Earthly Messenger, the first ever sculpture to celebrate the life of David Bowie will be unveiled in the Buckinghamshire town of Aylesbury on Sunday 25th March at 2 pm. Classic Bowie music and videos will be played in Aylesbury Market Square as well as live music from Callow Saints prior to the sculpture unveiling.
Friars Aylesbury is the music club where David Bowie first performed as Ziggy Stardust and debuted two albums at gigs in the early 1970s. He premiered 'Hunky Dory' at Friars Aylesbury on 25 September 1971 and 'The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars' on 29 January 1972. Bowie formed The Spiders From Mars with Mick Ronson, Woody Woodmansey and Trevor Boulder in the Friars Aylesbury dressing room and referenced Aylesbury Market Square in the first line of Five Years; "Pushing through the Market square – so many mothers crying".
Following Bowie's untimely death in January 2016, David Stopps and his wife Sue, the owners and promoters of Friars Aylesbury, organised a celebration of his life, which then led to a petition to create the statue. A Kickstarter campaign raised £115,000, and internationally renowned sculptor Andrew Sinclair was commissioned to create the piece. Stopps is also petitioning the town of Aylesbury to rename itself “Aylesbowie.”
The evening benefit concert, also on the 25th March, at Aylesbury Waterside Theatre will feature Marillion, Howard Jones, John Otway and the Dung Beatles. Bowie fans will be able to contribute to the fund and order a piece of history by purchasing memorabilia including bronze copies of the maquette of the statue, life masks taken from an original mask of Bowie’s face made during the filming of 'The Man Who Fell To Earth', to the official Earthly Messenger t-shirts and Kris Needs’ The Thin White Book, A History of David Bowie and Friars Aylesbury.
All proceeds from the concert will go to the sculpture fund that still needs £50,000 to break even. This is world’s first statue of David Bowie and will be an international and national tourist attraction for the area.
Tickets for the Benefit Concert on Sunday 25th March can be purchased from ATGtickets.comandticketmaster.co.uk
