Guitar legend Jeff Beck is one of our elusive eleven. He’s bottom centre on the photo, squeezing between his, then, girlfriend, Celia Hammond and Lulu.
There is absolutely no doubt that he was at the party, but Jeff Beck’s links to David Bowie don’t begin at the Café Royal.
This is the last show, we’ll ever do…
The night before, the 3rd July 1973 at the Hammersmith Odeon, just before Ziggy took his last curtain-call, Jeff Beck was brought on as a “special guest”. At the time, this was a rare move for Bowie but they ripped through a sensational version of The Jean Genie and pacy cover of Round and Round by Chuck Berry. These songs were removed from D.A Pennebaker’s documentary/movie at Beck’s request, but bootleg footage found it’s way back to YouTube.
So the story goes, Jeff Beck appeared on stage as a treat, from David, to Mick Ronson as Beck was Ronno’s hero. Ironically, in the 1996 BBC documentary, Dancing in the Streets, Bowie says:
When I first heard (Ronson) play. I thought, “That’s my Jeff Beck!” And so I sort of hoodwinked him into working with me.
It seems that Beck was displeased about his footware. In a 2014 interview with
I remember they were filming, and the cameras panned in on my wah-wah pedal during The Jean Genie and I was wearing these dirty white platform shoes. I went ballistic when they said they were using me in the film, so I refused to sign the release. Bowie goes: “Oh, you might as well agree, they’re already showing a bootleg version at the Triple XXX theatres on 42nd Street, and you didn’t look any dafter than me.” In the end I agreed.
The word from Jeff Beck
Anyway. I managed to get a message to Jeff Beck through his PR agent and I’m delighted to report, he don’t know who Mr X. is.
