(3 videos) David Bowie Iggy Pop drug arrest, mugshot and jail with original "China Girl"—tells story
David Bowie mugshot, Rochester, NY 1976
Using stethoscopes to eavesdrop through the wall(yes, stethoscopes), police heard something unexpected
Four decades after David Bowie’s 1976 arrest with Iggy Pop, following a concert in Rochester, NY a never-before-heard account has emerged from the ORIGINALCHINA GIRL.
Chi Wah Soo, 20-years-old, was arrested with Bowie, and blamed for being the NARC
who tipped the cops off about the drugs.
Now 61-years-old, Mrs. Soo spoke for the first time about that night.
Soo used lyrics from her favorite music to help learn English. After attending Monroe Community College, she was a Kodak employee when Bowie came to town.
“I was not going to miss it,” Soo said.
She and
her friends made sure to get near the stage. Toward the end of the
concert, her long black hair tangled among other fans.
Perhaps this drew Bowie’s attention, because he leaned over and handed Soo a bracelet that landed on stage.
“I felt bad,” Soo said about the woman who lost it. “But I wasn’t going to give it back.”
Before she left the show a man gave her a note saying,
“Meet me at my party - David”
When Bowie entered the party, Soo said he seemed to have a “halo around his head.”
Filmmaker Matt Ehlersgot to know Soo before she
trusted him to tell her story for his forthcoming documentary Bowie Goes To Jail, about the infamous 1976 arrest of David Bowie in Rochester, in the corner suite at the Americana Rochester.
Chi Wah Soo,the 61-year-old Brighton salon owner, was 20 when arrested and jailed for possession of marijuana with the musician after his concert.
At first, people accused her of being the “narc” that blew Bowie.
“Everyone has the wrong idea of what happened,” Soo told a Rochester reporter days after the arrest. “They can think what they wish, but I know I’m innocent.”
The Times in London also contacted Soo, but she declined comment per her lawyer’s advice.
Silence FOR 40 years.
She regularly shrugged-off shock-jocks, pestering her for lurid details on the anniversaries of the arrest.
Soo’s effervescent personality sparkles in the rough cut Ehlers screened at the Little Theatre last year. Her vivid memories make it feel as though Bowie’s first—and last — Rochester concert happened last night.
Born in China, Soo moved from Hong Kong to Rochester with her parents and sister when she was 11.
She worked at her father’s restaurant every day after school until 11 p.m.
“Hello, love,” were his first words to her.
Later, they retreated to his corner suite at the Americana on State Street(now the Holiday Inn Rochester Downtown) with rocker Iggy Pop and Bowie’s bodyguard.
Two other women joined them — undercover police.
Police acted on a tip that Bowie had cocaine, and secured the adjacent hotel room.
Using stethoscopes to eavesdrop through the wall (yes, stethoscopes), police heard something unexpected.
Bowie received a phone call saying his young son was very sick and his wife, Angela, could not be found.
“I slowly watched a gentle meltdown of David Bowie,” Soo said.
Bowie’s entourage had marijuana but they didn’t have cocaine. Undercover police officer Deborah Kilborn said they only asked her where they could score some.
Nevertheless, police had enough evidence to raid. Soo saw three faces peer into the room when Bowie cracked open the door. It slammed him in the face and knocked him backward.
“That was the start of the nightmare,” said Soo.
Charges against Soo, Bowie, Pop and Bowie’s bodyguard were eventually dropped, but their reputations had been tarnished. Ehlers considers the arrest a “wake-up call” in a drug-addled chapter of Bowie’s life.
At the arraignment, Soo gave Bowie her traditional Chinese wedding blanket.
Although Soo cannot be sure the song “China Girl” was written about her, she does believe her blanket appears in the music video.
Soo and Bowie never spoke again. While his career rocketed back toward Mars, she tried to fade into the background of what has become Rochester “rocklore.”
“It has to be one of the best parties in Rochester history,” Ehlers said before laughing about Bowie and Pop doing a shot of Courvoisier right before police escorted them to jail.
Almost 41 years later, Ehlers’ quest to tell the full story has brought him to a family business. Like Soo did at her father’s restaurant, her children work at the salon she opened in 1993.
“She’s a success story. A happy ending,” said Ehlers.
Bowie-mania
Rochester’s Bowie-mania remains strong a year after his death. The song “Lazarus” from Bowie’s last album finished No. 1 in the 2016 listener countdown for WBER-FM (90.5).
Chi Wah Soo was 20-years-old at the time and was arrested with Bowie and even got blamed for being the one who tipped off the cops about the drugs that night. Now 61-years-old, Mrs. Soo has spoken for the first time about how the night that produced the above mugshot went down. Filmmaker Matt Ehlers got to know Mrs. Soo after getting his haircut at her salon for a year and a half before she trusted him enough to tell her story for his forthcoming documentary Bowie Goes To Jail. From Rochester’s Democrat & Chronicle:
Undercover police officer Deborah Kilborn said they only asked her where they could score some.
Nevertheless, police had enough evidence to raid. Soo saw three faces peer into the room when Bowie cracked open the door. It slammed him in the face and knocked him backward.
