Born David Jones in London in 1947 in Brixton he picked up the saxophone aged 13 and began singing with his first band at 15 before rising to fame in 1969 with Space Oddity, and later with his alter ego Ziggy Stardust.

Bowie's website's biography describes him as someone who "elevated his music to what can only be described as an art form."

He released 26 studio albums, nine live albums, 46 compilation albums, five EPs and 111 singles. Five of his songs reached number one in the UK charts.

Bowie’s first album, The Man Who Sold The World, was released in spring 1971 and three months later his then wife Angie gave birth to their son, Duncan Zowie Haywood Bowie.

His last live performance was at a New York charity concert in 2006 and he released his last album last week. The singer's 69th birthday was on Friday.

He kept a relatively low profile after undergoing emergency heart surgery in 2004.

Speaking to Sky News the associate editor of music magazine 'Q' said that Britain, Rock and Roll, and art was poorer for Bowie's death.

Paul Stokes said: "David Bowie was always contemporary, that was the great thing about him as an artist.

"Even at the beginning of his career in the 60s when people weren't taking him seriously and it took him a while to break as an artist, he was always contemporary.

"He was always someone who, despite his age and which way fashion and trends were going, he was almost perpetually contemporary. His last record was still a cutting edge record."

Former NME editor Krissi Murison said: "In the last few moments I've been trying to find the right words. For a music fan he was everything. There's no part of my love of music where his influence didn't touch. It wasn't just the sound it was the look and the attitude.

"The only comparable is John Lennon dying. That's the kind of influence he had and I can't think of anyone else who wasn't touched, inspired and influenced by Bowie. It's just immeasurable."