Month: January 2004

A gentle face you’ve seen before…(Part 1)

*That’s DB as in David Brighton obviously. For those of you that will find it easier to be in LA than Chicago this Friday (16th) Mr Brighton (star of the Vittel ad) will be performing the songs of David Bowie with his remarkable tribute act, Space Oddity.

Here’s the lowdown:

Space Oddity – David Brighton’s Tribute to David Bowie will be appearing on January 16th 2004 at:

BB King’s Blues Club Universal City Walk, Second Level 1000 Universal Center Drive, Universal City CA 91608 Reservations: (818) 622-5464

For FREE TICKETS visit www.DavidBowieTribute.com – Feel free to print out as many tickets as you need.Space Oddity will be on stage at 10:00pm. The opening act, Bella Donna, (the tribute to Stevie Nicks) will be onstage at 8:45pm.

Here’s a bit about a couple of the musicians performing with Space Oddity on the night that David asked me to tell you about:

Space Oddity will be having a couple of special guests that we’re excited to tell you about:
Howie Anderson – from the Strawberry Alarm Clock will be with us on guitar. Howie is a good friend of ours who has played with rockers like Brian Setzer and Spencer Davis. Being a major Bowie fan, Howie enjoys performing with Space Oddity whenever schedules permit.
Trent Stroh – from Eddie Money’s band on bass. Trent has also worked with acts like America when not on the road with Eddie Money. Another big Bowie fan, Trent also plays with Space Oddity whenever possible.

Gerry’s guitar sound jealousies scream…

After the rip-roaring success of the Spooky Ghost show in Minneapolis on Saturday night, Mr Gerry Leonard will be dragging his alter ego onstage for a show in Chicago tomorrow night too.

Here’s the stuff you need to know if you would like to attend, and if you’re in town for David’s three Chicago shows, there can’t be a better way to spend your evening off:

Spooky Ghost will perform a solo set in Chicago at “Martyrs” on Thursday January 15th at the stroke of midnight.

Martyrs
3855 N Lincon
Block south of Irving Park Road
773 404 9494

If you do manage to get along, please tell us how it went. You can reach the Gerry Leonard/Spooky Ghost website by clicking on the image above.

Wild is the windy city…

David Bowie played the first of three shows at the Rosemont Theatre in Chicago last night and the twenty-five song set list went something like this:

Chicago January 13th 2004

01 Rebel Rebel
02 New Killer Star
03 Reality
04 Hang On To Yourself
05 Fame
06 Cactus
07 All The Young Dudes
08 China Girl
09 Fall Dog Bombs The Moon
10 The Loneliest Guy
11 The Man Who Sold The World
12 Hallo Spaceboy
13 Sunday
14 Under Pressure
15 Life On Mars?
16 Battle For Britain (The Letter)
17 Ashes To Ashes
18 Changes
19 White Light / White Heat
20 I’m Afraid Of Americans
21 “Heroes”

(Encore)
22 Pablo Picasso
23 Five Years
24 Suffragette City
25 Ziggy Stardust

Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune was present at the show, and I think you’ll agree his thoughts are worth posting here…

Total Blam Blam – (BowieNet News Editor)

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Bowie is newly relevant and ferocious, but Gray misses the mark – By Greg Kot, Tribune music critic

In the guise of a greatest hits show Tuesday at the Rosemont Theatre, David Bowie brought his peculiar ability to make anxiety and paranoia sound stylish.

Bowie demonstrated that he is paying attention to the grim world around him, and he has tailored his current tour as something of a soundtrack. He arrived in peak voice with a powerhouse band and a set list that soothed nostalgic cravings even as it worked as pointed commentary.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Bowie took the four-tiered stage in the first of three sold-out concerts looking as svelte, pale and ageless as a vampire from an Anne Rice novel. With black jeans and T-shirt, his belt dangling suggestively, Bowie was in dirt-blond swagger, a six-piece band in full roar behind him, and put an indelible imprint on the year’s first major concert event. The cast included a couple of veterans from his ’70s heyday, keyboardist Mike Garson and guitarist Earl Slick, and the set list was spackled with echoes of past glory: the opening “Rebel Rebel,” the closing Ziggy Stardust trilogy of “Five Years,” “Suffragette City” and “Ziggy Stardust,” and in between his glam-era anthem for Mott the Hoople, “All the Young Dudes.”

But the hand-waving chorus of the “All the Young Dudes” belied the dubious attitude lying underneath: “Is it concrete all around or is it in my head?” Taking nothing ? not even himself ? at face value, Bowie reinvented the rock star as a moving target three decades ago, and even as the world-conquering Ziggy he gave himself “five years,” as he sang during the encore, to get it right.

He has lasted far longer, and now finds himself newly relevant. His last couple of albums presaged and then commented upon the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001, with corrosive music and lyrics that sounded like they were written from inside a bunker. On his last tour, Bowie dealt with issues of mortality and aging in reflective songs. Now he exudes an elegantly disheveled energy; he has mastered the art of coming undone while still looking cooler than anybody on MTV. A London native who has been a New York City resident in recent years, he now stands as an outsider in two countries, and his show reveled in that sense of displacement. “This chaos is killing me,” he wailed in “Hallo Spaceboy,” as squalling guitars opened and shut trap doors beneath his black gym shoes.

Bowie’s not one for broad political statements or protest songs, but his set list suggested a carefully considered commentary on the state of a world broken by terrorism and war: the distant refuge envisioned on “Life on Mars”; the desperation underpinning “Under Pressure,” with bassist Gail Ann Dorsey standing in for the late Freddy Mercury as Bowie’s duet partner as they declared, “This is our last chance”; the drum ‘n’ bass fury of “Battle for Britain,” with Garson’s nimble fingers racing across his keyboard like mice fleeing an inferno.

A ferocious three-guitar version of the Velvet Underground’s “White Light/White Heat” evoked a runaway subway train, setting up the show’s most striking moment. Bowie poured paranoia into “I’m Afraid of Americans,” while Sterling Campbell rapped out Morse Code SOS messages on his drums, and the guitars of Slick and Gerry Leonard barked at each other from opposite sides of the stage.

This was Bowie stripping away Ziggy’s glam artifice, doing away with the Thin White Duke’s disco moves, and the patrician elegance of his elder statesman years. His music had a lean, frayed urgency to it, and there was no time for theatrics, save for a bit of Sinatra crooning on “The Loneliest Guy,” with the balladeer retreating into the darkness after lamenting “all the errors left unlearned.” He was being far too harsh. After surviving the artistic missteps of the ’80s and early ’90s, Bowie has whipped himself and his music into shape again.

Bowie’s opening act, Macy Gray, let her freak flag fly. Her statuesque frame topped by a massive Afro and wrapped in a sequined gown, the scratchy voiced funk mistress sang songs of “Sexomatic” obsession and sprinkled the bump-and-grind workouts of her nine-piece band with snippets of the Beatles’ “Come Together,” A3’s “Sopranos” theme “Woke Up This Morning,” and Funkadelic’s “One Nation Under a Groove.”

But despite a river of rhythm that just wouldn’t quit and Gray’s outsize personality, the audience was unmoved. The singer performed her biggest hit, “I Try,” sitting down, as if defeated by the response. Gray deserves a second shot in town, this time at a sweaty, claustrophobic club, playing in front of her own audience.

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Battle For Britain (The Nominations)…

Congratulations to DB on his nomination for another BRIT award. We first told you about this possibility more than a month ago, but it’s nice to have it officially confirmed.

All of the nominees for the 2004 BRIT Awards have now been announced, and nominees in the British Male Solo Artist category are as follows:

Badly Drawn Boy
Daniel Bedingfield
David Bowie
Dizzee Rascal
Will Young

The Brit Awards will take place on Tuesday February 17th at Earl’s Court2 in London and will be broadcast live on ITV1. Click on the image above to get to the BRITs website. Good luck David.

As a reminder to those looking for presale tickets to David Bowie’s March 1 2004 date in Perth Australia, tickets will be available from 9:00am Wed 14 January to 5:00pm Thurs 15 January (Perth time)go to davidbowie.com/tickets to obtain information on how to order.

Late night, big town, Minneapolis, shake down…

David Bowie’s A Reality Tour rolled into Minneapolis last night, for a show at the Target Center… and apart from having the officially confirmed setlist for you, I know no more of the evening’s entertainment than Jon Bream at the Star Tribune. So, when you’ve perused the list of songs, read on for the full review from the Star Tribune.

Here follows the 28-song setlist. (Good to see that Panic In Detroit wasn’t a one-off geographical treat.)

Minneapolis January 11th 2004

01 Rebel Rebel
02 New Killer Star
03 Reality
04 Fashion
05 Hang On To Yourself
06 Fame
07 Cactus
08 All The Young Dudes
09 China Girl
10 Fall Dog Bombs The Moon
11 The Man Who Sold the World
12 Hallo Spaceboy
13 Sunday
14 Under Pressure
15 Life On Mars?
16 Battle For Britain (The Letter)
17 Ashes to Ashes
18 Changes
19 Panic In Detroit
20 I’m Afraid of Americans
21 “Heroes”

(Encore)
22 Pablo Picasso
23 Be My Wife
24 Fantastic Voyage
25 White Light / White Heat
26 Five Years
27 Suffragette City
28 Ziggy Stardust

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The real Bowie has fun with Target Center crowd – Jon Bream, Star Tribune

For his concerts, David Bowie usually chooses an exotic name — Diamond Dogs Tour, Glass Spider Tour, Serious Moonlight Tour — and elaborate staging and outfits.

His current trek, which came to Target Center on Sunday, is called “A Reality Tour” because his latest album is “Reality,” but also because it’s the real Bowie: Spectacle-free, straight-ahead, almost informal. And it was wonderful.

Rock’s chameleon king seemed very comfortable in his own skin. He was casual (jeans, tennis shoes, T-shirt and short jacket) but caring, delivering all songs with conviction and conversing with individual fans (such as Steinar with the leather-and-fur viking hat). The most affected aspect was his parted-down-the-middle blond hairdo; but when you’ve got the best enduring hair in the history of rock ‘n’ roll, why not have some foppish fun with it?

Bowie, who turned 57 Thursday, also had fun with the crowd. He invited the 5,500 fans to sing along on the chorus of “All the Young Dudes,” the 1972 hit he wrote for Mott the Hoople.

“That was so well executed,” he said afterward, “that there’s no point in me singing anymore. It’s yours.” So the excellent six-member band went into the 1983 Bowie hit “China Girl,” and he let the fans sing as he sat down on the stage.

After the opening stanza, he stood up, sporting a devilish smile, and interrupted, “That was terrible.” He signaled the band to start over, and he took charge and proved that, in concert, he is a better singer than on CD/record — more intense, more dynamic, with more range and power. He sang as if the songs mattered to him as much as they obviously did to his fans.

Whether a Bowie devotee from his ’70s and ’80s radio hits, a hard-core disciple dating back to the “Ziggy Stardust” days or a recent convert, there was enough in the 2 1/4-hour performance to satisfy. The repertoire was divided roughly into thirds: hits, obscurities and recent material. Even Bowie himself wasn’t sure which album certain songs came from; when he changed plans and called an audible for “The Battle of Britain,” he asked fans which album. And he guessed that the encore “Be My Wife” was from 1977’s “Low,” and he was right.

Bowie was right almost all night long. The highlights were many: the slashing, soaring “Reality,” the Pixies’ punkish, falsetto-voiced “Cactus,” the bracing rocker “Hallo Spaceboy,” the crowd-pleasingly baroque “Under Pressure,” the dramatic ballads “Life on Mars” and “Sunday,” the menacing “I’m Afraid of Americans” and the wham-bam “Suffragette City.” Only “Fashion,” the 1980 disco sensation, and “Fame,” the 1975 dance hit, sounded dated, but he delivered the latter with such brazen cynicism that it was worthwhile.

All told, it was a generous, well-paced, 28-song show, complemented by understated artistic images on a back video screen. The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer had enough arena-anthem choruses to keep the crowd rocking and enough genre-expanding experimentation to please the aging hipsters. In other words, the real David Bowie was cool to all his constituencies.

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The tour continues tomorrow in The Windy City.

All the little rose-kissed foxy girls…

While we’re waiting for pictures and reviews of tonight’s Detroit show, here are a few words, that we promised on Wednesday, (01/07/04 NEWS: TONIGHT’S SET LIST FROM CLEVELAND) from some of the BowieNetter’s in attendance at the Cleveland show.

First up we have a piece from Mego, who also very kindly supplied the pix on this page, then we have some equally generous donations from Raisin13 and Gwnavere… Many thanx to all of you.

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Report from Cleveland by Mego…

What was it, twenty degrees below zero, with the wind chill? What was it, really, really cold outside? Yup.

Before the show, a handful of Netters met up at the Sprockets (?) pizza parlor, where, later on, the neighboring club/bar opened up and played some extremely loud ‘Bowie at the Beeb’, while ‘Stage’ was shown on the TV screens. Nothing like Netters in unison on “London Bye Ta-Ta”, while dancing to “Station to Station”. …Or, maybe, nothing quite so confusing as that.

Now full of pizza and beer, we all paraded to the Convocation Center, found our respective seats (most of us together in the center block, first five or so rows), said hello to one another again, and watched Macy Gray, who performed some excellent material. Her new album’s great fun.

Intermission spent cheering for roadies, chatting it up between Netters, solving the mysteries of the pre-show music (one was “So What” from Jeff Beck’s new album, ‘Jeff’ [cool!], as well as more Macy, Mick Jagger, “Queen of all the Tarts”… and the rest I’m not sure). And then, finally, what would be a Mego’s very first David Bowie show (or, “real” show, if Poughkeepsie doesn’t count…), began! Folks who weren’t quite “in the know” didn’t seem to realize it was starting, but a decent handful of people were going crazy cheering before most knew what was happening.

A truly wonderful thing about a Bowie show… the band members certainly get their recognition. Each one got a hearty greeting from the audience. It’s always good to see an artist who lets his band have the recognition it deserves–and these guys certainly got it, and deserve every bit of it. Speaking of a warm reception, it seems the Cleveland crowd was more excited to see this show than our hero had expected. Midway through, he essentially tossed out the type-out set list (including “She’ll Drive the Big Car” … I’m still mad about that, by the way, it’s my favorite ‘Reality’ track.), adding “Fantastic Voyage”, “Be My Wife”, “White Light White Heat”, and a few others, into the mix. What fun!

Brilliant show on its own, with a few moments thrown in there for good measure. During “The Loneliest Guy”, only twenty or so people in the entire arena stayed standing up, and of course, a few people had to cheer and whistle throughout. Bowie teased them a bit, claiming the loud whistle guy was almost as expensive to pay as the band, as he travelled throughout Europe, just to whistle during quiet songs. “So who is it!?” David asked. A small group stood up, pointed to some guy: “It’s you! They’re snitching on you! Orwell was right!” Courtesy laugh in general. A few people guffawing. “Yes, come to a David Bowie show for literary humor!” Bowie says, leaning toward the audience. Mild “Huh?” applause. Mego cheering like a jackass–I love literary jokes, gimme a break. Then he adds, “Remember what Proust said!” …And… silence. The tiny ripple of laughter from a few people who found that funny (cough). Awesome!

Anyway… it was a beautiful, energetic, delightful show. Little Peanut (B.Netter Peanut’s eight-year-old daughter) got a wink and a little hand squeeze from her hero, bringing out a resounding cheer from BowieNetters. Thrustiness was toned down but replaced by what seemed to be a truly warm feeling between audience and musicians. A very nice evening. Great fun indeed, and it looked to us that Bowie had just about as much fun as we did! He even gave Gail a great big smooch to prove it.

Bring on Reality (and Denver, wahoo!)!

Mego.

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Report from Cleveland by Raisin13…

Awesome. Flawless. It was so great. SO GREAT. I can’t even tell you guys how jealous you really should be! We got to the concert early enough to have our first beer before Macy Gray. She’s real good – her band was very impressive and her personality made the show even better.

OK, so we all know that we were there for Bowie. Macy Gray was just something I had to sit through before the magic started. Around 9ish (maybe a little before), the lights went out and the huge TV in the background came to life with faceless cartoon renditions of the band, including Mr. Bowie. The band came out on stage, soon followed by the thin white duke himself. He looked radiant, of course, wearing all black with a brown belt. Black and brown never looked so good.

He’s got an energy about him that’s just undeniable! He opened with “Rebel Rebel” and went on to do some songs from the new album, Reality, some from newer albums (Heathen, Earthling and Outside), and a BUNCH of crowd favorites such as “Suffragette City”, “Ziggy Stardust” (both in the encore – “Ziggy” was the finisher), “Fame”, “Ashes to Ashes”, “Fashion”, etc etc, and also called out some others that weren’t on any of the playlists that I’ve seen, such as “Be My Wife” from Low and “Fantastic Voyage” from Lodger. He played for 2 hours, and it was unbelievable and indescribable the entire time.

The quips, comments and cracks were priceless, including a literary one-liner with reference to George Orwell. It was also great to hear things like “How you all doin’, alright? I think we’ll go on for a bit more….”.

I’ve been a fan of this man for many many years now, and I’m only 21! Seeing him this close and watching such a fantastic show made me SO HAPPY. I was grinning from ear to ear the entire time. My smile was so big that sometimes I could hardly sing or talk! I cannot stress enough how much energy was in the CSU Convocation Center that night. This concert was the first of the new year, and Bowie and the band started off the North American leg of the tour with a bang, to say the least.

I am an avid concert-goer and this was, hands down, the best concert I have ever seen. We had such a good time. It was great. GREAT. Mr. Bowie is the best performer I’ve ever seen. All hail the king!

Raisin13

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Report from Cleveland by Gwnavere…

I thought I’d contribute my thoughts on last night’s show, since not too many bnetters were there….but they were noticed!

I went in holding my rather shoddy sign: “Gwnavere loves you from Florida”-ah, there was a method to that madness (and geekiness regarding that simple phrase that lacked imagination): maybe others (mainly ushers) would see it and take pity on a girl that came that far-it worked. My usher was very nice and looked the other way a few times for me (I will get to that later).

We get to the before party at a little pizza parlor walking distance from the venue. It was quaint, but the new people that we met “the mid-westerners” were more than happy to meet and greet us. They welcomed us with open arms and we shared our war stories a bit. It comes down to the minutes that we were going to venture over to the gig and watch Macy. Let it be known that going to Cleveland…in January…was the absolute COLDEST this girl has ever been in. Now, I seem to travel during the rather smarter months with nicer weather on northern places…so this little Floridian was literally FREEZING HER BUTT OFF! I woke up and Mego tells me it’s 1 degree outside….Gwn was NOT ready for that…but yet, it was David Bowie.

I made my way further and further to the front (being VERY sneaky, but friendly) and managed to hang out in the 3rd row in the aisle. It was highly rewarding! The lights died and I realized that there maybe were probably less than 1 dozen (yes, less than, I’m sure) that had even seen any of these Reality shows…I had that advantage. So, when the lights went down, no one really knew what to do when the “intro music” started. Gwn did. She went bolistic! Absolutely ape nuts….and they followed my lead! People started groovin to it. The opening…I love it. I have nothing else to say about it, but that it still sends shivers down my spine when I hear Sterling start the drums.

David comes out and rocked hard. It was the best I’d seen him, except for Poughkeesie. His energy was through the roof, the band was in good spirits, the smiles on everyone’s faces was priceless. He played on, teasing the audience (like he does) and with witty banter (like he does). But, I had absolutely no problems bouncing about, my hand in the air doing the classic “rock on” sign. I was rewarded…once again. I had caught David’s attention enough, that he started to tease with me. He started to mock me in my “bouncing rock on stance” and repeated what I was doing EXACTLY. He was trying to show me up? Oh, no…I did it again..never stopped and he did it with me. He really made me shine and from there on out, if I thought I couldn’t enjoy myself more….I managed.

Back to playing nice with the usher, who had told everyone else that they couldn’t go to the front row unless their tkt said row 1 had finally passed by me and said, “Go for it” and I ran like a bat out of hell, with a fellow bnetter in front and we managed the absolute prime spot: in front of his Converse. I managed to wiggle and work my way up, with minimal effort (not even to shove anyone out of the way!) and ended up with my hands on the barrier! I could touch his Converse…yes THAT spot. I grooved to the entire 7 encore set, singing and rocking as hard as I could.

To sum it up, this was my favorite performance. My friend Saxonny has another story-not good. My favorite concert experience (before parties, meet-ups, concert, after parties, Bowie acknowledgment) still remains to be the taping of the Riverside gig back in September, but Cleveland has been the best performance with the band I’ve seen yet. Thank you, Sailor. Thank you Gail, Mike, Sterling, Spooky, Earl and Kat. Roll on Minneapolis!

Rock On, Gwnavere (still thawing out)

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Wow, thanx so much for that ladies. We’ll hopefully get some similar contributions and more pix from a few of you who attended tonight’s Detroit show.

I wish someone would phone, Panic in Detroit…

Apart from a couple of songs rarely performed during David Bowie’s A Reality Tour, tonight’s show at The Palace of Auburn Hills, in Detroit, Michigan, was made all the more special for the locals by the inclusion of Panic In Detroit for the first time on this tour… as David pointed out on stage himself.

Here’s a few words from BowieNetter Lindzay, whose wife, BowieNetter Lalalinda, supplied the shot above:

What a show and a wonderful warm and passionate performance. “Heroes” was particularly good. The encore was amazing and full of my personal favorites.

I think it would be an understatement to say that the Detroit audience enjoyed hearing the song Panic in Detroit. Yeah David was on form and still able to kiss a fan’s young child near the end of the show. Eric lifted the young lady up so that David was able give a polite peck on her cheek. David said: “After that I don?t know if she wants to smile or cry.” Now that little girl is going to have a story to tell when she?s older.

Another fan, an older female, attempted to hand David a rose, but somehow the head of the rose came away from the stem… Awwr. But, David saved the moment with a sympathetic smile.

Thanx to Mr and Mrs Crosby for the above. Tonight was another of those epics, with a ten-song encore and the third longest show of the tour so far. Here’s the 32-song setlist anyway, with a picture from BowieNetter Raisin13:

Detroit January 9th 2004

01 Rebel Rebel
02 New Killer Star
03 Reality
04 Panic In Detroit
05 Fashion
06 Hang On To Yourself
07 Fame
08 Cactus
09 All The Young Dudes
10 China Girl
11 The Loneliest Guy
12 The Man Who Sold The World
13 Hallo Spaceboy
14 Sunday
15 Under Pressure
16 Life On Mars?
17 Ashes To Ashes
18 She’ll Drive The Big Car
19 Never Get Old
20 Changes
21 I’m Afraid of Americans
22 “Heroes”

(Encore)
23 Afraid
24 Be My Wife
25 5:15 The Angels Have Gone
26 Fantastic Voyage
27 Breaking Glass
28 Let’s Dance
29 White Light / White Heat
30 Five Years
31 Suffragette City
32 Ziggy Stardust

Thanx again to LaLaLinda, Lindzay and Raisin13, for their contributions. The tour continues on Sunday in Minneapolis.

But boy could he play guitar…

Gerry Leonard‘s web guy, Todd, has informed me of a Spooky Ghost show in Minneapolis tonight, (Saturday) one day ahead of DB’s own show in the city, which Gerry will also be playing at, hopefully. };-)

Here follows the details you need to know to see this solo show by the Bowie band leader:

Spooky Ghost
Bar Lurcat, Minneapolis
Jan 10th.
Doors @ 8:00pm, music at 9:00pm
Opening sets with Pamela Sue Mann and Paul Bryan

If you can get along, please do go and show your support… this man is remarkable live. You can reach the Gerry Leonard/Spooky Ghost website by clicking on the image above.