Month: August 2002

No mistake here… If you know what to do, good luck. If you don’t, you need to look around!

No mistake here… If you know what to do, good luck. If you don’t, you need to look around!

I’ll paint you mornings of gold

Welcome back to the weekend column for and about people who love da man..

New Interview : NPR : 08/28/02

If you tuned in to NPR’s ‘Morning Edition’ (USA) on Wednesday morning you might have been surprised to hear David (still in his pyjamas – see above 😉 talking to the host Renee Montagne about songwriting, specifically some of the songs from Heathen (“all the overnight crew (22 year olds) are in love with it” she tells David), and some snippets about parenthood ‘Chez Bowie’ over the last few days. David talks about his (unique – in my view) ability to provide an apt sonic background to inform the lyrics he writes, and Seven, who mailed in the link, selected this quote “Its the space in between the artist and the audience that is the real ‘matter’ of a piece of art” The interview really is fascinating stuff, and you can hear the whole thing, streaming here. Don’t miss this..

Area: 2 review : Seattle Times : 08/19/02

I know you will empathise 100% with this great quote from the Seattle Times review of David’s last date on the Area: 2 Tour. “…by far, the most amazing scene of the night was the audience behavior before Bowie’s set. “Dude! C’mon, it’s Bowie!,” screamed one twentysomething man to his friends, who were closer to the top of the grassy hill. “C’MON!” His five friends responded by careening down the paved walkway to find a good spot closer to the stage. Within a few minutes, the kids and the older audience members merged for the first time. Every paved walkway leading to the stage was crammed with people clamoring to get closer to Bowie. Bowie performed decades of hits…while constant and loud audience cheers were the only thing all day to rival the volume of the thumping DJ tent.

Here’s a lovely pic of db and Gail, backstage at Jay Leno.

And while on the subject of Area: 2, here are one or two more reviews which came in too late for the original gig news item deadlines. The press for these shows was just one big wave of ecstasy. A huge pleasure to read and to work with.

The Hollywood Reporter on L.A.:- “the Thin White Duke combined an elegant air with a deadpan sense of humor (” ‘Heathen’ — I gotta pick up a copy of that; I understand it’s really good,” he quipped about his new album) and proved he’s one of the best songwriters in rock ‘n’ roll, period.

Highlights of his total pleasure of a set included the new “Slip Away,” with its sad-eyed, haunting grandeur, and the spare, syncopated “5:15 the Angels Have Gone.” Bowie also took an enthusiastic audience through a tour of his decades of material.

“We’re off to the ’90s; pack your bags,” he cracked before “Afraid of Americans.” “Stay” was a percussive, soaring rave-up, while “Fame” remained its funky, resonant self. Several songs took on a new incarnation live: “Heroes” was bouncier than on disc, while “Let’s Dance” sported a gloomy, atmospheric intro. “Ziggy Stardust” completed a memorable set.

and also the Mercury News on San Francisco:- The audience ate up each act. David Bowie got the biggest response, with a taut, tight, heavy-on-the-bass 90-minute set.. The 55-year-old English rocker, who wore a black suit and vest under a simple lit-up BOWIE sign, has been mixing experimental sounds with commercial ones for three decades.

There was a sci-fi tinge to the set, which began with 1972’s “Is There Life on Mars?” and included 1977’s “A New Career in a New Town” from “Low,” the album that could be the textbook for Moby’s later electronic experimentation.

Bowie’s bassist, Gail Ann Dorsey, punched beats from songs that predated hip-hop and helped set the stage for it, songs such as “Fame” and “Fashion.”

This time out, the man who fell to the stage with a new persona for every tour was part blond California surfer, part television pitchman. Not only did he seem to enjoy playing songs he swore off years ago, but he jokingly promised to go into the audience after the show to sell such new musical products as the “Jackalope” and the “Stylophone,” which he said makes “Major Tom”-like sounds.

Ziggy (Movie Re-Release) : The Guardian : 08/02/02

This quote from a recent edition of The Guardian, reviewing films on release in L.A., homes in on db’s life-long ability (and enthusiasm) to ‘rip it up and start again’:- Ziggy finds Bowie casting about for new guises as he readies the last few nails for the Zigster’s pine box and essentially prepares to throw away a guaranteed money-spinner – which is pretty frickin’ rock’n’roll, I think. Ziggy emerges as a portrait of an artist more than prepared to burn all his bridges and start again from degree zero.

Here are some more great quotes from recent reviews of the Dolby Digital Surround 5.1 re-release. From Rotten Tomatoes:- “what truly awes is the realization of Bowie’s completely mature command of both his voice and the stage so early in his career.” and from Film Critic.com:- “You want to cheer, hold up a lighter, and sing along?” (our Mask was at a recent showing in L.A. and posted on the boards that the audience were indeed holding up lighters.. eat your heart out Rocky.. ) The New Times, L.A. adds:- “The …brilliant sound of Ziggy and his Spiders (Mick Ronson, Trevor Bolder, Mick Woodmansy) has been remixed by longtime Bowie producer Tony Visconti, and Bowie’s theatrical vision is deservedly legendary. How could anyone hope to control a camera in the presence of a minor deity?” and Film Threat say:- “Through a stroke of brilliant scheduling, “Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars” is being released at the same time that Bowie’s latest album “Heathen” is being unveiled. Bowie fans who need a reason to celebrate the trajectory of the artist’s career can make use of this cinematic Alpha and CD Omega.”

Don’t forget – ‘Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars’ is showing on AMC in the USA at 12.10AM and again at 12.50PM on 08/31/02. There are also lots more cinema showings coming up around the USA. Check out Cowboy Pictures for the full listing.

Space Oddity : The Guardian : 08/16/02

Roddy Frame (ex Aztec Camera) was the subject of a recent ‘Home Entertainment’ column in The Guardian and had this to say about his earliest musical moment. :- “I’m always trying to find that special thing in pop music. For me, it started with Space Oddity by David Bowie – it has that semi-tone shift which fascinated me. I played it endlessly to my mum and it made me feel this yearning. It’s a kind of sweetness, and it can turn up in the strangest places.”

Young Americans : The Emperor’s Club : Showing Now

“Young Americans” accompanies the trailer for “The Emperor’s Club”, a new film starring Kevin Kline, Embeth Davidtz and Rob Morrow. The film is about a professor (Kline) from an elite boys’ prep school who is challenged by the headstrong son of a powerful senator. The two battle it out for the hearts and souls of the other students, inexorably changing the fate of both the men.

:))

How Lucky You Are…

This announcement may not be quite what you were all expecting, but as I promised to give you more details by the end of the week, here we go…

I am revealing as much as I can at the moment, so please be patient and stay tuned for more information. In an attempt to make your plans a little easier to make however, I can tell you that David Bowie will play a London venue on Wednesday, October 2nd.

For reasons that are probably obvious to you, I am posting information relating to this show in the members area only for now, this is in the vain hope that details don’t leak too far outside the BowieNet community.

Please do be patient for ticket and venue details, and please remember I can not respond to personal appeals for more information, however difficult your situation, neither can I respond to MB requests of a similar nature.

Thanx for your attention kidz! };-)

And here are we, At the center of it all…

This week sees the release of the limited edition Mercury Music Prize 2002 Compilation CD. As is usual, the album contains a track from each of the shortlisted albums plus a bonus track from the previous year’s winning album. (In this case ‘Stories From The City’ by PJ Harvey)

The hour long CD which is only available for six weeks before it is deleted, contains David Bowie’s ‘Slow Burn’ from the Mercury nominated ‘Heathen’. The cover (above) features the painting ‘Millions’ by London-based artist Laszlo Lukacs. Here is the 2002 Panasonic Mercury Music Prize CD tracklisting:

01. Shoulda Woulda Coulda – Beverley Knight
02. Slow Burn – David Bowie
03. There Goes the Fear – Doves
04. It Takes More – Ms. Dynamite
05. Has It Come to This? – The Streets
06. I Remember When – The Coral
07. Let A Good Thing Go – Gemma Hayes
08. Silent to the Dark – Electric Soft Parade
09. Dreamy Days – Roots Manuva
10. No Trophy – The Bees
11. Underdogs (excerpt) – Guy Barker
12. Dance It – Joanna MacGregor
13. This Is Love – PJ Harvey

The winner of the 2002 Panasonic Mercury Music Prize will be announced at the Mercury Prize show on Tuesday, 17th September. The event will be broadcast live on BBC4 and on Radio 1, and there will also be a BBC2 60-minute Mercury Prize special on Friday, 20th September, hosted by Jools Holland and Jo Whiley.

I asked for an autograph…

David Bowie is due to do his first signing session in London since that memorable day at the Virgin Megastore back in December 1999. (12/03/99 TEASER: LONDON…TA TA & 12/06/99 NEWS: VIRGIN MEGASTORE SIGNING 12/04/99)

This time the session will take place at HMV in Oxford Street on Monday 9th September for an hour, between 11.00 am to 12.00 midday. The event will be restricted to 150 lucky ticket holders, and we’ll be posting details of how BowieNetters can obtain these tickets shortly.

Here is the full press release:

David Bowie meets his fans at HMV: rare PA as prelude to Mercury Music Prize

One hundred and fifty lucky David Bowie fans have the chance to meet their hero when he makes a very rare personal appearance at HMV?s 150 Oxford Street flagship store in London?s West End next month.

Bowie visits the store for an hour from 11.00 am to 12.00 midday on Monday 9th September. Such is the anticipated demand to meet Bowie, however, that fan access will be restricted to the first 150 people obtaining free tickets for the event. Full details of how fans can obtain tickets will be available via his website, www.davidbowie.com.

David Bowie will be signing copies of his much-acclaimed hit album, Heathen, which is shortlisted as one of the Albums of the Year in the 2002 Panasonic Mercury Music Prize. Bowie?s HMV appearance comes a week prior to the Final of the Mercury Music Prize, on Tuesday 17th September.

Released in June this year, Heathen sees David Bowie reunited with legendary producer Tony Visconti. Guest musicians on the album include Pete Townshend and the Foo Fighter?s Dave Grohl.

Wow, I’m getting butterflies already. While we’re on the subject of the Mercury Music Prize…

Waiting for the gift of sound and vision…

EMI have released details of the ‘Best of Bowie? DVD that we mentioned last week. (08/21/02 NEWS: BEST OF BOWIE – 23 VERSIONS WORLDWIDE!) Due on November 4th, the DVD has been produced to tie in with the ?Best Of Bowie? album, which will be released on 21st October. This 47 track double DVD is easily the most complete set of Bowie visual performances ever collected together. Here’s a bit from the press release to explain further:

“This 2 disc set boasts a plethora of TV performances, such as ?Oh! You Pretty Things?, ?Five Years? and ?Queen Bitch? (all taken from the ?Old Grey Whistle Test?), ?Young Americans? (from The ?Dick Cavett Show?) and the now legendary ?Starman? performance from ?Top Of The Pops?. The DVD will also include the only contemporary performance of ?Rebel Rebel? on film, which was taken from the Dutch TV programme ?TopPop?.”

Here’s the full breakdown:

Best of Bowie DVD – Catalogue Number: 490 1039

DVD 1:
01 Oh! You Pretty Things (Old Grey Whistle Test) (Take 2)
02 Queen Bitch (Old Grey Whistle Test)
03 Five Years (Old Grey Whistle Test)
04 Starman (Top Of The Pops)
05 John, I’m Only Dancing
06 The Jean Genie
07 Space Oddity
08 Drive-In Saturday (Russell Harty Plus Pop)
09 Ziggy Stardust (from Motion Picture)
10 Life On Mars? (Mick Rock)
11 Rebel Rebel (TopPop)
12 Young Americans (Dick Cavett Show)
13 Be My Wife
14 “Heroes”
15 Boys Keep Swinging
16 DJ
17 Look Back In Anger
18 Ashes To Ashes
19 Fashion
20 Wild Is The Wind
21 Let’s Dance
22 China Girl
23 Modern Love
24 Cat People (Live from Serious Moonlight Tour)
25 Blue Jean
26 Loving The Alien
27 Dancing In The Street

DVD 2:
01 Absolute Beginners
02 Underground
03 As The World Falls Down
04 Day-In Day-Out
05 Time Will Crawl
06 Never Let Me Down
07 Fame ’90
08 Jump They Say
09 Black Tie White Noise
10 Miracle Goodnight
11 Buddha Of Suburbia
12 The Heart?s Filthy Lesson
13 Strangers When We Meet
14 Hallo Spaceboy
15 Little Wonder
16 Dead Man Walking
17 Seven Years In Tibet
18 I’m Afraid Of Americans
19 Thursday’s Child
20 Survive

The little montage thingy I’ve done above utilises screen grabs from the videos, so please don’t take it as any indication of the quality of this DVD release, which is obviously spot on, and better quality than any previous Bowie video compilation. Well I’m jolly excited about this one, and I’m sure you are too. Keep watching this space for more information and competition details soon.

Get me to the doctor…

Judging by the MBs, a few of you have already been infected by the recently launched VIRUS section here on BowieNet. Though it’s still just a germ of a thing, it will mutate and grow over time as it sends out it’s info-sucking tentacles around the land of Bowie!

While VIRUS is still being cultured in our laboratory, you can check out bits of it now. The CONTAGIA section looks at the world outside BowieNet with links to sites that cover Art, Design, Literature, Movies and Music…there has been a lot of input from David here, with links to much beautiful work.

Other areas contained within VIRUS include: TRANSMIT where you can send Bowie Postcards with musical attachments to whoever the hell you want; there are a few primitive games you can play in the RECREATE section…such as solitaire with a pack of Bowie cards; and there is the X-CHANGE section with BOWIE v MOBY and BOWIE v AIR cyber discussions that most of you will have seen, but with the promise of more X-CHANGEs to come.

All of these existing sections will grow as the BowieNet community feeds them, with the RAVES, SYMBIONTS and BREED sections still to come. There is no known cure for VIRUS, so it’s best you learn to live with it as soon as you can. Start by clicking on the word ENTER in the panel above.

BEST OF BOWIE DVD – Release Date: 4th November 2002
EMI Records
Catalogue Number: 490 1039

To tie in with the ‘Best Of Bowie’ album, which will be released on 21st October , EMI Catalogue release the long awaited ‘Best of Bowie’ DVD on November 4th.

This 2 disc set boasts a plethora of TV performances, such as ‘Oh! You Pretty Things’, ‘Five Years’ and ‘Queen Bitch’ (all taken from the ‘Old Grey Whistle Test’), ‘Young Americans’ (from The ‘Dick Cavett Show’) and the now legendary ‘Starman’ performance from ‘Top Of The Pops’. The DVD will also include the only contemporary performance of ‘Rebel Rebel’ on film, which was taken from the Dutch TV programme ‘TopPop’.

All of this, coupled with the classic videos and live concert appearances, make this 47 track collection truly the ‘Best Of Bowie’

DVD 1 1. Oh! You Pretty Thing (Old Grey Whistle Test) (Take 2) 2. Queen Bitch (Old Grey Whistle Test) 3. Five Years (Old Grey Whistle Test) 4. Starman (Top Of The Pops) 5. John, I’m Only Dancing 6. The Jean Genie 7. Space Oddity 8. Drive-In Saturday (Russell Harty Plus Pop) 9. Ziggy Stardust (from Motion Picture) 10. Life On Mars? (Mick Rock) 11. Rebel Rebel (TopPop) 12. Young Americans (Dick Cavett Show) 13. Be My Wife 14. “Heroes” 15. Boys Keep Swinging 16. DJ 17. Look Back In Anger 18. Ashes To Ashes 19. Fashion 20. Wild Is The Wind 21. Let’s Dance 22. China Girl 23. Modern Love 24. Cat People (Live from Serious Moonlight Tour) 25. Blue Jean 26. Loving The Alien 27. Dancing In The Street

DVD 2 1. Absolute Beginners 2. Underground 3. As The World Falls Down 4. Day-In Day-Out 5. Time Will Crawl 6. Never Let Me Down 7. Fame ’90 8. Jump They Say 9. Black Tie White Noise 10. Miracle Goodnight 11. Buddha Of Suburbia 12. The Heart’s Filthy Lesson 13. Strangers When We Meet 14. Hallo Spaceboy 15. Little Wonder 16. Dead Man Walking 17. Seven Years In Tibet 17. I’m Afraid Of Americans 18. Thursday’s Child 19. Survive

(If) I can talk on television

Premiering on AMC in the USA on Friday August 30th at 8.00PM (ET) is a new and original two hour TV special, ‘Hollywood Rocks The Movies: The 1970’s’ hosted and narrated by none other than ‘legendary musical artist’ and ‘rock superstar’ David Bowie. The show ‘traces the infusion of music into the movies of the 1970’s’.

Further details include this:-

‘THE 1970’s’ takes viewers on a romp through the most ground-breaking rock and roll films of the 1970s. Spectacular film clips, trailers, photographs, interviews with rock and rollers and Hollywood insiders complement the music of an array of artists from The Rolling Stones and Bob Marley, to The Bee Gees and The Sex Pistols, highlighting the two-hour special narrated by rock superstar David Bowie.

Repeat showings:- Sunday 1st September at 6.00PM, Tuesday 3rd September, 10.15PM, Wednesday 4th September, 2.10AM and Monday 16th September at 9.45AM and again at 3.10PM.

You can read more in the press release for the show, here.

Don’t miss!

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Come see, come see, remember me?

And… What a TREAT is in store for those of you who can receive ARTE! If you who were lucky enough to be able to attend the almost instantly sold out Paris show at Olympia on July 1st this year you will remember the presence of TV cameras (07/02/02 NEWS: LAST NIGHT’S PARIS SHOW RECORDED FOR TV). The resulting film is to be shown as part of a ‘Music Planet Special: David Bowie Evening’ on Thursday 12th September. The evening commences at 8.45PM, with the concert broadcast from 10.55PM until 12.35AM. The website offers pages about the evening in either German or French.

If you read German, check out this message board post for the complete schedule.

Also coming up for German viewers – on 5th Oct on the ZDF TV Show ‘Wetten Dass’, David will give an interview and perform ‘Everyone Says Hi’. Check out this News Item on Sony Music’s German site.

You can find all this and much more in your Bowie Calendar.

Enjoy!

:))