Silhouetted towards the sunshine on stage in 1990, David Bowie belts out a deafening rendition of “Rebel Rebel” as a rapturous viewers claps together with arms raised.
Rewind to 1973 and the enduring star is on stage at London’s Hammersmith Odeon singing “Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide” in his final present as Ziggy Stardust.
A decade after Bowie died in 2016 in New York on the age of 69, these are simply a number of the spellbinding moments captured in a brand new immersive, multi-media function at London’s Lightroom venue which opened Wednesday.
The present options Bowie performing dwell, together with beforehand unseen footage, alongside not often heard interviews. It is the newest challenge devoted to the singer, extensively thought of probably the most influential artists of the twentieth century.
At the “cathedral-like” Lightroom, photographs and pictures are projected on to 11-meter-high screens on all 4 partitions in addition to the ground.
Combined with a 360-degree sound system it is supreme for conveying Bowie’s “genius as a live performer” and creating a way of being there within the viewers, in response to author and director Mark Grimmer.
“It’s a social event. It’s a crowd of people, you’re there with other human beings,” Grimmer advised AFP.
For the present, Grimmer and co-director Tom Wexler ploughed via numerous hours of footage within the huge Bowie archive. Highlights of “David Bowie: You’re Not Alone” embrace the star’s Hammersmith Odeon efficiency.
The live performance famously featured within the DA Pennebaker movie “Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture” (1983) which noticed Bowie kill off the Ziggy persona.
Another spotlight is a 1978 efficiency of “Heroes” at London’s Earl’s Court when Bowie “was really at the peak of his power,” Grimmer stated.
Other footage consists of Bowie at Live Aid in 1985 and performing “Starman” on the BBC chart program Top of the Pops in 1972 wearing a sometimes outlandish rainbow jumpsuit and boots.
Intercut with the footage is loads of Bowie in his personal phrases.
The singer, who had his first main hit with “Space Oddity” in 1969, describes the bleakness of his London childhood and his seek for “color, exhilaration” and a “way out”.
“I think one of the things that we wanted to do is to give an insight into Bowie the human being, as well as Bowie the icon,” stated Grimmer.
After listening to a number of the many interviews he gave, what emerged was a “very humorous and self-deprecating” character, he added.
Bowie laughs as he describes himself as an “unlikely” rock star, compares himself to an “emperor penguin” and admits to a burning curiosity about all the things in life “except country and western (music), of course”.
Grimmer additionally focuses on Bowie’s artistic course of which noticed him endlessly reinvent himself.
Essentially a “shy person”, Bowie, whose start title was David Jones, struggled with acting on stage within the early years.
To overcome his inhibitions he would immerse himself within the characters he created such because the androgynous alien rock star Ziggy Stardust despatched to Earth earlier than an apocalypse.
When all of the “theatrics” had been eliminated, Bowie stated he was principally a author who gravitated in direction of the remoted and freakish “not regular guys”.
“I’m a writer, that’s what I do,” he stated.
The hour-long present, which runs till at the least October, options some 40 tracks by Bowie who bought at the least 100 million data worldwide throughout his lifetime.
Reflecting on the growing older course of, it attracts to an in depth with him speaking about his perception in an “energy form”.
“You float on life when you get older, you’re not quite sure which way up it all is, which is not uncomfortable.”
“I’m quite happy in chaos,” he added, concluding that “life and the universe” was “really untidy”.
© 2026 AFP