The Spiders from Mars
Encyclopedia
The Spiders from Mars were rock singer David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...

 (Ziggy Stardust)'s backing band in the early 1970s, and consisted of Mick Ronson
Mick Ronson
Michael "Mick" Ronson was an English guitarist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, arranger and producer. He is best known for his work with David Bowie, as one of The Spiders from Mars...

 on guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

s, Trevor Bolder
Trevor Bolder
Trevor Bolder is an English rock bassist, musician, songwriter and record producer. He is best known for his long association with Uriah Heep and his tenure with The Spiders From Mars, the one-time backing band for David Bowie, although he has played alongside a variety of musicians since the...

 on bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

, and Mick Woodmansey
Mick Woodmansey
Mick 'Woody' Woodmansey is an English rock drummer from Driffield, Yorkshire, best known for his work with David Bowie and the Spiders from Mars...

 on drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....

.

The group had its origins in Bowie's earlier backing outfit The Hype, which featured Ronson and Woodmansey but Tony Visconti
Tony Visconti
Anthony Edward Visconti is an American record producer and sometimes a musician or singer.Since the late 1960s, he has worked with an array of performers; his lengthiest involvement with any artist is with David Bowie: intermittently from Bowie's 1969 album Space Oddity to 2003's Reality, Visconti...

 on bass. They were briefly signed as a band on its own known as Ronno. With Bolder taking over bass, they were subsequently named via the landmark 1972 Bowie concept album
Concept album
In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...

 The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars is a 1972 concept album by English musician David Bowie, which is loosely based on a story of a rock star named Ziggy Stardust. It peaked at number five in the United Kingdom and number 75 in the United States on the Billboard Music...

and were billed as such on the accompanying large-scale Ziggy Stardust Tour
Ziggy Stardust Tour
The Ziggy Stardust Tour was a concert tour by David Bowie in United Kingdom, North America, and Japan in 1972-73, to promote the studio albums Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane.-The band:*David Bowie - vocals, guitar, harmonica...

. They were present again on Bowie's 1973 album Aladdin Sane
Aladdin Sane
Aladdin Sane is the sixth album by David Bowie, released by RCA Records in 1973 . The follow-up to his breakthrough The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, it was the first album Bowie wrote and released as a bona fide rock star...

. Another leg of the tour followed that year, with the final show captured in the film Ziggy Stardust – The Motion Picture.

The group joined Bowie in the theatrical style of the material's presentation. Ronson's guitar and arranging during the Spiders from Mars era not only fit into this style but also provided much of the underpinning for later punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

 musicians.

In 1975, the line-up of Trevor Bolder
Trevor Bolder
Trevor Bolder is an English rock bassist, musician, songwriter and record producer. He is best known for his long association with Uriah Heep and his tenure with The Spiders From Mars, the one-time backing band for David Bowie, although he has played alongside a variety of musicians since the...

, Mick Woodmansey
Mick Woodmansey
Mick 'Woody' Woodmansey is an English rock drummer from Driffield, Yorkshire, best known for his work with David Bowie and the Spiders from Mars...

 and Mike Garson
Mike Garson
Mike Garson is an American pianist, most notable for his work with David Bowie, Nine Inch Nails, Billy Corgan, Free Flight, and The Smashing Pumpkins.- Early career :...

with Dave Black and Pete McDonald taking over for Bowie and Ronson, reunited. Their self-titled album released in 1976 and was their only album before the group disbanded.
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