Month: May 2007

It’s such fun…

A couple of things we intended to post last month kind of fell by the wayside in the excitement of the lead up to High Line. (Btw, check out the press release section for information regarding next year’s festival if you haven’t already stumbled upon it: 05.23.2007 PRESS RELEASE: INAUGURAL H & M HIGH LINE FESTIVAL ENDS)

One of those things was the wonderful picture above from a dinner in honour of Lou Reed at the W New York – Union Square. (04.27.2007 NEWS: DB ATTENDS DINNER IN HONOUR OF LOU REED)

Anyway, we thought it would be nice to use this shot for the first of a new series of random picture contests.

All you need to do is study the picture and identify the four people around the table, that’s the easy bit. THEN, tell us what recording unites all four of them. In other words, what release do all four appear on?

The prize will be a CD of said recording, hopefully signed by the chap on the right.

Once you’re certain you’ve nailed it, send your answer here.

Usual BowieNet 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.

The contest ends at midnight UK time on Saturday June 9th, with the lucky winner being notified shortly thereafter.

Waiting so long…

Sorry for the delay on this one, we kind of changed the format for reasons I’ll explain shortly.

We set this as a three-parter originally, see here:

03.25.2007 NEWS: ZIGGY STARDUST SIGNED ARTIST’S PROOF CONTEST PART ONE

03.29.2007 NEWS: ZIGGY STARDUST SIGNED ARTIST’S PROOF CONTEST PART TWO

04.01.2007 NEWS: ZIGGY STARDUST SIGNED PROOF CONTEST FINAL PART

However, it quickly became apparent that it was a small percentage of entrants that felt confident enough to contribute to part three.

So, what we decided to do was award the ultra-rare artist’s proof of the Ziggy Stardust album cover print, signed by both David Bowie and Terry Pastor, to the first name out of the hat that answered all the questions to the first two parts correctly.

And the member extracted by The Random Generator was…wait for it…Chas!

We’ll be posting the answers to parts one and two when we announce the winner of part three.:

Stay tuned for details of part three which has now mutated into a separate contest due to the high standard of entries we have received for it.

While colour lights up your face…

Paula Flynn‘s reworking of Let’s Dance that we’ve been telling you about recently, (04.23.2007 NEWS: BALLYGOWAN TV ADVERT USES COVER OF LET’S DANCE & 05.18.07 NEWS: PAULA FLYNN’S LET’S DANCE ON I-TUNES FROM TODAY) has entered the Irish Top Twenty Singles Chart in its first week of release at a very impressive #11.

Billed as Stellarsound featuring Paula Flynn the song is still getting plenty of airplay and it’s managed to chart on the strength of downloads alone. It seems it won’t be released on CD for another week or so yet.

Let’s Dance can be purchased via download sites other than Ireland’s iTunes store now, France and the UK being just two other iTunes stores I checked where it is now available.

We shall keep you informed of Paula’s progress as we have it.

It happens today…

Space Oddity, David Brighton’s Tribute To David Bowie (above) will play Hermosa Beach in California this afternoon. The band also plays another Californian date on June 7th at The Candlelight Pavilion Dinner Theater in Claremont. Keep reading for more details…

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May 26th
Fiesta Hermosa – outdoor beach side festival.
Showtime 3:00pm
Hermosa Beach, CA, USA
For directions, maps and info: www.fiestahermosa.com

June 7th
The Candlelight Pavilion Dinner Theater
(The Candlelight Pavilion is a beautiful dinner theater and a great venue to experience the full David Bowie tribute stage production)
455 W. Foothill, Claremont, CA USA 91711
909 626-1254
Ticket Price $45.00 per person
Includes Dinner and Show.
To make reservations please call (909) 626-1254 ext.1
Online ticketing not available.
Candlelight Pavilion Dinner Theater www.candlelightpavilion.com

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As ever, if you do attend either of these shows, we’d love to hear what you thought.

When I was a child I caught a fleeting glimpse…

Click on the image above to reach David Gilmour’s official news page for a special five minute preview of the forthcoming Remember That Night DVD.

It’s almost a year since David Bowie appeared at the RAH to join David Gilmour on stage for versions of Pink Floyd‘s Arnold Layne and Comfortably Numb, (05.30.2006 NEWS: DB SURPRISE GUEST AT LONDON GILMOUR GIG & 05.31.06 NEWS: MORE EXCLUSIVE BOWIE PIX FROM RAH AND REVIEWS) and the snippet captures a couple of moments from that day, including DB’s recollection of his first Pink Floyd gig, which frankly proved David Gilmour to be a little slow on the uptake. 😉 (DB’s recollection is also the inspiration for the use of today’s lyric quotation from Comfortably Numb.)

The Gilmour site has this to say about the snippet: “Directed by David Mallet, with additional footage by Gavin Elder, the extracts can only give you a small taste of what the final item will be like, but we hope you appreciate it, as a glimpse of what it was like, or a reminder if you were there.”

Get clicking!

I’m living in a silent film…

We told you about this one a few weeks ago, before tonight’s episode, previously called Between Rock And an Art Place, was renamed White Light, White Heat: Art Rock. (05.05.2007 NEWS: SEVEN AGES OF ROCK…RARE BOWIE FOOTAGE?)

If you want to be able to enjoy this second instalment of the BBC’s Seven Ages Of Rock tonight, with no hint of its content, then I suggest you read no further.

At the time, reports circulating mentioned that two songs, Five Years and Hang On To Yourself, recorded at the Rainbow Theatre on August 19, 1972, were to be screened.

Having now viewed a preview DVD, I can confirm that there are snippets of both, but I’m pretty sure these are just bits of Mick Rock‘s silent footage with bootleg soundtracks overdubbed.

Most of the footage is stuff you have seen before, mainly taken from the BBC archives, but in some cases heavily treated with solarisation and ageing effects, like Five Years from TOGWT and Starman from TOTPs.

Indeed, I’m not sure the Mick Rock footage hasn’t been treated too. It’s far grainier and more aged than I remember.

There’s also interview footage from David Bowie and the likes of Tony Visconti, Lou Reed, Charles Shaar Murray, Lindsay Kemp and Nick Pegg, but again, this mixes archive stuff with interviews from new contributors such as Mr Pegg.

As I said last time, David has not contributed directly in any way to Seven Ages Of Rock.

Anyway, despite all this, and like last week’s programme, it’s still a good bit of TV, particularly to the casual observer.

Aside from the Bowie stuff, tonight’s episode contains some wonderful footage of Syd Barrett with Pink Floyd, The Velvet Underground, Roxy Music, Genesis and more.

You can catch White Light, White Heat: Art Rock at 9:00 pm on BBC 2 tonight, or if you’ve seen this item too late, it’s repeated on BBC 1 at the same time on Sunday evening.

Click on either of the above images to reach Seven Ages Of Rock official minisite which we told you about last time.

If you’re in the UK and wish to continue your Bowie viewing further this evening, check out the calendar above for details of two classic Bowie films on BBC 4.

Finally, the print of the four Radio Times covers that we mentioned in a previous story, (05.14.2007 NEWS: ZIGGY IN ALL TIME TOP FIVE PLUS RADIO TIMES COVER) seems to have been withdrawn from sale for one reason or another.

I’m stuck with a valuable friend…

Today’s Sunday Times Magazine in the UK has a generous eight pages dedicated to Geoff MacCormack‘s most beautiful From Station To Station book. It’s a picture heavy piece with some lovely extracts from the text in the book. Here’s a bit from the feature…

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Then, one morning in January 1973, Gwen the receptionist announced there was a Mr David Bowie on the line for Geoff. Bowie wanted him in his band, the Spiders from Mars, which was about to embark on a world tour, playing a huge string of concerts in the US, Japan and the UK, and stopping in Hawaii and Russia en route. MacCormack would sing backing vocals, play percussion and live the rock?n?roll dream with one of the greatest entertainers of the age. Was he up for it? ?Let?s just say,? says 60-year-old MacCormack now, ?it wasn?t the hardest decision I?ve ever made.?

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BowieNetters can view larger versions of each page by clicking on the above spread. You can read the whole thing at timesonline, but I’ll leave you with an intriguing insight into just what a rock ‘n’ roll animal David Bowie could be when the pressures of hotel life got too much…

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Whereas less genteel British rock bands ritually trashed hotels, Bowie and the Spiders were better behaved. But they enjoyed their own more sedate brand of mischief on the UK leg of the tour, Bowie posing for MacCormack beside a sweetly slumbering tour driver, and the star and his backing vocalist ?experimentally? dropping the components of a china tea service, teapot and all, from a seventh-storey hotel-room window. ?David is very intelligent and well read, but there?s a wonderful silliness to him as well,? says MacCormack. One night they amused fans in a bar with a skit that was based on their cruise experiences, and seemed to presage the character of Manuel in Fawlty Towers two years later. ?David played the uptight gentleman passenger and I played the incompetent waiter. The scene was set on board a heavily rolling ship and basically involved me trying to serve tray after tray of drinks and sending bottles and glasses flying all around the room.?

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Stay tuned for a contest to win the one of the collector editions of From Station To Station shortly.

Who will love Aladdin Sane…

If you’re a subscriber to Virgin Radio‘s newsletter in the UK, you may have received a communication recently with the following:

“Virgin Radio is launching it’s Essential Albums – A collection of classic releases from some of the finest artists, hand picked by us and available in all good record shops from 29 May. But as this is all about the music that we all love, we want to hear about your memories of the first six Essential Albums – some of you could even appear in one of our special documentaries.”

And they go on further to talk about Aladdin Sane specifically:

“Soon, this album by David Bowie’s going to be a Virgin Radio Essential Album. It’s going to be re-released on 29th May and you’ll find it in all good record shops with the Virgin Radio logo slapped all over it. How cool is that? Did you get ‘Aladdin Sane’ the first time round? What does it mean to you and has it soundtracked a particular part of your life? If you fancy appearing on a special Virgin Radio documentary about this Essential Album let us know all your thoughts and we might be in touch! What’s your favourite song off ‘Aladdin Sane’? Whichever song wins will become a Vintage Video in the next few weeks!

Well, I should point out straight away that Aladdin Sane isn’t actually being re-released on Monday, or even re-activated. But, new stock will have the stickers for Virgin’s campaign, which you can take part in here.

Rumours and lies, and stories they made up…Part 348

Following a posting on the BowieNet MBs by BowieNetter dbowieman David Bowie has denied any involvement with a film entitled Cornelius Fly.

It had been reported in the Icelandic press (see dbowieman’s scan above) and online, that DB was to appear in the film alongside English actor Sir Roger Moore, but Sailor has since been on the MBs to dismiss the report thus: “This is total b.s. I’ve never heard of it.”

Perhaps there has been some confusion with David Bowie the “often seen but rarely recognised character actor in American movies and television”, above. But methinks it is more likely that Gudjón Hafthór Ólafsson is trying to get publicity for his directorial debut.

The music is outside…

FrenetiCore is a Houston-based dance/theatre group that has been presenting shows for the past five years, including: Commodore 64 Tribute (2002), America Loves War (2003), The Sacred Harp (2004), 1984 (2005), Deviations (2005), and Bedlam (2006).

Outside is their latest offering and here’s a bit about it from their MySpace page…

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FrenetiCore is a brave little Houston-based dance/theater group dedicated to giving the masses the kind of dance they’ve demanded for so long. Dance that tells happy stories of demons, gun-toting preachers, jazz-handed fascists, and imaginary eight-foot tall baby seals. What’s not to love? Freneticore’s next production, Outside, is based on David Bowie’s 1995 concept album…

Outside is a cyber-punk drama fusing dance, film, and live music. It tells the story of Nathan Adler, an art-crime detective who investigates a violent atrocity ? a mutilated body posing as art. As Adler sifts through the evidence of the crime, he is entrenched in an underground art scene that deifies the destruction of beauty and humanity itself.

Freneticore narrates though video, dance, theater, and music, creating a multi-faceted and multi-level experience in Outside. Two Star Symphony, Houston?s most unusual string ensemble, joins Robert Thoth in performing the music from David Bowie?s concept album, Outside.

With original choreography by Rebekah French and Ashley Horn, and original film by Robert Thoth, Outside is a dark futurist drama that questions the evolution of technology, morality, and the artist?s role in society.

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Outside runs from May 25 ~ June 23, 2007 at Frenetic Theater, 5102 Navigation in Houston. Go here for ticket prices and times and other relevant details.