Quotes from David Buckley

We had to redefine our musical culture. Not only our musical culture, however: at the end of the sixties all German artists had the same problems. Writers, directors, painters … all of them had to invent a new language.

Bowie drew our attention to the fact that a person could play the part of a rock star before actually becoming one.

Being a (male) Bowie fan meant that your schoolmates branded you a 'poof', too.

If Bowie ever fails, it's almost always an interesting failure, which is the mark of a great artist.

On 2 October 2002, Bowie returned, triumphantly, to the Hammersmith Odeon (now known as the Carling Apollo), a venue whose place in Bowie lore had been guaranteed

he had decided to record with the pint-sized but perfectly formed Scottish belter, Lulu. Lulu had been seriously hitless for more than a wee while (in fact, since 1969, when she was advocating the joys of 'Boom Bang-A-Bang'), and her career had slipped into the variety twilight zone of guest slots on the Morecambe and Wise Show and suchlike.

Bowie clearly at ease and enjoying himself. In Dublin he reportedly said to the 16,000 audience, 'Tiocfaidh Ar Lia', 'our day will come'. 'He said it near the start

If it was too windy sixty feet up, Bowie couldn't perform the song for fear of toppling off his mounting and becoming a rock'n'roll casualty. For the 1987 tour, as if in a fit

Asked why he thought Florian had left, Wolfgang Flür's reply was terse, but probably accurate: 'Too old, not necessary any more, enough money, especially no more flying: he was tired of all that. I think he should have done it earlier, much earlier.

Tellingly, Ralf has revealed himself as an Internet sceptic. One suspects he thinks the World Wide Web has made things too easy for people, certainly too easy to 'pollute' the world with the meaningless and the inconsequential. 'I am not a fan of the Internet, I think it's overrated. Intelligent information is still intelligent information and an overflow of nonsense does not really help. In Germany it's called Datenmüll: data rubbish.

Secretly, many punks were in love with Genesis and Pink Floyd, but to say that in an interview would have been the end of a bright career. And

He did have Melissa at that point, and she was very nice. But he's a very complex individual

Maybe I was drinking and drugging more than I should have done. Well, in fact, I know I was for Black Tie White Noise and Let's Dance.

crouching on his hands and knees, peering through a magnifying glass and pointing out sites where UFOs were going to land.

I tell you what completely took the biscuit for me – the song 'Tonight' with Tina Turner. Now she was really good, but I just thought, This record is so poppy.

outside of my family, the biggest thing in my life. I'd had fights over him, I'd got beaten up because of him.

I could only use the formula I knew. Which was, you call a song 'China Girl', it better sound Asian. You call a song 'Let's Dance', you damn well better make sure people dance to it.

Invited round to meet Ava Cherry's mother and father, Bowie finished off his meal by bringing out a phial of coke and snorting right in front of them.