Changes 69
The photograph might have been intended as a record of the location, but the focus is on the ‘Changes 69’ poster advertising a show that had taken place two days earlier in Brighton Dome.
Headlined by Humble Pie, it might seem surprising that David Bowie was only third on the bill. At the time he was mainly known for Space Oddity, a hit single earlier that year. Released just a couple of weeks before the Apollo 11 moon landing, it was dismissed by some as a novelty record that would doom Bowie to be a one hit wonder.
Over the following decade David Bowie would become one of the most innovative and influential rock stars in the world, releasing a string of extraordinary albums such as Hunky Dory and Station to Station. But this photo is a reminder that few people could have forseen this in 1969 — or that he would be the subject of a major exhibition in Brighton Museum over fifty years later.
