27:19artist, here was a man who did something quite extraordinary for us
0:27:20 > 0:27:24as humanity. He showed us what it was like to be alive. He was brave,
0:27:25 > 0:27:29to wear a woman's dress on an album cover in the early '70s, that was
0:27:30 > 0:27:33extraordinary? You see that Top of the Pops moment which now we watch
0:27:34 > 0:27:36with David Bowie with his arms around Mick Ronson's shoulder and we
0:27:37 > 0:27:41take that for granted. That is part of the job of pop music, to have
0:27:42 > 0:27:45that conversation first, to bring those issues into the mainstream
0:27:46 > 0:27:48before we are ready. That conversation always takes place.
0:27:49 > 0:27:55Thank you both so much. We could talk for several more hours
0:27:56 > 0:27:59- we probably will. We have covered some of the key moments of David
0:28:00 > 0:28:02Bowie's life, an impossible task. And the emotion and loss many people
0:28:03 > 0:28:05will be feeling today. We will leave you now with some of the images from
0:28:06 > 0:28:08an extraordinary life. # There's a starman
0:28:09 > 0:28:10waiting in the sky # He'd like to come and meet us
0:28:11 > 0:28:15but he thinks he'd blow our mind # There's a starman
0:28:16 > 0:28:20waiting in the sky # 'Cause he knows
0:28:21 > 0:28:24it's all worthwhile.