Month: June 2004

Just gonna have to be a different Manchester…

A Reality Tour steamed in to Manchester in New Hampshire last night for the 101st show of the tour at the Verizon Wireless.

Last night’s show was the first of four shows this week that will end this current North American leg of the tour, before a short break and the commencement of the European dates in Amsterdam on Friday June 11.

Anyway, I’ve managed to find one online review from the Union Leader entitled: Ageless David Bowie brings decades of brilliance to city which was penned, if not brilliantly researched, by Tom Fahey. Although his heart is in the right place, the review is worth checking out, if not only for the fact that Tom seems to think Gail had a day off! If only that was his one solitary mistake. Here’s a few of the funnier bits:

Bowie, dressed in chinos, sneakers and a sleeveless T-shirt…Still slender after all these years, Bowie looked younger and spryer than most 57-year-old males in the audience…solidly belting out tunes like ?Diamond Dogs,? ?I?m Afraid of America,? and ?We Could Be Heroes.? …The six-member band included Earl Slick and Gerry Leonard on guitars and Diane Johnson on bass and vocals. Johnson did a fine job filling in for the late Freddy Mercury on ?Under Pressure,? which he co-authored with Bowie. …The opening act last night was The Polyphonic Spree, a 25-member group that dresses in full-length nightshirts…

Go here if you still feel inspired to read the complete thing. Oh well, I guess Tom Fahey enjoyed the show and he did praise it in his own way.

Here’s the officially-confirmed 25-song setlist courtesy of HNB:

Manchester, NH June 1st 2004

01 Rebel Rebel
02 Queen Bitch
03 Cactus
04 Sister Midnight
05 New Killer Star
06 All The Young Dudes
07 China Girl
08 The Loneliest Guy
09 The Man Who Sold The World
10 Battle For Britain (The Letter)
11 Pablo Picasso
12 Heathen (The Rays)
13 The Supermen
14 Hallo Spaceboy
15 Under Pressure
16 Station To Station
17 Ashes To Ashes
18 Quicksand
19 Modern Love
20 I’m Afraid Of Americans
21 “Heroes”

(Encore)
22 Diamond Dogs
23 Five Years
24 Suffragette City
25 Ziggy Stardust

Click on either of the images above to get to VT for a shed load of new pix from Erik. A Reality Tour continues tonight with a show at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville.

It’s all I ever wanted…

The current edition of Q magazine has a Bowie track on its cover-mounted free CD. Though masquerading as an “Essential Glastonbury” CD, the inclusion of 1984 on this fine compilation is a clear plug for next week’s Diamond Dogs 30th Anniversary 2CD edition, reviewed within the magazine’s pages.

The full-page 4-star review utilises a half-page pic from the Rebel Rebel photo session (you know the one, with the eye-patch, red Kent guitar and interesting bulge) and includes such praise as this: Rebel Rebel and the title track remain his most priapic singles, (Blammo note: Eh? “priapic”? Are you sure? What about the opening line of Rebel…”Not sure if you’re a boy or a girl”? That’s not very priapic. Surely Suffragette City and even JIOD (at a push) are DB’s most priapic singles?) but the wondrous nine-minute Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing (Reprise) suite is Bowie testing the limits of his powers and almost finding them. On such moments do claims for his genius rest.

NME recently reviewed Diamond Dogs 30th Anniversary 2CD edition with a big thumbs up too:

“Rock music, unlike pop music, lives or dies on the strength of The Artist. Kylie doesn’t need to do anything other than have a nice arse and not let the encroaching years hang too heavily, but David Bowie has needed to artistically reposition himself a hundred times and maintain a nice arse into the bargain. That he’s pulled it off is a wonderful tribute to the man.

As is Diamond Dogs: 30th Anniversary Edition (EMI) (8) where The Dame’s 1984-obsessed, cocaine horrorshow gets the loving polish it’s so long deserved. One of Bowie’s darkest albums, ‘Dogs’ is also bigger, sexier, funkier, and way more theatrically decadent than ‘Ziggy Stardust…’ or ‘Hunky Dory’ and demands your immediate attention.”

Another tie-in with the album’s release is Stuart Maconie’s Critical List on BBC Radio2 at at 20:00 GMT on Saturday June 12th, which will feature Diamond Dogs. Regular listeners to the show will know the format by now, and indeed I’m sure you know this isn’t the first Bowie album to feature on the Critical List.

Previous essential Bowie albums discussed on the show include Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust and Low.

Meanwhile, the staff over at Q must also rate the Ziggy Stardust album. The aforementioned current issue has one of those silly, but nevertheless debate-provoking, polls that push grown men toward violence.

This month it’s the 50 BEST BRITISH ALBUMS EVER and Ziggy Stardust gets a respectful #6 placing, while The Clash get a sympathetic-to-Joe-Strummer’s-death #5 spot with London Calling, and Oasis grab a ludicrous #1 placing with Definitely Maybe. I’m not saying Definitely Maybe isn’t a great record, but anybody with a full set of ears couldn’t say it’s the best British album of all time. Wanna fight about it?

Anyway, here’s the full top 50 for your amusement:

Q MAGAZINE 50 BEST BRITISH ALBUMS EVER

01 Oasis – Definitely Maybe
02 The Beatles – Revolver
03 Sex Pistols – Never Mind The Bollocks – Here’s the Sex Pistols
04 Radiohead – OK Computer
05 The Clash – London Calling
06 David Bowie – The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars
07 The Rolling Stones – Beggars Banquet
08 The Smiths – The Queen Is Dead
09 Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin III
10 Massive Attack – Blue Lines
11 Van Morrison – Astral Weeks
12 Blur – Parklife
13 Primal Scream – Screamadelica
14 Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon
15 The Specials – The Specials
16 Queen – A Night At The Opera
17 The Stone Roses – The Stone Roses
18 The Who – My Generation
19 Coldplay – A Rush of Blood to the Head
20 The Jam – All Mod Cons
21 The Kinks – The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society
22 Joy Division – Closer
23 Kate Bush – Hounds of Love
24 Happy Mondays – Pills ‘n’ Thrills and Bellyaches
25 Nick Drake – Bryter Layter
26 The Coral – Magic and Medicine
27 John Lennon – John Lennon / Plastic Ono Band
28 Roxy Music – For Your Pleasure
29 Prodigy – Music For The Jilted Generation
30 Pulp – Different Class
31 Small Faces – Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake
32 The Verve – Urban Hymns
33 Black Sabbath – Paranoid
34 The Streets – Original Pirate Material
35 Gang Of Four – Entertainment!
36 The Human League – Dare
37 Elton John – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
38 Soul II Soul – Club Classics Vol 1
39 Ian Dury – New Boots and Panties!!
40 The Undertones – The Undertones
41 Fairport Convention – Unhalfbricking
42 Super Furry Animals – Fuzzy Logic
43 Robbie Williams – Life Thru A Lens
44 Muse – Origin of Symmetry
45 Iron Maiden – The Number of The Beast
46 Manic Street Preachers – Everything Must Go
47 Steel Pulse – Handsworth Revolution
48 The Cure – Disintegration
49 Dexys Midnight Runners – Searching For The Young Soul Rebels
50 Pet Shop Boys – Very