Rehearsal: Rainbow Theatre, London

David Bowie and the Spiders From Mars had a day of rehearsals at London’s Rainbow Theatre on 26 August 1972.

The rehearsal was for a live show at the venue on 30 August. They had previously performed at the venue on 19 and 20 August.

It was David’s idea to put on a whole theatrical production for the show at the Rainbow Theatre on 19 August; a second show was added on 20 August when the first one sold out. We appeared on the poster as Ziggy Stardust and his band the Spiders – the first time, as far as I’m aware, that we were billed this way.

As I’ve mentioned, a major influence on Bowie as a performer was the mime artist Lindsay Kemp. Earlier in his career Bowie had joined Kemp’s mime classes and had actually toured with him as part of his show on several occasions. Now Bowie wanted to include Kemp and his troupe at the Rainbow and the pair of them would choreograph a show that embellished the music we were playing.