Page "David Bowie" Paragraph 8

Bowie studied art, music, and design, including layout and typesetting.

After Terry Burns, his half-brother, introduced him to modern jazz, his enthusiasm for players like Charles Mingus and John Coltrane led his mother to give him a plastic alto saxophone in 1961 ; he was soon receiving lessons from a local musician.

Bowie received a serious injury at school in 1962 when his friend George Underwood punched him in the left eye during a fight over a girl.

Doctors feared he would become blind in that eye.

After a series of operations during a four-month hospitalisation, his doctors determined that the damage could not be fully repaired and Bowie was left with faulty depth perception and a permanently dilated pupil.

The latter condition has misled some to believe that Bowie has different coloured eyes, when in reality both irises are the same blue colour.

Despite their altercation, Underwood and Bowie remained good friends, and Underwood went on to create the artwork for Bowie's early albums.