David Bowie passes away
Written by Matt   
Monday, 11 January 2016
David Bowie (centre) with David Gilmour, Royal Albert Hall, London, May 2006

The world awoke this morning to the extremely sad news about David Bowie's passing. He had been ill for some time but lived to see the release of his final album, a farewell known as Blackstar.

His contribution to the arts, and in particular, music since the late 1960s, was immeasurable, and he will be sorely missed. Nick Mason paid his own tributes to Bowie on the UK's Channel 4 news this evening, noting his personal favourite song as Space Oddity.

With a career running in parallel to Pink Floyd, there were some influences in both directions, and of course Bowie covered See Emily Play on his 1973 album Pin Ups. More recently, in 2006, he made a surprise return to the stage in a guest appearance during one of David Gilmour's Royal Albert Hall concerts, performing Arnold Layne and Comfortably Numb - as the picture here (kindly sent in by Nick Spekkels) shows.

The iconic nature of Bowie was typified by the Royal Albert Hall staff pouring into the arena as Bowie hit the stage that night, all seemingly in awe of him, and determined not to miss such a rare appearance. Bowie's performance that night was rightly included in the DVD release of Remember That Night.