David Bowie's landmark 1972 record The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars will celebrate its 40th birthday on June 6th. One day earlier, EMI will mark the occasion with the release a remastered version of the album done by Ray Staff, who engineered the original album at Trident Studios back in 1971 and '72.
The 40th Anniversary Remaster will be available on CD as well as limited edition 180-gram vinyl, which will also feature a bonus DVD including 5.1 stereo mixes from 2003. Until its release you can (via the Rolling Stone Website) stream crisp versions of all the classics, from Soul Love to Starman and Suffragette City.
The album was intended by Bowie to serve as the soundtrack and musical basis for a stage show and/or television production telling the story of Ziggy Stardust. As well as the songs on the album, Bowie also intended songs such as All the Young Dudes, Rebel Rebel and Rock 'n' Roll With Me (the latter two later recorded for Diamond Dogs) for this realisation of the Ziggy story.