Even though David Bowie died early last year, of course his legend lives on with his music. One story that you might not be so familiar with is that of Mick Ronson. Now Mick Ronson worked on many of Bowie's greatest albums. David Bowie loved him so much that he narrated a documentary about him before he died. Produced by a former manager of Ziggy Stardust and the spiders from Mars the director Jon Brewer is here with us this morning Merry morning, John!
Jon Brewer: Morning
We're going to give you a little sample of the documentary first and we’ll chat after.
David Bowie Narrating: he was actually brilliant at divining what I meant when I would describe him words what I wanted as the shape of the solo in certain songs. The one on time is a perfect example, for instanc. One thing he adored doing while recording was building up layered tracks so that there would be a great wedge of sound in certain areas of songs and from there he could fly off into his sinewy lines and riffs in a heartbeat.
Now, Jon, the first thing people will hear, watching that of course, that is David Bowie’s own voice yes and he's done parts of the voice-over for the documentary.
Jon Brewer: Yes he did the whole voice-over of the- and he set it up in a rather uncanny way because he gave me the chapters, really, and it was his sort of gift to the documentary before he died. And, you know, it wasn't just before he died it was some time before he died but the thing was that, of course, nobody really knew what was happening and it, uh, he sent it out just as I made the film really.
And the you introduced us, okay ,a lot of people- I'd never heard of Mick Ronson before. Many people possibly who know more about Mick Ronson- but just give us a snapshot of who Mick was.
Jon Brewer: Mick was probably one of the greatest ranges of our time and he was- Morrissey quoted the other day saying he was the engines for Bowie he created this wonderful folk singer-songwriter into a great rocker roller and went on to do Lou Reed and went on to do Morrissey and others you know, other artists. But, you know, at the beginning he was a humble gardener for the hull County Council and became a guitarist- he'd been trained musically at school and he then developed to become, certainly, the most incredible credible arranger and artist.
Now you mentioned a bit, because the detail in these stories is so fascinating! I love hearing when people get their first break and you mention that he was a gardener, Mick was a gardener up in Hull and there's a story about when they first went up to try and find him - so people knew how good he was with his guitar they went up to find him and he wa, he was doing white lines on it on a rugby pitch and-
Jon Brewer: David Bowie had been introduced to him by his drummer that he was playing with in a band called the rats and he said you've got to hear this guy David and David actually drove up with Angie and went to meet his mom and next thing he was- few weeks later he was down on top of the pops and he'd been sort of recording with David and then of course the big break came in in America and that's all benefited from story but the thing was Mick Ronson was definitely responsible for all that big push.
I think anyone who's watched the documentary film will see- we've been we've been privy to it, so, and managed to enjoy it- we'll see there are lots of interesting stories with just how the pop world or the music world came, became with someone who just had no idea about it from the size of David Bowie's house that they were living in when they were young - working with Lou Reed who he wasn't too impressed with in the first session. Just how the music industry was- just became part of his life and he became something fantastically-
Jon Brewer: well that was early times of course because you know we were breaking ground then and we just we just went with the flow and did the best that we possibly could. I mean, you know, he said that you could put his whole house in- size of his house that David had renting for 7 pound a week or whatever it was. Extraordinary! But I made this film not only for Mick’s legacy because- and after the premiere at the Mayfair Theater, people were just going I’m so glad we've- you've done this and I- but I did it for David, as well, because it was a big struggle there- David didn't know quite how to cope with letting everybody know how responsible Mick Ronson was and he just ran out of time. He was getting back with Bowie in the 90s, he just ran out of time- died in 92- the last- the concert, the memorial for Freddie Mercury was the wonderful, wonderful- he died a few days later.
Well it's a real insight into a person's life. As Charlie said, you know, you may not be familiar with you certainly would be after this. Thank you so much for talking to us.
Jon Brewer: Great! I hope, I hope everybody enjoys the film!
This documentary is called: Beside Bowie: The Mick Ronson Story
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