Ziggy Stardust “died” seven months before I was born although his hair stayed atop David Bowie’s head up till mid-1974. In the 18 months of his existence it’s fair to say that his influence was pronounced (would Iggy And The The Stooges’ Raw Power or Lou Reed’s Transformer have seen the light of day without Ziggy boosting Bowie’s confidence?) but the main irritation with Simon Goddard’s book is his conceit, however tongue in cheek, that the Earth’s creation was geared solely to the later one of Ziggy. Lines such as “… the two greatest words in the history of pop music [Ziggy Stardust] …” and “… pop is at its most religiously intense when occupying the sacred fissure between longing and fulfilment …” pepper the prose throughout, albeit at least you know what the latter one’s getting at.