The mid-life crisis just got real

“On 29 March 1974, David Jones then aged 27 left London, crossed the Channel by ferry and, although he did not know it at the time, abandoned England as his home”

Bowie IS Exhibition book

On a blissfully bright autumn morning, aged 36, I did likewise, leaving London to look for the meaning of David Bowie’s Life on Mars? and in doing so, abandoning all sense of reality. On a glorious autumn morning, with the sky as blue as the suit Bowie wore in the song’s video, I loaded up and turned to face the strangest journey I would ever undertake.

I’d found a ‘Star Map’ a trail of Bowie breadcrumbs and cosmic coincidences across Europe, places he’d recorded, concerts he’d played, artists who’d inspired him. My kit above reflecting that inspiration and some things I’d need along the way. This was a route not marked on any map but written as part of the greatest songs of the 20th century, and as far as I knew no-one had ever cycled a song lyric before.

I’d never cycled further than an hour before. But I was ready to rock and jazz and avant-garde and krautrock and roll. I pushed into the unseasonal September sun. Feeling the air whoosh around my ears as I swooped past the Olympic swimming pool into a slalom of east London suburbs. Seven miles and one water bottle that rolled under the wheel of a London black cab later and I face the biggest challenge of my life - how to dismantle my bike without getting hacked off and angrily launching pedals and spanners across the airport. IIt wasn’t the prettiest way to pack a bike. But for around a tenner you can buy a bike bag from Wiggle, take your pedals off, turn your handlebars, be very polite to the airline staff, present them with your ‘gig’ plane ticket and you’re away…to Ibiza.