Month: April 2002

I’m (obviously not that) Afraid Of Americans…

For those of you that haven’t been looking at the MBs, we’re pleased to announce the dates for the Area: 2, Moby and David Bowie co-headline tour of Canada and the USA that we mentioned earlier in the month. (04/10/02 NEWS: BOWIE CONFIRMED FOR AREA: TWO) The pair will be joined on the dates by Busta Rhymes, Carl Cox and Digweed. We will be posting more details about ticket availability later today, suffice to say, there will be pre-sale information available ahead of the on sale dates.

Sorry to sound vague, but we must be sure all the finer details are in place before we post any information, which is most likely why the dates aren’t even up on Moby’s official site yet. In the meantime, here are the twelve dates that make up the Area: 2 tour:

JULY 28th – Washington, DC – Nissan Pavillion
JULY 30th – Philadelphia, PA – Tweeter Center
JULY 31st – Holmdel, New Jersey – PNC Bank Center
AUGUST 2nd – Wataugh, New York – Jones Beach
AUGUST 3rd – Boston, MA – Tweeter Center
AUGUST 5th – Toronto, Canada – Molson Ampitheater
AUGUST 6th – Detroit, Michigan – DTE Energy Music Center
AUGUST 8th – Chicago, Illinois – Tweeter Center
AUGUST 10th – Denver, Colorado – Pepsi Arena-City of Lights
AUGUST 13th – Los Angeles, LA – Verizon Ampitheater
AUGUST 14th – San Francisco, CA – Shoreline Ampitheater
AUGUST 16th – Seattle, WA – The Gorge

You asked for the latest…

OK kidz, here follows that Area: 2 ticket information we promised you in the story we posted earlier today. BowieNet will have a ticket allocation for all of the dates on the tour, and this is how it’ll work.

Many of you have noticed that MTV2, as the official sponsor of this event, will be first to offer a pre-sale on their site starting tomorrow morning. There is no reason why you shouldn’t get your tickets via the MTV2 route if you feel so compelled. There will, in fact, be other pre-sale opportunities, including Front of the Line, for example, but if you’re unsuccessful via these routes, please understand that this FRIDAY May 3rd is the first of three BOWIENET pre-sale days.

Tickets for the twelve shows that make up the tour will be made available to BowieNetters over each of the three BowieNet pre-sale days, and this Friday’s pre-sale will concern itself with the following four shows. The pre-sale will last from 10:00am to 6:00pm for the local time of each of the venues. Please note the amount of tickets available per person:

JULY 31st – Holmdel, New Jersey – PNC Bank Center – 6 tickets per household
AUGUST 3rd – Boston, MA – Tweeter Center – 12 tickets per household
AUGUST 5th – Toronto, Canada – Molson Ampitheater – 12 tickets per household
AUGUST 6th – Detroit, Michigan – DTE Energy Music Center – 12 tickets per household

Tickets for these four dates will be available to BowieNetters in this Friday’s BowieNet pre-sale only, and BowieNet access to these four shows will only last for that day. On Friday BowieNet will provide a link to Ticketmaster along with a password to access BowieNet pre-sells for these four shows only.

The tickets allocated specifically to BowieNet members are of equal quality (seating position) and quantity to the other pre-sale offers. Although other offers may get to go first, there is no disadvantage to BowieNet members. In fact, this is where you BowieNet Members have a distinct advantage, because you will not be competing with the general public for our allocation. These are first come, first serve, so let’s see if you can break the Ticketmaster system on Friday morning at 10:00am sharp. };-)

Apart from the pre-sales that are being offered elsewhere, these shows will be available to BowieNet Members online BEFORE they are made available to the public. Since we are offering these tickets before they are on sale to the general public, our allocation is large enough for us to know that we will NOT sell out of tickets. We will be making several differently priced ticket types available at Ticketmaster, so everyone should be able to get what they are looking for.

The eight remaining shows will be made available via BowieNet pre-sales on Tuesday, May 7th and Wednesday, May 8th. However, it should be noted that the MTV2 pre-sale that starts tomorrow is for all twelve of the shows and runs Wednesday and Thursday through to midnight, you can double-check the MTV2 information at their site by going here.

Tickets will be subject to convenience and processing charges. Ticketmaster Canada will be a different website, but we will provide that link on Friday.

Believing the strangest things, loving the alien…

The Scumfrog vs Bowie version of ‘Loving The Alien’ is out today on the Positiva label. As we have mentioned a couple of times here on the news pages already, (04/11/02 NEWS: SCUMFROG V BOWIE VIDEO EXCLUSIVE – 02/27/02 NEWS: THE SCUMFROG V DAVID BOWIE) New York producer The Scumfrog has re-constructed David Bowie’s 1985 classic hit, ‘Loving The Alien’, and as predicted, the record is already a dancefloor hit in the clubs. It peaked at No.6 in the Cool Cuts chart and No.5 in the Buzz chart!

You can view the video by clicking on the image above, and you can purchase the CD or 12″ in any decent record store, or indeed, online at all your favourite online ordering type places. Here are the format tracklistings:

Enhanced CD

1 – LOVING THE ALIEN (RADIO EDIT) – The Scumfrog vs Bowie
2 – LOVING THE ALIEN (FULL VERSION) – The Scumfrog vs Bowie
3 – 8 DAYS, 7 HOURS – The Scumfrog
4 – Video of Loving The Alien

12″ Vinyl

1 – LOVING THE ALIEN (FULL VERSION)
2 – 8 DAYS, 7 HOURS

Don’t forget your date with me…

With the news of tour dates coming thick and fast, like…no, I’ll leave that…you may find it useful to keep an eye on the BowieNet Tour Calendar. You can get to it by finding TOUR CALENDAR in the floaty about thing above, then chase it around a bit and give it a click when it sits still. You should find the TOUR CALENDAR is always up to date, and that is why it features yesterday’s Manchester announcement. Good eh?

He’d like to come and meet us…

Anybody who visits these pages on a regular basis will know how I witter on about the importance of the release of ‘Starman’ (01/02/01 NEWS: SECOND TOTP APPEARANCE IN THREE DAYS FOR STARMAN? – 10/06/01 NEWS: WILL STARMAN BE A WINNER FOR GEORGE? – 01/08/02 NEWS: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU… – 04/02/02 SNIPPET: LIFE-CHANGING STUFF ON BBC 2 TONIGHT – 03/29/02 SNIPPET: BOWIEPHILES – 04/14/02 NEWS: STARMAN RELEASED THIRTY YEARS AGO TODAY…NOT!) …Well, rather than bore you yet again with my own feelings about the record, I thought I’d leave it to the ‘professionals this time.

The single was released on April 28th 1972, (backed with the as yet unissued ‘Suffragette City’) in a variety of different picture sleeves around the world, most of which were variations of the shot in the advert above from the brilliant Brian Ward session. You will have noticed that the reissued sleeve of the 1972 RCA release of ‘The Man Who Sold The World’ (black and white high-kick shot) was taken from this same session. Obviously it was Brian who was also responsible for the ‘Ziggy Stardust’ album cover shots, of which more later.

Anyway, on to our professionals. I’ve taken a couple of reviews from the better known music weeklies of the time in which ‘Starman’ was single of the week. First up is a review from the now defunct Melody Maker, (complete with Chris Welch’s mistakes, not mine!) which had carried adverts for ‘Starman’ two weeks in a row.

The second review is taken from New Musical Express, which would have sold well that week as it had taken the unusual step of including a free Rolling Stones preview flexi-disc of ‘Exile On Main Street’. The review was accompanied by yet another shot from the Brian Ward session and the wonderful headline, BI-GUY DAVID BOWIE SCORES …Oh, doesn’t it just take you back!?

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Melody Maker – April 29th, 1972

NEW POP SINGLES BY CHRIS WELCH

DAVID BOWIE: “Starman” (RCA)

“There’s a star man, waiting in the sky,” says David in that strange voice filled with premonitions of doom. “He’d like to come and meet us, but he’s afraid he’d blow our minds.”

Fascinating lyrics as usual and a space truckin’ tune that should appeal to all at Mission Control and points west. David is taking longer than most to become a super star, but he should catch up with Rod and Marc soon. There was a lot of talent wandering loose in the mid-sixties. Who’s left from those days that hasn’t made it yet? George Catsmeat – of course!

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New Musical Express – April 29th, 1972

SINGLES – REVIEWER: DANNY HOLLOWAY

BI-GUY DAVID BOWIE SCORES

DAVID BOWIE: “Starman” (RCA)

David proves he’s not just a pretty face on this cosmic 45. This is quite an elevating and energetic song with some super “teenage” lyrics. It takes a few listens to do it to ya, but “Starman” is obviously single of the week. The B side, “Suffragette City”, is one of the many highlights of David’s monumental live performances.

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The weather’s grim…

We have enormous pleasure in announcing that David Bowie is now confirmed as the headline act for the first day of the four day ‘Move’ festival in the grim northern town* of Manchester in the UK. Described as “an Urban Music Event”, the headliners on the other three days are Green Day, Paul Weller and New Order.

“So what!” I hear you collectively screech, “When is David Bowie playing?!” Well, David will perform on Wednesday July 10th at the Lancashire County Cricket Club ground at Old Trafford, and support will come from Suede, Morcheeba and Elbow. Now that’s what I call a bloody good line-up!

We will post ticket details shortly, so keep watching this space. Lancashire C.C.C., is situated at Warwick Road, Manchester, Lancashire, M16 0PX.

*I do apologise for the stereotypical description of Manchester, which isn’t actually all that bad. In fact it has been described by Radio 1 DJ, Lard, as the “cultural hub of Britain”. Mind you, this is from a man (and I use the term loosely) who describes the UK’s capital city, London, as a village! It should also be remembered that BowieNetters Rednik and Stephen ‘Baby’ King live together in an air raid shelter in the heart of Manchester, but that’s possibly a fact they won’t thank me for passing on to you!

Johnny looks up at the stars…Part two

Since the announcement of the Meltdown line-up, the UK press have this week been running stories with headlines along the lines of ‘PRESENTER ROSS TO DJ FOR HERO BOWIE’. Regular readers of BowieNet news will already be familiar with the lanky DJ’s appreciation of David Bowie’s music, (03/23/02 SNIPPET: JR, DB AND JR) and how he plays a Bowie tune pretty well every week on his Saturday morning Radio 2 show here in the UK.

Last week Jonathan played ‘Little Wonder’, and today he chose the rarely-heard-on-the-radio ‘Yassassin’! This was preceded by some talk of how he was approaching his spot at Meltdown on the 29th of June. He explained his intention to make it a bit of a 25th wedding anniversary type atmosphere, with tunes such as the ‘Birdy Song’, plastic bananas and prizes for best dancer…or something along those lines.

Before playing this week’s selection Jonathan exclaimed that the track was from the “underrated album Lodger”, (Hear! Hear!) and went on to say ‘Yassassin’ was “a track I’ve never heard on the radio, let’s see if I can correct that terrible sin.”

Before we leave ‘Britain’s Worst Dressed Man’, I must mention a show back in the first week of April on which hypnotist Paul McKenna was the guest. Jonathan suggested that through the power of somnambulism they should “start a cult whose members dress flamboyantly, and hang out at weekends listening to Bowie”. To which McKenna replied “I thought you already had.”

On the same show Mr Ross played ‘The Bewlay Brothers’, on vinyl, and bemoaned the demise of the large format artwork of full size album sleeves. He explained that, as opposed to the illegible text on CD sleeves, he could now actually read the back cover of ‘Hunky Dory’ and realised that ‘Life On Mars?’ was inspired by Frankie… Howerd!

PS – If you missed that John Lydon interview on The Jonathan Ross Show that we told you about last month, you can listen to it here.

And I’m gone gone gone…

The BowieNet allocation of tickets for David Bowie’s appearance at the Meltdown Festival on June 29th has now sold out. Rumours of tickets already selling on eBay for hundreds of dollars were confirmed today when I spied a pair that had already reached an astonishing $450, with the reserve not yet met and six days still to go!

Hopefully this is some consolation to those that had trouble getting tickets via BowieNet but were eventually successful.

They fall on Today, They beat on the outside…

Those of you hoping we would be a little more specific when we originally announced June 9th as the week of Roseland, may now be pleased we weren’t. With the news that David is to perform on June 14th as part of NBC’s Today TV Show 7th Annual Summer Concert Series, you may want to stay in New York a little longer than just the night of the BowieNet show at the Roseland on June 10th.

Our man plans to perform at least three songs on the show, including a track from ‘Heathen’ and an old favourite among them. He’s also looking forward to seeing some friendly faces down the front…so get there early. We’ll give you more information nearer the day.

These televised shows are free, and they normally take place outside at the Rockefeller Center, close to the famous skating rink. That gives you something to do while you’re waiting for David. Now all we’ve got to do is find something to do between the 10th and the 14th. };-)

Waiting for the gift of Sound + Vision, Drifting into my solitude, over my head…

You may not have noticed yet, but there is a BowieNet auction this week. Just one little item again, as I know many of you are wanting to keep your cash for the upcoming db live action. The item in question is a rather sexy 1990 Sound + Vision long-sleeved white sweatshirt.

The shirt comes with an embroidered S+V Bowie logo and a short zipper in the neck area for fat-heads such as myself. There’s still three days left on this auction, so if you fancy a bit of clobber direct from db’s very own vault, then click on the image above and place your bid!