Bowie stocks up on TV classics
Music legend David Bowie may now live in New York but he showed you cannot beat British TV as he stocked up on classic shows during a shopping spree today.
The chart star picked up copies of children’s favourites such as Paddington Bear and Andy Pandy as well as hit comedy Phoenix Nights as he made an appearance in central London.
The 55-year-old - enjoying critical acclaim for latest album Heathen - came with a lengthy shopping list when he appeared at the HMV store in Oxford Street, central London.
He insisted on paying for his haul but grateful HMV chiefs let him take his package as a gift.
His bundle of classic shows from a bygone era included Muffin The Mule and The Clangers for his two-year-old daughter, Alexandria.
Bowie also stocked up on comedy titles including Channel 4 hit Phoenix Nights, starring Peter Kay, and BBC2’s The League of Gentleman. Vintage laughs came from Morecambe and Wise and Tony Hancock.
“It was the sort of stuff you just can’t get in the US,” said a spokesman for the store.
Bowie also bought a new “best of” compilation by rock band Ash which was released today after being impressed with the quartet when they appeared together on US dates.
Around 1,000 fans piled in to meet him, many travelling hundreds of miles.
Among them was Alex Sankey, from Manchester, who caught an overnight coach from Bolton to meet the music veteran.
“I’ve followed him since the early seventies,” he said. “I followed him all over and he’s always an absolute gentleman, he’s always very good to us. This album is as good as anything he’s ever done. It’s fantastic. He’s getting better.”
Also in the queue was Metropolitan Police Inspector Ian Larnder, who is in charge of the Oxford Street area.
He said: “I just told him that I’ve still got a silk scarf and T-shirt from when I went to see him at Stafford’s Bingley Hall in 1976. He’s just such a versatile performer. He could’ve belched in Portuguese at one point and I would have bought it.
“He was going to sign my shirt at one point.”
Bowie has a number of UK appearances lined up in the near future with an exclusive performance for BBC Radio 2 on October 5 from the Maida Vale studios in west London and an appearance on BBC2’s Later With Jools Holland on the 18th. He will also appear as a guest on Parkinson.
And the star is also widely expected to appear at the Hammersmith Odeon in London for the first time in nearly three decades.
The venue was where he killed off his Ziggy Stardust persona in 1973.
