playbook", but the first lyric changes that. While "Space Oddity" was a pure "science-fiction story", "Starman" is less that and more of a "self-aggrandizing announcement that there's a new star in town." The single initially sold steadily rather than spectacularly but earned many positive reviews. BBC broadcaster John Peel, in his Disc & Music Echo column wrote: "Now this is magnificent – quite superb. "David Bowie is, with Kevin Ayers, the most important, under-acknowledged innovator in contemporary popular music in Britain and if this record is overlooked it will be nothing less than stark tragedy." Chris Welch of Melody Maker predicted: "[Bowie] is taking longer than most to become a superstar, but he should catch up with Rod and Marc soon." On 15 June, Bowie and the Spiders from Mars performed "Starman" on the Granada children's music programme Lift Off with Ayshea, which was presented by Ayshea Brough, whom Bowie had met as a performer in 1969. Joined by Nicky Graham on keyboards, according to Pegg, they performed against a "backdrop of coloured stars"; Woodmansey had at this point not "peroxided" his hair. The performance was broadcast on 21 June in a "post-school" time slot, where it was witnessed by thousands of British children. On 24 June, "Starman" rose to number 49 on the UK Singles Chart and by 1 July, number 41, earning Bowie an invitation to perform on the BBC television programme Top of the Pops. Top of the Pops performance On 5 July 1972, Bowie, the Spiders and Graham recorded a performance of "Starman" for Top of the Pops, which was broadcast on BBC One the next night. The group mimed to a pre-recorded backing track, four takes of which were recorded on 29 June, and sang live as per Musicians Union rules. Bowie appeared in a brightly-coloured rainbow jumpsuit, "shocking" red hair and astronaut boots while the Spiders wore blue, pink, scarlet and gold velvet attire. During the performance, Bowie was relaxed and confident and wrapped his arm around Ronson's shoulder, revealing his white-coloured fingernails and, in Cann's words, "driving home the ambiguous glamour of the Ziggy persona." He altered the line "Some cat was laying down some rock 'n' roll" to "Some cat was laying down some get-it-on rock 'n' roll" as a tribute to Bolan. Upon singing the line "I had to phone someone so I picked on you ooh ooh", Bowie pointed at