David Bowie from a decade-long recording hiatus with "The Next Day." He remained musically active until he died of liver cancer two days after the release of his final album, "Blackstar" (2016). Bowie was born David Robert Jones on 8 January 1947 in Brixton, London. His mother, Margaret Mary "Peggy" (née Burns; 1913–2001), was born at Shorncliffe Army Camp near Cheriton, Kent. Her paternal grandparents were Irish immigrants who had settled in Manchester. She worked as a waitress at a cinema in Royal Tunbridge Wells. His father, Haywood Stenton "John" Jones (1912–1969), was from Doncaster, and worked as a promotions officer for
David Bowie earlier but had not made the news of his illness public. The Belgian theatre director Ivo van Hove, who had worked with the singer on his Off-Broadway musical "Lazarus", explained that Bowie was unable to attend rehearsals due to the progression of the disease. He noted that Bowie had kept working during the illness. Bowie's producer Tony Visconti wrote: Following Bowie's death, fans gathered at impromptu street shrines. At the mural of Bowie in his birthplace of Brixton, south London, which shows him in his "Aladdin Sane" character, fans laid flowers and sang his songs. Other memorial sites included Berlin,