Bowie, Cambo & All the Hype An Evening with John Cambridge. and his story with David Bowie
In conversation with John Cambridge and Garry Burnett with a Q & A session.
John Cambridge began his musical career in the Hull band, The Gonx before joining ABC, The Hullabaloos and The Rats with Mick Ronson. During the 1960s he supported and performed with some of the biggest names in the music business. He was invited to join Junior’s Eyes in 1969, a band led by Mick Wayne who had played on David Bowie’s first hit single ‘Space Oddity’. Junior’s Eyes subsequently became Bowie’s band and recorded the ‘Space Oddity’ album after which John toured and eventually moved in with him, Angie Bowie and Tony Visconti.
John then played in Bowie’s ground-breaking glam-rock band ‘Hype’ with Mick Ronson and Visconti, after John had introduced Mick to Bowie at Haddon Hall where they lived. His friendship with David Bowie lasted a lifetime and in 2021 John finally recorded his memoirs in ‘Bowie, Cambo & all the Hype’ which Garry Burnett has also adapted into a screenplay ‘An Occasional Dream’ (2025)
John has been a keynote speaker at The World Bowie Fan Convention, Liverpool, (2022), performed at The Beckenham Oddity (2022), appeared in sell-out shows at ‘The Edinburgh Fringe Festival’ (2023) and the East Riding Theatre (2023) with his highly successful and entertaining ‘Evening with John Cambridge.’
He has also been a star of the highly successful stage-show ‘Turn and Face the Strange’ which, since 2017 has sold out 5 runs at Hull Truck and Hull New Theatre and which attracted visitors from around the world, all keen to hear John’s stories. In 2024 John recorded an episode of BBC’s ‘The Repair Shop’ which has yet to be aired, featuring part of his costume from the Glam Rock gigs with Hype.
Garry Burnett has been a successful author, musician and public speaker for over thirty years. His publications include educational and parenting works, ‘Learning to Learn’ (2001) and ‘Thinking through Literature’ (2006), ‘Parents First’ (2004) and also children’s fiction: ‘Rainbow Kites’ (2007) and ‘The Positive Parrot’ series (2019), ‘Grandad’s Pies’ (2025) and ‘Nanny Storm’ (2025). In 2017 he co-wrote ‘Turn & Face the Strange’, the show and a biography of guitarist Mick Ronson, ‘The Mick Ronson Story’ (2022) with Rupert Creed.
He recently collaborated with John Cambridge on his memoirs ‘Bowie Cambo & All the Hype’ (2021) and together they developed a successful show ‘An Evening with John Cambridge’, which they performed together at The David Bowie World Fan Convention, Liverpool, The Edinburgh Fringe Festival and in various theatres around the UK.
Garry has also adapted John’s story into a screenplay ‘An Occasional Dream’ (2025)
