The Mick Ronson Story: Turn and Face the Strange

Theater director Creed (Turning the Tide) and teacher Burnett (Mrs. Ockleton’s Rainbow Kite and Other Tales) draw on their multimedia show, Turn and Face the Strange, to chronicle guitarist Mick Ronson’s life in this occasionally revelatory, though more often plodding, biography. Starting with Ronson’s childhood in Hull, England, the authors trace how he developed a passion for guitar and played in the band The Rats as guitarist from 1966 to 1970. It wasn’t until he met David Bowie, however, that Ronson’s talents reached their “full potential,” and after he joined Bowie’s backing band, the 1972 release of the chart-topping The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars put him “firmly on the map as Bowie’s essential sideman.” When Bowie disbanded the Spiders in 1973, Ronson floundered; he recorded semisuccessful solo albums in a “more traditional guitar-based rock and roll” style, but felt lost absent the camaraderie of a band, going on to play with Mott the Hoople and other artists for the next 20 years, before dying in 1993 of liver cancer. While there are some bright moments buried in this examination of the guitarist who gave Bowie’s music its glittering sound, the glacial narrative will test the patience of all but the most devoted Ronsonites. This is informative, but not much more.(May)