David Bowie has announced the release of a bootleg recording of the Ziggy Stardust tour from 1972 in Santa Monica USA.

The album will be called simply David Bowie Live at Santa Monica ‘72 and will be released on June 30th.

One of many ‘personas’ introduced by Bowie over the years, Ziggy remains a firm favourite with most fans. Listening to the album recently, it has lost none of its edge and is probably the definitive concept album, charting the rise and fall of a rock and roll star and based loosely on Bowie’s good friend Marc Bolan of T Rex.

Bowie says of the recording, “I can tell that I’m totally into being Ziggy by this stage of our touring. It’s no longer an act; I am him. This would be around the tenth American show for us and you can hear that we are all pretty high on ourselves. We train wreck a couple of things, I miss some words and sometimes you wouldn’t know that pianist Mike Garson was onstage with us but overall I really treasure this bootleg. Mick Ronson is at his blistering best.”

Whether this will appeal to the legions of Bowie fans remains to be seen, it is after all 36 years old and most fans will already own the original studio album, but if it keeps him away from Tin Machine then its ok by me.