Month: August 2008

Never saw in all my life a more shining jewel case…

Following the success of the limited edition, (which has sold out in many places around the globe) EMI will be releasing the standard jewel case version of David Bowie – Live Santa Monica ’72 on October 13th in selected territories.

This version will be unnumbered and it will contain an eight-page booklet with none of the extras contained in the limited edition numbered box.

Those territories who still have stock of the limited edition may follow with the standard jewel case version at a later date.

We can be Heroes, for ever and ever…

Scottish newspaper, The Daily Record, today exclusively report that Irish trio, The Script, have had their version of David Bowie’s “Heroes” chosen as the official track of the 2012 London Olympics.

The selection came as a bit of a surprise to the boys who are currently at #1 in the UK album chart with their self-titled debut album and at #2 in the UK singles chart with The Man Who Can’t Be Moved.

Drummer Glen Power said: “We were just messing around when we decided to record it and it doesn’t even really have a proper drum beat. We really just put it together using a foot pedal for the beat.”

Singer Danny O’Donoghue added: “We wanted to cover it because we just thought it was a great song. It’s the only cover we’ve ever done and we can’t believe it’s just been taken on for the Olympics.”

The band have been performing the song at recent shows and you can get a flavour of the live version via low quality YouTube clips if you can’t wait for an official studio version release.

I’ve not had this story officially confirmed yet, but it seems The Feeling got a sniff of this news even if their own version didn’t get picked up. (08.25.2008 NEWS: THE FEELING PERFORM HEROES AT OLYMPIC CELEBRATION)

When the kids had killed the man…

The October issue of UNCUT magazine has a four-page feature on Ziggy’s last stand with words and pictures by Robert Ellis, who was obviously there on the night. Here’s just one of the things he had to say about the creator of the Hammersmith Odeon’s most famous show…

“What separated Bowie from other acts who dressed up on stage at the time was his stagecraft, and the conviction with which he carried it off. It was the difference between a great actor and a bunch of bit part players. He became the personality he’d created. That you were in the presence of greatness, there was never any doubt.”

It’s a great feature worth picking up and I’ll leave you with a personal plea from editor, Allan Jones…

DID YOU SEE ZIGGY? Any Stardust memories out there? If any of our Bowie-loving readers saw the Dame perform live as Ziggy back in the day, then email Allan Jones with your memories, and we’ll publish the best stories.

This just in. It would be great if you added your name to this project. Exceptionally worthwhile. Many thanks for reading.

Sailor

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We played our songs and felt the London sky, Resting on our hands…

Mayor of London Boris Johnson has received the Olympic flag at the closing ceremony in Beijing, China, to signal the start of London’s reign as Olympic host city.

The event triggered the start of predicted “wild celebrations” in London, as thousands of people attended a concert party in The Mall outside Buckingham Palace yesterday, where they were entertained by popular heavyweights including The Feeling, McFly, Scouting For Girls, Katherine Jenkins and Will Young.

The party was broadcast live on BBC One and Radio 2 and Bowie fans may be pleased to learn that The Feeling performed an emotionally charged version of “Heroes”, complete with an enthusiastic brass section which sounded better than it sounds…if that makes sense.

You can view a ninety minute highlights broadcast of the concert via the BBC iPlayer, including “Heroes”, (which starts at 0:46.46) until 4:59pm, UK time, on Sunday 31st August.

Congratulations are due to London, which will become the first city to stage the Olympics for a third time when the games start in the capital in 2012.

It will tumble from the sky…

As we told you back in May, (05.17.2008 NEWS: THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH DUE ON BLU RAY) The Man Who Fell To Earth is to be released as a Blu-ray disc as part of The Criterion Collection.

The disc will be available in North America from November 18th with pretty much the same special features as the Criterion DVD…

Special Features
– DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY EDITION FEATURES:
– High-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Nicolas Roeg
– Uncompressed stereo soundtrack
– Audio commentary by Roeg and actors David Bowie and Buck Henry
– New video interview with screenwriter Paul Mayersberg Performance, video interviews with actors Candy Clark and Rip Torn
– Audio interviews with costume designer May Routh and production designer Brian Eatwell – Audio interview from 1984 with author Walter Tevis, conducted by Don Swaim
– Multiple stills galleries, including Routh?s costume sketches; behind-the-scenes photos; and production and publicity stills, introduced by set photographer David James
– Gallery of posters from Roeg?s films
– Trailers
– PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Graham Fuller

Release Info
Catalog Number: CC1781BD
ISBN: 978-1-60465-103-4
UPC: 7-15515-03412-8

Looking forward to seeing this latest enhancement…not that I ever need an excuse to watch The Man Who Fell To Earth again…and again.

Boys always work it out…

You may have read an article in the Irish Times recently, wherein director Marian Quinn talks about her coming-of-age film set in 1970s Dublin, 32A.

In the interview she says how Gerry Leonard (composer of the original musical score for the film) managed to get David Bowie’s permission to use Boys Keep Swinging.

I asked Gerry how this came about and the likliehood of there being a soundtrack release on CD. Here’s what he said…

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Hi Blam. We were low on fuel but with great hopes. So I emailed David and told him about our project, our ‘short trousers’ film, 32A. I told him we need someone to step in with some benevolence. And that is exactly what he did. We are set in 1979 so he had the great suggestion of “Boys Keep Swinging” as the perfect time capsule.

He called all his people and made it happen on our budget. I sent him the movie but he just said “I trust you”… The song is in the pivotal scene in the movie. I used to go to that dance as an under age teenager myself. I am sure I shook my head to that song. We shook our heads to everything that rocked.

As yet there is not a soundtrack CD, but the film will be in the Woodstock Film Festival this Oct. – Gerry

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32A is already showing at selected cinemas in Ireland and you can book tickets and watch the trailer for the film on the Janey Pictures site.

Meanwhile, don’t forget the last of the current run of Spooky Ghost shows at The Living Room in NY on Friday. See our previous Spooky news item for details: 08.01.2008 NEWS: SPOOKY GHOST RETURNS TO THE LIVING ROOM

It was a day in that blue month September…

Last month we told you of EMI’s plans to release iSELECTBOWIE in territories outside of the UK and Ireland.

Now due on September 29th, the CD will be identical to the Mail On Sunday release apart from the fact that it will be housed in a jewel case and will contain a booklet with the English language version of David’s song-by-song comments.

Translated versions of David’s notes will be available here on BowieNet in the following languages:

Chinese
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Portuguese
Spanish

Just in case you somehow managed to miss it in our previous news items, I’ll leave you with the iSELECTBOWIE tracklisting…

01 – Life On Mars?
02 – Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing
03 – The Bewlay Brothers
04 – Lady Grinning Soul
05 – Win
06 – Some Are
07 – Teenage Wildlife
08 – Repetition
09 – Fantastic Voyage
10 – Loving The Alien
11 – Time Will Crawl (MM Remix)
12 – Hang On To Yourself (From David Bowie – Live Santa Monica ’72)

Can’t we give ourselves one more Chance…

Incredibly, it was five long years ago today that David Bowie played a warm up show for his A Reality Tour with an intimate performance for BowieNetters at The Chance Theater in Poughkeepsie, NY.

Sadly, it was a show I was personally unable to attend (a fact DB cheekily made reference to during the show) but obviously an army of BowieNetters from around the globe did make it to the show.

One of those that did attend was LizSK2 who wrote a great review for us which you can still read here: 08.19.2003 NEWS: BOWIE TAKES THE CHANCE TONIGHT

Also, check out the following day’s news item for more pictures from the show and a review from the Poughkeepsie Journal: 08.20.2003 NEWS: MORE PIX AND ANOTHER REVIEW FROM THE CHANCE

I’ll leave you with the eighteen song setlist from the night, which, as impressive as it was at the time, pales when compared to some of the shows on A Reality Tour a few months later. The thirty three song show in Berlin on November 3rd being a great example of that.

THE CHANCE THEATER, POUGHKEEPSIE, NY. AUGUST 19TH 2003

Reality
Modern Love
New Killer Star
Cactus
Battle For Britain (The Letter)
Pablo Picasso
Afraid
Fall Dog Bombs The Moon
Sister Midnight
I’m Afraid Of Americans
She’ll Drive The Big Car
Suffragette City

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Fantastic Voyage
Never Get Old
The Man Who Sold The World
Rebel Rebel
Hang On To Yourself
Heathen (The Rays)

So I said “So long” and I waved bye-bye…

As we reported ten months ago (10.22.2007 NEWS: OCTOBER ISSUE OF THE VOYEUR AVAILABLE NOW) the current issue of The Voyeur will be the last.

The Voyeur has enjoyed many previous incarnations over the years and it is the longest running David Bowie fanzine of all time. It started as “Stage” in the Netherlands in February 1979 and was renamed “Bowie Now” in 1982.

In 1990 it became “Best Of Bowie Now” and was published in English for the first time. The final name change came In 1995 and it has been “The Voyeur” for the past thirteen years.

I know you’ll want to join me in thanking all the people who helped make it what it was since its inception in 1979 right up to the present day staff: Antoine Loogman, Angela Palermo, Peter Smit and Ludo Wopereis.

One of the features that made The Voyeur so much more visually interesting than its predecessors was Antoine Loogman’s excelent full page photographs. See the final issue’s cover, above, for a great example.www.davidbowiefanclub.com

The organisers do intend to continue with an online presence at www.davidbowiefanclub.com but without regular contributor Ton van der Horst who has decided to call it a day.

Anyway, here’s what to expect from the final issue…

~ Welcome to “The Voyeur”
~ Every picture tells a story – Antoine Loogman talks about his
Bowie photography over the years
~ An exclusive interview with John ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson
~ Four page full colour David Bowie centrefold
~ TMWFTE soundtrack by Bert Slappendel
~ The history of the Dutch unofficial fan clubs
~ Report from the 2007 Voyeur Meeting
~ David Bowie – Magical Name, Magical Man by Tineke Guise
~ Wim Hendrikse talks about his Dutch language Bowie biography: Een Star Die Op Aarde Viel

Further details regarding the content of the latest edition and information about back issues can be found on The Voyeur homepage at http://go.to/bowiefanclub, usually.