111. Creating Superstars: Geoffrey Marsh on David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane and Dave Robinson on Bob Marley’s Legend

Break Out Culture With Ed Vaizey by Country and Town House

We talk to Geoff Marsh, one of the curators of a new exhibition about the 1973 album Aladdin Sane and to Dave Robinson, aka ‘Robbo’, legendary co-founder of Stiff Records.

Geoff tells us how photographer, the late Brian Duffy, created the lightning flash image of David Bowie. That album cover has gone on to remain one of the world’s three most instantly recognisable images - the other two are John Pasche’s Hot Lips logo for the Rolling Stones and Hipgnosis’s cover for Dark Side of the Moon.

Aladdin Sane: 50 Years, which runs at Southbank until the 28th May, celebrates the anniversary of this important cultural icon. Accompanying the exhibition are talks, live music, two nights of joyous club music and poetry.

Meanwhile, Dave Robinson, who created hits for Madness, Tracey Ullman, Elvis Costello, Ian Drury, The Pogues and many more, regales us with tales of being in America as Jimi Hendrix’s tour manager and putting together Bob Marley’s greatest hits to create Legend, the best-selling reggae album of all time.

You can hear Dave telling his highly entertaining and improbable but true stories on his tour, We Came, We Saw, We Left – The Horse Speaks, which he’s taking around the country until 15th May.

An extraordinary opportunity to listen to this conversation about the music that has survived half a century and continues to influence and inspire millions worldwide.