Peter and Silvia Bromby’s brief encounter with Mr Bowie came in the summer of 1997, as they drove along Cambridge Road.

“My wife recognised him right away, he was walking with two other fellows each carrying a brown bag from the MarketPlace,” said sailor Mr Bromby.

“I stopped my car and greeted him. He looked at us, smiled and replied with a good morning. Then I asked him if they needed a lift, we could help them, but he thanked me and said they were going very close so we wished them a good day and a happy stay in Bermuda and they all thanked us.

“I got the feeling that he was a very approachable person, very down to earth and of course my wife and I were very happy to have met him.”

Meanwhile, musician Milton Raposo recalled: “I wasn’t a Bowie fan until the Earthling album. After that I was hooked and only realised the immense range of his recorded output. When he lived here for that brief year, I remember seeing him when Pier Six had concerts by established artists in the downstairs space.

“He would come in and sit in the corner and just watch. Then he’d just leave halfway through the show. I also didn’t realise it but he was also recording here and I’d see him and his guitarist, Reeves Gabrels, walking around town. So exciting. The album Hours... was recorded in Somerset.”