Just off Regent’s Street is the location where David Bowie shot one of the most iconic album covers of all time, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (often shortened to Ziggy Stardust). It looks pretty different these days but you can even see the famous telephone box.
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| The cover art for the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars by David Bowie. |
David Bowie used to hang around Soho a lot in the 1960s and early 1970s, especially Wardour Street, where the Marquee Club used to be and Denmark Street a.k.a. Tin Pan Alley which was very popular with musicians.
The album cover photograph was taken by photographer Brian Ward in monochrome, and recolored by illustrator Terry Pastor, a partner at the Main Artery design studio in Covent Garden with Bowie’s longtime friend George Underwood; both had previously done the artwork and sleeve for Hunky Dory. The typography, initially pressed onto the original image using Letraset, was airbrushed by Pastor red and yellow and inset with white stars. Pegg notes that unlike many of Bowie’s album sleeves, which feature close-ups of Bowie in a studio, the Ziggy image has Bowie almost in the foreground. Pegg describes the shot as: “Bowie (or Ziggy) [stands] as a diminutive figure dwarfed by the shabby urban landscape, picked out in the light of a street lamp, framed by cardboard boxes and parked cars.”
Bowie is also holding a Gibson Les Paul guitar, which was owned by Arnold Corns guitarist Mark Pritchett and was the same guitar Pritchett used on the Corns’ recordings of “Moonage Daydream” and “Hang On to Yourself.” Similar to Hunky Dory’s cover, Bowie’s jumpsuit and hair, which was still his natural brown at the time, were artificially retinted, which Pegg believes gives the impression that the “guitar-clutching visitor” is from another dimension or world.
The photograph originated during a photoshoot on January13, 1972 at Ward’s Heddon Street studio in London, just off Regent Street. Suggesting they take photos outside before natural light was lost, the Spiders chose to stay inside while Bowie, who was ill with flu, went outside just as it started to rain. Not willing to go very far, he stood outside the home of furriers “K. West” at 23 Heddon Street. According to Cann, the “K” stands for Konn, the surname of the company’s founder Henry Konn, and the “West” indicated it was on the west end of London.
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