Nick Smart – David Bowie The Collector Book Talk

TICKETS:    Nick Smart – David Bowie The Collector Book Talk Fri Dec 6th 7-30pm-9- – Wrecking Ball Arts Centre

Was Bowie an aloof and unavailable artist, or a ‘Starman’ who descended to bring good news to the masses and a chameleon? This book presents Bowie as revealed by the testimony of his closest friends and partners, a Bowie with humour, grace and humility and a highly focused Bowie – a borrower of ideas combining disparate ideas from multiple sources creating new visions.

‘[I’m] a tasteful thief. The only art I’ll ever study is stuff that I can steal from.’ David Bowie, 1976

‘To not be modest about it, you’ll find that with only a couple of exceptions, most of the musicians that I’ve worked with have done their best work by far with me.’  David Bowie, 2002

If it’s true that most musicians who worked with Bowie did their best work with him, is it also the case that Bowie’s work benefited enormously from the ideas and creativity of the people he surrounded himself with? As he himself said, ‘It’s not what you steal, it’s how you use it!’

A study of the people from whom Bowie borrowed from is long overdue. Bowie’s own genius is beyond question, but Nick Smart teases out the elements on which Bowie built his success. His profound sense of artifice, his ability to tap into the zeitgeist of his times and his gift for gathering ideas and influences from a variety of sources and rearranging them to produce not only new perspectives but also brand-new ideas made him the artist he became. Having interviewed dozens of David Bowie’s friends and collaborators as joint editor of David Bowie Glamour magazine, Nick finds himself with an enviable perspective about what – and who – made the David Bowie that is celebrated worldwide today. He describes the influences that Bowie picked up on and examines the creative ideas drawn from those he surrounded himself with to produce a unique portrait of a unique star and the myriad ideas that inspired him.

Nick Smart is joint editor and designer of the popular fanzine, David Bowie Glamour. He has been a fan of David Bowie since 1979 and has interviewed and written articles on many of Bowie’s collaborators. He jointly curated the David Bowie World Fan Convention in Liverpool, 2022 and New York 2023 and through his Fanzine and Convention has created a substantial following of Bowie fans on social media.

Nick will be in conversation with Rupert Creed