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Uncut NOVEMBER 2024 - by Peter Watts

ART DECADES

David Bowie's friend George Underwood talks about their lifelong bond and his new Bowie-inspired artwork in aid of War Child

In 1994, David Bowie was one of several musicians who donated artwork to Little Pieces From A Big Star, an auction created by Brian Eno to raise money for the War Child charity. So when Bowie's lifelong friend George Underwood was invited to contribute to War Child's latest art auction, Sound & Vision, he didn't need to think twice - particularly as the theme of the exhibition was Bowie's lyric, "We like dancing and we look divine".

"I took a detail of two figures dancing from a painting I did in 2010 called Dancing With Giants," explains Underwood. "I then put them in new outfits inspired by David's show at the Rainbow in 1972, when the dancers wore bodysuits like cobwebs. David had introduced Ziggy to the UK and was about to go off to the US, so I was tipping my hat to an important moment in David's career."

The two men had been friends since school, despite the fight in which Underwood's haymaker left Bowie with a permanently dilated pupil. Their closeness can be seen in this intimate photograph, taken around New Year's Eve 1988 at Bowie's Mustique home. Bowie had invited the Underwoods on holiday as he pondered his next career move. "David was sort of in-between projects but there was always something ticking away," says Underwood. "I remember he was working on choreography, so there were obviously some plans."

Underwood's friendship with Bowie saw him travel to America with Ziggy Stardust, and he remained in contact right until Bowie's death in 2016: "I never worried I'd lose him as a friend but I was worried the business might eat him up for a period in the 1970s, and it almost did. Fortunately, there were people around to help, and soon he was back to normal. That was the only time I was worried that the adulation would kill him. We didn't have many bad times. David wanted somebody around who wasn't in the business who could be a companion. When he sings, 'I am stuck with a valuable friend' in Ashes To Ashes, I often wonder if maybe he was talking about me."

Catch the Sound & Vision exhibition at 180 The Strand on September 26-27; the auction runs from September 17 to October 1 at theauctioncollective.com

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