- I was born a few years after World War II
and brought up in a nice house in a typical suburb
of Southeast London, Bromley in Kent.
My parents both worked,
my father was a long distance lorry driver
and my mother was a shop assistant.
They got married shortly after the war
simply because that's what everybody did.
The government gave generous allowances
and my brother and I both had free milk at school,
the third of a pint in a glass bottle with a silver top.
I don't think my parents expected too much of me,
after school I think they thought I would kind of grow up,
you know, have a bit of fun,
get married and have some children.
The swinging '60s kind of changed all of that.
I mean, we had the best music in the world,
it was a great time to be a teenager, fabulous fashion
and the pill.
(audience laughing)
My mother both went to...
Okay, the pill. (audience laughing)
Oh, Twiggy was the fashioned model of the day
and everybody wants to look like her.
She was a tall skinny girl with a flat chest and flat hair
and I wanted to look like her too, but no chance.
You know, it was completely out of style.
My hair was thick and frizzy
and I couldn't do anything with it,
I wore horrible glasses and I was...
I had a waist and hips.
You know, I even tried Coca-Cola cans in my hair
to try and make it straight
but it didn't really work. (audience laughing)
I wasn't good at school and I didn't like school.
So, when I was 15, I joined...
I went to the Evelyn Paget College of Hair and Beauty
in Bromley to study hairdressing.
I passed the course
and was transferred to the Evelyn Paget School in Beckenham
which is where I met Mrs. Jones.
Mrs. Jones is my quarter to three shampoo and set
on a Thursday afternoon. (audience laughing)
Sometimes she would have a little trim
and a chocolate kiss rinse
and I think I permed her hair once.
As I would do her hair, you know,
she would chat to me about her son David.
She said, "You know, he has always been an artist
and he sings in a band."
You know, it was the same kind of conversation
week after week and I would nod and smile
and she would do this, she seems so proud of him.
It was what was...
I didn't take much notice until one day she said,
she mentioned the song "Space Oddity."
(audience laughing)
And I looked at her and I said, "Space Oddity?
“You know, I've heard that on the radio.
“Are we talking about David Bowie?”
(audience laughing)
She said, "Yes, I'm his mom."
(audience laughing)
I mean, who knew?
And there was a buzz about David in Beckenham.
You know, he played at the three towns or be it folk songs,
but he had the hit "Space Oddity."
I hadn't heard of it...
You know, I hadn't heard much more from him,
so I kind of thought he might be a one hit wonder.
(audience laughing)
I never saw a David,
I saw David...
The first time I saw David,
he was walking down Beckenham High Street in a dress.
(audience laughing)
He was with this girl with skinny black pants on
and I met the girl, Mrs. Jones brought her into the salon.
It was Angie, David's wife.
You know, and I liked her immediately.
She was so cool and fabulous and she looks so great.
I mean, she certainly didn't shop in Beckenham.
(audience laughing)
I heard a bit about her life,
she did David's lights
and they used to run around London and go to all the clubs.
I mean, it just sounded so glamorous.
Didn't see her for a while and then when she came back,
it was Christmas week.
She's coming for an appointment, Christmas week.
I mean, every self-respecting salon in the land
is busy Christmas week.
So, I took her to one side and I said,
"There's no appointments, darling.
Here, taken my number, give me a call,
I'll come to your house and do your hair."
Well off I went to Haddon Hall,
which was the name of their home.
It was about a mile out of town,
a huge mansion that had been divided into flats
and they had the middle floor.
You know, I'm curious.
You know, I've heard about her life,
I'm kind of curious about the way she lives.
So, I walked into the house, into this massive living room
which was completely overwhelming.
But it wasn't that so much,
it was more the way it was decorated.
A dark blue carpet, dark blue walls and a silver ceiling.
It was so calm.
There wasn't much furniture,
a couple of couches, a chair or two,
some cushions on the floor
and the rest of the room was completely covered
with record albums and musical equipment.
David and Angie were sitting by a large bay window
and they were discussing the merits
of cutting his hair short.
He had this long blonde wavy hair at the time.
They asked me my opinion.
I said, "Well, you know, no one else has got short hair."
You know, nobody. You'd look really different.
(audience laughing)
So, he comes over with this magazine cover
and this Kensei Yamamoto model
and she's got this short red hair
and he said, "Can you do that?"
(audience laughing)
Well, as I'm saying, yes, I'm thinking to myself,
it's a woman's hairstyle. (audience laughing)
And how am I going to actually do that?
But inside, you know, I'm excited
because this is a time to be creative.
I mean, fantastic looking blond,
tall and slim, long white neck and a beautiful face.
I thought, if I can pull this off, he's going to look great.
(laughing)
So, I guess it took me about a half an hour.
You know, I chopped his hair off
and after I'd finished his hair wouldn't stand up,
you know, it just kind of flopped.
(audience laughing)
And I'm looking at it,
I'm kind of panicking
and I can see he's not looking too happy.
So, I said, "As soon as we tint the hair
it's going to change the texture.
You know, it's going to look great.
I can promise you, it's going to stand up."
I was praying I was right. (audience laughing)
I went and experimented with color
and I found the color red hot red with 30 volume peroxide
to give it a bit of a kick.
But know there was no product in those days.
You know, you didn't have gels or fixatives,
there was nothing to help me make it stand up.
So, I used Gard.
It was an anti-dandruff treatment
that I'd used on the old girls at the salon
that set her like stone.
(laughing)
The second he looked at himself in the mirror
with that short red hair
any doubts he had completely disappeared.
I mean, Angie and I looked at him in awe.
He looked fantastic,
he gained a couple of inches with the height,
you know, a huge wave of relief washed over me.
I'd done it, I'd done it, it's standing up,
I was so relieved.
I'm packing to leave and she says,
"Well, how much do we owe you?"
I said, two pounds please.
(laughing)
They called me and I went up to see them
at a place in London the band were playing
and I went to see him.
And I still wasn't sure what kind of a following he had.
You know, he played folk music, I wasn't quite sure.
I walked in the place it's packed.
It's a college,
the kids are about my age but they're not like me.
I mean, they're well-educated, everything that I wasn't.
Lights went down, some music came on
and the band took to the stage and it was...
It was a real oh my God moment for me.
I mean, David was Ziggy Stardust.
He had full makeup on, his hair was flaming on his head,
they all wore costumes,
the band had this kind of flat velvet pastel color suits
tucked into their boots
and David had a similar kind of a look on.
And when they played,
when the place rocks they were so good.
This wasn’t folk music that's for sure.
They were amazing.
What a great band!
I went home thinking to myself,
"Well my God, I didn't expect to see that."
I think that minute Angie called me and said,
"Come to the house, you know, we'd like to talk to you."
So, I went up to Haddon Hall and Freddie Burretti was there.
Now, Freddy had helped design the costumes with David.
I went to him like, "He was so fay and fabulous.
You know, I was entranced.
His mannerisms, the way he talked.
I mean, he was fantastic, Freddie!”
I'd never met a gay man before.
(audience laughing)
At some point during that evening,
David leans over and kisses Freddie full on the mouth.
Well, I didn't know which way to look.
(audience laughing)
You know, I kind of looked at Angie and she's laughing
and I'm thinking to myself,
"I'm completely out of my league here, you know?"
(audience laughing)
I wasn't like these people, I'd never...
I didn't know who Nietzsche was, I'd never heard of Lou Reed.
I certainly didn't know who Andy Warhol was.
I never seen guys kissing before, I was from Beckenham.
(laughing)
Angie takes me to one side later that evening and says,
"You know, David and I have decided
we want you to come on the road with us.
So, you're to go tomorrow to main offices in London
and discuss your wages with Tony Defries, David's manager."
So, the next day I go up to the offices in London
heart in hand and I talked to Tony
and by the end of the afternoon I've got the job.
I'm driving home and suddenly sinking in,
you know, I'm going to go on the road
with a rock and roll band.
I mean, it's like a dream come true, I couldn't believe it.
I went to Evelyn Paget the next day and gave him my notice.
(audience laughing)
And my boss said to me, he said,
"You know, Suzanne, you should think carefully
before you give up a well-paying secure job."
(audience laughing)
I looked at him and said, "Yes, I have."
(audience laughing)
After this of course, my confidence knew no bounds
because I've done David's hair.
So, I met the band at the flat and I cut Woody's hair,
the drummer who was a bit like a short blonde Bowie
and I cut Trevor's hair off
and sprayed his sideburns silver.
The only holdout was Mick Ronson,
he didn't want to look like David.
So then I started on the road with them
and we even did Top of the Pops.
David had played "Starman" and during the chorus
David draped his arm around Mick Ronson shoulders,
I think it shook Britain to the core.
You know, certainly shook my mom and dad.
(laughing)
It was great after.
David was always so ambitious,
you know, he wanted to do rock and roll theater.
So, we started the Finsbury Park, the Rainbow Theater.
We were there like 18 hours a day,
it was scaffolding and mime artists, dried ice
and fantastic lights.
I mean, it was an amazing show.
We were all sworn to secrecy.
No press, no cameras, no nothing
but made such a big deal of it
and made the show so appealing.
But the time it opened everybody came.
And I think the only person that didn't like it
was Elton John.
You know, he walked out halfway through saying,
"That's not rock and roll, he's never going to make it now."
(laughing)
Well, I could feel the momentum gathering,
you know, we're driving around this country in a bus
and fans were following us and it was a really great time.
We had...
We were...
Everything was going so well.
I was with David all the time throughout that period.
You know, I would be with him before the show
doing his hair, his costumes, getting everything he wanted.
I was kind of his personal [assistant] as well as his hairdresser.
And we did many costume changes
and one was during a guitar solo.
I mean, he would come to the side of the stage,
I would have a gitane cigarette and a glass of wine
and he would take them and I would change him,
while Mick is wailing like 10 seconds
and 10 feet from where we were.
It was exciting, but we had it down to an art.
We went to America
and we really traveled in style in the States.
You know, we stayed at the Plaza Hotel in New York
and the Beverly Hills in California.
And there was no cash on these tours,
we had to charge everything.
You could have chocolate souffle for breakfast
but there was no cashier to charge it to the room.
And I think it kept us all in one place.
We were in Ziggy's world
and no one wanted to go anywhere else.
I mean, I never wanted to go home.
We had a great ahead team.
This group would go ahead, advance to a different town,
it was Cherry Vanilla, famous groupie
and Lee Black Childers of Hall of Fame
and they would go into a town
and they'd go to the clubs and create a big fuss
and get the people to come to the gigs.
And it was very successful.
I went to...
Oh, I met Iggy Pop in California.
We went to the Beverly Hills Hotel and he said,
"I want you to dye my hair blue."
I said, okay.
So, I dyed his hair blue.
And I said, "You know, you might want to wash it
a couple of times before you go back in the pool."
Well... (audience laughing)
Of course, completely ignored me and dived in the pool
and there was a blue string from one end to the other
at the Beverly Hills Hotel pool
and I think he was asked to leave after that.
(audience laughing)
I even went to Japan with David,
you know, and I met Kensei Yamamoto
and picked up some fantastic costumes of his.
It was great being in Japan.
I mean, I was being noticed.
Suddenly, I was the one, I was suddenly cool.
You know, everybody kind of wanted to know me,
the girl with a thick hair and the glasses,
you know, suddenly you become the one to be.
I went back home, after one of these tours
I walked down back in the High Street,
I looked in the window of Evelyn Paget,
my God, it looked so small.
I thanked my lucky stars I wasn't there anymore.
You know, Beckenham hadn't changed,
my family hadn't changed, but I changed so much.
I was a million miles from where I've been before.
And first thankful.
You know, I'm really thankful for my luck.
The last show that David ever did was at Hammersmith Odeon.
And he just stood on the stage and said,
"This is the last show we're ever going to do"
and played "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide."
And it was sad to say goodbye to Ziggy,
I think we were all sad to say goodbye to Ziggy.
But I didn't go home.
I mean, I went to Italy and fell in love with Mick Ronson,
the guitar player and moved in with him to London.
And it was a great ending for me.
And I am thankful for my luck.
You know, I'm so grateful that I met Mrs. Jones and Angie,
so grateful I gave her my telephone number
otherwise somebody else might have lived my life.
(audience laughing)
Thrilled that I met and married the guitar player,
the late great Mick Ronson
and had a beautiful daughter with him.
I met so many interesting people throughout that time
you know, and heard so much wonderful music.
I'm so grateful for David for taking a chance on me
and taking me on the road with him.
My haircut is on British currency now,
the Brixton 10 pound note.
(laughing)
Who would have felt I could have done that?
Thank you.
(audience cheering)