In August 1972, the 25-year-old David Bowie performed two nights as Ziggy Stardust — his androgynous alien persona — at the Rainbow Theater, in what came to be known as the most extravagant rock show ever produced in Britain.
Clouds of dry ice billowed through a multilevel set coated in sawdust. The Astronettes, a quartet of mimes led by the British choreographer Lindsay Kemp, twirled in fishnet stockings draped over their bodies to resemble spider webs.
“We had to negotiate and perform on the most terrifyingly high ladders and scaffolding,” Annie Stainer, who was a mime in the troupe, recalled. “At one point, someone actually believed I was a mechanical doll who was operated by remote control!”
The show’s avant-garde, highly stylized flamboyance had detractors. Among Mr. Bowie’s musical peers, Elton John called it “too camp,” and Bryan Ferry dismissed it as “rather embarrassing.”
Chris Welch, writing in the influential British music magazine Melody Maker, was more encouraging: “Whether all this folderol can survive the summer remains to be seen, but by God it has brought a little glamour into all our lives, and Amen to that.”
The spectacle helped elevate Mr. Bowie to stardom. And for Ms. Stainer, a dynamically lyrical mime, clown and dancer who called the concert “ludicrously ahead of its time,” being recruited by Mr. Bowie’s wife, Angela, to be part of the Rainbow event was “the greatest thrill of all.”
Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
Already a subscriber? Log in.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
The post Annie Stainer, 79, Dies; Enigmatic Mime Who Performed With David Bowie appeared first on New York Times.