Tuesday 12 January 2016

Bowie in Bodrum

Advert from 1982

As I walked with Jake through the streets of Bodrum yesterday I heard David Bowie singing from many of the shops.  A fitting tribute to a hero who provided the sound track to my teenage life and beyond.  The opening bars of "Jean Genie" take me back to school and the wonderful feeling of first rebellion at listening to a strictly illegal radio on the edge of the hockey pitch.  I wondered if any of those working in the shops had been born when Bowie walked the streets of Bodrum in the flesh.  In 1981 and 82, Theseus of Attica, a beautiful old school Motor Yacht was based in Rhodes and thus frequently visited Bodrum.  Oona Chaplin was a regular charterer, and we yachties often came across her caftan draped figure in the local bays.  The crew of Theseus would tip us off when David Bowie was her guest and about to dock in Bodrum, so those in the know could sit in Raşit's Cafe and watch (at a respectful distance) their musical hero.  Sounds like stalking I know but the strange thing now is that we never took even one photo.  I've just googled David Bowie and Oona Chaplin and there seems doubt about the relationship between them but I well remember the crew of Theseus saying that they were having an affair and sharing a 91 feet of space, they would know. How different things would be today - we'd have been snapping photos left, right and centre on our phones and plastering them over the internet - But the crew would have signed water-tight confidentiality contracts so they wouldn't have been able to tip us off.   I prefer the former.



13 comments:

  1. B to B, What a thrill! How nice that all of you were respectful of their privacy and thus, are able to keep close this memory and share it with us.

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    1. Now memories don't exist unless photographed

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  2. enjoy yhe music, the rest is history!

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    1. I think many generations not yet born will continue to enjoy the music

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  3. No doubt he was smuggled into the back door of the Harlikarnus nightclub like so many celebrities before and since!

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    1. I seem to remember playing table tennis at the Halikarnasus in 1982 - so probably not the club you remember from the 21st century.

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  4. Indeed what a thrill it must have been - a huge music hero for me too, what a departure with his new album just came out too - he is a hero x

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  5. 'The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love..... and be loved in return' - he'll be missed greatly.

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  6. So sad when someone who has always just been a part of your life is no longer around. What great memories you've got though and, as we all now know, David Bowie was fantastic at keeping secrets and having those around him keep quiet, too, so we can speculate away as to what happened on that yacht. :)

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    1. I regret that I never saw him perform live.

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  7. What a marvellous memory to have, both of David Bowie and of Bodrum in a quieter age.

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