Month: April 2008

Waiting so long…

It gives us no small amount of pleasure to give you an exclusive first look at the cover of an album that has been close to the hearts’ of many Bowie fans for thirty five years. (The first bootlegs of this show surfaced in 1973)

Now officially titled David Bowie – Live Santa Monica ’72, and officially sanctioned by David Bowie for the first time, this version is the final chapter in the life of the original Santa Monica bootleg that had many different titles and was released in various formats.

Here again is the exclusive quotation that David Bowie gave us earlier in the month regarding this performance: “I can tell that I?m totally into being Ziggy by this stage of our touring. It?s no longer an act; I am him. This would be around the tenth American show for us and you can hear that we are all pretty high on ourselves. We train wreck a couple of things, I miss some words and sometimes you wouldn?t know that pianist Mike Garson was onstage with us. But overall I really treasure this bootleg. Mick Ronson is at his blistering best.”

We’ll be posting an update with more information concerning the packaging of David Bowie – Live Santa Monica ’72, as well as a collectors’ feature on the history of the bootleg, shortly.

See our previous stories for more information regarding the official release of this historic recording. (02.27.2008 NEWS: LIMITED EDITION SANTA MONICA DUE FOR SUMMER RELEASE & 04.10.2008 NEWS: DAVID BOWIE – SANTA MONICA ’72 DUE END OF JUNE)

David Bowie – Live Santa Monica ’72 is scheduled for a June 30th release through EMI Catalogue Marketing.

Hey babe, let’s go out tonight…

As is their custom, David and Iman were guests at the 7th Annual Tribeca Film Festival Vanity Fair Party at the State Supreme Courthouse in downtown New York tonight.

They are pictured above arriving at the event…Tune in tomorrow for a full report and more pix.

Meanwhile, members can view a bigger, different shot by clicking on the one above.

Go on put your ear to the ground, you’ll be hearing that sound…

Falling Down is the first single from the upcoming Scarlett Johansson album: Anywhere I Lay My Head. (02.19.08 NEWS: DB TALKS ABOUT THOSE JOHANSSON CONTRIBUTIONS & 04.15.2008 NEWS: ANYWHERE I LAY MY HEAD PREVIEWED)

Due ahead of the album, the track will be released as a 7″ 45 single on May 5th in the UK, backed with Yesterday Is Here. Not sure about other formats and territories just yet.

The song is one of two on the album that David Bowie donated backing vocals to, the other being Fannin Street.

Spinner.com has posted an exclusive of the song today and you can have a listen to it here.

For what it’s worth, I think the 4:54 min track is beautifully atmospheric and Dave Sitek has done a great production job, with Bowie’s distinctive voice as the perfect icing.

In the spinner article, Sitek had this to say about the song: “With ‘Falling Down’, our pursuit of making one song with both Kermit the Frog and David Bowie on it became a success.”. Well, I’m sure all will become apparent soon enough.

The video for Falling Down will premiere tomorrow (April 22nd) at Yahoo! Launch.

Passionate bright young things…

The May issue of Clash magazine which sports a Duffy cover (more of whom shortly) has a feature about a Bowie album that also sports a Duffy cover.*

Tying in nicely with the 35th anniversary (04.13.2008 NEWS: ALADDIN SANE IS THIRTY FIVE TODAY) the magazine celebrates Aladdin Sane in its regular Spotlight feature.

Here’s a couple of lines from the piece, written by Shane Gladstone…

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“‘Aladdin Sane’ bridged the gap between ‘Ziggy Stardust’ and ‘Diamond Dogs’. With advanced orders of over 100,000 the album finally clarified Bowie’s position as an established rock ‘n’ roll star. In maintaining his fan base while diverting to more experimental territory Bowie was confident he could hold a crowd and set the trend.

Crucially this period saw the beginning of Bowie as pop auteur. Brimming with self-belief after having the audacity to kill off Ziggy, he went on to reinvent himself time and time again, becoming a key innovator and changing the face of the musical and cultural landscape throughout the seventies.”

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If you don’t manage to track down Clash, I’ll post a large scan of the article on the MBs once this issue is off the shelves.

Speaking of Duffy, (the lass above that graces the front of Clash) in a recent interview she apparently expressed her weariness of constantly being called the new Dusty Springfield. Here’s what she had to say on the matter…

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“I only got around to owning the Dusty Springfield box-set about a year ago. I just don’t relate to it. I don’t see how there’s a thread.”

In fact the girl from Gwynedd is more inspired by 70s rock and grew up listening to David Bowie. Duffy confessed: “It’s obviously an amazing honour to be compared to some of those really great artists, but the singers I’m obsessed with are David Bowie and Scott Walker. They’re the artists that have inspired me and made me alive. They make me cry with passion.”

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It seems that David Bowie and Scott Walker are certainly impressing this generation of pop folk coming up…So good to see that great taste always wins through in the end.

* The pictures on the Aladdin Sane cover were taken by the photographer Brian Duffy.

All you’ve got to do is win…

You must be getting the hang of this by now. (04.06.2008 NEWS: THE GREAT REX RAY GIVE-AWAY STARTS TODAY + 04.13.2008 NEWS: REX RAY GIVE-AWAY PART 1 WINNER – PART 2 IS GO)

And so, on with the winner of #9/10 of the untrimmed 20″ x 14″ (508mm x 355mm) hand-numbered Berkeley print, (see above left) customised by Rex in the Reality style and signed by both Rex Ray and David Bowie in 2006.

And the winner is: nightlight

Well done nightlight, please send your real name and address to me and we’ll have your prize to you as soon as eggs is eggs.

All you have to do to be in with a chance of being the third winner and getting your hands on #8/10 of the Berkeley prints, is contact me here before midnight NY time on Saturday the 26th.

Usual BowieNet rules apply: Only one entry per BowieNet account per week, and please remember you must enter using your BowieNet e-mail or at least supply your BowieNet user name. If you do neither of these things you won’t be eligible to enter.

The third winner will be announced next Sunday the 27th and the contest for the fourth artwork will commence at the same time.

BowieNet members can view larger versions of both of the above here on the MBs. Good luck.

Takes me right back (when you were young)…

Monday sees the release of the soundtrack CD for Baillie Walsh‘s film: Flashbacks Of A Fool via Vital. It’s a jolly decent affair featuring a couple of tunes each from David Bowie and Roxy Music. Here’s the tracklisting:

Flashbacks Of A Fool soundtrack CD

01 – Sons Of – Scott Walker
02 – The Sea Beyond – Richard Hartley
03 – Regina Coeli Laetare – Mozart
04 – It Ain’t Easy – David Bowie
05 – Ruth’s House – Richard Hartley
06 – Virginia Plain – Roxy Music
07 – Runaway – Richard Hartley
08 – If There Is Something – Roxy Music
09 – The Jean Genie – David Bowie
10 – Simple Things – Richard Hartley
11 – What Goes Up Must Go Down – War Zone

One of the highlights of the film is the use of Roxy Music’s If There Is Something, a personal favourite of David’s which you may remember he tackled with Tin Machine. (Thus today’s legitimate use of a Roxy Music lyric)

Baillie Walsh nailed his colours even more firmly to the mast at the London premiere of Flashbacks Of A Fool when he said: “The soundtrack of my life was David Bowie and Roxy Music essentially.”

Lead actor Daniel Craig was equally appreciative: “The effect that Roxy Music and David Bowie have had on my life, as everybody’s, is immense. So we’re very lucky that they’ve allowed us to use their music.”

I got to see the film yesterday and I have to say I think it’s far better than some of the average reviews it’s received. Having said that, I’m the kind of person who enjoys getting through a box of Kleenex Mansize…Obviously, by that, I mean the movie made me tearful more than once.

The film went nationwide in the UK on the 18th and you can experience all sorts of goodies over at the official Flashbacks Of A Fool website.

A couple of songs from your old scrapbook…

Well the headline and the above advert say it all really.

The June issue of UNCUT magazine has a Bowie cover and a large feature, within which the magazine attempts to identify David Bowie’s thirty greatest songs via the opinions of thirty music world luminaries.

It’s an impressive list of contributors, from David’s own contemporaries such as Jimmy Page and Keith Richards, via chubby little losers like Ricky Gervais, to relative new boys such as Alex Turner.

There are some very cool choices and a lot of lovely things said about David in the feature, but sadly we’re not allowed to give you any more detail than that right now as we don’t want to kill UNCUT’s own online exclusive which will publish all of the contributors along with their choices, once the mag is published.

The magazine will also include the CD: REBEL REBEL: A tribute to David Bowie, which does what it says on the tin.

The June issue of UNCUT hits the shelves on April 24th and subscribers’ doormats shortly before.

…and strange divine…

Following on from the Hunky Dory and The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars album cover limited edition art prints produced by UK based company, St Pauls Gallery, (10.11.2006 NEWS: LIMITED EDITION SIGNED ZIGGY ART PRINT DISCOUNT UPDATE + 09.18.2007 NEWS: HUNKY DORY PRINT ON SALE NOW WITH BOWIENET DISCOUNT) we are very pleased to announce that David Bowie has given the green light for the same treatment of the iconic Aladdin Sane sleeve…that’s a mock-up above.

Stay tuned for a contest to win a highly-prized Artist’s Proof of Hunky Dory along with an update on the Aladdin Sane print.

And I’m never ever gonna get old…

I’m sure many of you will have stumbled upon this already, but it’s worth a mention here anyway.

Actually, you’re probably better off just checking it out as I’m not quite sure what to say about it.

Go here to see the Young@Heart Chorus perform Golden Years.

Go here to read an interesting article about the Young@Heart Chorus.

Go here for the official Young@Heart Chorus website where you can read more about their latest CD: Mostly Live and the Young@Heart film which should give Shine A Light a good run for its money! };-)

Thanx to Adam Dean of Bowie Downunder for the original pointer.

But now I lay me down to sleep, And now I close my eyes…

I’m sure you remember well David’s comments regarding his contributions to the upcoming Scarlett Johansson album: Anywhere I Lay My Head. (02.19.08 NEWS: DB TALKS ABOUT THOSE JOHANSSON CONTRIBUTIONS)

Now you can read a track-by-track dissection of the album here, with brief comments on Bowie’s contributions, ahead of the album’s release next month on May 19th (May 20th USA).