Bum Cleavage and TfL

I couldn't believe it when I was told today that Transport for London had banned a poster for the play  'My Night With Reg' for a bit of bum cleavage. Really? So I had to look it up and here's the offending image.

'My Night With Reg' has just opened at the Apollo Theatre and I'm seeing it next week (I saw it's run at the Donmar last year and am going back for more).  The poster is of Lewis Reeves who plays the painter-cum-barman in the play who Julian Ovenden tries to seduce in the later stages of the play (and we see a lot more of Mr Ovenden).

OK, there's some bum cleavage in the poster but we've all got a bum and we all know what bums look like so what's the problem? It's not as if it's sexualised in some way (unlike many posters of scantily clad and suggestive images of women). Apparently, the version of the poster that's been approved has the 'Ziggy Stardust' album cover slightly further back to cover the bum entirely. Does that make it a bit more suggestive?

At least it's nice to know that Transport for London appears to have no problem with male nudity by allowing these posters for Bulk Powders with the hashtag #revealyourself. The man in question is clearly naked but his crotch is pixelated and there's a man and a woman looking at him askance as he gets off the train. But is there any real difference between the two posters? Which one - if either - is more sexualised or suggestive?

I find the #revealyourself poster more irritating by imposing an image of 'male perfection' on tube travellers, the vast majority of whom share little with the model used in the poster (I speak from personal experience here). A hairless musculature that bears little resemblance to most men probably isn't a good look or a good message in overall health terms.

This Sunday also appears to be the annual 'take your trousers off on the tube' day which TfL does nothing to stop. If you take your trousers off then you're supposed to wear underpants of whatever sort you prefer so long as they're not too tight or revealing. It's odd what turns up when you search for a poster being used on the tube network. It's also odd to think about who makes decisions on images on the tube network.

Anyway I'm looking forward to seeing 'My Night With Reg' next week - it's what the term 'bittersweet' was invented for and will have special meaning to anyone who lived through the '80s. I did.

Trevor Bolder and The Spiders From Mars

The sad news tonight is that Trevor Bolder has died. He did lots in the musical world but will always be remembered for his work with the Spiders From Mars. He had the ridiculously long side-burns and was on Top Of The Pops that fateful night when David Bowie introduced us to Ziggy Stardust and 'Starman'. That one performance burned him into our memories.

Farewell Trevor, you are - and will always be - part of history.

David Bowie is - The Victoria & Albert Museum

I went to see the 'David Bowie is' exhibition at the V&A yesterday and am jolly pleased I did. Anyone around my age will remember Mr Bowie from the early '70s, that alien life-form that appeared on Top of the Pops as Ziggy Stardust in 1972 singing about the 'Starman' who thought he'd blow our minds. Too late, Ziggy, you did and they stayed blown. And what a thrill it was to see your Ziggy suit in the flesh (so to speak) on a mannequin point out of the glass case at me.

The V&A exhibition is based on David's archives, his costumes and clothes over the last 40 years, hand-written lyrics, videos and memorabilia like his coke spoon and Berlin flat keys. It's a multimedia experience with touch and smell being the only senses denied. a giant video screen fills the wall of the penultimate room and that plays the 'lost' extended recording of 'The Jean Genie' from Top of the Pops all those years ago, David 100 feet tall and glorious in his electric power.

You don't get a ticket to the show, you get a sound recording to hang around your neck and earphones to listen to it all. I can see it, a sound n vision experience, I have a loathing for the audio-guide things so hung it round my neck and ignored it. I don't care what some anonymous voice is going to tell me, I want to see David's stuff. So I skipped the queue waiting to look in the peep holes at the start of the exhibition and threw myself into it properly.

It opens with David in the late '60s, his first attempts to be a pop star, the scene setting covers of books and records, most of which I by-passed and headed straight into the '70s and things I could recognise and that meant something to me. And there he was, Ziggy suit on a mannequin pointing at me, just as he'd done on Top of the Pops when he sang, 'So I picked on you-ou-ou' and pointed into the camera.  That's when the alien landed and he wasn't going to leave us alone. Ever.

Photographs, mannequins in costumes, hand-written lyrics with crossings out and replacement words, video screens, notes about recording sessions, photos I've never seen, notes from others to David (such as a note from Jim Henson about the early script for 'Labyrinth') and a wonderful host of other things. Different versions of the cover for the latest album, 'The Next Day' including one based on the 'Aladdin Sane' album cover. Stage sets for various tours, tour costumes and suits worn off stage.

Favourites were his Ziggy suit (of course), his distressed 'Earthling' Union Jack coat and his brocade McQueen frock coats, the lyrics to 'Starman', the contact sheet for the 'Diamond Dogs' photoshoot, his pierrot costume for 'Ashes To Ashes', the Berlin room and the enormous video wall. The astonishing thing is the attention to detail for everything over the last 40 years. Such a mind that could encompass it all, understand it all and link it all. And make it reality.

It's an excellent exhibition and I'd encourage everyone to go to it. Bowie has been in our lives forever and influenced virtually everybody in one way or another. The only downside to the exhibition is that the first series of rooms are so small that they get terribly crowded, particularly with people queueing to look through the peepholes (I didn't bother). The lighting could also be set to brighter in a few places. But, on the whole, it's an exciting experience and you'd do well to see it while you can.

Y'know what? David Bowie is.