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FROM HIS BIRTHPLACE in London to his adopted home in New York, to Dublin city centre, David Bowie fans around the world gathered yesterday to mourn a star who many said had shaped their lives.
A crowd of more than 2,000 people spent the evening in the south London district of Brixton where he was born – some clutching beers, others wearing Bowie t-shirts – to lay flowers beneath a giant mural of his face.
“I don’t think there is another musician in the world that can bring this crowd with so many generations at the same time,” said Dan Hunt, 28, his voice wavering with emotion.
This is the sort of thing that happens only once in any of our lives. It would have been stupid to miss it.
Lines of Bowie’s hit song Space Oddity rang through the chill winter air as fans played guitar and others sang along, several wearing the lightening bolt face makeup or shocking red mullet of Aladdin Sane, one of Bowie’s many stage personas.
From a building nearby a speaker blasted Let’s Dance, while Brixton bars dedicated their playlists to the artist.
“RIP David, a starman gone to heaven, love his old friend,” read one bouquet at the mural, a portrait of Bowie’s 1973 Aladdin Sane incarnation.
New York and LA
In New York, mourners gathered in tears outside Bowie’s building in Soho.
“I feel devastated,” said Penelope Bagieu, a 33-year-old French cartoonist in New York, crying as she left a bunch of flowers outside Bowie’s former home.
Michelle Lynn, who stopped off on her way to work carrying photographs of the pop icon, in her handbag, said she had been “a fan forever”.
Others placed flowers and candles on Bowie’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles.
Berlin
Berliners left pictures and candles outside the building where Bowie lived during the 1970s as he was trying to kick drink and drug addictions in Cold War-era West Berlin -one of his most creative periods.
The city’s Hansa Studios, where Bowie recorded songs, including the hit Heroes, said it would hold a memorial for Bowie on Friday, possibly with a public party for city residents featuring live music.
“I think he would have liked that,” organiser Thilo Schmied said.
Dublin
In Dublin, some 200 fans gathered at the Grand Social venue next to the Ha’penny Bridge, which hosted a David Bowie festival at the weekend.
A tribute band played acoustic version of Bowie’s songs and concert videos were shown.
A book of condolences was also opened, which organisers of the event said would be sent to the singer’s management company.
AFP with reporting from Daragh Brophy.
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