I awoke on the 10th January 2016 ready to open my birthday messages but was instead stunned to hear the news that David Bowie had passed away.

As the news sunk in and I listened to Blackstar & Lazarus from the album that had just been released, tears filled my eyes.

These songs from the grave were released just after Bowie had drawn his last breath. He knew he was dying and his final works reflected that. Genius to the end.

A year later to the day, I made a day trip to Berlin to visit the flat that Bowie had shared with Iggy Pop during the time that he recorded three albums, Low, Heroes & Lodger, labeled the Berlin trilogy. It was my way of paying homage.

8th January 2022 would have been Bowie’s 75th birthday and to mark the occasion a pop up retail outlet & exhibition has opened at 14 Heddon Street in London (with another in New York’s SOHO where Bowie lived). Heddon Street is the very spot where the album cover for inspirational Ziggy Stardust was shot.

The exhibition itself is small – a discography wall, some photos & prints and words about Bowie’s artistic collaborations.

Downstairs you enter a small room with quadrophonic speakers where you can listen & watch wall to wall Bowie. I lingered for 30-minutes to take in some live concert footage.

Back upstairs it was all about retail with every Bowie work available on CD & vinyl, alongside all sorts of memorabilia & garments.

The venue is open until 23rd January and is definitely worth a look if you happen to be visiting London’s West End. See Bowie 75 for details.

Finally, you are able to type a message to be sent to the great man in the stars.

I wrote – ‘I did not realise how much you meant to me until you were gone. Genius.’