David Bowie was engaged on a secret undertaking on the time of his demise in 2016, as reported by the BBC. ‘The Spectator’ was envisaged by Bowie to be an “18th Century Musical” based mostly on the day by day periodical of the identical identify, printed by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele in London from 1711 to 1712.
A collection of post-it notes regarding the plot of ‘The Spectator’ had been left caught to the wall of Bowie’s examine in New York. The room was at all times locked – solely Bowie and his private assistant had a key – so the undertaking remained unknown to anybody else till archivists started cataloguing Bowie’s belongings.
The post-it notes will now be obtainable for public view when the David Bowie Centre opens on the V&A East Storehouse in London’s Hackney Wick on September 13, together with a pocket book of feedback on The Spectator, and the desk the place he labored.
Bowie’s notes recommend that he was trying to incorporate actual characters from early 18th century London into the plot of his musical, akin to infamous thief ‘Trustworthy Jack’ Sheppard and his capturer Jonathan Wild – a vigilante who styled himself because the ‘Thief-Taker Common’ – as nicely a gang referred to as The Mohocks.
“He was within the improvement of musicals themselves in London on this interval, and the way musicals had been used for political satire, notably in the direction of the Robert Walpole authorities,” says Madeleine Haddon, curator of the David Bowie Archive.
“It’s fascinating to assume that Bowie was engaged on this within the US in 2015, with the political state of affairs that was happening there. Was he enthusiastic about that: The ability of artwork kinds to create change inside our personal political second?”
The David Bowie Archive opens on the V&A East Storehouse on September 13 with round 200 objects on public show and others obtainable to view on request by making use of upfront right here.
