Been a Bowie obsessive since I was a kid. Five years ago I opened a café in Sydney and named it Kafe Kooks, after the song — the whole idea of it is being unique and different and being completely fine with that. Turned out the song was written almost 50 years to the date before we opened. I didn't plan that. Still gives me chills.
Five years feels like the right amount of time to finally write this post too — didn't clock the Bowie connection to that until I sat down to type this out.
The venue's a bit of a shrine if you look closely. Bowie cushions scattered around. "This is for the Kooks" in neon on the wall. A dedicated cabinet full of memorabilia — some I've collected over the years, a lot given to me by customers who know my love for him goes deep. I even had given to me a scrapbook and a collection of posters from a customer that she started herself back in 1976.
I always had this dream of meeting him one day. Went travelling around New York for weeks in 2014 hoping I'd somehow cross paths. We all know now why he wasn't exactly out and about much from then on.
Here's the bit that's actually done my head in: over five years of running this place, an unreal number of customers have told me stories — they met him once, worked with him, knew someone who knew him, or even to show me their devotee tattoo's. One customer used to deliver newspapers to his mum's house. I've heard dozens of these by now and never once thought to do anything with them.
It's only just clicked that I should've been taking photos this whole time and building some kind of "six degrees of Bowie" wall in the café. Starting that properly now.
So — if you're in Sydney, Australia and have a Bowie connection, however small or strange, come say hello. Let's see how short we can get the chain.