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Bowie Press Blitz Continues
Sees the pictures of himself, Every magazine on every shelf…
Loads more Bowie features have appeared in magazines around the globe recently. Here’s a taste of just a few of them, we’ll bring you more as we get them. First off, a few interesting features that are also available to read online:
The current issue of BLENDER doesn’t have a Bowie front cover, but it makes up for it with some beautiful Mick Rock shots and a great Q&A with DB inside, similar to the thing that Q magazine does every month. Here’s one of the questions that David answered regarding this place:
How often do you check out Bowienet, your Web site and Internet Service Provider? BACK2LIVE, BELOIT, KANSAS
“I thought you were going to ask how often I check into the hospital! [Laughs] I do it every single morning. If I?d known how much work it was going to be to start that blessed thing…I?d still have done it. But I?ve cut down my online time, because I realized how much of my life it was taking up. In the mid-?90s, I was an obsessive ? I?d surf all the time, just crazed. And apparently there?s a lot of porn on the Internet too.”
You can read the whole hilarious thing by clicking on the magazine title above, as you can with some of the titles below.
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The current editions of both Rolling Stone and AP have a Q&A page with David, and both feature portraits of him created by the very lovely, if a bit trashy, Mask. AP also uses Mask’s Coal Chamber pic for the front cover, and for a feature on the band inside. Boy, that girl has a huge…. talent!
They are both a good read, here’s an excerpt from the Rolling Stone piece:
“Kids. At school, I remember very distinctly kids laughing at me because I would draw and write with my left hand, something like, “Ooh, you’re the devil.” And the teacher used to smack my hand to try and make me right-handed. I mean, it really was looked down upon in Britain at one time. And it put me outside of the others immediately. I didn’t feel the same as the others because of that. So I think it might have been one of those tips of how I was going to evaluate my journey through life: All right, I’m not the same as you motherfuckers, so I’ll be better than you. But, you know: things said in jest…And, of course, at thirteen, the eye didn’t help [Bowie’s left pupil was damaged in a childhood fight]. Although I quite enjoyed that as a badge of honor.”
The AP feature, while much shorter, is a thought-provoking piece nonetheless, concerning itself as it does with our depressing, blind stumble along the road-to-nowhere. But I’ll give you David’s parting shot, which was a little lighter in tone, when he was asked what was the most important life lesson he had learned so far:
“Have no expectations until you’re 50 ? and then file them under ‘wishful thinking’.”
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Philadelphia Weekly cover photograph by Dagmar
This week’s Philadelphia Weekly has a moving recollection of the adventures of the ‘Sigma Kids’, written by BowieNetter, Steve Volk. For the piece Steve met up with a few of the original kids, Patti Brett (Hi Patti) and Leslie Radowill, but more specifically he looks back over the life of superfan Marla Kanevsky, aka BowieNetter, Zelvis.
The original story is one of Bowie folklore, and one that still makes even the most privileged Bowie fan envious:
“The Sigma Kids didn’t just meet David Bowie. For one night they were his confidantes, his buds–underage kids for whom he bought wine and champagne! And fresh corned beef sandwiches! Sandwiches they were too nervous to eat! Yeah, and he played Young Americans for them–straight from the master tape–before RCA’s label execs heard it and certainly before you heard it. You who weren’t there to hear Bowie debut his version of the Philly Soul sound.”
Yeah OK Steve, don’t rub it in! Anyway, I won’t give anymore away, suffice to say it’s an emotional ride, at times quite heartbreaking. Now you can go read the whole thing by clicking on the magazine title above.
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The July issue of the Tower Records free magazine, Pulse, has a magnificent Bowie front cover and a six-page feature with yet another Bowie interview and several new Frank Ockenfels’ shots. Here’s a bit from the interview in which David insists that he leads the most ordinary of lives:
“I really do. For the last 10 years, I’ve been married. End of story. And before that, in the ’80s, what really happened? It all seems pretty tame compared to what I see on Behind the Music! I don’t think I would make a very interesting Behind the Music. I feel like my friend Moby, who is constantly complaining, ‘I’m really famous, but nothing famous ever happens to me.’ I look back over a 40-year period and what’s really happened has been on stage and on record. Other than that, it’s been a quiet life, and I like it that way.”
You know how to find the whole thing.
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Reviews from some of the recent ‘Heathen’ shows have appeared with large colour pictures in a couple of magazines, Q and Rock & Folk to name but two. The August edition of Q has a double page spread review of the Roseland show, with a brief aftershow interview with David. Here he talks about the temporary power failure during the performance of ‘Low’:
“When you’re driven by electricity, what can you do? Shout louder? Hahaha! I don’t know. Do some mime, I suppose, in my case. Do a shtick…I thought, well, if it goes on any longer I’ve got a whole load of Tommy Cooper jokes I can use. I would have used them as well, believe me. Hahaha!”
We believe you David, what a shame…damn those efficient technicians!
The Rock & Folk piece is a double review of Meltdown and the Paris Olympia show by Jérôme Soligny, accompanied by a great full-page live shot…but naturally, the article is in French. Somebody out there has offered to translate French to English for me, but I lost the e-mail! Could you please contact me again you very generous French person.
Jérôme is also responsible for a four-page portrait of David in the current French edition of Marie-Claire, from which the picture at the top of this piece is taken. His original title of “The cultural exception” has been changed to “La creature aux cent visages” (The creature with a hundred faces) but other than that, he tells me it is a good feature and he is happy with it. Again it’s in French, so I’ll take his very reliable word for that.
I’ll be following up on the Philadelphia Weekly piece here soon, and we’ll bring you another magazine round-up as soon as we have enough for one.
Bowienet Reporters Cover Mick Rock Booksigning
GASTON – gaston@davidbowie.com
Hoping to win a spot in a recent BowieNet Contest, I entered the Virgin Music Mega Store at Union Square a little after 5 p.m. Thursday afternoon to interview, photograph, and exchange stories with Mick Rock. He was scheduled to sign copies of what can only be called a Mega book titled Blood and Glitter, a coffee table must-have with pictures and quotations of a varietyof glam entertainment figures including the man we all know and love, Mr. David Bowie.
At the entrance to the Virgin (store) stood a modest table covered with copies of the volume and accompanied by a variety of related rock titles, including one small fictitious(?) paperback containing a lifetime of written letters to Mr. B (“Letters to Major Tom”).
You could probably spot Mick’s book from the space lab, the full color cover with side flaps featuring several million pixels of data bleeding wrap-around style, a twice life size Ziggy Stardust (make-up by Pierre LaRoche) with lips, and forehead circle of a blinding gold that would even make GustavKlimt put on shades. Some of you may remember this same photo was once used as the David Bowie Fan Club’s Christmas Card in 1973 with the message inside read “Have a Cool Yule!”
On the scene was winner Kim Smith who identified herself to me and started chatting about the coming events, pointing out several luminaries including Mick Rock himself, behind AustinPowers black shades with an albino purple tint, dressed down in blue denim shirt, loose black jeans and black hightopkeds with white rims, a far cry from the colorful fashion drenched glam prints in this book. But then everyone in New York wears black, and Mick Rock photographed as much of the punk scene as the glam scene.
Near Mr. Rock and perpetually behind viewfinder, a silver haired red faced gum-chewing male with “Mick Rock Picture Show” in Art Deco Garamond white lettering on the upper left quarter of his black t-shirt identified him as the video man, the obligatory cell phone stretching the round cowl of his t-shirt into an unexpected V-neck.
The coffee shop area was populated with various fans, book in tow, awaiting for the signal to get an autograph, several bored New Yorkers in assortments of mismatched summers sweats, severely bleached jeans and sandaled feet badly in need of a wire brush. But it’s 6 p.m. in the Big Apple and the prettiest things around are to be found in the pages of Mick’s book,although a lovely lass with a rhinestoned “Sex Pistols” t-shirt and just gorgeous pearl toe nails could give the photos a run for the money.
Amazingly, the music gracing the atmosphere was exquisitely appropos, the set list including Roxy Music “Virginia Plain”, NYDolls “Trash”, Lou Reed’s “Satellite of Love”, Nico “These Days”, Iggy Pop “Real Wild One”, Mr. B’s “Velvet Goldmine”, probably the first time that song has ever heard theairwaves of a public forum. It was heavenly and probably the first time Virgin got it right.
The third Bowienet member, Mr. Eric Schweijlih popped in, introduced himself, exchanged Bowie and Visconti stories and rounded us into a very friendly trio. We were set, although none of us were quite sure what we were supposed to do. A few moments later, the young hirsute Webmaster Alex (who has more hair on one sideburn that I, for shame Gaston, on my entire head) came over and set the stage. Winging it, Kim would take pix with her spycam, I’d jot down notes after I acquire an eames sketch book from the lower level, and Eric was to assist with questions and to help fill in the blanks.
And now to Kim’s report…
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KIM – chamomile@davidbowie.com
Don’t let anyone tell you that Mick Rock isn’t completely laidback and accessible. I had no problem approaching him when he wandered into the cafe at the Virgin Mega store. He was looked rather lost… which wasn’t very good considering he was the man of the hour. When I told him this, he chuckled. He was supposed to be meeting someone from Virgin, but didn’t know what the guy looked like. I commented that I was in the situation, waiting for the Alex the webmaster from Bowienet. Mick had great things to say about Bowienet, and said that he loved working on projects with us.
We chatted for a few more minutes before the Virgin guy appeared, and whisked Mick away. Then I found Gaston, the Quintessential Bowie Collector. He was gracious enough to show me some of the goodies he brought along with him–vintage fan club memorabilia and immaculate music magazines featuring Mick Rock photos.
A few minutes later Mick reappeared, Red Bull in hand (evidently he is addicted to them). He spoke of his recent stint in London promoting the “Moonage Daydream” book. He also talked about some other upcoming books he was working on Syd Barrett (“Psychedelic Renegade”), Queen (“Killer Queen”), the Sex Pistols, Rocky Horror, and Blondie. By this time it was almost time for the real interview to begin. And Alex and Eric had appeared. We grabbed a table and hung out until the interview started.
After the fans had their way with Mick, he very graciously signed copies of “Blood and Glitter” for us. He also answered a number of rather technical questions that Gaston posed . I would relay the details but I am not a photographer… most of it went over my head. Mick did say that he was using much computers and other photo technologies a great deal. He spoke of some of the music he was listening to- The Strokes, The Hives, Yeahyeahyeahs. He mentioned that if anyone wants to get a good deal on one of his prints, he could be contacted directly through his website (www.mickrock.com).
And that was a wrap. We posed for some photos (he likes to document everything on film). Then it was off to drinks with other Bnetters at Eric’s cordial invitation. Not a bad evening…
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Mick Rock Interview
July 18, 2002 – Virgin Mega Store – Union Square, NYC
Mary Huhn from the New York Post began the interview by introducing Mr. Rock and showing some of his most well known photographs from the book “Blood and Glitter. She commented that almost everyone had seen his work whether they knew it or not. She also remarked that he had very early on been in the innermost circles of the burgeoning glam scene as well as the revolutionary musical movement early 70’s.
The interview began with the question of how Mick got started in photography. His response, “Sideways”. He first picked up a camera while on an acid trip. Unfortunately that momentous first shoot will live only in his mind, for when he came down he realized there was no film in the camera. Mick’s earliest subjects were girls. Then he moved onto his friends, many of which who were musicians. “It was an interesting time… and it still is.”
One of his first subjects was Syd Barrett. Syd was from his hometown, and they had been roommates at school. Mick got to know Syd with Pink Floyd, and then worked with him extensively on his solo tour. Mick is currently compiling his work with Syd in to a book, “Psychedelic Renegade”.
Ms. Huhn asked Mick how he hooked up with David Bowie. Mick explained that early on his career, he would do interviews and write, along with taking photos, in order to support himself. At this point in time, there just wasn’t much money to be made doing straight photography. His favorite subjects were what he described as “odd”. When he came across Bowie, Mick got some commissions from magazines for his work with him. Mick feels he got “lassoed” to continue working with Bowie because he came so cheap. However, it was a rewarding collaboration because of the many connections Mick made as a result. One of the biggest “firsts” in glam photography to emerge from his work with Bowie was a black and white photo from 1972 depicting Ziggy biting the strings of Mick Ronson’s guitar.
When asked about the title of the book “Blood and Glitter”, Mick laughed and replied that he had to bleed a lot to get the pictures. He then recanted and said that a friend had suggested the title, which he liked and thought fitting.
Mary Huhn displayed the landmark photo of David Bowie, Iggy Pop and Lou Reed taken in 1972. Mick has made the comment that it is remarkable that they are all alive (including himself). The picture was taken on a U.S.press junket for Bowie. Reed and Pop had shown up at the Dorchester Hotel, and Mick was determined to get all of them together in one shot. Mick further commented the picture in the book was rather ironic as you can see Tony Defries in the background. At the time Defries was managing Bowie and Pop, and was in hot pursuit of Reed.
Mick was questioned about how he got to be the photographer of the inner circle of glam. He replied that he simply knew them before they were stars. It was never about the money. When he started there was no money. He simply followed his instincts and did what made him happy. “I got off on it. It wasn’t by design. I didn’t even know that there could be that level of success”. Mick said that at the time there were few other photographers around doing this type of work.
The topic of his work with the Sex Pistols was brought up. Mick said that taking his first pictures of them in 1975 was a strange experience. John Lydon was extremely belligerent and abusive towards the crowd. “I thought it was a very interesting way of approaching an audience.”
Huhn then asked the question, “did punk kill glam?” Mick answered quickly, “Glam was ready to have its throat cut.” He went on to say that punk was not so much a reaction to, but rather an outgrowth of glam. “Johnny Rotten was Ziggy Stardust with a very bad attitude.”
On the book “Blood and Glitter”, Mick discussed how it was put together. Mick chose to put it together with a publisher in England so that he could include everything he wanted, including the less known characters such as Lyndsay Kemp. US publishers had only wanted to include the big names. Mick then used quotes from his own interviews with his subjects. “David [Bowie] was very articulate”, he commented.
Mick talked about his early visits to New York. He described the manic party scene; “I would stay awake for 48 hours, because I knew I could go back to London to sleep.” He recalled one Christmas where he and Lou Reed aimlessly walked 60 blocks through the streets of Manhattan in the snow.
On recalling his favorite subjects, he sighted Bowie (“Mr. B”) and Lou Reed, with whom he has worked for many years. He also spoke of Freddy Mercury. “He never did anything on a small scale. Except for watching football [soccer] on TV.” Evidently, Mercury preferred watching the lads’ legs in the close-up manner that the televised game provided.
Of the many people he has photographed over the years, it is David Bowie and Lou Reed that he still stays in contact with most. When he suffered a quadruple bypass surgery five years ago, the first flowers to arrive were from Bowie, and the second were from Reed.
Having such a major health scare has changed Mick’s lifestyle. ” I am much to old to die young”. He now manages stress through lots of yoga, massage and acupuncture. And he is quite fond of energy drinks like Red Bull.
Mick now lives in Staten Island, and shoots in studios around New York.
Click the image above, or HERE, to view the photos from the event
Ziggy Film Party In Nyc Tomorrow – Free Tickets Here!
“Why did you kill Ziggy?” David Bowie decides it’s time
for a change at the Hammersmith Odeon, July 3rd 1973.
Ziggy threw a party that lasted all night…
If you’re in NY tomorrow and at a loose end, why not trundle along to a party in celebration of ‘Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars’, the newly restored D.A. Pennebaker film, previously known as ‘Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture’. It promises to be a very special evening with the film playing continuously all night (video only, on screens throughout the place), a live band (
Obviously that’s not enough for you demanding New York BowieNetters…and so, 50 of you will get in free with VIP guest list admission! Still not enough? OK, 10 of those 50 BowieNetters will also be picked at random to receive a Ziggy poster signed by D.A. Pennebaker himself! You lucky gits.
The event commences at 8:00pm tomorrow at Don Hill’s, 511 Greenwich Street (Corner of Spring) and if you aren’t a winning BowieNetter, it’s $10 admission or $5 with a ticket stub from Film Forum. (See below) Here’s the official blurb:
“Pennebaker Hegedus Films, RZO Music & Cowboy Pictures, invite you to join us in celebrating the 30th Anniversary and the New York premiere of Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders from Mars, a film by D A Pennebaker starring David Bowie, now playing at the Film Forum through July 25
Join filmmaker D A Pennebaker and friends at Don Hill’s, 511 Greenwich Street (Corner of Spring), Wednesday, July 24 at 8:00pm – Celebrating the film’s theatrical and upcoming DVD release, featuring a newly restored picture and digitally remixed soundtrack. $10 admission. $5 with Ziggy ticket stub from the Film Forum.”
If you’re absolutely certain you can make it, go
If you can’t make the party, but want to see the film anyway, keep reading…
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Bowie On Last Call With Carson Daly – Wanna Go?
Only for you I don’t regret, That I was Thursday’s Child…
David Bowie is to guest on
There are 200 tickets available for BowieNet so that means BowieNetters will pretty much be the audience. Tickets are limited to two per application, and here’s what you need to do for a chance to get yours:
– e-mail lastcallaudience@nbc.com with a subject line of “DAVID BOWIE” to enter.
– You must include your FULL NAME AND PHONE # in the e-mail.
– State whether you require a single ticket or a pair of tickets.
– You must be at least 16 years of age to be in the audience.
– ONLY APPLY IF YOU ARE 16 OR OVER, AND YOU WILL ATTEND!
– Winners will be contacted directly by NBC a few days before the show.
– Take your NBC confirmation e-mail with you as a back up.
Last Call with Carson Daly is approximately half an hour, and it’s going to be all David Bowie. The show will broadcast on August 7th. So, there you have it…be lucky kidz!
Last Call with Carson Daly
30 Rockefeller Plaza, Suite 1755E
New York, New York 10112
Click on the image above to take you to a page that reiterates this information, and looks jolly pretty too.
Gus Dudgeon And Wife Killed In Car Crash
Our thoughts are with the friends and families of Gus Dudgeon and his wife Sheila who died in a car accident during the weekend. Dudgeon, 59, was killed when his car veered off the M4 motorway between Reading and Maidenhead (England) on Sunday. The Jaguar XK8 careered down an embankment and ended up on its roof. Dudgeon and his wife were pronounced dead at the scene.
Though best known for his work with Elton John, Dudgeon was also the producer of David Bowie’s first hit single, ‘Space Oddity’, and he never minded owning up to the fact that he was also the man behind the gnome voices on ‘The Laughing Gnome’ when he engineered David’s first album, ‘David Bowie’, released on the Deram label.
See Ziggy Retire In Nyc With D.a. Pennebaker!
When the kids had killed the man, I had to break up the band…
With just a couple of days left to go to see the newly restored ‘Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars’ at the Film Forum in New York, Thursday would be a good day to attend if you haven’t already been to see this 30th Anniversary version of the film.
As well as being at the event above, the film’s director, D.A. Pennebaker, will appear in person at the Thursday, July 25, 8:20pm screening of the show, and you can purchase tickets for this special screening (
If you’re in the area, you can still catch the film tonight, and for the next two days. Here are the showtimes: 1:00, 2:50, 4:40, 6:30, 8:20, 10:10. I am sooo jealous!
Bowie Writes Exclusively For V Magazine…again
These are your favourite things…
The current issue of V magazine (July/August edition) has a Bowie front cover with twelve other new pictures by Mario Testino inside. Also inside, David guest edits the Heroes section of the magazine, from which we have reproduced snippets below. The original pieces are longer, and not as disjointed as some of my selected paragraphs would suggest.
So do try and get the mag if you can, it’s great stuff, and our man really is a very compelling writer. This isn’t the first time David has written for V. You may remember a piece called ‘Cosh Boys’ that he wrote back in May last year. (05/02/01 NEWS: BOWIE WRITES AND ROCK SHOOTS FOR ‘V’ MAG) I can’t wait for him to write some full length thing of his own someday.
Thanx to BowieNetters Leeza for the above cover scan, and breakingglass (Helen) for typing out ALL of the text…not just the stuff below, but the whole lot! Thanx very much ladies…I use the term loosely of course! };-)
Total Blam Blam – (BowieNet News Editor)
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The Legendary Stardust Cowboy at David Bowie’s
Meltdown last month. Picture by Total Blam Blam.
In early 1971, just before my departure from the States back to the U.K., Mercury executive Ron Oberman took me aside and furtively pressed a couple of singles into my hand. “Play these,” he said. “You will never be the same again.” Back home I choked on “Paralyzed” gasped in awe at “Down in the Wrecking Yard,” and fell all about the floor at “I took a Trip on a Gemini Spaceship.” It was the laugh of love. I could not believe that such a talent had gone virtually unrecognized. If ever there was an equivalent to outsider art, this was it. The integrity, honesty, and innocent, brutal focus entranced me. I became a lifelong fan, and Ziggy got a surname.
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At Jennie Richee lost in the wilderness in the dark (detail)
Tracing and watercolor 60 x 276 cm. By Henry Darger.
In 1973, after Henry Darger had passed away, his landlord, the photographer Nathan Lerner, investigated his room and found it piled ceiling-high with religious artefacts (mostly kitsch), more than a thousand balls of string, corridors of papers, magazines and comic books; bizarre nine-foot-long double-sided scroll paintings; a six-volume daily weather journal, updated for more than ten years; and a five-thousand-page autobiography. The written works amounted to more than thirty thousand pages, all hand-bound. Something a little more special, I suspect, than familiar possessions of an old, poor and lonely man.
Moreover, in the place of honour in the centre of the squalor was something only a true outsider could have created. It was Darger’s life’s work, an obsessively epic nineteen-thousand-legal size-page, self-drawn and -written mythology called The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glanderco-Angelinnean War Storm, Caused by the Child State Rebellion. Oh yes! A tormented and gargantuan ramble, War and Peace as written by a demented Lewis Carroll, illustrated by Hieronymous Bosch, using the techniques of Rauschenberg or Warhol.
The American Folk Art Museum in Manhattan has established the Henry Darger Study Center. All of his life’s work, including his materials and sources, is now available to the world’s scrutiny. May we judge him in the same light we would any ‘legitimate’ artist? Inasmuch as he quarried the mines of American junk culture and developed a handmade and prescient form of pop art, I think the answer has to be yes. This singular and highly worrisome voice is redolent of much that is humming in the depths of modern-day morality. At times both idealistic and perverse, childlike and knowing. Darger, like Bacon or Balthus, mirrors the shame, invention, individualism, and dysfunction that was a keystone of the last century.
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David Bowie wearing the British Union-flag jacket for the 1996
VH1 Fashion Awards show, designed by Alexander McQueen.
He decided in the mid 90’s that it was time to recover the idea of the long coat with its slight nod to eighteenth and early nineteenth century grace. From around 1995, Lee (His friends call him Lee) made me a series of these coats for television and road shows, culminating in the British Union-flag jacket for the 1996 VH1 Fashion Awards show. This appearance caused an eruption of British flag items and cemented the long coat as a completely acceptable garment for men’s evening wear. No Grammy Awards or New York soiree is now complete without half a dozen or so. The original now hangs in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame.
We’ve both worked in not a dissimilar way, Lee and I. We both wanted jobs where we could indulge our passions and loves without having to answer to anyone. To bring in from the outside the low-level, nagging fear that crouches in corners and invest our chosen fields with that starved anxiety. Only Lee could read the Marquis de Sade and come up with spring ready to wear.
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‘Valentine’ portable typewriter made by Olivetti, designed
by Ettore Sottsass in 1969. As used by Mr David Bowie.
It started with a red typewriter, a beautiful thing produced by Olivetti. I typed up many of my lyrics on that. The pure gorgeousness of it made me type as much as my need to get the songs down on paper. I couldn’t not look at it. I read that this guy Ettore Sottsass had designed it. Wow, he had designed the salt and pepper shakers in the kitchen, too. I must be drawn to his “thing”. 1982. A chair in the window of a so-funky furniture store in the West 30s. A trendy clothes shop called Fiorucci. All linked to Sottsass.
Boom. Then, the bomb dropped. Already sixty-two years old, Sottsass had energy to burn. He gathered around him a team of very young kids – some hadn’t graduated from design school even – and formed Memphis Design Milan and blood began to boil. It didn’t look serious. It looked like a prank. It mixed Formica attitude with marble diffidence. Bright yellows against turquoise. Virus patterns on ceramics. It couldn’t care less about function. How do you sit on that? It tabled the idea of the idea. Each piece of furniture offered a plethora of possibilities, options and inconclusive open ends. It sucked on the breath of pop culture with gusto and an enthusiasm that was delightful to witness. Within a short time, the street was overflowing with cheap and nasty spin offs. Everyone thought they could knock off a Memphis line and did. Oh, the horror, the ridicule. Except that nothing ever looked the same again.
Even now the jolt, the impact created by walking into a room containing a cabinet by Memphis – the Carlton, for instance – is visceral. It’s true that you can’t put another piece of furniture within the same space. There is just no aesthetic room. All networks of proposition are trammelled by this one item. Terrific. It’s a remix, rap, it’s hip-hop. Would all of the Starcks and Lovegroves of the world please stand and salute the greatest designer of the last fifty years? Your doors were opened by this man. Ettore Sottsass.
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Peter Ackroyd’s ‘Dressing Up’. David Bowie wants it for
Christmas. Click on the cover if you want to help him out!
An attribute that fascinates me about his work is his ability to work in the dual narrative, in two voices often separated by centuries. However, more that this, I sincerely covet his skill in creating place so vividly. His research is impeccable, his scholarship pronounced. His description of the banks of the River Thames in More’s time is nothing short of breathtaking in its orientalism. You can really smell the spices, feel the dirt between your toes, and see the turbans and gowns of the traders. It’s no longer boring Britain; It’s North Africa. Who would have thought?
On a lighter and last note, one of his least known works is Dressing Up, a history of drag and transvestism. I’ve not yet read it. You can get it for me for Christmas.
Bowie Says Goodbye To Europe In Montreux
“Mmmm, shall I give ’em ‘Low’ for the encore, or not?”
A generous David Bowie at the Montreux Jazz Festival.
And the girl next door…
David Bowie ended the European leg of the ‘Heathen’ tour last night in the Stravinski Hall at the Montreux Jazz Festival, in Montreux, Switzerland. Despite sweltering temperatures, David performed a longer than usual set by rewarding the audience with a similar one to that which he performed in Cologne last week.
He started the show in the very stylish black and white clobber that has become the trademark look of this tour. BowieNet’s resident mathematician has predicted that we can expect a similar look for David around the year 2012, if the pattern of 1976, 1990, 2002 is to be continued.
The fans down the front didn’t disappoint in terms of launching appropriate items stage-ward at the appropriate lyrical prompts…such as “Just wishing that I had just something you wore”, “I’d love to get a letter” and possibly “…your big fat dog” and perhaps even “…the girl next door”!
The first encore saw a return of that lovely little blue jacket that I’ll hopefully have some shots of soon, and for the second encore of the entire ‘Low’ album, (excepting ‘Weeping Wall’) David wore the long red coat with the black platforms and baggy black trouser affair. He finished the show sans red coat, possibly due to the outrageous temperatures in the hall, but most likely just because he’s a sexy sort.
“What do you think of the new hairdo then Gail? it’s called The Mistral.
I got the idea in Nimes…It takes bloody yonks to get it looking like this.”
At the end of the show, in a rather surreal scene, some important type (Claude Nobs, the founder of the festival, apparently) presented DB with a huge Swiss cowbell onstage…by all accounts David was almost overcome with laughter as he struggled offstage banging his gift. Remembering his antics with various items during ‘Cactus’ on this tour, I’m not quite sure how I should interpret the verb “banging”? Whatever, that’s a picture I would love to see.
Thanx again to SusanS for phoning through the set list, and to Philippe Bitz for the cow bell anecdote. Thanx also to UltraStar for the time machine. (Click on the above images if you’re wondering what I’m talking about.) Here’s last night’s set list:
Sunday
Life On Mars?
Ashes To Ashes
Cactus
Slip Away
China Girl
Starman
I Would Be Your Slave
I?ve Been Waiting For You
Stay
Changes
Fashion
Fame
I?m Afraid of Americans
5:15 The Angels Have Gone
“Heroes”
Heathen (The Rays)
——————–
Everyone Says Hi
Hallo Spaceboy
Let’s Dance
Ziggy Stardust
——————–
Warszawa
Speed Of Life
Breaking Glass
What In The World
Sound And Vision
Art Decade
Always Crashing In The Same Car
Be My Wife
A New Career In A New Town
Subterraneans