David Bowie: The insurance industry reflects on the music legend

Here are some of the responses:

Jonathan Clark, global head of business solutions claims, Scor

We all seem to know that "Ziggy played guitar" - and I cannot think of any other song line that is so resonant.

Aged 16 I had loved Suffragette City and then listened to Aladdin Sane with great excitement as the Jean Genie blew out there. Years later my daughter is just 16 and you know what - she knows all this as well.

And finally, my favourite. In 1985 I was driving back through the night from Northern Italy to get the Calais ferry. On the car radio we were listening to live Aid and suddenly exhausted as I was I heard Dancing in the Street (not his greatest track) but a real lift as the journey went on.

Graham Coates, managing director, NAC

My most lasting memory of Bowie was seeing him live in Bridlington in 1973. The ticket was £2 and no, I didn't keep it and I don't know if he ever went back there.

I seem to remember that I liked [guitarist] Mick Ronson better than Bowie at the time. But my mate was a huge Bowie fan and dressed up like him - so getting on the bus with someone looking like that in Yorkshire in the 1970's was a bit challenging.

I also loved the way he took sounds from all sources: check out garage rock band Shadows of Knight's song Oh Yeah! What a great riff.

Marc Donfrancesco, head of public relations, Eversheds

Where do you start with Bowie, eh?

I saw him in '86 at Wembley and remember thinking the concert would need to be four hours long just to fit in all the favourites - what a catalogue, what a legacy. He was going through a theatrical troupe phase, whereas I wanted Thin White Duke. But his audience engagement was hugely impressive even in a tired stadium with poor sound.

I checked my iTunes stats and the two albums I have played the most are Hunky Dory and Next Day - over four decades apart! Creative talent like Bowie's is humbling enough as it is for the rest of us. It then becomes mind-blowing when you consider how few people and companies have reinvented continually and successfully for nearly five decades.

Adrian Furness, claims director, Covea Insurance

As a very young child his was the first record I bought - it was the Laughing Gnome but nevertheless my connection was made.

My first Stadium concert (I had seen lots of bands, but never Bowie) was the Glass Spider tour at Maine Road in Manchester and it truly was spectacular. He was my favourite solo artist and so influential. The Hunger was also one of my favourite films as a teenager.

Steve Hands, sales manager [and resident in-house Bowie obsessive], Incisive Media

Unbelievably to some at Post/ Incisive Media, I'm not actually old enough to have experienced Ziggy and the glorious RCA years first hand but became captivated by the post-Serious Moonlight period when all his old albums were reissued and in the charts simultaneously. However, I was fortunate enough to make the magical ‘Hammersmith Reunion' gig in 2002.

My eldest sister had a copy of Changesonebowie and played it a lot. In a way it set an impossible bar for musical discoveries to come, as no other artist would bring relatively obscure theories and musical formats into the mainstream without diluting the mood or power of source materials. And in such volume and variety.

For a long time, Bowie was the perfect pop star for a lot of people - a endlessly rewarding glamorous mirror for hopes and dreams. And yet despite all the changing of personalities and genres, he succeeded in reaching you on a personal level, possibly because he discovered that the use of masques, poses and nuance poked through the layers of condescension often typical of the less worldly singer / songwriter.

Don't rest in peace David. You wouldn't like it.

Best tunes: Can You Hear Me, Sweet Thing, Teenage Wildlife, Lady Grinning Soul, Life on Mars? (the list goes on).

Keith Hector, director of regional operations, Covea

Not being quite as ancient as Graham [Coates] I can't talk about wearing makeup on buses. Not until gothic punk Mk I came around that is. Bauhaus took me there so Bowie was to blame anyway.

I got my first record player for Christmas in 1975. A rather natty Fidelity mono thing with a tiny turntable.

To my immense displeasure my parents bought me a Showaddywaddy album, so I went out with my Christmas money and bought Space Oddity - which was re-released at the time - and played it constantly all over the Christmas holidays.

Ok, I lied about Showaddywaddy, I played them both in rotation.

Mark Huxley, executive director, Lamb

Treasured memory: Seeing Bowie as Ziggy for my 13th Birthday at the Romford Odeon on 22nd May 1973.

Treasured possession: Number one edition of his fan club magazine that the 13 year old me was a member of.

Favourite Album: Hunky Dory has stayed with most through my entire life so has to be that, with The Bewlay Brothers from it being my all-time favourite track. Utterly beautiful and unfathomable in equal measure, then and now.

John O'Roarke, managing director, general insurance, LV

Favourite songs: Drive-in Saturday and Lady Grinning Soul
Favourite collaboration: Lou Reed's album Transformer
Favourite obscurity: Heroes sung in German
Most underappreciated contribution to his success: Mick Ronson's guitar

Kevin Sinclair, group underwriting director, Coversure

The cliché about "soundtrack to your life" is sadly a true one. His career covers my entire music obsessed years and punctuates the record collection.
Greatest pleasure was getting to see him live once on the Glass Spiders tour. Greatest regret is that it wasn't the Ziggy, Serious Moonlight or pretty much any other tour!

Song for the desert island - Young Americans.

Paul Upton, chief executive, Evolution Underwriting

The first Bowie album I bought was Let's Dance in 1983 (I was 13) and I was struck listening to it again how - at a stroke - he basically defined the whole New Romantic thing and rendered the rest of it redundant with one record.

Working back from there discovering all the previous albums on vinyl was a musical journey as fascinating and enjoyable as any I have been on. A wonderful mixture - probably unmatched - of music that was both experimental and accessible.

On hearing of his death I immediately got stuck into [his last album] Black Star and have been listening to it ever since. What amazes about the record is that listening to it whilst reading the obituaries you hear the invention and subtlety that everyone is raving about - in a record released to mark his death almost 50 years after he broke through. Longevity and consistency of his output were incredible. What a stunning way to go.

Steve White, chief executive, British Insurance Brokers' Association

A unique artist in every sense, ahead of curve and ahead of his time. Someone who I never saw live and will always regret not having done so.
Musically, my favourite Bowie period was the 1970's. I especially loved Jean Genie, Life On Mars and his live version of Knock On Wood. Indeed, my all-time favourite Bowie track was written during the latter part of the decade when he lived in Berlin. Heroes was, is and will remain a three and a half minute musical masterpiece!

David Williams, technical director, Axa Insurance
Growing up I had posters on my bedroom wall of things like cars, rockets; not people. But the first poster I had of a person was a poster of the cover of Aladdin Sane.

I didn't even have the album at the time and didn't get it until much later. But that image, that person, [it was] just amazing and even when I discovered punk and thought all that had gone before it was bad and needed to be destroyed; that poster stayed proudly on my wall.

I couldn't really afford albums when I was at school, but I used to get singles cheap in Woolworths when they dropped out of the charts. Through this route I got Bowies Sound & Vision, but the track I played and played was the B Side, Speed of Life.

I still play it and love it now and know it now to be the first track off the album 'Low'. But at the time it was just so different to anything else I had heard and It really began my interest in electronic music.

Finally, I would mention that when Blackstar came out I downloaded it pretty much straight away without waiting to read any reviews or get anyone else's opinion.

It was a Bowie album and, therefore, if you were serious about music you just needed to hear: You wouldn't know what it would be like [in advance], but you just knew anything an artist like that produced would always be worth some of your time.

What memories do you have of David Bowie? If you want to share your favourite songs, gig memories or anything else, then please use the comment box below.