[3] On 19 October 1977, Gardiner was selected by Tony Visconti to play guitar for the pre-recorded backing of Bowie's performance on "Heroes" on the BBC's Top of the Pops.
[4] The recording was made at Good Earth Studios in Soho, London with Bowie, Visconti, and pianist Sean Mayes.
From the 1970s, Gardiner played and composed in a variety of music styles, including ambient, classical, and rock.
In 2017, photographs Gardiner took at the Château d'Hérouville,[6] during the making of David Bowie's Low album in 1977, were included in a hardcover book that accompanied the vinyl and CD box set of A New Career in a New Town (1977–1982), alongside photographs by Anton Corbijn, Helmut Newton, Andrew Kent, Steve Shapiro, Duffy, and others.
Gardiner said that he suffered from electromagnetic hypersensitivity, which he believed he contracted through exposure to high levels of computer radiation and magnetic fields.