Month: September 2008

So inviting – so enticing…

Well, the slightly disappointing news is that the Heroes issue of Lemon we have been telling you about since May, (05.08.2008 NEWS: SNEAK PREVIEW OF LEMON’S HEROES ISSUE & 07.21.2008 NEWS: WORD MAGAZINE WRITER FORCED TO RETURN BOWIE LP) has been delayed until the end of next month.

However, the outrageously talented Kevin Grady (who is Editor-In-Chief AND Creative Director) has been in touch with another update and I have to say, this publication is sounding better and better with every communication.

On top of all the exciting content we’ve told you about in previous news items, the latest is that both David Bowie and Rex Ray have contributed exclusive artwork for the issue too.

Here’s Kevin…

———————————————————————————————————————–

Hi Blam,

The long-awaited update, at last…

Here are the actual covers of the upcoming “Heroes” issue, featuring Daft Punk in DB’s famous pose. These shots were taken recently in Paris by renowned photographer Dimitri Daniloff.

We’re very excited that both David Bowie and Rex Ray contributed exclusive artwork for the issue as well. Each will be reproduced as limited-edition litho prints in the issue.

Mick Rock has contributed some of his photos of DB, which will be accompanied by a piece on Bowie’s indelible influence on popular culture. We’ll also be running a feature on Berlin.

The best way to describe this issue is that it’s like a big Bowie-themed masquerade party, with all of the content reflecting DB in some way, however abstract. It’s not intended as your typical music journalism and it won’t trot out the same old facts that every fan already knows. It’s a celebration and truly a labor of love. We hope others will enjoy it and that it will help create new fans.

More soon… Kevin

———————————————————————————————————————–

This is sounding pretty special, I think you’ll agree.

I’ll leave you with a sculpture collaboration called Plastic Soul that Kevin himself created for this issue of Lemon along with artist Niho Kozuru.

The solid book we wrote can not be found today…

A couple of months back we warned you that Genesis Publications were down to their last fifty copies of David Bowie and Mick Rock’s Moonage Daydream.

It seems a few of you took advantage of their three-part payment plan that we told you about at the time, and on the heels of an e-mail from Genesis Publications notifying subscribers that the book has now completely sold out, we’ve received a few e-mails from relieved and grateful BowieNetters who snapped up the remaining copies, thankful for that warning.

Expect the value of the book to start rising from this point on, though I’ve yet to meet anyone who bought a Genesis Publications version of Moonage Daydream that would be happy to part with it, credit crunch or not.

Now it’s time to start saving for a copy of Geoff MacCormack’s equally brilliant From Station To Station …or it will be gone before you know it.

A London boy, oh a London boy, Your flashy clothes are your pride and joy…

Despite the information on the rather lovely poster above, the Time Out/Getty Images London Through A Lens exhibition will now run until November 22nd, albeit with a month break.

If you’re in the UK, you may have seen TV news items recently with photographer Terry O’Neill standing next to another shot from the same Diamond Dogs London photo session as the one in the poster.

He recounted his memories of the 1974 London session for the celebrated album sleeve, admitting to being fairly nervous as a bloody great big dog went a bit mental while it’s handler sat nonchalantly throughout the proceedings.

It’s great that they did include the shot for an exhibition about London, as Bowie has always seemed very London to me…despite not living in the UK from around the time the picture above was taken.

You can find out more about this free exhibition at both the Time Out and Getty Images websites.

There’s a brand new Dance…

Though Bowie collectors may have been disappointed by the Joe Meek lot in the It’s More Than Rock And Roll auction in London last Thursday, (09.05.2008 NEWS: JOE MEEK COLLECTION SELLS FOR £170,000 GBP) they only have themselves to blame for taking their collective eye off the ball for another Bowie lot that went under the hammer in the same auction.

Here’s a description of Lot 105…

———————————————————————————————————————–

David Bowie Album Artwork

Album Artwork for David Bowie’s albums Tonight, Dance, Never Let Me Down and Let’s Dance. Interestingly the album Dance never came to fruition and so this piece of artwork is highly unusual and very collectable. The Tonight artwork is on the reverse of the Let’s Dance artwork. With a four colour separation set of transparencies for the Dance artwork. Estimate GBP300-400 USD600-800 (3 pieces)

———————————————————————————————————————–

Despite the description, the items being auctioned were actually printers’ untrimmed proofs as opposed to artwork. The Let’s Dance, Tonight and Never Let Me Down proofs would normally have commanded a high price by themselves. But, with the inclusion of the unreleased Dance album proof too, the estimate seemed a little low in the first place.

However, the whole lot sold for a piffling £190 which was an incredible bargain for some lucky bidder, particularly when one considers that the Dance proof is probably scarcer than the withdrawn Diamond Dogs sleeve and the withdrawn colour Station To Station proof.

For those of you not familiar with the history of Dance, keep reading…

Dance was a seven track remix album originally scheduled for release in November 1985. Described as “An Endless Music Mix”, the album collected several of Bowie’s recent remixes from Let’s Dance and Tonight and segued them together.

The catalogue number was EMI America ST-17175 and this was the tracklisting:

Loving The Alien
Let’s Dance
Shake It
Blue Jean
China Girl
Dancing With The Big Boys
Modern Love

With additional production and mixing by Rusty Garner and Paul Sabu, the album was withdrawn from schedule and scrapped before any vinyl was pressed, but not before a handful of proofs had been printed up.

As is usual with withdrawn releases, the majority of the proofs would have been destroyed, but some resourceful type obviously managed to squirrel some away in the vain hope that they would be boosting their pension fund.

Beware of a nine track bootleg CD released in 2001 which utilised the withdrawn sleeve and features officially released remixes from the period.

It seems Rusty Garner had his vision partly realised (it seems the concept was his) with the album Dance Mix (EYS-91132 EMI America ST-17170) released in 1985 too and also subtitled: “An Endless Music Mix”.

This release featured seven remixes from various artists with additional production and mixing by Rusty Garner and Paul Sabu. All sound familiar?

An exclusive remix of David Bowie’s Let’s Dance was featured on side one of the record and though I’ve only ever managed to get my hands on a Japanese promo (above) the album probably enjoyed a wider release…I’m sure somebody out there will know the answer to that one.

Looking For Satellites…

I know I probably always express incredulous disbelief at the amount of time passed for these types of anniversary, but does it really seem to you that David Bowie’s Reality performance at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith was already five years ago?

Many BowieNetters were either present at the show itself or at one of the various live cinema screenings around the globe for what was billed: THE WORLD’S FIRST LIVE AND INTERACTIVE MUSIC EVENT.

You can look back at the news items we posted at the time, the first of which includes another of LizSK2‘s enthusiastic reviews. (09.09.2003 NEWS: RIVERSIDE ROCKS AROUND THE WORLD & 09.10.2003 NEWS: RIVERSIDE REPORTS IN TODAY’S UK PRESS)

I’ll leave you with the setlist from the night…

Riverside Studios, Hammersmith, London. September 8th 2003

(Warm up)
A New Career In A New town
A bit of Song 2 (Blur)
A bit of Rumble (Link Wray)

(Whole of Reality album)
New Killer Star
Pablo Picasso
Never Get Old
The Loneliest Guy
Looking For Water
She’ll Drive The Big Car
Days
Fall Dog Bombs The Moon
Try Some, Buy Some
Reality
Bring Me The Disco King

Q n A with Jonathan Ross

(Extras. First 3 songs voted by you)
Hallo Spaceboy
Fantastic Voyage
Hang On To Yourself
Cactus
Afraid
Modern Love
New Killer Star

Who will love Oldmodin Sane?

I’m sure you can’t fail to have noticed the Paul Weller as Bowie fan story as it has developed on these pages. (05.14.2008 NEWS: WELLER IS BORN AGAIN BOWIE FREAK & 05.22.2008 NEWS: BOWIE ASKS WELLER FOR HIS HAIRCUT BACK VIA E-MAIL & 06.05.2008 NEWS: WELLER WEARS BOWIE BUTTON FOR TV RECORDING & 08.17.2008 NEWS: WELLER WANTS TO WORK WITH BOWIE)

Well now with the information above I guess you’ve already worked out the next instalment. That’s right, Weller’s latest tour laminate is a shot of him mocked up as Aladdin Sane bearing the legend: PAUL WELLER – OLDMODIN SANE.

I think the look suits him nicely, and who knows, perhaps this is a hint of where The Modfather’s Barnet is headed next!

I have also heard unconfirmed stories that Weller is working on a cover of an old sixties Bowie tune…we’ll let you know if this amounts to anything.

The American leg of Paul Weller’s latest tour is coming to an end shortly with a whole string of European dates to come throughout October and November.

Footnote: I’ve removed a crucial security mark from the laminate above, just in case somebody (from another site, obviously) is thinking of attempting a forgery by printing it out!

If you want it, Boy…

The promotional video for Boy George‘s next single features a cartoon of Ziggy Stardust in his Aladdin Sane phase.

The track, Yes We Can, utilises the Bowie likeness fairly prominently throughout the promo and the single will be released in three formats on October 12th.

Other than the cast of colourful characters shown in the animation above, Barack Obama also features fairly heavily and while the video seems to be pro Obama, there’s no real clue in the lyric that the song was written with him or Bowie in mind.

Whatever the intention, Yes We Can carries a positive and optimistic message of better times to come and you can view the video here on the official Boy George site.

Thanx to BowieNetter starman304 for the pointer.

The Church of Man Love, is such a holy place to be…

The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars has been voted the greatest, gayest album of all time by Out magazine.

This news has sent the BowieNet MBs into a bit of a tizzy, but Out magazine makes a pretty strong case for its claim.

Elsewhere in the poll both Hunky Dory and Diamond Dogs make an appearance, not to mention Lou Reed‘s Bowie/Ronno produced Transformer.

Go here to see who’s underneath DB. Meanwhile, the Bowie entry is a good read worth reproducing in full here…

———————————————————————————————————————–

#1 ~ David Bowie, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, 1972

It?s ironic that an album with an opener forecasting Earth?s expiration and a closer tackling celebrity excess and self-destruction remains one of the most liberating, uplifting records of all time — about as ironic as a straight man topping this list. Robust, swaggering anthems ?Ziggy Stardust? and ?Suffragette City? prove this space odyssey is far from morbid or apocalyptic, yet it is on standouts like the languid, gender-flirting ?Lady Stardust? and brash come-on ?Moonage Daydream? — in which the singer asks for a raygun to be placed to his head with almost masochistic sexual glee — that Ziggy and his Spiders really shine.

When in the grand finale, ?Rock ?n? Roll Suicide,? Bowie wails ?Oh no love! You?re not alone!? over a sea of theatrical strings, you know he was singing for every exiled, dejected, sexually confused young kid who longed for a world of greater possibilities.

“At a time when social and sexual taboos were just starting to break down, Bowie as Ziggy created a world where the possibilities were limitless. You could be whatever you wanted to be.? — Boy George

———————————————————————————————————————–

Stay tuned to out.com for more gay celebrities’ contributions which they say they’ll be posting online throughout the month as they couldn’t get them all in the magazine.

Boy George had both Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust in his top ten, with Ziggy Stardust topping his list. Amy Ray also had Ziggy Stardust in her top ten, but I’ll leave you with John Cameron Mitchell‘s comments regarding Hunky Dory which topped his list…

———————————————————————————————————————–

“Whether Bowie was a fake bisexual or not, this is the best queer rock album of all time. Look at the cover photo! Listen to “Queen Bitch” with the drag queen screaming “I can do better than that!” — John Cameron Mitchell

———————————————————————————————————————–

Speaking of Boy George…

Some make you sing and some make you scream…

Though we don’t tend to bother mentioning the ubiquitous compilation CD with a Bowie track on it these days, I’ve received an unusually high number of e-mails regarding the above CDs, both released earlier this week…so it seems some of you are interested.

SINGER celebrates songs sung properly by people with great voices and includes David Bowie’s sublime version of Wild Is The Wind.

Songs Without Words is one of those bloody awful Classical Rock type affairs that attempts to present Life On Mars? in the classical style. But don’t take my word for it, make up your own mind here.

You’re squawking like a pink mocking bird…

Much has been made in the UK press recently of the sale of the entire collection of legendary 60s producer Joe Meek‘s personal master tape recordings by liveauctioneers.com. Indeed, it is a valuable collection important to the history of recorded music.

The value of the vault of approximately 1850 tapes was reflected in the final auction price of £170,000 GBP yesterday.

However, David Bowie’s purported presence on one of the tracks, (a Konrads Meek-produced recording of the song Mocking Bird) is unlikely to be true.

I asked David about his involvement, and this is what he had to say: “Well, I never worked with Joe Meek, never even met him…would have loved to have though. But, I believe The Konrads did do a track or two with him.”

So, it’s most likely true that Mocking Bird is a Konrads recording, but it seems it was made long after David left the band in 1963.