Ive heralded Bowie as a devine being numerous times on this forum. Also, his appearance in the video for 'John, I'm Only Dancing'' is one of popular music's sexiest moments. Wish I had as much magnetism at this awkward, gawky, teenage juncture.

I quite like some of his early stuff. But his music in general doesn't really excite me. And the fact that Jonathan Ross won't stop going on about him is one of the reasons that I no longer listen to his radio show.

and though it might mark me out as a heretic, I still can't get into Hunky Dory, although Changes, Life on Mars and Quicksand are good...

.....because (snip) He invented glam, popularised electro, krautrock and ambient with Eno, gave Iggy the kiss of life, brought a theatrical flourish to live work and er.. influenced Gary Numan. (snip).

Truthfully I quite like the odd track. And he's a clever chap, pinching other people's ideas and marketing them as his own. But not at all my bag. I realise I'm probably in the minority here but people's devotion to him mystifies me.

That was the advertising for "Heroes" in 1977. And it encapsulates the way Bowie was perceived at the time - one of the very few artists to straddle (and rise above) that 'year zero' environment.

Four albums in that period - Low, "Heroes", The Idiot and Lust For Life added depth and texture to the three-chord thrash that was going on elsewhere.

I have already bored you all with the story of how Bowie's appearance performing 'Starman' on 'Lift Off With Ayshea' was a life-changing experience for me, and with 'Young Americans' and 'Station to Station' he was one of the influences that opened my eyes to the joy and beauty of soul music.

Starting with Ziggy, I worked backwards to The Man Who Sold The World via Hunky Dory, and forwards as far as Scary Monsters...

We then pretty much parted company around 'Let's Dance', but if anyone provided the soundtrack to my teenage years, it was David Bowie.

Currently reading the excellent Bowie biog "Strange Fascination" which reminded me just how good he was in the seventies and how much ground he covered - folk, hard rock, glam pop, "plastic soul", ambient etc - and indeed how he practically invented some of these genres(admittedly with the help of a few well-chosen friends). Also dug out Aladdin Sane for first time in years - amazed at how fresh it still sounds. Unfortunately it also reminded me how spectacularly he lost it, round about the "Tonight" album onwards. I pretty much gave up on him after "Black Tie White Noise", so can't say if his more recent stuff is any good. Anyone care to speak out in favour of Bowie's work over the last decade or so?

Love the pre-Berlin Mick Ronson era: Hunky Dory, Ziggy, Aladin Sane. Not much interest after that apart from the odd great song like Heroes, Ashes To Ashes and (probably deeply uncool to like it but I do) Absolute Beginners. Generally a good thing though and seems like good chap. He can be a bit pretentious and ridiculous, but then again he did the intro to The Snowman video and was the best celebrity guest in Extras.

On the Ziggy Stardust tour he was staying at the George hotel in Liverpool. His stay coincided with one of my sisters' confirmation and we, and a few others who were getting confirmed, went for this posh celebration lunch at the same hotel. We didn't get to see David Bowie but we did, via the hotel staff, get the autographs of both him and the rest of the Spiders on the back of our menus. There were loads of fans outside the hotel and Angie Bowie, who looked quite like him, was used as a decoy for David while he slipped out the back. I swapped the autograph a few days later for a football. I shudder to think what it's worth on e-bay. Bloody sight more than a long-since-lost Wembley Trophy I imagine.

...own almost every album he's put out. Always worth listening to him as you never quite know what you'll get. I can even find something to redeem 'Never Let Me Down' (which I think has some great stuff on the first side, let down by a truly appalling, overcooked 80s production job). I do enjoy 'Let's Dance' quite a bit as a pop album, and think 'Ricochet' is a really good track let down by an awkward arrangement.

David Buckley's book is fantastic. As for his recent stuff, check out 'Heathen' first, which for my money has some of his best material ever- love 'Sunday', 'Slip Away', 'Slow Burn', 'Everyone Says Hi' and 'A Better Future' in particular. That soundtrack to 'Buddha Of Suburbia' really surprised me when I finally got to hear it, as well.

'Outside' is overlong, I feel, but some of it really is fantastic- 'The Motel', 'Hallo Spaceboy', 'I Have Not Been To Oxford Town' etc. 'Earthling' is another good album- much maligned for the jungle/drum and bass elements which I could personally have done without too, but the quality of the songs is generally high.

'Hours' and 'Reality' I find to be the patchier ones of his more recent albums, but again there are some very fine songs- 'Thursday's Child', 'Survive' and 'Seven' are particular favourites on the former, and with 'The Loneliest Guy', 'New Killer Star', 'Never Get Old' and 'Bring Me The Disco King' making it for me on the latter.

Bowie in particular who apart from having hot streak brighter than the tail of Halley's Comet during the seventies also jump started the stalled careers of Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, and cracked out 'The Idiot' and 'Lust For Life' as weekend pieces in less time than it takes to complete an Airfix model.

Rod Stewart
I don't care about his eighties then endless horrors. I'm just forever grateful for the Faces and those magic Mercury solo albums.

still sounds impossibly futuristic and out-there. It holds up so well, like it could have been released last week. For me, it is his finest moment.

Likewise, "Heroes", "Station To Station", "Hunky Dory" - all brilliant.

He was the man in the 1970s, no question. I love this clip...

But he's no Steve Harley

But contrary to popular opinion, Scary Monsters is crap, Let's Dance is brilliant, and the soundtrack to The Buddha is pretty good, but not a lost classic.

'reinvention' - sod Madonna and all those other people who try something different.

And even on Black Tie White Noise, he did that fantastic cover of I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday.

And, let's face it, there's not really any artist who has 'never' put a foot wrong, is there?

Surely one of the reasons why he is so venerated, and rightly so, is that in the early 70s he was a splash of garish theatrical light in the drabness of the times. All those prog rockers. All those stadium bands. And he was also the first rock star to declare himself bisexual, even if he didn't mean it. And he saved Iggy Pop from himself. He has made some poo. And fallen flat on his face. But you gotta admire him as although the past 20 years plus have been a bit tough muscially speaking for him, he still trys to push the boundaries forward.

Love the old changeling myself, I really wanted the Let's Dance yellow suit and hair when I was 15.
You can tell an artist with a huge career as I can split my partner and myself with regards to each of his albums....
all the 60s stuff - her the old hippy
Space Odyssey - her
Man Who Sold The World - her
Hunky Dory, Ziggy, Aladdin - me and her
Pin-Ups - her
Young Americans - me
Low, Heroes - me and her
Lodger - me
Scary Monsters - me and her
Let's Dance - me
Everything since, well then it gets a bit tricky as we don't actually own or have listened to properly...
Who else could you do this with? Beatles, Stones, The Who, REM, perhaps in our house.

...not only did he get a brick in the eye as a young 'un, recently he copped at lolly to the eye - and survived. There's not many who can say that.

In that he's spent most of the last 20 years desperately, *desperately* trying to get a hit of any kind while at the same time convincing everyone that he's fearlessly following his own muse.

"Bob Dylan has hardly done much of note since his motorbike accident".

Seriously?

Bowie WAS the 70s. Ziggy was extraordinary, it's roots in Chuck Berry's mythologizing of rock'n'roll (School Day, Johnny B Goode) and he carried on being untouchable…which made his fall from grace the more spectacular and unending. What happened? Go ask Mikhail Gorbachev about being historically necessary and important - and then your time is over. I tried buying Bowie's later LPs but long since gave up. To me he's never sounded really committed to playing the part since Scary Monsters - and I know his defence has been why should he continue to put himself through what he did to produce his 70s work. It's a time of life thing too, wild years are over, maybe best summed up by the bootlegged demo for It's No Game called Tired Of My Life: ‘which game can I not lose at, which can I bear?'

I was 12 when Let's Dance... and China girl came waving into focus.. Here was somebody I knew nothing about who looked STUNNING. I then embarked on something which I still do now to find out more... I work backwards and usually sideways as well. To which end not only did I discover the wealth of his 60's and 70's output but I was turned on to a host of other things a well... Iggy, Velvets and so on who in turn... well you get the picture. I still get a shiver up my spine when I here 'Rock and Roll Suicide' and 'Wild Is The Wind'. Despite being mostly disappointed with each subsequent 80's release I do have something of a soft spot for the much panned Tin Machine albums.

Having never seem him live I thought my luck was in when he was to headline T In The Park in 2004, only to be dashed at the last moment by Bowie's ill health. Never mind though The mighty(ahem)D******s stepped up to the plate... I heard rumours of bagpipes after I'd wisely gone off to see Muse instead.