When David Bowie caught the train from Paddington to during the and New Year holiday over 50 years ago, he was probably glad to take a break from London. 1968 had been another frustrating year for the burgeoning star, who would have to wait another few months for his first hit single, Space Oddity. Plugging away in all manner of bands since 1964 and as a solo artist for the past two years, working with the late choreographer Lindsay Kemp, appearing in a minor TV role and as part of a multi-media trio, Turquoise / Feathers, with his first serious girlfriend Hermione Farthingale.
No hits, no fame. He left Hermione behind in London and made his first trip to Cornwall to stay with his old mate Gerry Gill, who’d invited him to play two gigs. The former David Jones had connections with the county.
Five years earlier, his half-brother Terry – the bipolar muse for many of his songs – had lived and worked in for a year. He was also due to make another Christmas appearance in Cornwall four years earlier when his band The Manish Boys were due to play in on Christmas Eve, 1964, but it was cancelled. However, the 21-year-old Bowie had finally made it to Cornwall and – unbelievable as it is now – the music legend stayed in a converted barn on Higher Broad Lane, Illogan Highway, the home of Gerry Gill with whom he had previously shared a flat in Hampstead.
Gerry had been a budding songwriter in London before answering an advert in a music paper for a DJ position in Cornwall. He ca.