Among the memories of the public relations officer Alan Edwards, also the time when the singer read the traffic report on the radio and no one recognized him
by Rolling Stone
Photo: Fryderyk Gabowicz/Picture Alliance via Getty Images
At the time of his great success in the 1980s, David Bowie had developed a technique to avoid being recognized in public. He told it to NME his public relations officer Alan Edwards, who has worked with the Rolling Stones and Prince among others and who recently published the book I Was There: Dispatches from a Life in Rock and Roll.
Edwards met Bowie around the time of the film Furyjust before the boom of Let’s Dance. «I started to understand what kind of guy he was by going on tour with him, he was a simple and charming man. He made coffee for everyone when he came to our office in Tottenham Court Road.”
«He explained to me that his secret to not being recognized was to wear a cap and keep a Greek newspaper under his arm. When someone had any doubts about whether it was him or not, they looked at him again and thought: “But no, it can’t be… he’s clearly a Greek man”.
When they traveled by train, «not in first class», people looked at him deeply, taken aback by his presence and thought: «It can’t be Bowie» traveling on the train with us, «he’s just a guy going to Manchester».
Once, after a radio interview, Bowie «had nothing better to do and so decided to present traffic news. He stood there and said on the radio that there were delays on the M25 motorway… I don’t think anyone ever found out it was David Bowie. He was an extraordinary genius, but also an authentic gentleman, disarmingly charming and easy-going.”
