On Monday two things happened, David Bowie died and I received a new credit card in the post that I couldn't remember asking for. As a result of my new course of anti-depressants messing with my body I wasn't working on Monday, in fact I only went to the office on Thursday and Friday last week, so I was able to keep up to date with the developments on Facebook and Twitter and listen to a lot of tributes on radio. Mandi went to work and as a result didn't really have the chance to be upset until later whereas I had all day to shed tears, so on a whim I decided that we would visit London yesterday to pay our respects to someone who meant so much to both of us. I am by no means a spiritual person, nor do I believe in an afterlife, but I took the delivery of a credit card as a sign that we were meant to make this trip. 

Our first port of call was a flower stall outside Brixton tube station where a lot of people seemed to have had the same idea as us. The woman on the stall was wearing badge of the Low album and it seemed that this stall had become the official flower stall for this Bowie pilgrimage. At the mural people stood in silence, the only sound that seemed to fill the air was that of a street performer called Douglas Hind. At one point he sang 'Heroes' and everybody turned round to face him to take photographs and film him. It was a lovely moment. To say what a push-and-shove city London is, here was a place where everybody waited their turn and moved out of the way to allow others to lay flowers and other tributes. People have written on the wall too, something I hope is allowed to stay there once this all dies down, if it ever does. It would be nice if the gifts that were left there were given to the local library or a museum one day and not just thrown in a skip. Fittingly there was a poster for Iman Cosmetics on the billboard next to the mural, and someone had drawn Aladdin Sane style lightning bolts on the faces of the two models. 

While we were in Brixton we paid a visit to 40 Stansfield Road, Bowie's first childhood home. Although there was a steady stream of visitors while we were there it wasn't on the same scale as we had seen at the mural. As I was standing in the middle of the road to take a photo a taxi approached and waited for me to finish and nodded to me in acknowledgement when I moved out of the way, it was as if he knew the significance of why I was there. A man who spoke little English stood with me on the opposite side of the road and played 'Life On Mars?' on his phone, a genuine goose-pimples moment. 

People of all ages and nationalities were out for David Bowie, and I personally don't think another musician will ever have such an impact again. Of course fans will mourn the passing of significant performers and tributes will be paid but never on this scale again because the truth is that nobody living matches up to Bowie. 

Heddon Street has been a regular haunt for the two of us for a while now and it was nice to be back. Once again a quiet reflective crowd gathered at the plaque commemorating the cover of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars and tributes (along with fresh graffiti) had been left in the red telephone box seen on the back of the album cover. I had planned on tweeting the phone number and write a message for Bowie on behalf of the first person to ring me but there was an orderly queue so it didn't seem right somehow. However I did write my own message on the glass which felt good, having never vandalised anything before, not that it counts because I am pretty sure the council expect it. After all there was Bowie related graffiti there before he died and as this isn't the exact phone box I imagine it was put there with the understanding that people would write in it. 

It was an enjoyable day tinged with sadness but I felt we had to do it and I'm glad we did, I had already decided not to do the podcast this week as I have only listened to Bowie since Monday and it didn't seem right somehow.

Please read my January newsletter here.

The Sunday Alternative Podcast #71 is available from here.

This week's episode of The Random Saturday Sessions is the final one from West Bridgford and stars City of Kites surrounded by Christmas trees. Watch it here.