Bowie broke up The Spiders from Mars in 1973. By then, Ronson was a highly respected musician in his own right and had co-produced and played on Lou Reed’s influential album Transformer.
Suzi Ronson says: “I was heartbroken when they broke up, but my story didn’t end there, it ended up with me and Mick and our fabulous time together.”
Ronson went on to work with the likes of Bob Dylan and Morrissey while also recording several solo albums. He died of cancer in 1993 aged just 46.
Rupert Creed co-wrote Turn and Face the Strange, a stage show about Ronson and Bowie, with Garry Burnett.
“It was really the Spiders from Mars that cemented the sound of David Bowie,” he says.
“Hull at the end of the line often gets overlooked and actually the whole element in David Bowie’s success really shouldn’t be underestimated.”
The David Bowie exhibition, curated by the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum as part of a national tour, has brought together 100 highlights from Bowie’s archive, many that have never been on public display. It will open at V&A Dundee on 4 November.
It will run at the Ferens, in Hull, from February to May 2028.
Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North.