Month: September 2006

’cause I know what you are…

The HMV ‘Be Inspired’ campaign continues in the UK with the ‘My Inspiration’ press campaign featuring iconic/contemporary artists, who have selected a lyric from a song that has most inspired them as artists, or which continues to influence them today.

The first of the new adverts, exclusively unveiled here, is the above Frank Ockenfels shot of David Bowie from 1999 with the lyric DB has selected from Syd Barrett‘s Gigolo Aunt. Here’s the excerpt he chose:

HEADING ON DOWN WITH THE LIGHT,
THE DUST IN YOUR WAY, SHE WAS ANGRIER THERE,
THAN HER WATERSHELL MALE,
LIFE TO THIS LOVE TO ME

The campaign comes two months after Syd’s sad passing, which we reported at the time with a touching tribute from David. (07.11.06 NEWS: TRIBUTE TO SYD BARRETT FROM DB)

Click on the above image to read a press release regarding the HMV ‘Be Inspired’ campaign that we told you about after it’s launch earlier in the week. (09.06.2006 NEWS: ALADDIN SANE INSPIRES HMV CAMPAIGN)

The campaign will run in-store, online via hmv.co.uk and hmvdigital.com and extensively across UK media.

If you’ve not already seen them, look out for giant 60×40 inch Aladdin Sane posters in in-store windows and on public transport, and other displays & merchandising across 230 HMV high street stores.

Hopefully, we’ll get our hands on a few of the posters for a contest on these very pages.

Drive-In Saturday…

We posted a news piece last week regarding the dates for The Highline Festival in New York next May. (08.29.2006 NEWS: HIGHLINE FESTIVAL DATES CONFIRMED)

Well, we are very happy to be able to confirm that another day has been added to the end of the festival, and the Highline will now run for eleven days from Wednesday May 9th to Saturday May 19th, 2007.

Stay tuned for confirmation of artists booked to appear and ticket details in a new Highline Festival section when it launches in the not too distant future.

Hang him on my wall…

If you’re not familiar with the monthly BowieNet give-away take a look at the first days of previous months in the news for an explanation…and yes, for those that are still asking, it is as simple as sending me an e-mail each month in the hope that The Random Selector ® will single you out for an allotment of points to spend in the vaults at your leisure…or simply save until you have enough to claim an even bigger prize.

Here are the winners for August:

1st prize = 500 points to brotherziggy
2nd prize = 400 points to nomadsoul55
3rd prize = 300 points to ledge
4th prize = 200 points to Lilith
5th prize = 100 points to crashingoutwithsylvian

NB: Please note that incomplete claims may not be despatched until a full claim has been made, as we don’t want to be posting several different packages to the same person, and we don’t want to make you feel bad about your carbon footprint. However, don’t fret, as soon as you stake a claim on a certain prize, that will be put aside for you until your claim is complete.

In the meantime, all you have to do to be in with a chance of winning some points in the September draw is send us an e-mail here.

Usual rules apply: Only one entry per BowieNet account, and please remember you must enter using your BowieNet e-mail or at least supply your BowieNet user name. (Believe it or not, some entrants still don’t bother with either.)

There will be a fresh chance each month to send in your name, and don’t wait for us to tell you so, you can just start sending in on the first day of each new month…as indeed, you seem to be doing anyway.

Each contest will close at midnight UK time on the last day of each month, with winners being announced a day or two later…or up to almost a week later in the holiday season! 😉

So, next month we will announce the winners for September and so on every month until you empty the vaults…if that ever happens!

As ever, we’ll be posting details of the new items as we get them, so you don’t have to worry about choosing anything just yet. Good luck kidz!

All my friends can see is just the pinkness of his skin…

David Bowie’s iconic 1973 Aladdin Sane album cover is the face of the latest HMV BE INSPIRED campaign in the UK.

As you can see from the advert for classic CDs above, Mr Sane‘s lightening bolt make-up has been changed from the familiar red and blue to HMV’s corporate magenta…or pink if you prefer.

Marilyn Monroe has received similar treatment for the classic DVDs advert with the addition of a pink earring to the equally iconic The Seven Year Itch billowing dress shot.

Currently, there seem to be three DB titles for just a fiver each: Aladdin Sane, Low and “Heroes”, with great reductions on much of the Bowie back catalogue and gazillions of other artists too.

Click on either of the above Bowie faces to get to the hmv.co.uk site.

The Radio Times they are a-telling…

After a large teaser picture in last week’s Radio Times in the UK, this week’s edition (9-15 September) sees David Bowie gracing the front of one of six different “collectable covers”.

Each edition features one of the stars of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant‘s forthcoming second series of EXTRAS, the set of which we exclusively reported from back in June. (06.07.2006 NEWS: BOWIE PART FILMED FOR EXTRAS & 06.09.2006 NEWS: NEW BOWIE PORTRAITS FROM EXTRAS SHOOT & 07.15.2006 SNIPPET: EXTRA EXTRAS…READ ALL ABOUT IT)

Inside the magazine there is a four-page feature on EXTRAS with another large photo of DB and the following quotation from Ricky Gervais…

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“I’ve been a huge fan of David Bowie for 25 years

(Blammo Note: I think you’ll find that’s 35 years actually Ricky!) and he is a true genius. As a failed pop star myself, I really believe he puts the “art” into music.

He’s so original, yet when you meet him, he’s so approachable and down to earth it’s hard to believe it’s the same man who was Starman. Writing a song with him was surreal; I was songwriting with Bowie. How amazing is that?”

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The second series of EXTRAS starts on BBC2 in the UK at 9:00pm on Thursday, September 14th. The first show of the series features Orlando Bloom, but you can see the David Bowie episode the following week on the 21st.

Strange games they would play then…

We’ve not made mention of Anthony Newley on these pages for a few years now (04.01.2003 NEWS: BOWIE RECORDS TRIBUTE TO ANTHONY NEWLEY), but anybody who knows a bit of Bowie history will understand just how important the man was to the development of young Jones‘s imagination…particularly for his work in the 1960 ITV show The Strange World Of Gurney Slade.

As you’ve no doubt already noticed in the BowieNet calendar (thanx Spaceface) BBC Radio 2 commence a documentary, Stop The World: It’s Anthony Newley, looking at the life and career of Anthony Newley at 19:00 this coming Friday September 8th. The documentary is in four half hour parts over four weeks and is presented by Newley fan Jonathan Ross.

David Bowie is listed among those taking part in the show, but when I asked him what he had actually contributed he told me that he certainly hadn’t done anything new for it. I can only presume that the show uses past interviews with DB, if anything at all, but it’s no doubt still worth checking out anyway.

Don’t forget you can always listen again to BBC radio shows up to the next week’s broadcast, and documentaries are usually made available for longer.