“David Bowie had everything. He was intelligent, imaginative, brave, charismatic, cool, sexy and truly inspirational both visually and musically. He created such staggeringly brilliant work, yes, but so much of it and it was so good. There are great people who make great work but who else has left a mark like his? No one like him.
I’m struck by how the whole country has been flung into mourning and shock. Shock, because someone who had already transcended into immortality could actually die. He was ours. Wonderfully eccentric in a way that only an Englishman could be.
Whatever journey his beautiful soul is now on, I hope he can somehow feel how much we all miss him.”
[Kate Bush on Bowie’s death]
David Bowie went to the great gig in the sky 10 years ago today. He was a unique and truly brilliant artist. He said this about Mortality:
The truth is, of course, that there is no journey. We are arriving and departing all at the same time.
My favourite Bowie record is ‘Station to Station’ whose title track is a journey by railway. The notion that we are going in two directions at once is a difficult one for us humans to grasp. The fact that we are dying from the moment we take our first breath is something we do not care to notice or acknowledge. As Kate Bush recorded, the day he died was a shocking and sad moment for many people. But who wants to live for ever? Guillermo del Toro’s recent ‘Frankenstein’ captures brilliantly the loneliness and hellishness of that.
Swift also captures the undesirability of eternal life well in ‘Gulliver’s Travels’. Gulliver encounters the Struldbruggs, human-like beings born with a red spot on their forehead. They are immortal but do not have eternal youth – they age normally and suffer all the physical and mental infirmities of extreme old age. By 80 they are considered legally dead in their society, stripped of their property rights, and become miserable, cantankerous outcasts who are incapable of friendship and envy those who can die. Gulliver’s initial excitement about meeting immortals quickly turns to horror upon seeing the reality of the Struldbruggs’ existence. The key satirical point Swift is making here is to highlight how humans fear death and desire unending life without considering the consequences of perpetual decay.
“All my big mistakes are when I try to second-guess or please an audience. My work is always stronger when I get very selfish about it.”
David Bowie – The Word, 2003
A great artist makes clear the pitfalls of making music or any kind of art with your focus outside yourself. It’s fine to have a good sense of who your target audience is but that should not be how you shape your creativity. The creative force needs to come from your own mind and heart, and satisfy you first and foremost.
I gave myself permission to make a record that I’d wanted to make for a long time. I thought I was going to die, that this was my last chance to make a record. That’s the thing with ‘Broken English’, it’s this sense, this energy, that “fucking hell, before I die, I’m going to show you bastards who I am.”
Marianne Faithfull
Waiting till the golden fields of retirement when you have all that free time on your hands to do that thing you’ve always wanted to do – write that book, visit that place, develop that skill, play that instrument is not a good idea. The bastards will keep extending retirement age and you’ll never get there.
Do it now. Tap in to that urgent energy. There really is no time like the present.
The new documentary by Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard about Marianne, ‘Broken English’ is not to be missed. It’s a bold and artistic approach to the subject as you’d expect from the creators of the brilliant ‘20,000 Days on Earth’ (about Brighton’s favourite son, Nick Cave – this is being written on the train to Brighton). George MacKay is particularly good and Tilda Swinton is her usual powerful self – it’s a doc but it uses actors.
London premiere on 1st December 2025
Jane & Iain also have a show right now at the exquisite Fitzrovia Chapel in Central London entitled ‘Souvenir’ based on my friend Michael Bracewell’s book of the same name. (Michael and I made the feature documentary ‘The Pilgrimage of Gilbert & George together a couple of years ago). Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys called Michael’s book “the best evocation I’ve read of London in the 80s”. It’s a vivid remembrance of the city in the late 1970s (when the Broken English LP came out [1979]- one of the greatest years of pop music) and early 1980s – the last years prior to the rise of Digital. The ‘Souvenir’ exhibition runs till 8th February.
True security lies in the unrestrained embrace of insecurity – in the recognition that we never really stand on solid ground, and never can.[Oliver Burkeman in ‘The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking’]
It is in the nature of being human that we are all going to die and we don’t control that much about our lives, from diseases which may affect us to weather that may land on our heads. By accepting those things and the human condition as a whole we can contemplate and address the world with more clarity and understanding. The behaviour that flows from this is to invest our energies only in what we can actually control or influence. Beyond that is a waste of energy and unnecessary upset.
January gray is here, Like a sexton by her grave; February bears the bier, March with grief doth howl and rave, And April weeps–but, O ye Hours! Follow with May’s fairest flowers.
Percy Bysshe Shelley – Dirge for the Year (1824)
It’s easy to find yourself wishing time away, especially in the depths of winter. Longing for summer or even spring is natural. However, such thinking accelerates life and with the speed we can easily miss the beauties of winter, from the magical geometry of a snow flake to the warmth of family and home.
The same applies on the macro level as we hurry ourselves to the next job, the next acquisition, the next trip, the next thing for which we are striving. It’s good to savour our time more, slow down, live life more consciously. After all, we only have 40,000 weeks.
This is the book I’ve bought most copies of in my life (to give to people I care about)
The activity is the thing that I’m most interested in. Nearly everything that I’ve done was to see what would happen if I did this instead of that. [Robert Rauschenberg]
Estate (1963) Oil and silkscreen ink on canvas
It’s when you’ve found out how to do certain things, that it’s time to stop doing them, because what’s missing is that you’re not including the risk. [Robert Rauschenberg]
Robert Rauschenberg 1968
Experimenting is central to creativity. The mentality is as much science as art. What will happen if I try this? What will happen if I change this element?
By definition, sometimes in the process of being creative you must fail. In such a context, failing is always learning. Risk is essential to creativity, change and growth. If you don’t give it a try, you will never know. Now is the moment in the year to take a risk and try something new.
I had a conversation about this with my brother over the weekend. He is just about to move house after a couple of decades bringing up his family in his current place. He sees staying put in one location forever as a kind of defeat. Change, adventure, “missions” (as he put it) are all critical to living a good last third of life. Changing place is one obvious way of progressing. Changing attitude or outlook is another perfectly achievable way. Anywhere where you try this instead of that – these surroundings instead of those, this positivity instead of that grumpiness, this uprightness instead of that stooping, these clothes worn with purpose instead of those just thrown on, this fresh work trajectory instead of that familiar repetition, this risk instead of that dull comfort.
Eve Arnold was the first female photographer to join the legendary Magnum photo agency. She died on 4th January 2012 at the age of 99.
The technical quality of photographs and moving pictures on celluloid is rarely the essence of the creativity or creative insight.
This iconic photo by fellow Magnum photographer Robert Capa was fucked up in the lab but that didn’t really matter, perhaps even added to the sense of chaotic motion.
This beyond harrowing, world-changing picture could have been taken on any camera but the (long unacknowledged) photographer was the source of capturing the telling moment, little to do with his camera.
As we wrestle with the advent of AI and machine learning, it is important we are clear about the role of the human and the value of the human as an instrument of ideas, creativity, progress and growth.
The quote today comes from this small poster I saw in a community hall in Milton Keynes. It was part of a set on British Values. On the way there my travel companion was telling me about something he did yesterday which was a true act of kindness, helping strangers in an emergency situation. He said it was “a London thing”, something Londoners would have done in the past but much rarer now in the city.
I had a related encounter last week. Simply asking for directions in the Angel. A clearly working class woman (much though I hate the term) pointed the way out to us in an old-school London accent. She told us to look out for the “Labour Exchange” on the left (a phrase nobody’s used for yonks), adding to her charm. She walked away then came back, adding to her instructions to make sure we found the somewhat hidden entrance to the canal. She went above & beyond the call out of kindness of a sort considerably rarer than it used to be.
Being kind undoubtedly oils the wheels of society and everyday life and is truly something to be valued now more than ever as presidents kidnap other presidents and school kids rob and stab one another.
Counting your blessings, besides aiding restful sleep according to Bing Crosby in the 1954 movie of Irving Berlin’s musical ‘White Christmas’, is also helpful for keeping perspective. Every morning I write two things for which I feel grateful. (It’s not an uncommon practice these days I believe, in some form or other.) It’s easy to become negative with the onslaught of noise, cynicism and politicking that assaults us daily now more than ever. Counting your blessings in a specific, focused way (e.g. writing them down) helps offset some of these negative vibes, whether it be last thing at night (which is what I used to do and Bing [the singer not the search engine] recommends) or first thing in the morning (which is what I now do).
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Simple Pleasures part 4 