Music

David Bowie Is – The V&A Exhibition you MUST see

As a huge fan of Bowie, when I heard that the V&A were holding an exhibition with all things David, I knew I had to go. I wasn’t lucky enough to be around when he was the huge star he is remembered as today, but growing up with a Dad with an amazing music taste, I was lucky to have all his album’s within my grasp.

2013 is the year of the Bowie; not only did he release his first single in ten years, he realeased the album “Next day” and now having his own exhibition. I am hoping for one last tour, but let’s not get too excited.

The V&A hold amazing exhibitions ever year that has anything to do with fashion, culture, music or film, and even though you may not partically like David Bowie, I really recommend this exhibition. You cannot take photos in the exhibition, otherwise I would have shared some with you, but I definitely think it is one you need to experience for yourself.

As soon as I walked through the exhibition doors, my breath was well and truly taken. I was geeking out, grabbing my boyfriends hand whilst I was trying to take in everything that laid out in front of me. His famous costumes that he wore were on display, numerous pieces of paper with his handwriting (eek) where scattered with song lyrics, his vinyls were all over the place, drawings and paintings that he created were hung with pride; literally every single piece of documentation that was possible was there.

Not only that, but you got given one of those handset thingies, where Bowie himself is talking to you about the process of his song writing, his influences (which was mainly from Lil Richard) and why he created the personas that he did, i.e. Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, Major Tom, Thin White Duke and Arnold Corns. We hear about his childhood, his struggles to become the star that he is and we see how tiny he was in reality, and we learn how clever he really is.

Even if you are not the biggest Bowie fan, if you are a fan of music, learning about music, or think you know music, you need to check this out. He shaped music at a time when it needed a bit of a change, think of the musicians who took parts of Bowie to get to where they are today. If you like fashion, go and see his creative and crazy outfits he had to wear in front of millions of people.

I think the highlight were these three things, 1. Walking around listening to his back catalogue and hearing his voice made it so much more personal. 2. The end room where you get to relive his very last concert. 3. The amount of people who are there willing to be taken in by the power of Bowie.

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