Filming: Love You Till Tuesday

The sixth and penultimate day of filming David Bowie’s Love You Till Tuesday took place at London’s Clarence Studios on 6 February 1969.

The 28-minute promotional film was intended to showcase Bowie’s talents, and included his Feathers bandmates Hermione Farthingale and John ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson.

On this day Bowie filmed the sequence for his new song ‘Space Oddity’. The audio had been recorded at Morgan Studios on 2 February, but would be remade on 20 June for his second album and breakthrough single.

The filming dates for Love You Till Tuesday were 26 January and 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 February 1969. It was directed by Malcolm J Thomson.

February the 6th proved to be an important landmark in David’s career for it was then that he was filmed performing the new song ‘Space Oddity’. That this was an unusually clever song was apparent from the first hearing, but it was only during the course of the day’s shooting that its wide appeal became evident. During the break for lunch, freed from the silence imposed on them on the set, people were laughing, chattering and singing about that unconventional hero Major Tom. When David came through a doorway someone said ‘Well, if it isn’t Major Tom.’ After lunch he walked onto the set and rehearsed the final scene where the astronaut, resigned to his chosen fate, is caressed by two seductive sirens, played by Samantha Bond and the production assistant Suzanne Mercer. Admiration was now coupled with envy, perhaps two important ingredients for the hit that had so long eluded us.