CRI听力:Stars and Fans Pay Tributes to Music Legend David Bowie

Many fans in London chose an iconic location from the late singer's career for an impromptu tribute site.

Flowers and notes were laid under a plaque on Heddon Street- the location of the cover photograph for Bowie's 1972 album "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars."

"It's one of those iconic places. You just want to find a place where you can all gather. Whenever you come past here you quite often see tourists having their picture taken. I had my picture taken here about two weeks ago under the sign. It's the soundtrack to my life. As I've grown up and developed, his music was changing and he had all these different ideas. I haven't liked everything that he's done but that's good. He was experimenting. He wasn't afraid to do things people didn't like, so that's what I like about him; he didn't care."

Fans are also gathering to pay tribute in Brixton in south London, where David Bowie - whose real name was David Robert Jones - was born and brought up.

For many who grew up with his music, David Bowie was more than a music idol.

"Yeah, the first person to contact me was my youngest son, he's 17 and he said, 'Dad, your hero is dead,' and that was a shock. But a 17-year-old boy knows his music. I just like the avent garde of David Bowie. He never expected to be this popular with the kind of lyric content and the way he dressed and the trailblazing method in which he went through his career."

The Rock star's influence seemed to have encompassed not only the world of music, but also that of politics and religion. Joining the Archbishop of Canterbury in sending their tributes was British Prime Minister David Cameron, who described Bowie as "a master of reinvention" and a "genius."

"Today we're mourning the loss of an immense British talent. I mean genius is an overused word but I think musically, creatively, artistically David Bowie was a genius. David Bowie was a genius. For someone of my age he provided a lot of the soundtrack of our lives, from the first time I heard 'Space Oddity' to watching our athletes appear in those wonderful Olympics to the strains of 'Heroes.'"

Shooting to fame with the release of his second album "Space Oddity" in 1969, Davie Bowie established himself as an artist who constantly experimented with new styles.

Two days before his death, Bowie celebrated his 69 birthday and released his latest album, "Black Star." The album has been described as a parting gift from the star to his legion of fans around the world. The title song of this album is on course to top Britain's Official Albums Chart this week.

David Bowie's death was announced on Twitter and Facebook, and social media is where his life and legacy have been most widely celebrated. Fellow pop star Madonna twitted that she is devastated on hearing the news, and she said Bowie was a great artist who changed her life.

For CRI, I'm Duan Xuelian in London.