Missed the boat or got off

[FlyingPig]

Hello,
I've always wondered, with such looks and voice, how come he didn't capitalize on this in the 80's, as Bowie did for example.
So maybe he had some sort of early enlightenment and didn't want to be part of the Pop circus.
Nowadays, I understand more why he might have skipped that opportunity.
I read the members of Japan also feel they missed an opportunity at financial independence.

I wonder what Bowie would be today if it'd done the same.

P.

[Barbierian]

I think you've put forward a very interesting topic and points that I've pondered too over the years.

My own feeling is that stardom always meant little if nothing to David and still doesn't. He has always valued the appreciation of his artistry above all else and the freedom to express it in the way that comes natural to him and preferably without the constraints of the music industry. I actually believe that he found the whole process of the media attention/fan adulation in the Japan years physically painful and prolonging it/capitalizing on it further would have felt like selling himself very short. Financially, well that's different - I mean we all need to earn a living and possibly he felt that as long as he could live fairly comfortably but more importantly continue doing what he wanted with as much independence as possible, then that would be sufficient. He's never struck me as someone who craves great material wealth, quite the opposite in fact. I also think that David never had a doubt that he would be ok after Japan.

Regarding the other members, I have to say that I always felt deeply for them with it finishing too soon and I can understand if it is true that they feel they may have been better placed financially if it had continued for a couple of years longer, afterall the band were at their pinnacle when it folded but it surely must have been quite an uncertain period - I'd love to ask them that. Our boys were/are so outstandingly talented and greatly respected within the music world and we were never going to see them on the "where are they now" type TV programmes - the ones were such-and-such-a-body now works as a plumber for Lewisham council or what's-his-name is a hospital porter - God forbid.