googled: the gig my mum wouldn't let me go to was Friday 15 June 1973..

so I was 14 and my pocket money either 25p or 40p a week [can't remember when it was raised].

The ticket price may have been as much as £1.50 !!!!!

The search turned up something really touchingly nostalgic
considering how monumentally special an event this gig was for me & all my schoolmates...
Btw.. I wasn't one of the boys who got sent to the headmaster's office for getting a neon red dyed Bowie haircut....

Please forgive this lengthy copy n paste from www.somersetcountygazette.co.uk....

"MUSIC legend David Bowie, who has died aged 69 from cancer, performed two concerts in the former Odeon, on Corporation Street, Taunton, on June 15, 1973.

Julie Booth - who was only 14 at the time - was among the audience.

Here's her story of the best day of her life.



"My best friend Nicola and I couldn't believe our luck - our idol David Bowie was in Taunton and we were going to see him.

"We had tickets for the second performance. I was going to stay at Nicola's that night and her parents were going to pick us up after the concert.



"It was fantastic, better than we ever imagined.

"When the concert was over we ran outside to the back of the building hoping to get a glimpse of him, unaware that the band had left before we even got out of the main doors.

"There was a huge crowd and Nicola and I were standing apart from the rest.

"A coach pulled up and a girl stuck her head put of the door and asked us if we wanted to meet David and the band. Did we?!!

"'Yes'," we screamed. 'No!' shouted Nicola's mother, who unbeknown to us had come up behind us and heard everything.

"The bus pulled off, Nicola went mad at her mother, I was shell-shocked.

"The argument with Nicola and her mum ended with her mum saying, 'Well you ask your father, he'll say the same'.

"We ran like hell to the car park where Nicola's dad was waiting. He'd seen nothing of what had gone on.

"We yelled at him, 'Can we meet David/?' 'Well, yes but….'

"We didn't want to hear any more, we were running hell for leather after the bus. We caught it up banged on the door, it opened and we leapt on!

"The bus was full of Bowie fans, it drove to the County Hotel - (now Marks & Spencer in East Street) - and we were all shown into a function room.

"We were told David and the band would be down after they'd eaten.

"We were so excited, we couldn't believe it, it was like a dream.

"Another message came down, David and the band would be down in ten minutes. We were beside ourselves, then disaster struck!

"Off in the distance we could hear a woman's angry voice - 'I don't care who he is, my daughter and her friend are in there. My daughter is 15 and her friend is only 14 and what's more, I'm responsible for both of them!'

"The colour drained from our faces, I went cold, it was Nicola's mum, she'd followed us.

"She burst into the room with the hotel manager running behind her. She sat down next to us telling everyone she wasn't leaving without us.

"We weren't leaving without seeing David. So she stayed.

"Just then a noise at the door alerted us to the arrival of David and the band.

"The whole room fell silent. All the Bowie fans were tongue-tied; we all just sat and stared - all except Nicolas mum.

"She started to talk to David Bowie, it seemed they both came from the same area of London, and they both knew some of the same people, they chatted for ages and ages!

"Then it was autograph time and we were out of the door and into the storm that was Nicola's mum!

"We suffered a severe tongue-lashing and Nicola was grounded for ages, but we both agreed it was worth it, after all, it was the best day of our lives!

"Oh yes, Nicolas mum enjoyed it too. She spent the next few weeks telling everyone she had met David Bowie!

"I often wonder if David Bowie ever remembered the day he met Nicola's mum." "

My mum is 83, all she'd talk about on the phone today ws how sad the news was about David Bowie..
I didn't remind her of how strict she was and how badly she spoiled my entire summer of 73....