A phone call from David Bowie changed Woody Woodmansey's life. Turning down a well-paid factory job, the twenty-year-old drummer from Driffield took a huge leap of faith and joined Bowie's band, embarking on the adventure of a lifetime.

In this candid memoir, Woody describes the Spiders' early years when money was so tight that the band - Woody, Mick Ronson, Tony Visconti and, later, Trevor Bolder - all lived in Bowie's flat. He takes us through the period of intense creativity as they recorded The Man Who Sold the World, Hunky Dory, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars and Aladdin Sane, and reveals how Bowie transformed them from down-to-earth Yorkshiremen to velour-clad rock gods while bringing the legendary red-haired Ziggy Stardust to life. They went from playing to forty people in a pub to performing in front of thousands of screaming fans in Britain, the US and Japan. Yet achieving their dream came at a price.

Insightful and poignant, Spider from Mars lovingly evokes a seminal moment in music history and pays tribute to one of the most outstanding and innovative talents of our time.