David Bowie is getting a blue plaque. If you're not from or in the UK, you should know that a blue plaque is a big honour: basically if you are or were a person of note, the powers that be stick a circular blue sign on the outside of a building with importance in your life, commemorating your existence so that all the plebs who will never get their own blue plaques can go and have a look and remember how brilliant you were. Let me give you an example. The other day I walked past a blue plaque on the side of a building in central London which was a significant place in the life of literal Oscar Wilde. What I'm saying here is: if you get a blue plaque you're really out here playing with the big boys.It's no surprise then, really, that the life and times of David Bowie have been honoured with one of the blue totems. It'll be mounted at the site of Trident Studios in Soho, central London, where he recorded both Hunky Dory and The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust, and unveiled tomorrow (15 June), as part of the BBC's Music Day celebrations.Sometimes people go to visit blue plaques if they're especially into the person that the plaque is there to remember, and I'd imagine that the Bowie one will be well-attended. Bowie fans love going to visit stuff. They love going to see the Bowie mural in Brixton, and they even tried to install a giant lightning bolt/eyesore pretty much in the middle of the south London neighbourhood's high street in his memory. The lightning bolt, surprisingly enough, didn't go to plan, but the new blue plaque probably means that the many adoring fans who outlived the Thin White Duke will have somewhere to go and cry it out and play "Let's Dance" off their phones to the annoyance of the patrons of nearby coffee shops. Here's all the different kinds of Bowie fans you'll meet there should you go and have a look:Absolutely bloody love Bowie. Unparalleled genius they reckon. Saw him once in the 70s – fucking brilliant, music just isn't the same now, you kids with your phones and that. Your uncle got the Bowie stamp collection as a present from his work when he retired (really chuffed with it) and your dad likes doing "Life on Mars" on karaoke down the social club of a Friday, even though yes, it is seven years after the divorce now. They'll be down to pay their respects no bother.Unfortunately your step-dad has shown up at the Bowie plaque on the same day as your dad and uncle and things are a bit frosty (your mum's got a type). He's wearing a Bowie T-shirt he got from HMV (it's this one) and your dad's nodded curtly at him and they've quickly become embroiled in a point-scoring competition where they're both saying Bowie facts at each other as if to prove that one is the superior Bowie fan – nay, the superior man – while your uncle stands there checking the football scores on his phone.They've BOUGHT some floaty shirts from a vintage shop, they've RECENTLY discovered cocaine and holy FUCK do they love Bowie.They really liked David Bowie when they were younger and they've come down to London for the day to have a little look at the plaque and then maybe go for a Zizzi pasta and there is literally nothing snarky you can say about these angels.These are the people who will be playing "Let's Dance" off their phones.These are the people who will be wearing sensible shoes and backpacks on their front and ticking the Bowie plaque off their self-guided walking tour route.Probably on his knees, praying and giving thanks for his entire solo career.It'll probably be quite interesting, actually.Follow Lauren on Twitter.(Image via Wikimedia Commons)
Advertisement