David Bowie: Mick Jagger and Brian Eno pay touching tributes to their 'dear friend'

'We had so many good times together. He was my friend, I will never forget him'

David Bowie on stage at Isle of Wight Festival in 2004 (Getty)

Tributes to the iconic glam rock singer David Bowie have poured in from around the world after the announcement of his death on Monday morning, following an 18-month battle with cancer.

Those from the icon’s close friends and fellow musicians have been particularly poignant, including tributes from Brian Eno and Mick Jagger - both of whom collaborated with Bowie on various musical projects.

Both rock stars offered moving tributes to their "dear friend" today, describing him as a “true original” and an "inspiration".

British musician and former member of Roxy Music, Brian Eno, worked with Bowie on albums including his famous Berlin Trilogy in the mid-1970s and the pair remained close friends until Bowie's death.

Issuing a statement to the BBC, Eno revealed he had discussed revisiting the 1995 album Outside in a new project with Bowie.

He added that Bowie's last words to him, sent in an email just a week before his death, had a valedictory tone.

Eno said: "David's death came as a complete surprise, as did nearly everything else about him. I feel a huge gap now.

"We knew each other for over 40 years, in a friendship that was always tinged by echoes of Pete and Dud. Over the last few years - with him living in New York and me in London - our connection was by email. We signed off with invented names: some of his were mr showbiz, milton keynes, rhoda borrocks and the duke of ear.

Brian Eno in 2011 Getty (Getty)

"About a year ago we started talking about Outside - the last album we worked on together. We both liked that album a lot and felt that it had fallen through the cracks. We talked about revisiting it, taking it somewhere new. I was looking forward to that.

"I received an email from him seven days ago. It was as funny as always, and as surreal, looping through word games and allusions and all the usual stuff we did. It ended with this sentence: 'Thank you for our good times, brian. they will never rot'. And it was signed 'Dawn'.

"I realise now he was saying goodbye."

Fellow rock legend and Rolling Stones' frontman, Mick Jagger, described Bowie as "wonderfully shameless" in a personal tribute accompanied by a black and white photograph of the pair laughing together.

David was always an inspiration to me and a true original. He was wonderfully shameless in his work. We had so many good times together. He was my friend, I will never forget him.

Posted by Mick Jagger on Monday, 11 January 2016

Jagger said: “David was always an inspiration to me and a true original. He was wonderfully shameless in his work.

“We had so many good times together. He was my friend, I will never forget him.”

In addition to being close friends both Jagger and Bowie collaborated together on the Live Aid single Dancing in the Street released in 1985.

The Rolling Stones collectively paid tribute to Bowie saying they were “shocked and deeply saddened to hear of the death of [their] dear friend.”

“As well as being a wonderful and kind man, he was an extraordinary artist, and a true original,” the group added.