Spider from Mars: My Life With Bowie

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After finishing the book I immediately had to listen to the albums from this period out of the Five Years vinyl boxset to really immerse myself, yet again, in the amazing music of David Bowie and the Spiders from Mars The title of the book "Spider from Mars: My Life with Bowie" by Woody Woodmansey for me was a bit misleading. Yes Mr. Woodmansey was a "Spider from Mars" (the bands amazing drummer) and according to this book he did live in the same house as Me. Bowie there are little and few mentions of interactions with the MAN. This book is recommended to all Ziggy Stardust fans and it is a good reminder that behind every great man (and David Bowie was one of the greatest), there are many others who have contributed to his success. It is nice to get to know them as well. If anything, in this day and age, Woodmansey’s life story is a good reminder that it’s worth pursuing our dreams for no other reason that we won’t regret later that we haven't tried. Woodmansey converted to Scientology after being introduced to it by Mike Garson [11] and had his wedding service at a Scientology church in Sussex. [12]

With my life enriched by Bowie, and his death making a major impact as well, I was seriously looking forward to reading this book. Here would be a book that had not been touted as a tell-all, or a mud-slinging gossip piece. This book was written by someone who truly knew Bowie, lived with, created and played music, & toured with him. What can go wrong?... The Spiders’ contribution to The Man Who Sold the World, with producer Tony Visconti, documents in fascinating detail, that although still Bowie’s vision and voice, this was very much an album by a band finding each other’s musical strengths and exploiting a wealth of talent from all involved. (And like 95% of the material on the RCA albums, it passes the test of time with honours.) Woody’s auditions for Dexy’s Midnight Runners amongst others made for fascinating reading as was his experiences of playing for Art Garfunkel, Edgar Winter and other diverse names. It’s a lively, often entertaining read and Woody has some wonderful anecdotes to tell.First wave U.S. David Bowie fans will immediately recognize the name Woody Woodmansey as the drummer for The Spiders From Mars. For others that didn’t catch on until The Thin White Duke phase or later, this book is an insider account of Bowie’s earliest success and transformation from an English folk singer into Ziggy Stardust – from conception to fame to final bows. Pegg, Nicholas (2016). The Complete David Bowie (Revised and Updateded.). London: Titan Books. ISBN 978-1-78565-365-0. Wolk, Douglas (4 November 2016). "How David Bowie Realized Theatrical Dreams on 'The Man Who Sold the World' ". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 15 February 2020 . Retrieved 28 March 2023. So here we are, blood, toil, tears and sweat - and not a lot of cash... but then great things are seldom accomplished without casualties.

Woodmansey published his autobiography Spider From Mars: My Life With David Bowie [18] in 2016. It was co-written with author Joel McIver and includes a foreword by Visconti. [19] Discography [ edit ] With David Bowie [ edit ] Woody comes across as a lovely man. He was treated shabbily by Bowie and his manager, being unceremoniously booted out of the band, but the two were reconciled in later life and Woody is simply too nice to bear a grudge. Thus, we discover some anecdotes of the behind the scenes of their tour, stories of everyday life of the band, ups and downs of their relationship with Bowie / Ziggy, what happened to the Spiders from Mars (Woodmansey, Ronson and Bolder) once everything is went up in smoke, thus reaching the present day and the tragic news of David's death.David Bowie aka Ziggy Stardust was that man and this is the biography of one of his band members. The last Spider from Mars still standing. Woody Woodmansey. As someone who became a teenager in that decade I remember waiting for our culture to happen, for a new idol to worship. Too young for the Beatles and punk was too far away in the future. But a supposed ‘one-hit wonder’ who had had a huge hit around the time of the Moon landings and then nothing. A man had had a lot of false starts in the music business but had kept going until the stars finally aligned and it was his time at last. Drummer Woody Woodmansey is the last surviving member of Bowie’s band The Spiders from Mars which helped launch his Ziggy Stardust persona and made David Bowie a sensation. Woody Woodmansey is the last living member of the legendary Spiders from Mars who accompanied Ziggy Stardust in his adventures on the planet Earth.

A kid says to his mother, ‘When I grow up I want to be a drummer,’ and she says ‘You can’t do both , son.’

Martian Drummer unravels web of intrigue

A poignant memoir by the last surviving member of David Bowie’s The Spiders from Mars, drummer Woody Woodmansey. A phone call from David Bowie changed Woody Woodmansey’s life. Turning down a well-paid factory job, the twenty-year-old drummer from Driffield took a huge leap of faith and joined Bowie’s band, embarking on the adventure of a lifetime. So, anyway, it is all very interesting, the story from his unique perspective on the drum stool. Of course, he spends more time talking about the drums and the beats, but that is his wheelhouse, his area of expertise. That is what I want to hear from him mainly. Often with these kinds of bios (written not by the star but by one of the lesser members) I am left feeling sorry for the person writing as there is that strangely blind loyalty to a person who, while certainly giving him quite an interesting story to tell, also unceremoniously and cruelly dumped him. I'm not looking for Woody to trash Bowie, but he is damn forgiving of the way things went down. The Dennis Dunaway book about his time in the original Alice Cooper is the same. Both of these guys were very important to the bands they were in, but when the leader decided they were not necessary they were deemed disposable. That's business I guess, but they still continued to look at the world in terms of what David or Alice might think of what they are doing, and would likely be on the next plane if a call were to come to have another shot.