David Bowie exhibition at London museum draws record ticket sales

A costume is seen at the VIP reception for the "David Bowie Is" exhibition at the V&A Museum in London on March 20, 2013. / AP

An exhibition devoted to singer David Bowie has brought in record ticket sales for London's Victoria and Albert Museum.

The museum says the retrospective is the fastest-selling show in its history -- 50,000 advance tickets have been sold for "David Bowie Is," which opens on Saturday.

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David Bowie on display in London

The exhibition brings together more than 300 objects, including sheet music, lyrics, videos, instruments and extravagant costumes, many from Bowie's personal archive.

It charts the career of the musical chameleon, who was born David Jones in London in 1947 and went on to create outlandish personas including alien rock star Ziggy Stardust.

This is the first time the museum has devoted a show to a pop star, but co-curator Victoria Broackes said Wednesday that "Bowie is no ordinary pop star." She says: "He has seeped into every area of our culture."

The "David Bowie Is" exhibit can be seen at the museum through Aug. 11.

[faschuman]

His first single "Where Are We Now" was cryptic. Was he literally showing us that the bottle is empty?

This is my interpretation: https://sites.google.com/site/fasmusicvideowherearewenow/

[dejahthoris2]

Whoever set this up sadly did not even bother to pose or put any effort into the 1980 Floor Show costumes. Maybe they hired a 20 something who has never seen the show let alone is a Bowie fan to pose those mannequins, or maybe they do not realize what a ground breaking performance that was. And any naysayers to my comment have not seen it, or are not Bowie fans, or both.