09
Unrealised Projects
Bowie worked on many creative projects, some of which remained unfinished or were never realised. While reworking old ideas and trying out new ones, Bowie blurred the lines of music and performance, producing for films, musicals and other theatrical productions.
Attempts to adapt the dystopian novel ‘1984’ became fuel for characters in an unrealised film called ‘Diamond Dogs’, while ‘Leon’ was dreamed up as a large-scale live show with accompanying CD-ROM and film. Bowie never stopped crafting new stories, even if they remained unfinished.
Written by: Ben Selig, Assistant Curator of V&A East
Published: September 2025
- Reference Code
- DBA/TEMP/187
- Title/Description
- Diamond Dogs Film, Handwritten Notes and Drawing
- Archive Department
- Theatre and Performance
- Date
- 1974
- Materials/Techniques
- Handwritten notes and drawing by David Bowie created as part of the Diamond Dogs Film Project. The drawing was created using marker on paper. The project was never fully realised, but features similar themes and motifs referenced in the 1974 album Diamond Dogs, which Bowie was working on at the same time as this film project.
- Reference Code
- DBA/TEMP/188
- Title/Description
- Diamond Dogs Film, Drawing
- Archive Department
- Theatre and Performance
- Date
- 1974
- Materials/Techniques
- Drawing by David Bowie created as part of the Diamond Dogs Film Project. The drawing uses various colours of marker pen ink, and reads "Halloween Jack SKATES INTO TOWN" and "JACK MEETS MR CHARGE". The project was never fully realised, but features similar themes and motifs referenced in the 1974 album Diamond Dogs, which Bowie was working on at the same time as this film project.
- Reference Code
- DBA/TEMP/189
- Title/Description
- Diamond Dogs Film, Drawing
- Archive Department
- Theatre and Performance
- Date
- 1974
- Materials/Techniques
- Drawing by David Bowie created as part of the Diamond Dogs Film Project. The drawing uses various colours of marker pen ink and water colours, and depicts a group of people roller-skating through some streets. The project was never fully realised, but features similar themes and motifs referenced in the 1974 album Diamond Dogs album, which Bowie was working on at the same time as this film project.
- Reference Code
- DBA/TEMP/190
- Title/Description
- Diamond Dogs Film, Storyboard Drawing
- Archive Department
- Theatre and Performance
- Date
- 1974
- Materials/Techniques
- Drawing by David Bowie created as part of the Diamond Dogs Film Project. The drawing is slide number 36 of a storyboard, and features a person's face with accompanying text reading "IT IS HARPIE!". The project was never fully realised, but features similar themes and motifs referenced in the 1974 album <i>Diamond Dogs</i>, which Bowie was working on at the same time as this film project.
- Reference Code
- DBA/TEMP/191
- Title/Description
- Diamond Dogs Film, Cut-Out Drawing
- Archive Department
- Theatre and Performance
- Date
- 1974
- Materials/Techniques
- Drawing by David Bowie created as part of the Diamond Dogs Film Project. The drawing was created using marker pen on paper, and is a cut-out drawing depicting a face wearing a large hat. The project was never fully realised, but features similar themes and motifs referenced in the 1974 album Diamond Dogs, which Bowie was working on at the same time as this film project.
- Reference Code
- DBA/TEMP/192
- Title/Description
- Diamond Dogs Film, Cut-Out Drawing of Charge
- Archive Department
- Theatre and Performance
- Date
- 1974
- Materials/Techniques
- Drawing by David Bowie created as part of the Diamond Dogs Film Project. The drawing was created using marker pen on paper, and is a cut-out drawing depicting a face. It was described by Bowie's recordkeeping team as 'Lindsay Kemp as Charge' (a character in the film). The project was never fully realised, but features similar themes and motifs referenced in the 1974 album Diamond Dogs, which Bowie was working on at the same time as this film project.
- Reference Code
- DBA/TEMP/193
- Title/Description
- Diamond Dogs Film, Cut-Out Drawing of Mach
- Archive Department
- Theatre and Performance
- Date
- 1974
- Materials/Techniques
- Drawing by David Bowie created as part of the Diamond Dogs Film Project. The drawing was created using marker pen on paper, and is a cut-out drawing depicting a face. It was described by Bowie's recordkeeping team as a representation of the character 'Mach' portrayed by actress Cyrinda Foxe. The project was never fully realised, but features similar themes and motifs referenced in 1974 album Diamond Dogs, which Bowie was working on at the same time as this film project.
- Reference Code
- DBA/TEMP/194
- Title/Description
- Diamond Dogs Film, Cut-Out Drawing of Halloween Jack
- Archive Department
- Theatre and Performance
- Date
- 1974
- Materials/Techniques
- Drawing by David Bowie created as part of the Diamond Dogs Film Project. The drawing was created using marker pen on paper, and is a cut-out drawing of the character Halloween Jack roller-skating. The project was never fully realised, but features similar themes and motifs referenced in the 1974 album Diamond Dogs, which Bowie was working on at the same time as this film project.
- Reference Code
- DBA/TEMP/186
- Title/Description
- 1984 Musical Notes
- Archive Department
- Theatre and Performance
- Date
- 1974
- Materials/Techniques
- Five page booklet containing David Bowie's handwritten notes regarding a musical-comedy adaptation inspired by George Orwell's 1949 dystopian novel 'Nineteen Eighty-Four'. The front page describes the setting of scene 1 of the adaptation. The project was never fully realised, but the song '1984' from the Diamond Dogs album was originally devised for this project.
- Reference Code
- DBA/TEMP/182
- Title/Description
- The Leon Project: Leon in India Project Proposal
- Archive Department
- Theatre and Performance
- Date
- 1994
- Materials/Techniques
- Copy one of two. Proposal for the Leon in India project, an element of the wider Leon Project by David Bowie, Brian Eno, André Heller, and Rolf M. Engel. The wider project had six elements, and this is the fourth component which included a live performance in Mumbai featuring Indian musicians, dancers and acrobats which would be recorded, as well as a documentary of the process and a book of the film of the event. The opening pages of the proposal note that this is "A Musical Village Ritual".
- Reference Code
- DBA/TEMP/197
- Title/Description
- The Leon Project: Quotes, Page 1
- Archive Department
- Theatre and Performance
- Date
- 1994
- Materials/Techniques
- First page of a set of three, containing typed quotes from The Leon Project. The project was a collaborative piece featuring David Bowie, Brian Eno, André Heller, and Rolf M. Engel and comprised six components.
- Reference Code
- DBA/TEMP/180
- Title/Description
- Notes for 18th Century Musical, The Spectator
- Archive Department
- Theatre and Performance
- Date
- 2015
- Materials/Techniques
- One envelope containing 35 standard-sized post-it notes and one small post-it note in Bowie's handwriting. According to an additional post-it note stored in the same folder as this envelope, these notes were posted on Bowie's office "bulletin wall". These are likely to be related to Bowie's unrealised musical project The Spectator. While the original order of these post-it notes is unknown, they have been part-numbered in the order in which they were stored in the envelope when transferred to the V&A's collections.
- Reference Code
- DBA/TEMP/181
- Title/Description
- The Spectator notebook
- Archive Department
- Theatre and Performance
- Date
- 2015
- Materials/Techniques
- One spiral-bound notebook marked 'SPECTATOR' in Bowie's handwriting. Contains 8 pages of handwritten notes relating to an unrealised musical, and additional blank pages.
- Reference Code
- DBA/TEMP/183/1
- Title/Description
- The Spectator index card
- Archive Department
- Theatre and Performance
- Date
- 2015
- Materials/Techniques
- Single index card containing notes for the unrealised musical The Spectator. Opens with the sentence '1390 John Gower Vox Clamatis'.
- Reference Code
- DBA/TEMP/183/2
- Title/Description
- The Spectator index card
- Archive Department
- Theatre and Performance
- Date
- 2015
- Materials/Techniques
- Single index card containing notes for the unrealised musical The Spectator. Opens with the sentence 'Augustine: afterlife if devote life to God'.
- Reference Code
- DBA/TEMP/183/3
- Title/Description
- The Spectator index card
- Archive Department
- Theatre and Performance
- Date
- 2015
- Materials/Techniques
- Single index card containing notes for the unrealised musical The Spectator. Opens with the name 'Wat Tyler'.
- Reference Code
- DBA/TEMP/183/4
- Title/Description
- The Spectator index card
- Archive Department
- Theatre and Performance
- Date
- 2015
- Materials/Techniques
- Single index card containing notes for the unrealised musical The Spectator. Opens with the sentence '1. The Peasants Rising'.
- Reference Code
- DBA/TEMP/183/5
- Title/Description
- The Spectator index card
- Archive Department
- Theatre and Performance
- Date
- 2015
- Materials/Techniques
- Single index card containing notes for the unrealised musical The Spectator. Opens with the sentence 'Greeks and Romans in Christianity'.
- Reference Code
- DBA/TEMP/183/6
- Title/Description
- The Spectator index card
- Archive Department
- Theatre and Performance
- Date
- 2015
- Materials/Techniques
- Single index card containing notes for the unrealised musical The Spectator. Opens with the sentence 'Just War'.