Just heard Bowie died

Just heard on the news that David Bowie has died , very very sad just bought his new album for my husbands birthday tomorrow. I am sure most people like at least one Bowie song and he was a big part of my growing up.

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I’m devastated. I woke up when a news bulletin came on my phone at 7.15. Unusually I looked at it then, woke my husband up and have been thinking of nothing else since. Been listening to 6 music this morning. They’re playing Bowie influenced music all day. We bought the new album on Friday too.

Sue

Yeah, saw it first thing as well.

Still shocked, even though he was 69 - the same age my Dad died of cancer.

I think it’s just that, with the recent release of the new album, it’s so unexpected he was even ill.

I acknowledge it was completely up to him whether to go public about his health, but choosing not to has made it feel like he was in a car crash or something, instead of being ill for months.

I know there had been speculation, but the album was widely hailed as a return to form, so I don’t think anybody had expected this!

End of an era.

Tina

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so shocked, i loved him i always remember him and Freddie Mercury singing ‘under pressure’ at live aid in the 80’s they were brilliant.

Completely in shock this morning when I heard this. One of the first albums I bought as a kid was “The World of David Bowie”…still got it on my iPod. Him and Mick Jagger were at number one when my middle daughter was born. Drooled over him in “Labyrinth”. He will be sorely missed.

I was a teenager in the seventies loving his music. Two of my friends went all round the country to his gigs and we thought they were so brave because we were too scared to go out of our home town. Lol!!

its no surprise to me he kept his illness to himself and released a new album, that was just him so dramatic right to the end. What a legend and genius!!

Mags xx

Hero & a Star(man). Absolute legend. Rest in Peace.

I was 7 when my big brother played his records nonstop. It was the first rock/pop music I remember, sitting in his bedroom, listening to Rebel Rebel, the Jean Genie and Ziggy Stardust. I have loved him ever since. I wish I’d been old enough to see him play then. Never did get to see him.

A true original. In the seventies I found him captivating - his albums essential and his fashions influential. Our elders didn’t understand and we didn’t want them to.

Rebel Rebel.

Ben

i never liked the music of Bowie. just saying. i simply didn’t get it. same for people like the rolling stones and the beatles. my loss perhaps?

however the demise of Bowie, coming days after the release of his 25th studio album tells me something about the greatness of this particular individual.

fighting liver cancer for 18 months and only succumbing once his final opus was released and deemed a success, must surely serve as an example of a single minded determination being capable of not only making someone an international music superstar, but also giving a life force that was strong enough to fend off a fatal condition until they felt their job was done.

whilst i have no appreciation for this man’s art, i remain in awe of the strength of character he must have possessed.

it is a sad loss indeed.

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This effort from 1967 was surely his most influential and a difficult act to follow.

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What a shame, a shock and a loss. A musical chameleon who never got boring or predictable. I will remember ‘love you til Tuesday’, ‘the chingaling song’, ‘let’s dance’, ‘young Americans’ as a few examples of his diversity. RIP to a true musical legend.

hunky dory was his defining album for me.

thank you bowie for making me realise it didn’t matter if i didn’t fit in at school.

he taught me to celebrate being out of the mainstream.

actually now i’m more of a freak than ever.

carole x

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I was too young to be there at the time, but the first thing I can recall seeing on the telly was Bowie doing Star Man on Top of the Pops in approx 1972… when I’d have been five. I was blown away. Having been brought up in a strict religious and not very liberal home, this person was a revelation and an inspiration. Loved his “f***-you, I’ll look how I want and do what I want, and sing what I want; and if you don’t like it, tough” attitude - been a bit tearful all day yesterday… thanks for teaching me that it was OK to be a bit different from the crowd, Mister Z.Stardust!

he will have formed his new band by now

with lemmy and lou reed

they’ll be having a big gig in heaven!

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I have long thought that (with the exception of instantaneous deaths, obviously), people do have some control over the exact timing.

We are convinced my grandmother “held on” because she was determined to see in the new year (not this new year - many years ago). Similarly, my father died the day after his and Mum’s wedding anniversary. Although he was very limited, at the end, in what he could still communicate, he did indicate “yes”, when asked, on the anniversary, if he knew what day it was!

He died very early the next morning.

Of course, it could have been coincidence, and I can’t prove it either way, but I think he’d had the anniversary in mind as the milestone to reach, for quite some time. After that, he stopped the fight.

Tina

There is no proof for this as we know it, but I could not agree with you more Tina!

I emigrated from Holland in july 1995, although my mum had been diagnosed with (stomach) cancer several months before then. I had already quit my job etc. and was totally focussing on a ‘new life’ overseas when the horrific news came…

I was already 32 and I had met the love of my life (and she still is after more than 20 years!), from the UK, the summer before, on Crete.

I was of course constantly in touch by phone, and she even did seem to pick up significantly! However, in hindsight, it must have been the enormous number of pills etc that kept her going… She quite ‘suddenly’ started deteriorating and had to be re-admitted to hospital…, and never left the hospital alive.

However, I was going to pay my first visit after leaving Holland during Christmas 1995, and till today I am convinced that she waited for me… I went straight to hospital on arrival, where I met up with my mum… She showed me the widest unforgettable smile… I dare to think that she put her last energy in that moment, and started her unavoidable dying process soon after…

She died on 26th of december, which is still an official Christmas day in Holland.

Not even MS can wipe out that moment from my brain!

Thank you for that ‘whammel’! Nice to hear a light hearted song like that! BTW, ‘Boys Keep Swinging’ and ‘Heroes’ are my favourites. I can hardly believe he was married to that woman on CBB…, I think it’s the drugs that did that to her…

However, I myself, a Z-celebrity myself :), would overdose on meds to stay upright amongst those money driven B-celebrities in that ‘house’…

(And yes, I like to watch the programme now and then because I find it really interesting to find out what kind of people they really are!.. no escape from that!)

Sorry to hear you’ve been through such a horrid thing too. Though in some ways, I know we have reason to be thankful when a death is “foreseeable”. Although you can never fully prepare, you at least get the chance to say goodbye, and anything else important. You’ve seen it coming, so you don’t have to live with the guilt of thinking the last thing you said was not as nice as it could have been, or even (horrible thought) that your last contact was an argument.

Anyway, not to undermine either of our convictions that the dying person does retain some control, but it looks as if Bowie’s departure may not have been as expertly choreographed as circumstances make it look.

His producer is today quoted as saying they (both) thought he had a few months yet, and he had plans for one more album, and had already recorded some material for it. So as much as “Blackstar” looks (and sounds!) like a planned epitaph, it’s not clear Bowie knew or planned it would turn out that way. He thought he was good for one more.

Tina

Excellent piece by Mark Steel in today’s ipaper about tributes to David Bowie.

My favourite suggestion was that there should be a Bowie Day at schools to commemorate his death. Children would be able to throw their homework on the fire and take the car down town.

As a former teacher and long-time Bowie fan, that made me laugh.

Alun

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