Month: January 2001

I’m just about the best you can hear…

The January edition of Record Collector features it’s annual exhaustive look at the past year’s best releases. The first section of this eleven-page special, ‘100 Beauties: Reissues & Compilations’, agrees with the general feeling of most of the monthly music mags by placing ‘Bowie at the Beeb’ in the number one spot, pushing the likes of The Beatles’ ‘1’ into third place.

Here’s an excerpt from their write-up: “In a marketplace where the phrase ‘long-awaited’ is used for almost every reissue, this package was truly long-awaited. David Bowie returned to reclaim his crown in 2000 with a performance at Glastonbury that made grown adults weep.”

And this is a line the magazine has reprinted from their original review of the album: “If it’s musical history you’re after, new catalogue product really doesn’t come better than this.”

Elsewhere there are excellent features on Marc Bolan’s 1972, U2’s classic concerts, a feature on PJ Harvey bootlegs (including a gorgeous colour shot) and much more.

Total Blam Blam – (European Correspondent)

Today is the 20th anniversary of David’s last night performance as The Elephant Man, which makes it a great day to surf around our new members’ special feature. Here are some samples :-

“It is undoubtedly the biggest single challenge of my career. Going onto Broadway is the fulfilment of a great dream.” – David Bowie (1980)

“Wordless and unmoving, he is nevertheless an electric presence.” – Rolling Stone (1980)

Since we unveiled this feature, just before Christmas, we have had lots of new submissions, including an NME interview, a BBC Radio One interview, some German press cuttings, and the entire Booth Theatre playbill, as well as some great new writings from fans.

Thanks once again to all who contributed. If you have anything you would like to add, there are email links within the feature.

Go to the new box in mutations on the homepage and enjoy!

Thanks to the latest contributors : Calum Bennie, Candace Gregory, Corina Pia, Duane Sherwood, Jareth74, Mary Beth and of course to Spaceface!

This morning David Bowie was nominated for a Grammy in the category of “Best Male Rock Vocal” for “Thursday’s Child.” Other nominees in the category include: Bob Dylan, Don Henley, Lenny Kravitz and Nine Inch Nails. Congratulations, David!

Switch on the TV we may pick him up on channel two…

After a brief tease of ‘Starman’ during an historical look back at Top Of The Pops on TOTP2 yesterday, there is now promise of more tomorrow on the same show at 18:00 (GMT) on BBC2. Billed as a “2001-style space special”, the show looks like being a veritable feast of aliens and inter-galactic goings-on. ‘Starman’ isn’t the only clip they may show of course. In the past TOTP has aired ‘Space Oddity’ and ‘Hallo Spaceboy’, and you never know, they may assemble a new bunch of dancing lovelies for ‘Life On Mars?’!

While we’re on the subject of TOTP, click on the logo above to go to the incredibly detailed biography of David Bowie on the TOTP site. The fact that some of those details aren’t exactly accurate shouldn’t spoil your enjoyment of this brilliantly researched, up-to-the-minute piece of journalism. When I say up-to-the-minute, I’m obviously referring to a minute at the tail end of 1999. If you can’t be bothered with the thought of tele-porting yourself over to the site, then perhaps the samples I have picked out below may whet your appetite…