“He knew one day someone would come and look through this stuff. They’re not objects for veneration to be kept in a box”: Rare footage of Bowie from 1978 to be included in new ‘immersive’ show…
A new immersive experience celebrating David Bowie is set to open in London this spring — and it includes long-rumoured footage many fans assumed was gone forever.
Titled David Bowie: You’re Not Alone, the production launches in April at Lightroom in King’s Cross. Among its highlights is newly restored film of Bowie performing “Heroes” at Earl’s Court in 1978 — reels that were recently rediscovered in his personal archive.
The exhibition promises an expansive look at Bowie’s imagination and artistry, drawing on landmark performances, seldom-seen interviews, and previously unexhibited material. Organised into looping thematic chapters rather than a straightforward timeline, it explores key ideas that shaped his work, including theatricality, spirituality, songwriting, and creativity as a transformative force.
Producer Mark Grimmer, who also worked on the acclaimed David Bowie Is exhibition that toured globally from 2013 to 2018, described the recovered Earl’s Court footage as a “holy grail.”
“Fans haven’t seen this before,” he said. “The quality is incredible, and Bowie was at the absolute peak of his powers. We realised we just needed to step aside and let the performance speak.”
The show unfolds across a three-storey space, with floor-to-ceiling projections on all four walls and an enveloping spatial audio system designed to place visitors inside the moment. According to Lightroom’s executive producer David Sabel, the effect is far from conventional. “It’s not linear,” he explained. “It’s three-dimensional. You feel like you’re standing in the crowd in 1978.”
Much of the material has been sourced from the Victoria and Albert Museum’s Bowie archive, which opened to the public last year, alongside items preserved in the singer’s New York collection. As Grimmer put it simply: “He kept everything.”