David Bowie 8 January 1947 – 10 January 2016

I was one of those many people who saw Starman on Top of the Pops in 1972 and Bowie has been with me ever since.

The first album I got was Ziggy Stardust in 1973. It was a birthday present and on cassette. I still have it even though I do not have a tape player to play it on.

I cut out all the Bowie stories in NME and I still remember Charles Shaar Murray's closing words to his review of Aladdin Sane, "Who will love Aladdin Sane? Easy one children, you will".

I saw Bowie live in Bournemouth in May 93, the Ziggy Stardust tour. I stood for the entire concert with one leg on the back of my chair and the other on the back of the chair in front.

I bought all the albums, some several times as cassettes and then LPs wore out. I bought them again when they first came out on CD with the extra tracks and original covers. I even bought the two Tin Machine albums, I was spurred into this by watching the video for Working Class Hero on MTV in Europe somewhere. I also bought the Philip Glass adaptations, e.g. the Low Symphony.

I bought Blackstar a couple of days ago and played the title track in the pub last night when testing the setup for my music round in the quiz. One of the songs I played in the quiz was Life on Mars.

I saw the David Bowie Is exhibition at the V&A in 2013 and bought the t-shirt to prove it. That t-shirt gets worn whenever I go to see the excellent The Thin White Duke, a Bowie tribute band, play in my local pub. Those nights are always packed and everybody sings along to all of the songs.

My sister bought me Station to Station for a birthday present and my room mate at university described the title track as "ultra way above average ville". He was right.

When Julia and I started going out I made her a cassette of my favourite music and that included Always Crashing in the Same Car from Low. I felt the following track (Be My Wife) was a bit presumptive though it proved to be prophetic!

David Bowie has meant a lot to me for over forty years.

I am in shock.