We’re honoured to pay tribute to David Bowie, who made his Southbank Centre debut in 1969. The Aladdin Sane album cover portrait is considered to be one of the most influential pop culture images of the past half century, and the music remains fresh and contemporary, so we wanted to recognise this major anniversary and reflect on the album and its artwork’s enduring legacy. It’s a work that continues to inspire today’s contemporary artists and the gender fluidity of the images still resonate deeply in queer culture in the UK and across the world. On the Aladdin Sane celebrations, Southbank Centre Artistic Director Mark Ball The whole infrastructure was there. We were using the ‘Hey Jude’ piano The Beatles used at Trident, and you also have Ken Scott’s [producer] experience and the way he mixed that record.” Photographer Chris Duffy calls the image “the Mona Lisa of pop”. It was shot by his father, Brian Duffy, a renowned celebrity photographer who died in 2010. Bowie and Brian Duffy enjoyed a fruitful creative partnership: Aladdin Sane was the first of three album covers they shot together. Also among the exhibition is behind-the-scenes information on how the lighting bolt make-up was created as well as other shots taken in the same session with Bowie’s angular face captured in many ways. Featuring a two-month long exhibition (6 April – 28 May) as well as a stellar line-up of live music and talks inspired by the album (21 & 22 April)

Mark Ball, the Southbank Centre’s artistic director, said: “The Aladdin Sane album cover portrait is considered to be one of the most influential pop culture images of the past half century, and the music remains fresh and contemporary, so we wanted to recognise this major anniversary and reflect on the album and its artwork’s enduring legacy. Chris Duffy first met the Starman musician in 1973 when he was recording Aladdin Sane in London as his father was working with Bowie at the time.It’s been suggested Lear, amongst others, was the inspiration for ‘Lady Grinning Soul’. “It almost has a French influence. David was also reading a lot of French philosophy at the time,” adds Underwood. “It also sounds to me like it could be Berlin at a burlesque club after the war.”

Ziggy is quite polite in a way,” says Bobby Gillespie, frontman with Primal Scream. “Whereas Aladdin Sane, the band are hot from touring. It has that raw live energy. It’s definitely a more druggie sound, more of a decadent atmosphere, it’s more ragged and a bit sloppier. It’s in your f***ing face. And all the better for it.” The album was preceded by two singles ‘The Jean Genie’ and ‘Drive-In Saturday’, peaking in the U.K. singles chart at numbers 2 and 3 respectively, and was the first time Bowie topped the U.K. album charts. It also marked his debut on the U.S. top 20 album chart, where ‘Time’ and ‘Let’s Spend The Night Together’ were follow ups to the ‘The Jean Genie’. Aladdin Sane: 50 Years exhibition is curated by Chris Duffy, the son of photographer Brian Duffy, the latter of whom collaborated with Bowie to create the 1973 album’s iconic lightning flash portrait artwork. Read next He later had the opportunity to photograph Bowie alongside his father in 1980 for his 14th studio album Scary Monsters.I think that was Duffy putting his Daliesque abstract stamp on it, the image would still look striking without it but the watermark makes it even more mysterious. It could be a teardrop, it could be a mercury water droplet, and its shape is also quite phallic. David didn’t know about that until afterwards, Duffy just put it on there.” On 14th April, 2023, one week before its Golden Jubilee, ALADDIN SANE will be issued as a limited edition 50th anniversary half-speed mastered LP and a picture disc LP pressed from the same master. The two-month long exhibition runs from 6 April-28 May and explores the creation of the album’s artwork. A line-up of live music and talks inspired by the Bowie’s sixth record is also booked. The Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer will host two nights of club music in celebration of Bowie on April 21 and 22, with DJ collective Queer House Party and Afro-Caribbean-inspired Queer Bruk. Award-winning pianist, composer and musical director Peter Edwards will arrange and lead the diverse, innovative and shapeshifting orchestra, following Nu Civilisation Orchestra’s recent triumphant tours of 50 years of Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On , Joni Mitchell’s Hejira and Charles Mingus, as well as one-off concert Duke Ellington’s The Queen’s Suite, which was performed at Queen Elizabeth Hall, as part of Southbank Centre’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations last year.

The Aladdin Sane era was, ironically, over in a flash. Within three months, Bowie had killed off Ziggy/Aladdin by dramatically announcing his retirement onstage at the Hammersmith Odeon. Trouble had been brewing: Woodmansey says there was a change in Bowie, who was becoming distant in part to increasing cocaine use (something Bowie later admitted). It confused people,” Cann says. “And I can understand that. But if you’re a Bowie fan and understand what was going on, you know that it was completely different.” An exhibition to celebrate 50 years of David Bowie‘s album Aladdin Sane has been announced for London’s Southbank Centre.The cover had a profound effect on many who saw it. Gillespie was at primary school in Glasgow when a friend brought the album into class. “The first thing was the image, this creature of indeterminate sex. It’s very powerful stuff for an 11-year-old to be… I’m not gonna say ‘exposed to’, because that makes it sound seedy. But to be presented with. I thought it was attractive, but not in a sexual way. More just – I’d never seen anything like this before. It messed around with the idea of what a man could and should be. It was revolutionary”.

The famous picture of David Bowie on the cover of Aladdin Sane was taken by Brian Duffy (commonly known as ‘Duffy’). Another significant player he brought on board was David Sanborn who added tenor sax to a new version of ‘The Prettiest Star’, released as a single three years earlier with Marc Bolan on guitar. Bowie was already looking ahead. “David would sit listening to Aretha Franklin,” says Garson of their time travelling across America in 1972. “He was thinking of Young Americans; he jumped a couple of albums.”Duffy’s image became “the Mona Lisa of pop”, according to his son, who curated the exhibition at the Southbank Centre in central London and has written a book, Aladdin Sane 50: The definitive celebration of Bowie’s most iconic album and music’s most famous photograph. The album was preceded by two singles‘The Jean Genie’and‘Drive-In Saturday’,peaking in the U.K. singles chart at numbers 2 and 3 respectively,and was the first time he topped the U.K. album charts. It also markedBowie’sdebut on the U.S. charts reaching the top 20 album chart there, where an edited version of‘Time’was released as a single. On14th April, 2023,one week before its Golden JubileeALADDINSANEwill be issued as alimited edition 50th anniversary picture disc LP pressed from the samemaster.