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All the glitter and the roar…
Following on from their
I can’t find it on the NME site just yet, so here’s the text for your reading pleasure…
Next week’s issue of NME has an exclusive interview with Scarlett and the magazine asks: So can Scarlett Johansson cut it as a rock star or is she just acting the part?
What made my life so wonderful?
As you can see from the schedule below, the first four parts have already aired, but you can hear them all via the
Sunday 4th May – The David Bowie Story Part 1 – Apprenticeship.
Monday 5th May – The David Bowie Story Part 2 – One Man Against the World.
Tuesday 6th May – The David Bowie Story Part 3 – Fame.
Wednesday 7th May – The David Bowie Story Part 4 – Don’t Normalise It!
Thursday 8th May – The David Bowie Story Part 5 – Out of Characters into Suits!
Friday 9th May – The David Bowie Story Part 6 – Falling Down, Standing Up.
Thanx to BowieNetter Wayne Sadlier for the pointer.
Pushing through the market square…
This is pretty cool.
As I’m sure many of you know, (hi Dez) David Bowie played three important shows there in 1971/72 and a fourth as Iggy Pop’s keyboard player in 1977.
Here are links to the relevant pages…
Borough Assembly Hall, Market Square, Aylesbury
Date:
Headlining: David Bowie
Support: Lol Coxhill Mick Softley
Borough Assembly Hall, Market Square, Aylesbury
Date:
Headlining: David Bowie
Support: Grand Canyon
Borough Assembly Hall, Market Square, Aylesbury
Date:
Headlining: David Bowie
Support: JSD Band
Vale Hall, Civic Centre, Market Square, Aylesbury
Date:
Headlining: Iggy Pop
Support: The Vibrators
Go take a look around, it’s a fascinating glimpse at a venue and a town that clearly took its music very seriously, and it’s the perfect snapshot from a golden period that’s unlikely to be repeated anywhere I can think of in the near future.
I’m sure
We can be superheroes for ever and ever…
David and Iman were guests at the Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy Costume Institute Gala at
The Metropolitan Museum of Art hosted it’s annual Costume Institute Gala with Honorary Chair Giorgio Armani and Co-Chairs George Clooney, Julia Roberts and Anna Wintour.
This year’s theme is Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy to tie in with the exhibition at the Museum which runs from May 7 through September 1 2008. Here’s some stuff from the Met web site…
———————————————————————————————————————–
May 7, 2008?September 1, 2008
Special Exhibition Galleries, 1st floor
The symbolic and metaphorical associations between fashion and the superhero are explored in this compelling exhibition. Featuring movie costumes, avant-garde haute couture, and high-performance sportswear, it reveals how the superhero serves as the ultimate metaphor for fashion and its ability to empower and transform the human body. Objects are organized thematically around particular superheroes, whose movie costumes and superpowers are catalysts for the discussion of key concepts of superheroism and their expression in fashion.
The exhibition and its accompanying book are made possible by Giorgio Armani. Additional support is provided by Condé Nast
———————————————————————————————————————–
The event was attended by heaps of celebs, but none quite as easy on the eye as the triumvirate above of Beyonce Knowles, David and Iman.
Go on put your ear to the ground, you’ll be hearing that sound…
As we told you last month, Falling Down, the first single from the upcoming
The song is one of two on the album featuring backing vocals by David Bowie, the other being Fannin Street. Anywhere I Lay My Head is Scarlett’s collection of Tom Waits‘ covers.
There’s a great seven-minute podcast where Scarlett and producer Dave Sitek talk about the recording of Falling Down with a couple of minutes specifically about DB’s contribution.
You can reach the podcast
Anywhere I Lay My Head is released in Europe on May 19th and elsewhere the very next day.
All you’ve got to do is win…
It’s time to start sending your entries in for week five of our ten week Rex Ray contest, kidz. (04.06.2008 NEWS: THE GREAT REX RAY GIVE-AWAY STARTS TODAY)
And without further doodoo, on to the winner of #7/10 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: Kiwidean
Well done Kiwidean, please send your real name and address to me and we’ll have your prize to you before a Rolling Stone gathers lost brain cells.
All you have to do to be in with a chance of being the fifth winner and getting your hands on #6/10 of the Berkeley prints, is contact me here before midnight NY time on Saturday May 10th.
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 fifth winner will be announced next Sunday May the 11th and the contest for the sixth artwork will commence at the same time.
BowieNet members can view larger versions of both of the above
Love’s such an old fashioned word…
I’m sure there are a few of you reading this who are old enough to remember Tony Palmer‘s brilliant
Today sees the release of a five disc set which includes all seventeen of the original episodes.
I do vaguely remember the Bowie footage from episode sixteen which shows him backstage at a show in 1973 applying make-up, but more than that I do not remember.
Anyway, the lack of Bowie content aside (you should remember that he was one of the relatively new boys when this aired) it’s one of the best rock histories ever made, apparently produced at John Lennon‘s suggestion.
You can view the trailer (no Bowie) and find out more about the set
She’s no more than 7″ wide…
WARNING: This news item is not for normal people. Only read if you are an anorak and you’ve nothing better to do with your time!
While we’re on the subject of Liza Jane, (05.02.2008 NEWS: GEORGE UNDERWOOD TALKS LIZA JANE IN MOJO) back in February,
I’m not suggesting the seller was trying to hoodwink anyone, in fact they did point out that the record wasn’t an original with this disclaimer: “HAND ETCHED MATRIX NUMBERS SIDE ONE CPDR 33318 AND SIDE TWO CRDR 33317 INDICATE THIS IS A SECOND ISSUE EXAMPLE AND NOT A FIRST PRESS.”
The problem was, somebody had tried to make it look like an original. Firstly, the counterfeits always came with a punched-out jukebox centre, and they originally came in a plain white sleeve. This one seemed to have the centre intact, and it was housed in what appeared to be an original Vocalion sleeve.
Above is the original label showing the narrow run out with machine-stamped matrix.
The counterfeiters had always done a remarkably good job of the label itself, but the run out was much wider than on the original and the matrix was scratched in free hand as opposed to stamped.
The fake at the top of the page has the wide run out yet it appears to have that all important original centre. What was going on?
It’s highly unlikely that there was ever another pressing of the original, in fact, there definitely wasn’t…After all, Les Conn’s mother ended up dumping box loads of the original…that’s how well it sold.
So, how could a counterfeit have a proper centre? When questioned further, the seller noticed this: “On close inspection it looks as if the black centre piece has been added. However, it is a superb job and in conjunction with the Vocalion paper sleeve, would make a stunning item to frame.”
Indeed, it may look lovely on a wall, but some poor sap shelled out £330 for a fake worth no more than £15 to £20!
That seemed to be the end of it, but then later in February
Was this the real McCoy? Original centre? Check. Narrow run out? Check. But hold up…what’s this the seller is saying about the matrix? “Record Ex (complete with center) and sleeve in EX+ condition – CPDR3318 – This is problably a second issue with etched matrix. Although most of these had a large runout groove this one has a small runout groove like the original Vocalion issue. Anyway, a hard to find record in this condition.”
“…problably (sic) a second issue with etched matrix.”? “…most of these had a large runout groove…”?
Probably? Surely it’s easy enough to be definite. Also, most of these? Was the seller saying there were counterfeits with the narrow run out too?
I scurried off to check mine. Original blue vinyl counterfeit = wide run out. Original black vinyl counterfeit = wide run out. But, a black vinyl counterfeit I bought much later has the narrow run out!!
Those pesky bootleggers were obviously trying to make it look even more like the real thing for a second pressing, even going to the trouble of re-cutting the master…trouble is, they’ve never managed to fake the machine-stamped matrix.
Also, the reprinting of original sleeves is big business now…these Vocalion sleeves are fake and when one compares them to an original, much thinner stock, sixties Vocalion sleeve, the differences are obvious.
Nevertheless, even with these telltale signs, the seller still managed to shift the above copy for $103.50 USD.
Since then, the same seller has bought a
In the vinyl analysis (geddit?) you can’t be sure a copy of Liza Jane is legit unless it has a machine-stamped matrix. Indeed, this is true of practically all counterfeits and bootlegs, though it seems that not all legit releases of other records will always have a machine-stamped matrix.
So there you have it. Hope that’s useful to those of you thinking of purchasing this valuable record.
You there at the back, wake up!
Yeah, this little girl turn me upside down…
The June issue of
The magazine has got hold of both manager Les Conn and guitarist George Underwood (pictured as a young handsome King Bee, above) for their recollections of the release, which will be forty four years old next month.
Apparently the song was originally intended as the B-side. George recalls that David cooked it up with a little help from George on guitar in the Underwood’s kitchen. Here’s George: “It took around 15 minutes. We’d been listening to a Huey Smith song called Little Liza Jane which had an influence.”
However, Conn claimed the writing credit and insists he arranged the song too. Here’s what he told MOJO: “It was based on a six-bar blues. I was very good at lyrics as well,” Les modestly claimed, before admitting: “I can’t remember why it was called Liza Jane, it may have been after a girl he was taking out at the time.”
Without wanting to open a can of wiggly bird food, on the strength of just what’s been said here, George’s story has more credibility. The Huey Smith song is clearly the springboard for the Bowie song.
Either way, George doesn’t seem too bothered…and David even less. When I asked him what he remembered of the song’s origin, he responded thus: “I don’t remember anything about this song.”.
The
Many years later, Bowie was asked to play the song for a TV special. Underwood still remembers his reaction: “He did a version of it. But I know he hates the song. When he finished, he said, ‘I hope that’s the last time I ever have to play it’.”
Liza Jane on a TV special? I’m afraid not…it seems wires were crossed when George spoke to
I heard the news today, oh boy…
Already published by St. Martin’s Press in the US on March 4th, I’ve not had much luck in finding a copy of May Pang‘s cleverly punning Instamatic Karma: Photographs of John Lennon in the UK as of yet.
I do know that the book contains a single picture of Bowie visiting John and May, possibly with Ava Cherry in tow. You can read more about the book by clicking on the image above.
Not having access to aforementioned photograph, I thought it best to leave you with a Bowie/Lennon shot of some kind at least…
The above photograph of Bowie, Ono, Lennon and Presley was taken at the 1975 Grammy Awards a little while after the picture in the book, which was probably late summer 1974.
This coming weekend, May Pang has an exclusive conversation with
The Beatles Show can currently be heard on 23 stations across North America, find out more