*the “David Bowie” Mural – Brixton-London SW9

At the end of Feb, and under dark, gloomy and miserable London skies – my London Shoes enjoyed a really good day out saaf of the River – in Brixton-London SW9.

A trilogy of blogs articles emanated from that visit – and this is the first ‘cab-off-the-rank’ – a short and sweet blog about one of Brixton’s most famous son’s (well – in music terms anyway!!)……..the late great legend that is “DAVID BOWIE”.

David Bowie – or David Jones, to give him his proper name – was born at no.40 Stansfield Road-Brixton on 8^th January 1947, some 77 years ago, at the time of this article.

He died on 10^th January 2016 aged 69 – and its fair to say that during his lifetime he became one of this planets most prolific songwriter’s and performer’s – and most certainly one of my all-time musical heroes throughout my teenage years and far beyond. I was fortunate to see him ‘live’ on two occasions – first at the Rainbow Theatre-Finsbury Park in August 1972 and then in May 1983 at the Milton Keynes Bowl….I now wish I had attended more concerts.

Anyway – what ‘Shoes’ wanted to capture whilst in Brixton was the now famous tourist landmark – the mural of David Bowie, that is painted on a side wall of the Morley’s Department Store – directly opposite Brixton tube station.

It was painted in 2013 by an Australian artist by the name of James Cochrane – who captured Bowie in his 1973 ‘Aladdin Sane’ era – and his mural is an elaboration of the album cover of the same name.

I can remember exactly where I was when I heard the shock news of Bowie’s passing – it was early morning, and I was on my way to work on a train heading towards Canary Wharf. I remember my missus phoning me and telling me the news – I laughed at her and told her not to be daft, it was all just a hoax – I told her to get back to her cornflakes. Of course – by the time I reached work – it was full blown news all over the place.

Throughout that day and evening, and way beyond – the Brixton mural featured on tv clips and the front page of newspapers etc, as Bowie fans made a pilgrimage to the site, to pay their respects and lay flowers and mementos etc – it certainly put Brixton on the map.

Today – the mural still attracts thousands of tourists and visitors, and because of all the graffiti that accumulated around it over the years, this large mural now has a strong protective covering surrounding it – making it easy to wipe clean and keep preserved.

So – that’s the story about Brixton’s famous Bowie mural.

Hope you enjoyed it and its accompanying photos.