MOONAGE DAYDREAMING – MICK RONSON’S ZIGGY STARDUST GUITAR!

 Madeline holding the 1968 Les Paulby Madeline Bocaro

The most important guitar in the world resides just one hour away from my home – in Connecticut. The one that played all my favourite songs – the one that reverberates through the decades, through the galaxies and beyond. Sonic sweetness, sorcery and simplicity emanated from its body and infamous face. Mick Ronson’s 1968 Les Paul Custom was in my own humble hands. I could certainly feel his sweet vibes, his greatness and his gentle soul.




My friend Gilly (of Weird & Gilly) from Cleveland was in town to work on a new chapter for the 2nd printing of their Mick Ronson biography,mickronson-book The Spider With the Platinum Hair. I had the pleasure of assisting with her research!

The Ziggy guitar was originally a Black Beauty. Ronno had the paint stripped around 1969 before leaving his band from Hull, The Rats to join David Bowie on a journey that would make history. A fellow musician suggested that the guitar’s high end might sound better if it could breathe, so off came the paint, and Mick had the only Les Paul around with its natural wood exposed. The wood grain eventually became the ‘fingerprints’ that helped identify and locate the guitar years later.

The public first heard it on ‘The Width of a Circle’ during Bowie’s February 1970 session on John Peel’s BBC radio show, and it rocked on The Man Who Sold the World album when Mick became Bowie’s permanent sidekick on the next four albums. Ronson’s guitar graced Hunky DoryThe Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, Aladdin Sane and Pin Ups with power chords, pop perfection and eloquently streamlined solos.

As I held Mick’s precious guitar, I could hear it singing. All my favourite songs played through my mind; ‘Moonage Daydream’, ‘Queen Bitch’, ‘Ziggy Stardust’, ‘Suffragette City’, Lou Reed’s ‘Vicious’ from Transformer, and from Aladdin Sane ‘Watch That Man’, ‘Panic In Detroit’, ‘Time’, ‘Cracked Actor’, all the cover songs on Bowie’s Pin Ups album, masterpieces from Mick’s solo albums ‘Slaughter on 10th Avenue’, ‘I’m The One/Pleasure Man’, ‘Play Don’t Worry’, ‘Angel No. 9’, Mott The Hoople’s ‘Saturday Gigs’, and ‘Lounge Lizzard’ from Ian Hunter’s 1975 solo album ‘Once Bitten Twice Shy’, and ‘Boy’… This wonderful instrument created it all!!! I could picture Mick holding it out to hundreds of outstretched hands in the infamous photos of the Ziggy live gigs.

The Ziggy Stardust guitar was rescued from oblivion by one of Mick’s biggest fans, guitar dealer Rick Tedesco. He located it at the Hard Rock Café in Australia. Mick had donated it to the Hard Rock in the late 80s, signed, “I’m still rockin’ – Mick Ronson”. Rick made them an offer they couldn’t refuse, and he now owns and protects the treasured guitar at his home in Connecticut, after spending 2 years on loan at Cleveland’s Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame. I love Rick’s story of finding the UPS package leaning against his house in the shape of a guitar, knowing of the treasure that was inside. Rick opened the package at his parents’ house, in the very room where he first saw Ronno live on TV as a teenager – a broadcast of the Ziggy’s 1973 Hammersmith farewell gig. He said it was a really emotional experience.




Thanks to Rick for the visitation rights, and for a lovely afternoon!