Costume designed by Freddie Burretti for David Bowie, right (Image: Handout)
Lengendary music icon David Bowie is to tour the UK once again… this time from beyond the grave. Over 100 highlights from the V&A’s David Bowie archive will go on show in Dundee, Blackpool, Hull, County Durham, Bristol and beyond from November, it was confirmed this week.
They include costumes, instruments, handwritten notes, lyrics, polaroids and performance notes from Bowie’s final albums, The Next Day and Blackstar. Many of the items have never been displayed before, including Bowie’s childhood saxophone and his house keys to his Berlin apartment.
“The demand to see the archive, which is made up of over 90,000 items, has been huge and the exhibition in London has been wildly successful,” says Harriet Reed, contemporary performance curator at the V&A and curator of David Bowie: On Tour of its cultural importance. “The intention was always though to provide the widest possible access to the greatest number of people. We have been entrusted to look after his legacy and that means connecting with as many people as possible from hardcore fans to younger people who may not be as familiar with his work.”
The V&A’s David Bowie: On Tour is the only opportunity to see a range of items from Bowie’s personal archive up close and the carefully curated objects give a rare glimpse into how the Heroes shaped his iconic image, music, video, TV and film work. “None of the items going on tour have been displayed in London before,” continues Harriet.
Bowie’s storyboard sketch for his ‘Ashes to Ashes’ music video (Image: PA)
Bowie’s acrylic Grafton Alto saxophone went on sale for next to nothing in the 1960s (Image: © Victoria and Albert Museum, London)
“They will have only ever been seen if someone requested to see them via the one-to-one online request service so Bowie fans outside of the capital are in for a real treat.”
She says her team have carefully selected the items they believe to be the most impactful as they attempt to cover half a century of music history. Among one of the most priceless items to go on show is a Jumbo Harptone acoustic guitar that Bowie played on the Ziggy Stardust tour and which features in the Space Oddity music video.
“The item is exceptionally valuable – the most valuable item on the tour – and is of huge cultural significance,” says Harriet.
But perhaps what is more poignant is the singer’s Grafton Aldo saxophone from 1961. “David’s father gave him the saxophone for Christmas when he was 14,” Harriet explains. “It was made of acrylic so not the best sound and later David upgraded it to a Ben Alto but it shows the encouragement of his father and Bowie’s first engagement with an instrument that was to feature throughout his career. In his early days with The Konrads he played saxophone. He holds one on the cover of Pin-Ups and then at the end on Black Star there is a saxophone.”
Bowie joined the south London-based group The Konrads in June 1962 aged 15, performing mainly as their saxophonist while still using his birth name, David Jones. The tour takes fans from these musical beginnings through to his final and extremely poignant last record, Blackstar. It was released on January 8, 2016, also his 69th birthday, just two days before his death from liver cancer, which the private star had quietly hid from his fans for 18 months.
Harriet believes archive material from Blackstar including handwritten lyrics, scribbles and sketches, will be particularly important to his fans. “Understanding Bowie in those final months of his life when he was examining his own mortality are important to his diehard fans,” she says. “There is an element of decoding fans enjoy and that is the beauty of Bowie to those who know his work well and also for those who don’t. He is always open to new interpretations.”
David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust-era acoustic guitar in part of the UK tour. (Image: PA)
Another highlight of the tour is the iconic Ashes to Ashes Pierrot clown costume.“Bowie is still in his avant-garde period after his time in Berlin and before the more commercial Serious Moonlight album,” explains Harriet.
“The Ashes to Ashes video is a nod to his past history with the dancer and mime artist Lindsay Kemp and it also features the Blitz kids, highlighting Bowie’s influence on the emerging New Romanic movement.”
Meanwhile items from the the Serious Moonlight era include Bowie’s handwritten lyrics to the hit single Modern Love from that album and a model of the set design for the tour. “Again here was Bowie leading the way with huge conceptual stadium tour sets,” says Harriet.
Museum bosses from around the UK welcoming the tour to their doors are equally excited. Chairman of the Blackpool Heritage and Museum Trust, which operates Showtown, Spencer Phillips, said: “This is a hugely significant announcement for Showtown and for Blackpool as we celebrate the 60th anniversary of David Bowie’s live performance in the resort.
“This exciting new collaboration with the V&A offers North West visitors an extraordinary chance to experience the genius of Bowie and his incredible creative legacy.”
Cllr Jackie Dad, deputy leader of Hull City Council added: “It is incredibly exciting to announce that in 2028, the Ferens Art Gallery will host David Bowie. Hull has a legendary connection to David Bowie through the incomparable Mick Ronson and the Spiders from Mars, and the mark they left on music history.”
David Bowie’s passport issued in 1988 is one of the many personal items in the exhibition (Image: PA)
The opening section of the touring exhibition, Bowie Through a Lens, will explore how photography shaped Bowie’s image and identity, featuring work by Terry O’Neill, Mick Rock, Sukita, Brian Ward and more.
The second section, All the Somebody People, focuses on Bowie onstage and in the studio across four defining eras, revealing how he continually reinvented his sound and personas from Ziggy Stardust, the Berlin years, Let’s Dance and finally Black Star.
The third section, Hooked to the Silver Screen, reveals Bowie’s groundbreaking performances on screen and how pushed the boundaries with his approach to music videos films and television roles, and unexpected cameos.
There is even a script for an episode of The Simpsons that Bowie politely declined.
The final section, I Can’t Give Everything Away, explores Bowie’s interest in time, documenting his process and legacy.
The items and personal possessions that Bowie chose to keep in his archive are revealing, showing a creative mind constantly thinking about the next project including the stopwatch used when songwriting to maximise his time.Then there are the endless to-do lists of a man who couldn’t stop working.
Another of these personal items is his British passport from 1988 covered in stamps from his travels. In the distinguishing marks section his famous different coloured iris is noted.
“David Bowie must be the only person on earth never to have taken a bad photo,” Harriet laughed. “Even in his passport photo he looks great.”
* David Bowie: On Tour will travel to venues across the UK. Confirmed dates and locations include the V&A Dundee (November 2026 – February 2027), Blackpool (June – September 2027), the Bowes Museum in County Durham (October 2027–January 2028), the Ferens Art Gallery in Hull (February – May 2028), and Bristol Museum and Art Gallery (June – September 2028). Further venues will be announced in due course. For tickets, visit www.vam.ac.uk/dundee/whatson/