David Bowie back on top with No. 1 album and hit show

DAVID BOWIE status as the UK's coolest 66-year-old has been confirmed by a No. 1 album and record-breaking ticket sales to a London exhibition celebrating his life and music.

The singer's acclaimed new album The Next Day is the year's fastest selling record, having shifted 94,000 copies in the UK since its release on 8 March. It's Bowie's first No. 1 in 20 years, since /Black Tie White Noise/ made it to the top of the charts in 1993.

If that wasn't enough, the Victoria & Albert Museum has revealed that advance ticket sales for its David Bowie Is … exhibition opening this weekend, are running hot. More than 42,000 tickets have been sold so far, more than double the previous record for a V & A show.

Billed as an "in-depth retrospective", David Bowie Is … features more than 60 of the singer's flamboyant costumes. They range from a "metallic, striped Ziggy Stardust bodysuit" designed by Kansai Yamamoto to the turquoise Life on Mars suit and tie.

The show makes you "just gawp at the sheer ferocity with which his talent burnt at its height", writes The Guardian's Alexis Petridis in a preview of the exhibition.

David Bowie Is… opens on Saturday 23 March, but the museum is staying "tight-lipped" about whether or not the singer will attend a preview party on Wednesday.

Given his iconic status, it's understandable that people are nervous when they meet Bowie. That was certainly the case when Danny Boyle flew to New York to make a "personal appeal" to the singer to appear in the Olympics' opening ceremony.

In a new book, the Oscar-winning director reveals that he was far more nervous meeting Bowie – a childhood hero – than he was meeting the Queen, reports the Daily Telegraph. Unfortunately, Bowie declined Boyle's invitation. ·