It all resembles the plot of a yet-to-be-written musical. Avid mod and aspiring singer Geoff MacCormack – who moved in the same circles as modernist ‘faces’ like Marc Bolan and Mickey Finn – was selling advertising space for a London construction newspaper when an old school pal ‘phoned him and urged him to work with him. The date was January 1973, the caller was David Bowie, and the job entailed joining his band, as singer, percussionist and dancer. He said “yes”.

Within weeks, MacCormack was sailing to New York with the flight-phobic Bowie. He remembered to pack his camera, so “the party that lasted for three years” was recorded in endearingly intimate “holiday snaps”. While always one to adopt a pose, the feeling here is of an unguarded Bowie – almost as though these are shots from a family photo album. The sense of two mates – one of whom just happened to have become a rock star – having riotous good times is palpable. So much so, that a seasoned music journalist became tearful on seeing these photos.

Fortunately, MacCormack knows a decisive moment when he clocks one, and has a natural eye for composition; that’s why these images withstand repeated viewing. Genesis Publications certainly agreed: they published MacCormack’s photographic travelogue, From Station to Station: Travels with Bowie 1973 – 1976 , in May 2007. An impressed Bowie provided an archly playful foreword.

These engaging photographs may now be bought from Geoff MacCormack, and below he gives us the story behind each image.