📰Life’s a Cabaret - Article: Mar. 1977
- David Bowie
- Mar 5, 1977
- 4 min read
Updated: Mar 5
Writer: Allan Jones
Photography: Barry Plummer
Date: March 5, 1977
Length: 4 min read
A vivid, theatrical Melody Maker feature capturing Angie Bowie’s cabaret performance at the Webbington Hotel and Country Club — a surreal, decadent, and knowingly outrageous night in Somerset’s most unlikely entertainment palace.
A neon‑lit Somerset fever dream where Angie Bowie turns cabaret into performance art.
Melody Maker’s report frames the Webbington as a bizarre, Bavarian‑fantasy “Nitespot of the West,” and Angie Bowie as its most flamboyant visiting star — a performer who blends glamour, parody, and provocation into a show that feels part cabaret, part satire, part spectacle.
📰 Key Highlights
• One‑page feature in Melody Maker, March 5, 1977
• Review of Angie Bowie’s cabaret performance with the Soul House Company
• Set at the Webbington Hotel & Country Club, Somerset
• Described as a surreal, theatrical, and eccentric night of entertainment
• Commentary on Angie’s persona, stagecraft, and audience interaction
• References to her West End success and promotional billing
• Includes photography by Barry Plummer
• Article written by Allan Jones
📰 Overview
By 1977, Angie Bowie had become a figure of fascination — part fashion icon, part provocateur, part performer. Melody Maker’s feature places her in a setting as eccentric as her reputation: the Webbington Hotel and Country Club, perched dramatically above a Somerset valley and marketed as the “Nitespot of the West.”
The article blends travelogue, satire, and performance review. The Webbington is described as a surreal pleasure‑palace, its décor and promotional materials bordering on the absurd. Into this environment steps Angie Bowie, fronting the Soul House Company, bringing a theatrical cabaret show that mixes glamour, humour, and self‑aware spectacle.
The feature emphasises Angie’s charisma, her androgynous styling, and her ability to command a room — even one as strange as the Webbington’s cabaret hall.
📰 Source Details
Publication / Venue: Melody Maker
Date: March 5, 1977
Format: One‑page feature with photography
Provenance Notes: Sourced from original print scans; includes full article text and performance images.
📰 The Story
The article opens with a cinematic description of the journey to the Webbington — narrow lanes, a desolate Weston‑super‑Mare behind, and the hotel looming like a neon‑lit castle. The writer compares it to something designed by Ludwig II of Bavaria, setting the tone for a night of theatrical excess.
Inside, the venue’s posters and brochures present Angie Bowie and her co‑star Roy Martin in a stylised, sensual embrace — a promotional image that signals the show’s blend of glamour and provocation.
Angie is billed as:
“The sensational wife of international star David Bowie… an experience not to be missed.”
The performance itself is described as a mixture of cabaret, parody, and theatrical flair. Angie’s persona is bold, knowing, and playful — a performer who leans into the absurdity of the setting while delivering a show that is part satire, part spectacle.
The Soul House Company supports her with choreography, character work, and musical interludes. The audience, a mix of locals and curious onlookers, responds with fascination and bemusement.
The article closes with the sense that Angie Bowie has turned an unlikely Somerset nightclub into a stage for her own brand of theatrical reinvention.
📰 Visual Archive
Angie Bowie performing with the Soul House Company at the Webbington Hotel — Melody Maker, March 5, 1977.
📰 Related Material
• Angie Bowie – West End Performances (1976–77)
• Soul House Company – Touring Productions
• Melody Maker – Cabaret & Theatre Features (1970s)
📰 Closing Notes
This Melody Maker feature captures Angie Bowie at her most theatrical — a performer who thrives on spectacle, reinvention, and the strange electricity of unlikely stages.
📰 Sources
• Melody Maker, March 5, 1977 – feature article
• Contemporary theatre and cabaret documentation
• Minimal provenance references from collector archives
📝 Copyright Notice
All magazine scans, photographs, and original text excerpts referenced in this entry remain the property of their respective copyright holders. This Chronicle entry is a transformative, non‑commercial archival summary created for historical documentation and educational reference. No ownership of the original material is claimed or implied.
"Weston-super-Mare, desolate in its Sunday stupor, lingers some six miles behind us. Ahead of us, hanging like a neon bat from the precipitous far wall of this Somerset valley, is the Webbington, the self-proclaimed NITESPOT OF THE WEST! Oh boy.
It strikes me, as the imposing facade of the hotel becomes clearer, that it might have been designed as a palace of entertainment by Ludwig II of Bavaria, the lunatic homo-sexual architect of fantastic castles.
I'm told that the Webbington is the hottest pit for miles, attracting a fanatical local audience for its varied and wonderful entertainments. Future attractions at the venue include such international favourites (wait for it) as JESS CONRAD - pop star and entertainer, one of the recording 66 successes of recent years! "; IAN KENT "the lad to set you laughing!"; LYNN SHARON "vocal charm and talent!"; and NORMA LEON Sounds groovy, eh? 66 a songstress with style!"
And there's more to come. Examine the posters and publicity shots decorating the walls of the hotel lobby under the sign that proclaims the current attraction. Snatch an eyeful of the cover of that advertising brochure. There's this couple locked in a curious embrace. She has a leg cocked over his shoulder. He's fondling her foot. He has the android features of Jack Lord. She looks fashionably androgynous. His name is Roy Mar-tin. She's Angie Bowie.
It's true. Believe me.
Listen to this: "Following her West End theatre suc-cess, the sensational wife of international star David Bowie brings the Soul House Company to the Webbington Country Club for their first appearance in the provinces. An experience not to be missed! "
So that's why we're here. Now on with the show."
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