The plaque unveiled to commemorate the 40th anniversary of an iconic rock album is in the wrong place, according a local musicologist.
Gary Kemp out of Spandau Ballet unveiled the plaque in Heddon St, London, where the cover photo for David Bowie's The Rise And Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars was reputedly taken.
Bowie is pictured leaning on the steps of a shop signed as K. West, but "Sniffy" Mention, the rock historian, of Lucknow Gardens, says the picture is a fake.
"Yeah. I remember it, all right. Dave and his manager come out to Chiswick and Dave's got this weird spaceman suit on and his guitar and he's leaning on the steps outside Chiswick Town Hall and his manager says 'hold it right there, Dave' and he takes his picture and he says 'that'l do for the new long player' and Dave says 'yeah, all right, that's the one. But when they went to the record company and they show them the picture some geezer at the company says 'Nah, it's like too establishment, y'know, a town hall and all that. How about this place downstairs? So they have a look downstairs at this shop's back door and they say 'yeah all right' so they cut Dave's picture out of the Chiswick shot and paste into a photo of street outside of K.West.
"How much are you paying for this interview?"
Sniffy also claims the cover of Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here, featuring the flaming man shaking hands with another man, was taken in the backyard of the Old Chiswick Cinema, Hotel California is actually a house on Chiswick Back Common, and Bruce Springsteen and Clarence Clemons were in local pub The Tabard Inn for their Born To Run sleeve photo.
"Yeah, they was all here man," he argues.
