Month: March 1996

Music fans can look forward to a very special DavidBowie performance on “The Brit Awards” (the U.K. equivalent of theGrammys) airing Saturday, April 6 on ABC-TV from 11:30 PM to 1:00 AM.Not only does Bowie play two classic songs with his band, “UnderPressure” (featuring the extraordinary vocals of Gail Ann Dorsey) andZiggy Stardust’s “Moonage Daydream,” but he will first appear onstage withThe Pet Shop Boysto perform a revamped version of his Top 20 Europeanhit”Hallo Spaceboy.” This version, which featuresvocals from Neil Tennant, plus a remix from Ball and Vauk (ofThe Grid), will now bereleased to dance clubs in the U.S. on April 12.

On the touring front,Bowie will continue his “Outside” tour this summer at open-air festival datesin England and Europe, plus performances in Israel, Iceland, Japanand Russia.

Joseph Lee Alviar, 19 year old art student at theUniversity of Santo Tomas, Philippines was elected as the winner of theinternational “Outside” art competition sponsored by BMG EntertainmentInternational.

The decision was reached on February 20th in Paris with David Bowie,Austrian actionist Hermann Nitsch and Christoph Ruecker, VP InternationalMarketing, BMG Entertainment International as the final jurors. The 11pieces of art from the winners of the various participating territorieswere exhibited at the gallery “Le monde de l’art” in Paris, with mostof the artists in attendance.

The event took place one day after David Bowie performed live andaccepted a Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual “Brits” awards inLondon, and coincided with the last date of the European leg of the”Outside” world tour.

Given the outstanding quality of all submitted art pieces, it wastough to decide on only one winner. The winning 20″ x 30″ color paintingtitled “Destruction of Man” was picked based on its formal integrity,pictorial intensity, and of course, on the connection with the contentsof David Bowie’s latest album “Outside.”

The young artist himself, who, unfortunately was not present in Paris,had described the painting as follows: “The art piece represents the goreof the album’s contents, death and the destruction of man. The crimeartist creeps into the inside of his medium, or can we say victim!? By theuse of tubes and syringes he extracts life and replaces it with death.With no remorse seen in his eyes, just the excitement of seeing painand suffering. The new generation of artists acts like gods, not becausethey create but they destroy.”

In his presentation speech David Bowie acknowledged that the workssubmitted “are absolutely extraordinary”, and admitted that “…it wasvery, very hard to come to a decision. But both Hermann and I came to thesame choice, which is extremely fortunate.”

Special mention and credit was also given to the art pieces by thewinners from South Africa (Elli Garb), Japan (Yasuharu Yoshizaki) andthe UK (Charlotte Baker-Wilbraham).The paintings and sculptures of all eleven finalists are currently ontheir way to New York where thay will be exhibited in front of mediaand interested gallery owners in the near future.

Directed by Julien Temple for Nitrate Filus Limlted
Screen play by Terry Johnson
Conceived by David Bowie

‘What we’re doing here is bringing back the talkies” – David Bowie – 9th August 1984

In Jazzin’ For Blue Jean, David Bowie, Julien Temple and Terry Johnson breathe new life into the concept of the short feature. Nominally a promotional video for Bowie’s forthcoming single ‘Blue Jean’, it is an uncompromising rejection of just about every aspect of the standard approach to selling pop by the yard. Rather than add to the profusion of hi-tech, mock-surreal pop videos prevalent in the ‘8Os, Bowie, Temple and Johnson have drawn their inspiration from the classic short features of the 1950s.

Running for 22 minutes, it features Bowie’s song as little more than a set-piece background to the action. Its principal focus is the saga of Vic (David Bowie) a young hopeful with two left feet whose only means of enticing the girl of his dreams (Louise Scott) to go out with him is to pretend that he can introduce her to rock star Screamin’ Lord Byron (David Bowie), the last word in dazzling and mysterious glam- rock legends.

Jazzin’ For Blue Jean follows the hapless Vic through his fumbling attempts to choose an outfit for a night on the town to gain admittance to the club where the star is performing and to crash (literally!) into the Great Man’s dressing-room to plead with Screamin’ to help him win his beloved’s admiration (or even a single civil word).

Despite enough rejections to keep the average loser depressed for a month Vic reaches his goal: he and his dreamboat are seated at one of the finest tables in the house, champagne is served and Screamin’ Lord Byron does his act. Finally, the club is empty and just as even the unsinkable Vic is about to lose hope (and his hard-hearted companion), there is a stir backstage. The star emerges, painted and powdered and clad in all his finery, and makes straight for their table

In his dual role, Bowie scores two memorable direct hits. As Vic, he creates a characterisation which is a perfect embodiment of the classic Little Man of the early cinema reincarnated in ‘8Os London, and as Screamin’ Lord Byron flamboyant and magnetic on stage but a cowering wreck in his dressing room – he wickedly and memorably satirises both his own past and the fantasies and illusions which have been created around him. In his previous acting roles (in Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, The Hunger, The Man Who Fell To Earth and his celebrated Broadway run in The Elephant Man) Bowie demonstrated a formidable gift for depicting characters who were superhuman, supernatural, alien or apart in same way from the normal run of humanity. As Vic, he displays an un-suspected gift for comedy, and a ready eye and ear for the comic aspects of the minutae of daily life.

Bowie’s collaborator in this precedent-breaking venture is Julien Temple, the 30-year-old director who upset the conventional notions of the rock movie with The Sex Pistols’ feature The Great Rock ‘N’ Roll Swindle (1979) and who commences shooting next year on the eagerly-awaited adaptation of Colin Maclnnes’ crucial novel of British youth in the ’50s Absolute Beginners. He has also worked extensively in television, and established himself as the most acute and innovative director of pop promos in Britain, working with artists such as The Rolling Stones, Culture Club, The Kinks and ABC, for whom he created the feature-length special Mantrap.