Bowie's Soho

Event information

David Bowie spent ten years in Soho trying to make it in the music business and failing miserably. It’s a testament to his single-mindedness that he finally made it in 1973. He started visiting Soho with his elder half-brother during the beatnik days and then embarked on a odyssey that included British rock ’n’ roll, R. & B., Mod, whimsical psychedelia, modern dance, folk, and hippie, all of which he threw the kitchen-sink at before finally making it as a Glam Rocker. We explore those years of failure and how Soho shaped them and him.


Aidan McManus is an historian, Soho tour guide and radio presenter. When he was a teenager in the late 1970s, his interest in Soho was piqued by the experience of working in its local sex shops, porn cinemas and strip clubs for people such as Paul Raymond, Bernie Silver, David Sullivan and Ronnie Knight.