David Bowie was a man of innumerable talents, but one of his greatest abilities was to cherry-pick brilliant, often unknown musicians who would help realise his musical vision at any given time.
The Thin White Duke had an especially great track record with guitarists. Bowie’s early partnership with Mick Ronson helped propel the singer to stardom after several false starts, and he went on to fruitful creative relationships with a stellar array of six-stringers from Carlos Alomar, Earl Slick and Stevie Ray Vaughan to King Crimson’s Robert Fripp, Chic’s Nile Rodgers and Reeves Gabrels.
Not everyone who entered Bowie’s orbit stayed there long. Occasionally, the singer need the help of a musician at the last minute and if his regular collaborator at the time wasn’t available, he put in a call to whoever he could.
One of these people was Brian ‘Robbo’ Robertson. The Scottish guitarist had spent the second half of the 1970s as a member of Thin Lizzy, but by 1979 his time in the band was over due to his increasingly fractious relationship with Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott.
But Robbo had an admirer in Tony Visconti, who had produced Lizzy’s 1977 album Bad Reputation as well as many of Bowie’s biggest records. And when the singer needed a guitarist to re-record a solo for a 1979 TV appearance, it was Robbo that Visconti suggested.
In a 2012 interview with Classic Rock, Robbo recalled his very brief time in Bowie’s company.
“Bowie was appearing on [British TV comedy programme] The Kenny Everett Show, and that involved him having to record a new version of [1979 single] Boys Keep Swinging,” recalled Robbo.
“I was in the middle of a Lizzy tour, but I got the call from Tony Visconti asking if I could play the guitar solo, I wasn’t going to miss that. I’d been a big Bowie and Mick Ronson fan since I was a kid.”
Robbo told Visconti that he’d do it. “Tony sent me a cassette of the original Boys Keep Swinging and it had this crazy lead guitar stuff by [then-Bowie collaborator] Adrian Belew, all these weird noises. I thought, ‘Fuck! I can’t do that.’
“But I went down to Good Earth studios with a Strat and a bottle of Courvoisier. David and Tony were sat behind the mixing desk.
“I was just getting my sound when David shouted: ‘Okay, done!” I was like: ‘But I haven’t actually started yet...’”
Happy with Robertson's ad-hoc but accidentally perfect contribution, Visconti fleshed out the final recording. Keyboards came from Sean Mayes, whose band Fumble had supported Bowie on the Ziggy Stardust tour.
Former Hawkwind man Simon House added violin, session musos Andy Duncan and Ricky Hitchcock provided drums and guitar, and the producer himself played the bass.
A video was filmed the following day, Bowie dragging on a cigarette throughout, and the finished segment was broadcast on April 23.
Robertson's non-solo-solo was officially released in 2019, when the Kenny Everett version of Boys Keep Swinging was released as a 7" picture disc to celebrate its 40th anniversary.
Robertson went on to form Wild Horses with ex-Rainbow bassist Jimmy Bain, before famously going on to spend an ill-fated, one-album stint in Motörhead for 1983’s Another Perfect Day – becoming the only guitarist to have played with David Bowie and Lemmy.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
