0
0
The Issue That Belonged to David Bowie
Some artists got a mention. Some got an interview. David Bowie got an entire newspaper.
Issue #18 of Rock Around The World was built entirely around Bowie — 32 full pages, cover to back page, distributed to tens of thousands of readers across the RATW radio network. It’s one of only a handful of RATW newspaper issues dedicated to a single artist, and it captured Bowie at a fascinating creative turning point.
“Valentino Meets Camus”
The issue’s centerpiece profile, headlined “Valentino Meets Camus,” dug into Bowie’s shape-shifting persona — an artist as comfortable discussing existentialist philosophy as he was reinventing his image with every album. A companion piece, “The Ungloved Hand of David Bowie,” rounded out the coverage with a more personal look at the man behind the characters.
On the Air Too
Bowie wasn’t just a print subject — he made it onto RATW’s airwaves as well, discussed on Show #60 (September 28, 1975) alongside Rick Wakeman and Strawbs, and referenced again in a 1976 broadcast covering the British rock scene of the era.
He also turned up as a style reference point elsewhere in the archive — RATW’s newspaper used Bowie, alongside Kiss and Sha Na Na, as a touchstone in a 1976 feature on glam and theatrical rock fashion.
Browse the Full Issue
Every page of Bowie’s dedicated issue — including the original scanned artwork — is preserved in the RATW Newspaper Archive, part of the ongoing digitization of all 19 issues of the original 1970s publication.
Shop official Rock Around The World merchandise at the RATW Store, or explore more of the archive at rockaroundtheworld.com.
Rock Around The World aired weekly on more than 160 radio stations coast-to-coast from 1974 to 1980, pairing syndicated radio programming with a companion print newspaper.
