Woody Woodmansey - Spider From Mars

From an interview with Woody Woodmansey, who was the drummer in the David Bowie’s Band, The Spiders From Mars, during the Ziggy period. 

So, your days with David, I suppose, the connection was Mick Ronson? You were in that band in Hull, was it?

 Yeah, a band called The Rats in Hull. Doing kind of progressive rock and blues stuff playing the clubs up north. We played the cavern and places like that and then Mick got the job with David.  

How did that, how did David know about Mick?   

The drummer we  had replaced in The Rats was kind of the first one that left Hull to go down to London to make it. You know, it was like you, the consideration was you couldn't really make it from Hull, you know. You could be a fisherman but not a rock star, you know.  

And then he (Mick Ronson) did a few gigs with David and this drummer and then, couple of months later, I got a call saying, from David, and he just said Mick says you're really good and you'd fit in with us. I've got this house, you don't have to worry about rent and food and we're gonna do an album. Do you fancy it? And I just had a really good job offered, in a factory, so I said, yeah, kind of sounds really good. I mean, he sounded really, you know, nice guy. Didn't really know much about him, musically. I thought he was a folk guitarist, basically. So, I was thinking, you know, I'm a loud drummer, how is that gonna fit? But I'll check it out.  

So, just went down and met him, spent a few hours listening to his old stuff and then telling me what he was looking at doing, you know. And I had this this list of things; can he sing? Because I hadn't really- I'd heard Space Oddity, but he, I'm really impinged because it was kind of light, you know, when you're listening to Led Zeppelin you don't really notice Space Oddity.  

Where was this house, David's house?  

It was in Beckenham, in Kent. A big kind of gothic, huge house, actually, and we had the middle section. So, there was Tony Visconti, Mick, David, Angela and a roadie that-  I still don't know where he slept. I think he, maybe, slept under the stairs. He was an Australian. Not that Australians should sleep under the stairs, but, you know.  

So, which was that album that you first worked on?  

The first one was The Man Who Sold the World. We did a few kind of demo tracks of it. And then we- we- there was a wine cellar under the house, so, we kind of soundproofed it and it was just so loud in there. It was only, I don't know, sort of 8 foot long and, yeah, it was straight into doing the album.  

We just set up live in the studio, in Advision Studios in London, and it was exciting for us because Mick and I had never done an album. I didn't really know what I sounded like as a drummer. I've done a couple of demos up in Hull, a demo studio. So, to hear myself, you know, that's what it sounds like, it was like, whoa, you know.  

You were pleased?  

Yeah, was I mean there was a few bits that went I'm never playing that again. When it came back through huge speakers he went "that doesn't work". You know.  So, it was good.   

So,  Mick and David were very instrumental in that very successful album Transformer by Lou Reed;  Yeah  Were you involved with that, did you meet Lou?  

Yeah, we- first time I met Lou we played, we backed him at the Queen Elizabeth Hall at a Bowie gig. He came on and did three numbers; Waiting for the Man and White Light, White Heat and something else and afterwards he said "that's the best I've sounded. You know you guys are really tight and heavy and then he was going to be doing Transformer. So, he said would you, would the spiders be my band? And it was all okayed. And then it got close to the day and somebody looked at it and went, hang on, it would be Lou Reed and the Spiders from Mars. That's- that's a bit off, do you know what I mean? So it got, that got dumped basically as an idea.  

But Mick had a reel-to-reel at the end of our bed, we both slept in the same room. so at night he'd come from the sessions and say "do you want to hear what we've done today"? So every night I heard all the tracks being built up and he said I'm gonna do this on that. And it was really good to watch the whole album, you know, come together.  Yeah, it was amazing.  

So, um, that amazing appearance on Top of the Pops in 72; wasn't when David did star man, a lot of people watching it, it was like in America when the Beatles went on Ed Sullivan, but much more profound because there was David looking amazing! He's got his arm round Mick Ronson; you imagine all the parents absolutely outraged. So, were you doin Top of the Pops that night with him?  

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was, I think we had- "Status Quo" were lined up in the corridor to go into the studio because you all had a separate stage and they were all in denim and we were all in our kind of glam flash gear and it was really, it was really quiet and Francis Rossi just went "you guys make us feel so old" and we-  everybody just cracks out laughing. It was just, it was a weird moment because we looked like we looked and they was still in the denim and all that.  

It was that period, you know, but you know, you know when you, when you did that show, you didn't really think about what effect it was having. Do you know what I mean? It was only later on that we realized, because we were, that night we were on our way up to a gig in Scotland, so, we didn't even see it, you know. It was only when you saw the reports of the effect it had, and then to think that that track nearly wasn't on the album. Ziggy, you know? Because we'd finished Ziggy and the record company said no, we're not releasing it. And then we went why and  they said because you haven't got a single. So, David just went over the weekend and wrote it. Just banged it out, you know.  

He could do that?  

Yeah, I mean, I think he could always do that when he felt like it. If he felt it fitted and he wanted to do that, he would just knock one out. You know, like Rebel, Rebel. Heroes. There was always one that he'd, no matter what the genre was, he seemed to have that ability to just write the hit from that album. You know. 

 How would you describe David's sort of characteristic, I mean, was he very courteous? Could he be a bit of a difficult guy or- ?  

All of the above, really. You know, if it wasn't going well you'd have a pretty dark session. And if it, kind of, there was too many obstacles or so, you know, you'd have a, you have, you'd have a guy handling the tape machine in the studio and his job was doing that and I remember once we were trying to figure out what do we do on the chorus, which is the best way to approach it, and the tape operator went "well I think" and he lasted about six minutes.  Then we were back to normal, got a replacement, and it was like, you didn't go there. Do you know what I mean? He did-, you didn't, it wasn't allowed for anybody to throw in comments or anything like that.  

What about that infamous night at Hammersmith Odeon and you're sitting behind the drum kit and then suddenly David makes this announcement which people thought was going to be the end of him ever doing any more live shows; did you think that when you heard it?  

Yeah, I did. I actually did. I thought, well, maybe he's had enough. I mean, you know we'd done about 187 gigs with only a few days off here and there and it was ti- was tiring. It was getting to everybody. We still managed to be up for the show but after that you'd be collapsed, you know, so it was- I noticed it was getting to him, especially the Ziggy character that he had to put on every night. You know, Ziggy became, he became Ziggy 24/7.  Where, as in the early days, he'd come off stage and he was David Bowie and you'd go for a drink, party, whatever, and have a good laugh, you know. Now it was Ziggy, you know. And, you know, Ziggy didn't carry money, so you had to pay for the taxies and whatever, you know.  So, it became quite strange so when he announced it I thought, okay, maybe that's it. He's just decided, that's it, on a spur-of-the-moment. The next thought was, well, he's good at publicity stunts, so, maybe it's just a big withdrawal from the whole thing, so that people go no no No! You know? So, that went through my mind. And I didn't know for certain, probably, until about four or five days later, a hundred percent that it was the Ziggy thing he was finishing with, you know.  He had talked about doing a funk thing, a soul thing on the American tour with me and he said I see you guys dressed in black, in the shadows, and not really being seen. And that didn't go down too well. He had dragged us out of the shadows and the progressive rock kind of gear and dressed us up and put the spotlight on us. Now, you want us to go back in the shadows? I don't think that's gonna happen, really.

As found on Youtube