IN the week that he died, here’s a remarkable piece of David Bowie memorabilia – a telegram sent to him when he was appearing in Sunderland on his Ziggy Stardust tour in 1972. It was sent to him, perhaps by his manager Tony DeFries, to say the song he had written and produced, All the Young Dudes, for Mott the Hoople had gone to No 3 in the charts.

The telegram is owned by Christine Goring, from Eighton Banks, Gateshead, who in 1972 was an 18-year-old HR assistant at the Washington production site run by Bowie’s record label, RCA.

Bowie visited the factory during the Ziggy Stardust tour where Christine – who was then a Horsley – was briefly introduced to him. Days later, on September 5, she was at the very front of the audience as Bowie performed at the Top Rank, in Sunderland’s Park Lane.

Towards the end of the set, she caught the singer’s eye and was amazed when he came to the edge of the stage to speak to her.

“The Top Rank was one of those intimate venues where the audience was right on top of the stage,” she recalls. “He said he recognised me, but I never got the chance to find out whether he meant from the RCA visit or because I’d been to just about every concert he’d played in the North-East, normally right at the front.

“Then he mentioned that he’d just received a telegram about All The Young Dudes and asked if I would like it as a keepsake. Needless to say, I said yes.

“He was such a lovely man. His death was an absolute bombshell… it left me numb when I heard.”

Christine, who now lives in West Sussex and works in the City, says her favourite Bowie song remains Soul Love on the Ziggy Stardust album.