Ziggy played guitar for the first time 40 years ago this week, beaming one of rock's most iconic albums down to earth in an explosion of glitter and eye-liner, and reshaping the way pop was performed and packaged.
In the fictional world of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, David Bowie's alter-ego was an alien prophet sent to rescue a doomed planet.
In the real world, the concept album, released on June 6, 1972, helped save pop from stagnation. It also helped establish the foundations for almost every new genre of rock that followed.
'At the time we had no idea that it would become so big, and the fact that I'm still talking about it 40 years later just amazes me,' says Ken Scott, who co-produced the album with Bowie. 'Rock music was still young then and nobody thought their albums would be important in another 40 years.'
His memories of the two weeks of recording sessions are charmingly work-a-day. But Ziggy Stardust proved to be anything but. With the hit single Starman, live favourites Moonage Daydream, Hang on to Yourself and the raunchy title track, Bowie created a rock'n'roll otherworld of 11 loosely linked songs that dealt with societal decay, paranoia, and, of course, aliens.
'It was not written as a concept album,' explains Scott, who also worked on three other Bowie albums and as an engineer on The Beatles' White Album. 'There were three or four songs that were obviously connected, but the album was simply a collection of great songs that went well together.'