David Bowie had languished in the early seventies, tied down by the weight of his one hit song, Space Oddity, a song many perceived as novelty locked permanently in memory with the moon landings. The androgynous alien Ziggy Stardust, a persona Bowie created, was the petrol on the flame that propelled him out of that slump and on his way to becoming the 70s most vital star. Bowie rode the character for two years and two albums before killing him off at the end of a fraught, emotional concert on July 3 1973. D. A. Pennebaker’s film of that, Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, is a vital, lighting in a bottle, recording of that moment in pop culture history, and you can see it at Bio Rio tonight.
