It drove this lad insane

You know those "where were you when...?" questions about the news of Kennedy's assassination? I was far too young for that, but saw Lady Di's death while lying on a motel bed in Blanding, Utah (me, I mean, not her), heard about our first Championship for 26 years on an answerphone message after squash, gawped at the Audi TT stand while stuck at Frankfurt airport, saw in the Millennium on the Embankment, or was having lunch with my brother's family when the first news broke of the Indian Ocean tsunami.

And I've always had similarly-vivid memories of where I first encountered certain images, mainly paintings, but pictures in general. I don't mean those places like London's Tate for the Turners or the old Jeu de Paume in Paris for the Henri Rousseaus, where I've gone knowing what I'd see. What I really have in mind are pictures I've suddenly discovered when I've been somewhere and not known they would be there, so like finding that La Grande Jatte was in Chicago or turning round in Vienna and finding myself face to face with David's Napoleon Crossing the Alps. The feeling of the unexpected excitement and the tiniest details of the location have stayed with me.

And for the Aladdin Sane cover - Menzies the newsagents, Wigan town centre, during one of those shopping trips that our parents seemed to inflict on us every Saturday back then. I had heard of Bowie but had no mental image of his appearance - I think I knew "The laughing gnome" - and just remember being awestruck by this incredible picture. Dozens of the LPs entirely covered the walls and then carried on all the way up the stairs.

I'll admit though that the name of the photographer, Brian Duffy, had passed me by. But his upcoming London show (more pictures here and here) was mentioned in Why would you burn your life's work? (the cynic in me thinks the answer is for rarity value). Most interesting though was Aladdin Sane's story:

"Bowie was interested in the Elvis ring which had the letters TCB [taking care of business] as well as a lightning flash."

"It was decided that Bowie would have a flash on his face. Duffy drew inspiration from the mundane objects in his studio and, along with make-up artist Pierre La Roche, copied the red and blue flash off a National Panasonic rice cooker lying nearby."

National Panasonic? Or as Peter Gabriel (soon to be an even greater hero) might have put it - A rice cooker?! I'm glad I didn't know that - we didn't have those up North, not even Auntie Ann, but it would have taken away a fair bit of Bowie's glamour, don't you think? I might have turned into a Sweet fan.

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