IT stands alongside Abbey Road, Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Dark Side of the Moon and Nevermind as one of the most instantly recognisable album covers in the history of pop.

Now the iconic sleeve of David Bowie’s seminal 1972 LP The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars has been recreated with pin-point accuracy to publicise a one-off show in Malmesbury.

A swift glance and you would think it is a reproduction of the original cover which features a blond haired Bowie, in green Starman outfit, posing in a London side street.

But look closer. The dusky urban backdrop is not Heddon Street, W1 where Brian Ward photographed Bowie-as-Ziggy 43 years ago and which now features in London's Handbook Guide to Rock and Pop.

Anyone who knows Malmesbury will, despite a few artistic tweaks, recognise it as St Dennis Lane, SN16 9BH.

And that isn’t Bowie either. It is Malmesbury School sixth former Ben Goddard, 18, with a guitar slung across his thigh, a la Ziggy, and a blond wig fashioned into a pudding bowl by his sister Laura.

Instead of saying The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, the poster instead proclaims The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Malmesbury.

Ben is a member of local band called The Long Players who specialise in performing well known albums in their entirety and who in the past have performed The Bends by Radiohead, Michael Jackson’s Thriller and Rumours by Fleetwood Mac.

To publicise their Ziggy Stardust gig at the King’s Arms pub on Sunday, March 15 they hired photographer Jon Sneddon to shoot a virtually identical image to the Bowie original.

The Long Players bass player and driving force Dave Sturdy asked Ben, a member of the 17 strong musical conglomerate, to become Bowie for the shoot.

Ben, who lives in Minety, won’t be singing at the show but will play sax on Moonage Daydream - just as Bowie did on the album - and guitar on Five Years.

He said: “Dave asked me to do the album cover because he thought I looked more like Bowie than anyone else in the band.

“I think the poster is absolutely great. I was amazed at how close to the original album sleeve it is. Dave came up with the space suit, the boots and guitar.

“We had to put water on the pavement to make it seem wet, as it is on the album. We did it after dark – it was freezing. It took ages to get the pose with the guitar just right.

“I am not naturally blond so my sister Laura cut a wig for me.”

*Tickets are £7.50 and available from A4 Stationers in Malmesbury High Street.