"I never wanted to be just the bass player, plonking away. I played a lot of notes – too many sometimes!" Trevor Bolder and the low-end magic of David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust

David Bowie: The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars (1972) sleeve

It wasn’t the biggest-selling album of David Bowie’s career but The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars is the album that thrust him into the public’s consciousness, broke him in America and heralded the arrival of a new artistic force on a global scale. People are still talking about it today: To mark the 50th anniversary of the Spiders' final gig in July 1973, Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars: The Motion Picture, the classic concert movie by D.A. Pennebaker has been digitally restored and is being re-released in US cinemas throughout July. 

The album itself was released in June 1972 and reached number 5 in the UK and a lowly number 75 in the US – but went on to sell in excess of 7.5 million copies.