📰 Burretti with Arnold Corns – Article (UK) : Apr 1971

David Bowie’s Burretti with Arnold Corns appeared as a one‑page article in Melody Maker on April 17, 1971, spotlighting Bowie’s early collaboration with designer and performer Freddie Burretti under the Arnold Corns project. The piece captured the embryonic stages of the Ziggy aesthetic, highlighting Burretti’s stylistic influence and the project’s role as a creative testing ground for Bowie’s soon‑to‑emerge glam‑era identity.

This was one of Bowie's side projects and served as a preliminary version for Ziggy Stardust. The band was formed at Dulwich College, and Bowie agreed to write for them. Simultaneously, he also agreed to write for the 19-year-old designer Freddie Burretti (born Frederick Burrett, also known as Rudi Valentino). Bowie conceived the idea of merging Burretti with Arnold Corns, and with assistance from Mick Ronson, Mick Woodmansey, and Trevor Bolder, a revamped version of Arnold Corns was established in the spring of 1971. Bowie was composing material that would later become part of Hunky Dory, as well as songs intended for Burretti, with Oliver Abraham briefly credited for assisting with most of the songs. Burretti as the frontman was entirely a fabrication.