Daniella Parmar and David Bowie at the Blitz Club, London, 1979

It was my early London days around 1979 and there was a club called Blitz where all the Neo Romantics and punks would meet. They would come from all over England, all dressed up, because Steve Strange, whose club it was, would not let them in unless they had style, panache, whatever. Anyway, one day Steven called me at home and said, ‘David Bowie's coming in tonight. I want you to be the only photographer upstairs with him.’ I think, shit, David Bowie. Okay. So, I get all dressed up and go, and I'm upstairs and I checked the camera. There's no film in it. Oh my God I forgot the film, I was so nervous to meet David Bowie. So, my friend runs out down to Piccadilly to buy some film at the chemist, comes back, I load the film, and while I'm loading the film, Bowie walks in and sits at the couch opposite me. So I load and just raise the camera and take a photo. He looks at me and beckons me over and says, ‘Don't you know it's impolite not to ask someone before you take their photograph?’ So, I'm sort of shaking in my boots and said, ‘Oh, look, I'm really sorry, Mr. Bowie, the flash just went off.’ And then I look at him and really sheepishly and say, ‘Can I please take another one?’ And he smiles and says, ‘Of course.’