Although it’s probably not very well known, the late rock star David Bowie had a connection to Cyprus in the early seventies as his first wife Mary Angela Barnett was born in Ayios Dhometios in Nicosia on September 25, 1949 of English and Polish descent and with American citizenship. Angela Barnett’s father was a mining engineer and ran a mill for Cyprus Mines Corporation (CMC). Her mother was Helena Maria Galas. She was educated in Cyprus and Switzerland and the UK.
She met David Bowie in London in 1969, at the age of 19 and they were married a year later, had a son a year after that and divorced in 1980.
In 1950, Angie Barnett with her family moved to the US briefly and returned to Cyprus four years later and even after moving to the UK, she was a regular visitor to the island until 1974 and was on one of the last planes out of Nicosia airport during the Turkish invasion. In an article in 2000, entitled "Land of Passion", she said: I remember staying at the Ledra Palace hotel waiting for a seat to get out in 1974. I remember making love, it was dusk and then I had to go to the airport. We kissed our childhood goodbye. I have never been back. But now after writing this, I want to go back. I just can’t go as a tourist. I want to see my house and the places where I played. I don’t think they are there any more. So maybe one day, when I am content with lying on the beach, I’ll go visit the jewel of the Med. ‘Visit’ not ‘go home’”.
The Bowie’s had holidayed in Xeros and Kyrenia (
https://goo.gl/maps/k39aZTu9T28MfCEW6) in 1972, according to her account. “My then husband, David Bowie and I rented a villa and vacationed with the band in Kyrenia. David was very taken with the island. The first time I went back to Cyprus with him and our son, he drove me to Lefkara (
https://goo.gl/maps/Fh8XH4LWCnad7ThWA) and bought beautiful hand-made lace for our dining room table and for the vanity in the bedroom. He was very sweet.”
Bowie’s acquaintance with Cyprus is reflected in one of his earlier songs, Move on, from Lodger, the 1979 travelogue that made up the third and final part of the Bowie/Eno/Visconti triumvirate’s triptych of late ’70s albums.
“Cyprus is my island
When the going’s rough
I would love to find you
Somewhere in a place like that”
