Tony Visconti & Woody Woodmansey: The Making of David Bowie’s The Man Who Sold The World

Legendary producer and musician Tony Visconti and iconic drummer Woody Woodmansey discuss the making of David Bowie’s seminal 1970 album The Man Who Sold the World.

Tony Visconti is one of the most celebrated and respected record producers of the last 40 years. He has produced David Bowie, T-Rex, Thin Lizzy, Sparks, Morrissey, Hazel O’Connor and many others.

Woody Woodmansey worked with David Bowie from 1970 to 1973, playing on some of his best albums: The Man Who Sold The World, Hunky Dory, The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders Form Mars and Aladdin Sane.

The Man Who Sold The World album was a creative turning point for David Bowie. His career to that date was characterised by artistic inconsistency as he strove to find a successful formula on which to hang his emerging talent. The Man Who Sold The World is a coherent, conceptually continuous piece of work and the start of a 10 year period in which Bowie released an unbroken series of epochal albums. The late Mick Ronson (guitar), Tony Visconti (bass) and Woody Woodmansey (drums) formed a powerful and experimental band that helped to forge Bowie’s new sound on The Man Who Sold The World.

Tony Visconti and Woody Woodmansey will discuss the creative process of making the album, from the song development through to recording and mixing. Combining innovative production techniques and futuristic synth sounds with a hard/prog rock format, the album has been hugely influential to subsequent generations of musicians including Kurt Cobain.

'The Man Who Sold the World became the blueprint for the rest of David’s career. Virtually everything he’s done since, you can trace back to something on that album. I've since rarely played anything as ambitious and demanding as the music of that great batch of songs conceived by David Bowie. With Woody Woodmansey and Mick Ronson – two of the finest musicians I've had the pleasure of recording and playing with – we set out to create something new and classic.' - Tony Visconti

'This was the album that showed Bowie trying out things and finding his direction. The Man Who Sold the World was his first step into rock'n'roll'. - Woody Woodmansey

Tony Visconti and Woody Woodmansey will be talking to Tom Wilcox, a Director at London’s ICA, joined by a number of music industry guests and media representatives.

Excerpts from the album will be played as part of the talk. Tony and Woody will be available for a book/record signing immediately prior to the event. The Q&A starts at 7:30pm so please arrive early to avoid disappointment!

Tony Visconti, Woody Woodmansey, Glenn Gregory, Steve Norman and Holy Holy are performing the entire The Man Who Sold The World album at O2 ABC Glasgow on Saturday September 20th - tickets available here

Tony Visconti, Woody Woodmansey, Glenn Gregory, Steve Norman and Holy Holy new double A side picture disc vinyl single, 'We Are King / Holy Holy' is released on Monday 15th September on Maniac Squat Records. Available at the talk, Amazon and digital download. Vinyl copy: limited edition of 999.

A CCA, AMG and Maniac Squat Records event.