//In 1978 Bowie recalled the meeting in an interview: “I like them as people very much, Florian in particular. Very dry. When I go to Düsseldorf they take me to cake shops, and we have huge pastries. They wear their suits. A bit like Gilbert and George, actually, God, whatever happened to those two? I used to really like them... When I came over to Europe – cause it was the first tour I ever did of Europe (1976), the last time – I got myself a Mercedes to drive myself around in, cause I still wasn’t flying at that time, and Florian saw it... He said, “What a wonderful car”, and I said, “Yes, it used to belong to some Iranian prince, and he was assassinated and the car went on the market, and I got it for the tour.” And Florian said, “Ja, car always lasts longer.” With him it all has that edge. His whole cold emotion/warm emotion, I responded to that. Folk music of the factories.”
Kraftwerk immortalised the Düsseldorf meeting on the title track of the band’s 1977 album, Trans-Europe Express (see today’s lyric quotation), even including a shot of David and Iggy in the original German language video for the single.
David returned the compliment later the same year on the "Heroes" album, when he paid Florian the ultimate tribute by using his name for the title of V-2 Schneider.//
