Month: June 1999

26 years ago today, June 23, 1973 “The Prettiest Star” written by David Bowie and recorded by Simon Turner is released.

David Bowie has just finished recording hours…, his forthcoming album due out October 5 on Virgin Records. Produced by David and longtime collaborator / guitarist Reeves Gabrels, the album will contain such songs as “Thursday’s Child,” “Survive” and “The Dreamers,” as well as “What’s Really Happening,” the song co-written by Alex Grant, winner of the BowieNet cybersong contest. The mysteriously titled hours… features Bowie on vocals, keyboard and 12-string acoustic guitar; Reeves Gabrels on electric and acoustic guitars, keyboard and programming, Mark Plati (tomorrows chat guest on BowieNet) plays bass, acoustic and electric 12-string guitar, keyboard and drum programming; and Mike Levesque (Dave Navarro Band), drums. The album was mixed by Bowie, Gabrels and Plati. Read the entire story in the press release area.

We get a lot of email about the Java chat, so here are a few Browser Requirements that you NEED to have to make the java chat work.

Java Chat Browser Requirements:

• Microsoft Internet Explorer, version 3.02 or later (with 5.0 Scripting Engine)
• You MUST install the 5.0 Scripting Engine for IE to work!
• Netscape Navigator, version 4.0 or later
• Browser that fully support Java 1.02 and JavaScript 2.0
• No numeric characters in nic-name

  If you prefer to use the free Microsoft Chat client, here are some helpful tips to get set up.

6 years ago today, June 22, 1973 – Life On Mars? / The Man Who Sold The World single was released.

Speaking of singles, here is a collection of singles called “FASHIONS 7″ Picture Disc Collection” this collectors edition of picture discs (yes, that’s right, on vinyl) was released by RCA in the UK, November of 1982. RCA only released a limited edition of 25,000.

Thanks to ZDTV for the great 3 part series on David and BowieNet.

In addition to the 3 video / streaming stories, don’t miss Liam Mayclem’s Online Diary: Meeting With Bowie. It’s a look into Liam’s personal experiences meeting Bowie and working on this 3 part series.

Here are links to all 3 stories:
Part One: David Bowie’s Cyber Song Contest
Part Two: Bowie as Internet Service Provider
Part Three: Bowie the Web Visionary

“Exhuming Mr. Rice” has been selected to be in competition for the 29thGiffoni Film Festival in Giffoni Valle Piana, Italy. The festival isfrom July 18th to 24th and David has been nominated for a Bronze GryphonAward for Best Actor. The festival is a premiere children’s festivalwhere kids are the judges!

Have a look at this Exhuming Mr Rice Special Feature.

Thursday, June 24th 8:00 p.m. EST, BowieNet is pleased to bring you a LIVE CHAT with Mark Plati, Producer and Engineer.

Plati is a producer, engineer and musician based in New York City. He has been a musician since the age of 11, studying bass with Duke Ellington’s nephew in high school and a variety of instruments at Indiana University. He came to New York in 1987 and began working with dance music legend Arthur Baker as an engineer, synthesizer programmer and mixer. In 1990 he worked with Prince on the Graffiti Bridge soundtrack, and from there began to move more into rock and mainstream record production. Working with the Poppies in 1991 brought Mark to The Looking Glass Studios, and after that experience he began to make the studio his base, recording there with artists such as David Bowie, The Cure, Duncan Sheik and Deee-Lite, to name a few.

His philosophy is that anything goes in the studio, and has been quoted as saying he likes to make records out of ‘junk’. He is also an avid cyclist (often mistaken for a bike messenger).

If you have any questions you would like to ask Mark before the live chat, you can e-mail your Mark Plati questions to info@davidbowie.com. We will use these pre-chat questions in addition to your live questions.

Please log into the #ChatGuest room for this chat event. See you there.

Wall Street has loaned 67 year-old James Brown, “The Godfather of Soul” $30 Million secured by future royalties on his music in a ‘Bowie Bond’ style deal.The ‘BowieBond’ concept involves selling securities backed by future cash flow on artists existing catalogue. Since Bowies’ precedent making deal of 1997, all such deals on Wall Street are known as BowieBond deals.

Last months issue of People Magazine featured an article that took a look at what Paul McCartney was up to these days.

The story focused on McCartney’s envolvment in painting, and featured this original McCartney painting entitled “Bowie Spewing” from Paul’s collection.

Here is a quick bit about the piece:
Although entitled “Bowie spewing“, this small painting was not planned as a portrait. As so often the case with McCartney, the subject emerged during the painting process. Experimental painting with no other motive than “just to let the paint lead the way” (McCartney) results in a physiognomy which reminds the artist of David Bowie at an early stage in his career, the time of his “Ziggy Stardust” album.

FROM: TRESA REDBURN/MITCH SCHNEIDER

DAVID BOWIE has just finished recording hours…, his forthcoming album due out October 5 on Virgin Records. Produced by BOWIE and longtime collaborator/guitarist Reeves Gabrels, the album will contain such songs as “Thursday’s Child,” “Survive” and “The Dreamers,” as well as “What’s Really Happening,” the song co-written by Alex Grant, winner of the BowieNet cybersong contest.

“What’s Really Happening,” regarded as the first true cyber-song, was the result of collaborative efforts between Bowie and co-writer Alex Grant, who was one of 80,000 people who submitted lyrics online to the Bug Music-sponsored BowieNet cyber-song contest. Last month, fans around the world were able to watch a live webcast of the recording session on BowieNet, Tunes.com/RollingStone.com and the Lucent Technologies FullView web site, as Bowie laid down the song tracks with Grant and his friend singing background. This event marked the first-ever public webcast using the 360-degree FullView camera, invented at Bell Labs, the research and development arm of Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU). According to BOWIE, “The most gratifying part of the evening for me was being able to encourage Alex and his pal Larry to sing on the song that he, Alex, had written. It was a cool way to finish the session off.“

The mysteriously titled hours… features: BOWIE, vocals, keyboard and 12-string acoustic guitar; REEVES GABRELS, electric and acoustic guitars, keyboard and programming; MARK PLATI, bass, acoustic and electric 12-string guitar, keyboard and drum programming; and MIKE LEVESQUE (Dave Navarro Band), drums. The album was mixed by BOWIE, Gabrels and Plati. Other details about the album and its first single/video are TBA.