SUZI RONSON: David Bowie took me to mattress, then stated he’d inform his spouse

My newest consumer on the salon is about my mum’s age, carrying a tweed skirt and cardigan with wise sneakers. Like most older clients, she begins speaking about her household the second I get began on her hair.

‘My David’s such a creative boy,’ she says. ‘He’s at all times been that method, performs guitar and piano. I’m so happy with him.’

She rattles on and on as I’m rolling her up and I smile and nod. Then it’s on with the hairnet and underneath the dryer as Mrs Jones opens a Woman’s Own.

Half an hour later, once I’m combing her out, she’s again to her son: ‘He was in the top ten, you know — Space Oddity.’ I meet her eyes within the mirror. ‘Are we talking about David Bowie?’

‘Yes,’ she says. ‘I’m his mum!’

It’s 1971. I’ve heard of Bowie from children at The Three Tuns — a pub in Beckenham High Street, Kent — the place he generally performs. He has an arty factor occurring and it appears a bit area of interest to me. Space Oddity got here out over a yr in the past — a one-hit marvel, possibly?

Just a few days later, simply as I’m sitting down in my blue nylon uniform with a cup of tea, I hear Doris, our aged receptionist, exclaim: ‘Well, I never did!’

A person and girl are strolling down Beckenham High Street, the person pushing a pram. He’s carrying a boring gold midi gown, which flows as he walks, and a floppy hat over his lengthy blond hair. With him is a thin lady with quick blonde hair, carrying a waist-length furry jacket.

The builders throughout the road can’t resist whistling on the man and calling out: ‘Hello, darling!’ ‘It’s David Bowie,’ I hear somebody whisper, as all of us crowd around the window. Doris huffs: ‘Look at that, whatever’s subsequent!’

The following week, Mrs Jones is available in for her set with the short-haired lady. ‘I’d prefer to introduce you to my daughter-in-law,’ she says gingerly. ‘This is Angie.’

Angie’s tall and skinny, with slender blue eyes and a beneficiant smile. When she speaks it’s with a bizarre accent, American with a contact of cockney. ‘Something outrageous,’ she says, once I ask what she’d like.

As I work on her hair, she’s loud and humorous, telling me she helps gown David and the band. She loves the stripes I create in her hair — vibrant pink, delicate blue and silver — and says she’ll be again subsequent week.

And that’s the way it all begins…

Angie has requested me for a perm at dwelling. So as quickly as my final consumer is out the door, I drive to Haddon Hall, an enormous mansion the place David and Angie reside on the bottom ground.

Inside, there are tall stained-glass home windows and a sweeping, Hollywood-style staircase resulting in a minstrels’ gallery. The carpet is midnight blue and the ceiling silver. And there’s David, sitting within the bay window, flicking via {a magazine}. He nods to Angie they usually each depart the room.

They don’t return for what seems like an eternity; I discover out later they do that usually to friends, to see who’ll keep and who’ll go.

When they lastly emerge, Angie says she’s modified her thoughts concerning the perm. We chat about fashion, style and music — effectively, they do, whereas I hear and agree with all the pieces they are saying.

The fact is I haven’t heard of anybody David is speaking about — Iggy Pop, Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground.

So when he mentions Marc Bolan, I’m delighted — I’ve heard of him — and say I like the best way he seems to be. David doesn’t reply and the environment shifts. Later I discover out he and Marc are fierce rivals.

After flipping silently via extra magazines, David reveals me {a photograph} of a mannequin with a crimson spiky hairdo. ‘Can you do that?’ he asks.

A girl’s coiffure! But David’s the right individual to drag this off: tall, rock star skinny, with excessive cheekbones and translucent white pores and skin, his neck lengthy and slim, his physique virtually female.

It takes me about half an hour to cut off his lengthy blond hair. Then catastrophe: his hair received’t arise — it simply flops to 1 aspect.

Angie calls me a couple of days later and says in a barely strained voice that David isn’t completely satisfied; she asks once I’ll be again. I flip up that evening with Red Hot Red dye from the Schwarzkopf Fantasy vary. I’ve additionally introduced an anti-dandruff remedy from Germany. It doesn’t simply treatment dandruff — it units hair like stone.

David greets me in silence. His hair seems to be like a schoolboy’s haircut, however by the point I’ve completed it’s vibrant crimson, standing up like a brush. Angie screams and he dances around the room, posing, shaking his head, loving it, taking a look at himself within the mirror time and again.

Angie begins inviting me spherical. Sometimes their child Zowie [real name Duncan] is crawling round on the carpet and hanging on to the espresso desk, with nobody paying him a lot consideration.

One evening there are eight or 9 folks there, together with a clothes designer, Freddie Burretti, and his West Indian girlfriend with hair the color of an egg yolk.

Freddie and David sit shut collectively on the couch and I’m greater than a bit shocked when David leans over and kisses him full on the mouth — a correct kiss! Angie laughs and says: ‘Boys will be boys!’ It’s at this second I realise I’m not like these folks in any respect.

At 22, I’m utterly out of my depth. I’m solely three miles from dwelling however I’ll as effectively be in a international land.

Angie walks me over to a gaggle of boys lingering at one aspect of the room. She introduces me to ‘the boys who play with David’ as ‘the girl who cut David’s hair’.

‘’Ello,’ they are saying in unison. Woody (drums), Mick (guitar) and Trevor (bass) — all from Hull — are in common T-shirts and denims and don’t seem like David or his glamorous mates within the slightest. I ask them in the event that they like David’s hair.

The silence that follows is brief and Mick says: ‘It’s not for everybody.’ They all chortle.

Before I depart, Angie asks if I wish to work with all of them. I say sure, however I’m unsure if she’s critical. To be truthful, I’m nonetheless a bit shocked on the kiss.

In January 1972, Mum comes dwelling with the Melody Maker. David’s on the entrance cowl, wanting fantastic — with my haircut! ‘Is this who your friends are?’ Mum asks, palms on hips. I do know her; she’s going to take a dim view of me being concerned with a ‘poof’.

‘I’m the laughing inventory of the store! Mr Jutton (Mum’s aged boss on the chemist’s) is hardly chatting with me.

‘Goodness knows what poor Mrs Jones is going through.’

Angie calls each time David wants a touch-up or a trim. The discuss is usually about reveals, or how he ought to look, what he ought to put on. One evening, as Angie opens the door for me, I hear David singing the refrain of Starman.

Angie asks me to assist with the costumes and reveals and naturally I say sure. I’m going dwelling with my coronary heart racing, however resolve to not give in my discover. Angie hasn’t talked about wages; it’s so airy-fairy with this lot.

The subsequent time I contact up David’s roots, I’m invited to a gig in London. It’s an actual eye-opener: his hair sticks straight up like vibrant feathers and his make-up offers him the looks of a being from one other planet.

He’s carrying a decent crimson two-piece go well with produced from quilted nursery cloth, strewn with yellow, blue and inexperienced ABCs; his ft are laced up in crimson plastic boots.

The present is electrifying. Later, Angie takes me to satisfy his supervisor, Tony Defries — tall, with an enormous afro and a big cigar hanging between his fingers. ‘Come and work for us full time,’ he says.

But weeks go by and nobody mentions something. Then at some point Angie reveals me the duvet of the following album: The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars. I gasp. My haircut’s on the duvet!

One Wednesday — my time without work — I’m going over late morning to do Angie’s hair. ‘I saw Mickey Finn last night,’ she giggles. ‘I didn’t get dwelling till 6am!’

I’ve truly heard of Mickey Finn — he performs percussion for T. Rex. Angie laughs, slips off her gown and will get into the bathtub in entrance of me. ‘Oh, it’s OK, David is aware of all about Mickey. He encourages me! We have an open marriage; we each have enjoyable.

‘Darling, life is too boring to be with just one person. It’s no secret, it’s simply the best way we’re. We’re each liberated, each completely satisfied and free to do no matter we like.’

One of her lengthy legs stretches over the lip of the bathtub, toes dripping water on the ground. ‘It’s higher than lies and deceit, don’t you assume?’ I’m at a loss, so I don’t say something.

‘My first great love was a girlfriend from my school in Connecticut,’ she sighs, giving me a depraved grin. ‘We were caught together in bed and I was expelled from school!’

I’m unsure what response she’s on the lookout for — but when it’s shock, she’s succeeding. Just a few days later, David asks if I can come over to do his hair.

When I get to Haddon Hall, he opens the entrance door to greet me with a giant grin, holding my shoulders as he kisses me on each cheeks. ‘You look nice,’ he says. Alarm bells go off: David by no means opens the door, by no means kisses me. I ask the place Angie is. ‘Oh, she’s off being her typical fabulous self,’ he laughs. ‘I don’t know the place she is half the time.’

He gently takes my hand. ‘I don’t actually need my hair minimize. I needed to see you.’ He smiles sheepishly. ‘Let’s go as much as city and have dinner.’ I can’t assist however smile again, however I’m nervous about being alone with him — what is going to we speak about? I’m panicking. What will I say if he talks about Rimbaud, or Nietzsche?

But tonight I meet a distinct David, charming and candy, and earlier than I do know it his arm is round my waist and we’re on our method. He appears eager about what I’ve to say and places me comfy.

We sit at a nook desk, speaking about his supervisor and David’s virtually reverent about the best way Tony creates alternatives. Then we speak about Angie. ‘I don’t know what I’d do with out her — she’s so outrageous and courageous,’ he says. ‘Not a jealous bone in her body,’ he provides, giving my knee a squeeze underneath the desk.

On the best way again, I take into consideration what’s developing. I desire a job with him excess of an evening in mattress, however leaving gracefully feels difficult. We pull into the driveway, then sit at nighttime till he says: ‘Well, Suzi, are you coming in?’

I’m not that interested in him, however as he holds my eyes the gap between us closes and abruptly he’s kissing me.

It’s a rush, the fervour rises, and earlier than I do know what I’m doing I’m within the bed room. I let my inhibitions go as he undresses me.

He’s a young, romantic lover who tells me my physique is Rubenesque, that I’m lovely.

I really feel as if I’ve crossed a line I didn’t imply to cross. When the room comes again into focus, he says that he loves being with me, that he’ll have enjoyable telling Angie all about it. I freeze. ‘You’re going to inform her?’ ‘Of course,’ he replies. ‘I tell her everything and she me — we have no secrets.’

Shame washes over me. How can I face Angie? ‘She’ll perceive,’ he says. ‘She expects it — we have an understanding. It’d be worse if I didn’t inform her.’

He appears slightly impatient with me now and a bit amused: ‘Don’t be foolish. I assumed you understood.’ I gown to depart. He doesn’t rise up to see me to the door, doesn’t say anything besides goodnight as he turns over to fall asleep.

Have I blown it? Will Angie really feel betrayed? What was I pondering? All I can do is look forward to the fallout.

A few suspenseful days go by earlier than Angie calls to speak concerning the subsequent gig, as if nothing occurred. She doesn’t say a phrase about my evening with David. I’m grateful. I don’t wish to come on like a groupie; I desire a job. David — aside from a delicate smile and a kiss on the cheek — behaves as he at all times does, tuning his guitar and speaking concerning the subsequent gig.

Does everybody sleep with everybody else? When the band lived at Haddon Hall for some time, they noticed half-naked ladies strolling round downstairs, a part of an all-night occasion. They have been invited to affix in, however declined. Maybe the homosexual factor put them off.

In June, Angie calls in a excessive state of pleasure: they’re going to see Elvis at Madison Square Garden in New York City. ‘Come over — David must look wonderful!’

When I get there, he’s pacing up and down, smoking one cigarette after one other. All he talks about is assembly Elvis — how it will likely be, what he ought to say, what he ought to put on and, above all else, how can he look actually younger? He desires to be seen because the inheritor obvious; he’s planning a photograph of him and Elvis the place he’ll be wanting up on the older man. ‘I’d promote my soul to be well-known,’ he says.

In July, David sings Starman on Top Of The Pops and that modifications all the pieces. He’s invited to carry out on the Royal Festival Hall and will get signed up by Elvis’s label, RCA.

My head is spinning as I attempt to work out the right way to straddle my values with what’s round me. I see first-hand how ladies are handled within the rock world and don’t wish to be one in every of them.

Finally, on the finish of the month, I’m advised to go to see Tony a couple of job. He solutions the door in a dressing robe and smiles like a crocodile as he asks me in.

I would like the job, however I don’t wish to sleep with him to get it. As I press previous him, he doesn’t transfer an inch. Tony’s eyes, like steel-grey marbles, weigh me up. ‘I’m going to make David Bowie an enormous star,’ he says. He talks about David and Angie as in the event that they’re naughty kids. ‘When I found those two, they had nowhere to live, an ineffectual manager and no idea how to go forward.

‘I felt sorry for them. They came here and David was huddled in the corner’ — he factors to the couch. ‘They were lost.’

His plan, he says, is to make David unreachable, mysterious, otherworldly. ‘Nothing is done unless it comes from here,’ he says. ‘All interview requests must be directed here. No photos are permitted. We’ll present an appropriate picture if wanted.’

Then he gives me £20 per week — £9 greater than I’m making on the salon.

Just a few weeks later, I’m on the Rainbow Theatre in London, the place David is doing a theatrical present that includes his former lover, the mime artist Lindsay Kemp.

My job now entails all the pieces from doing David’s make-up and hair to taking orders for lunch, espresso, cigarettes, something anybody desires. Kids pour down the aisles, some carrying make-up and sporting his haircut.

The curtain components and in a flash of sunshine David strides on as Ziggy Stardust. Afterwards, the critiques evaluate him to Judy Garland: ‘A star is born,’ they rave.

Then it’s a couple of extra sell-out dates around the nation. Whenever it’s time for a dressing up change, I’m within the wings with a lit cigarette and a glass of wine for David.

P artway via the tour, a buddy of the promoter involves a present with an adorable-looking dark-haired boy. During a dressing up change, David says: ‘I want to meet him after the show. Get him in the car for me, Suzi.’ I say I believe he’s with somebody. David offers me a sceptical look. ‘Just tell him,’ he says, with an not possible smirk.

When I discreetly inform the boy that David desires to satisfy him, he’s thrilled. ‘Meet me at the stage door when the encore starts,’ I inform him.

At the tip of the present, the boys within the band bounce into the entrance of our limo with the driving force. There’s simply me and this scared-looking child within the again. He’s shaking — I can really feel it.

Then David throws himself into the automotive and, and not using a phrase, launches himself on the boy. I can see him pushing his tongue down the boy’s throat and his hand attempting to open his trousers, all of the whereas telling him what they’ll be doing again on the resort. I’m speechless.

The guitarist Mick Ronson asks if I’m all proper and extends his hand via the inner window to carry mine as David and the boy wrestle round proper subsequent to me. Now I do know why none of them sat within the again.

I sit ahead, attempting to not look. I hear a zipper, see some pores and skin, there’s some moaning. When we pull up on the resort, David tells me to carry the boy to his room, then will get out to greet followers.

I really feel violated and I can’t think about what the boy’s feeling. I ask if he’s all proper. He smiles and says he’s OK, so I take him with me as I’m going to gather David’s sweaty stage garments.

When I knock on the door. David palms me his costume and, with a protracted white arm, pulls the boy into the room.

We’re again in Kent and I’m attempting not to consider the boy. The band have began rehearsing for America — it’s all anybody talks about, the American tour.

No one’s requested me to return. It’s throughout; I’m so depressed.

Then, simply once I’ve about given up, I get a name from Tony.

I almost scream. I’m going to America with David Bowie And The Spiders From Mars!

•  Adapted from Me And Mr Jones by Suzi Ronson, to be printed by Faber & Faber on April 4 at £20. © Suzi Ronson 2024. To order a replica for £18 (supply legitimate to 23/3/24; UK P&P free on orders over £25), go to mailshop.co.uk/books or name 020 3176 2937.