I did actually finish this on Wednesday, but hadn’t had time to finish parsing and final check before looking in here. As it turns out – I still did not parse 1d and 3d properly – so thanks Eileen for setting me straight there.

23 was my first one in, but didn’t really help with the theme after refusing to Wiki DB and write them all in – so CHANGES, CHINA GIRL, REBEL REBEL and STARMAN were amongst the last few in. Compared to others, I did find a bit of a challenge with the puzzle. Nice to see Iggy Pop turn up directly in 8d as well as a collaborator in the first release of 6d.

Thanks Eileen for the extra links – will look at them over the weekend on my laptop rather than the phone.

As far as the grumpies who considered the theme beneath them, pop/rock music is not only becoming “classical” in a sense, but it is one of Britain’s strange accomplishments, far beyond her population, to have dominated it for so long. Were I to try to list the “10 best pop/rock acts ever”, after the obvious Beatles/Rolling Stones/Who/Queen (in whichever order you prefer), David Bowie would surely be one of the other six. Feigning disgust at the triteness of the theme just because it is “pop” music is false bravado. A random “one hit wonder” might be a lame device to use in a clue, but a man with a 40+ year history of making #1 hit singles is surely as valid a theme as, say, plants or colors.

My COD was 8, which I had to come here to get slapped in the forehead for the parsing. Last in was 16d, after I gave up on finding “ft” or “sun” in it.

20d is a true cryptic clue – definition plus wordplay. “Partial” is the definition. “brunette, then” is the cryptic wordplay. Nicely inventive. Some of these talented youngsters are giving the Reverend a run for his money with their ability to come up with fresh constructions like this.

Finally, thanks to Paul, and Eileen – sorry it was such a slog for you – and the rest of you two hundred and twenty fivers who make this place so interesting!

Thank you, Paul, from this very appreciative reader.

Perhaps Paul made a lot of the non thematic clues so easy in order to help those in their “Golden Years” who were “Under Pressure” recalling Bowie tracks. This could have led to “Sorrow” and perhaps even “Breaking Glass”!

If you had an iPod Shuffle perhaps you’d be better informed.

Thanks to Eileen and Paul.

Agreed,but I think you could comfortably add ‘sesame’ and ‘lampblack’ to that list.
And that is the real failing of this puzzle; it IS the wrong kind of theme but such puzzles do sometimes work fairly well but only where the non-theme clues are challenging.

Not only that – I am not at all against themed puzzles per se, even when the theme is alien to me, because I can still appreciate the cleverness of the wordplay without understanding all the allusions, and I positively revel in them when they’re right up my street [although I do prefer it when the cross-references are rather more subtle and the themes are included in the clues as well as the answers - a thing Tramp does so well] and there are always the non-themed clues to maintain interest.

For me, this one, surprisingly – since it was a Paul puzzle – fell short on both counts. The theme, as I said, was not dear to my heart but, while I appreciated the cleverness of SPACE ODDITY and ZIGGY STARDUST, once explained to me, I thought that FAME, REBELS and CHANGES were barely cryptic and STARMAN was the simplest of charades.

Of the non-thematic clues, I thought TOUCAN, GAGA, IMPEND, ANATOMIST, UPBEAT, WAGE and NUTCASE would not have been out of place in a Quiptic puzzle.

All in all, if there had been no name on this puzzle, I think I’d have been hard put to it to guess that it was a Paul. [And that, Paul, is intended as a compliment. ]

Except clues for 10a and 2,5d?