Bowie drummer Woodmansey's autobiography to Pan Mac

Pan Macmillan has acquired the autobiography of English rock drummer Woody Woodmansey, to tell the story of what it was really like to be in the band that made Ziggy Stardust. 

World English rights were bought from Matthew Hamilton at Aitken Alexander to publish in the UK with Sidgwick & Jackson in October 2016 and simultaneously in the US with St Martin’s Press. 

Spider From Mars: My Life with Bowie recalls Woodmansey’s experience of London’s burgeoning glam rock scene and of Bowie while playing as his drummer on four seminal albums: The Man Who Sold The World, Hunky Dory, The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars and Aladdin Sane. He also appeared on two live albums, Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture and Santa Monica ’72.  The candid memoir talks about the characters who surrounded Bowie, the album sessions and provides behind-the-scenes moments with one of the world’s most iconic singers.

Editorial director Ingrid Connell said: "This is an insightful, funny, poignant memoir that lovingly evokes a seminal moment in music history and pays tribute to David Bowie, one of the most outstanding and innovative talents of our time."

Woodmansey said: "Fans have been asking me for years if I ever planned to write a book about my time as David Bowie’s drummer in the legendary Spiders From Mars. Sadly, my lifelong friends Mick Ronson, Trevor Bolder and of course David himself are no longer around to tell the story of what it was really like to be in the band that made Ziggy Stardust and what have become regarded as great, boundary-breaking albums of the early Seventies. As I'm now the last man standing, if ever that story is to be told, it has to be me who tells it.

"In September 2014, I joined forces with music journalist Joel McIver and we began work on my book. I've tried my best to reveal what David was really like, both on and off stage; what it was like to come from a Yorkshire town to the most avant-garde art scene in the world; how we toured America, with all the excesses that rock'n'roll could possibly offer; what it was like to be on the receiving end of the tidal wave of hysteria that surrounded Bowie, Angie, Iggy, Lou Reed;  what it was like to meet people like McCartney, Elton John and Jagger; and how David and I parted, coming back together as friends once the wounds were healed.

"David's death in January brought a great poignancy to the writing of this story, which I hope pays the best tribute to him by revealing him exactly as he was. Being a Yorkshire man I can only tell it like it was, and this book is as it was."