Month: December 2008

Ain’t that poster love?

This is the penultimate of our weekly competitions to take us into the new year, whereby each of the prizes in the contests are signed by David Bowie!

This week’s prize (see above) is two posters designed by Rex Ray. The one on the right is from the BowieNet show at The Roseland Ballroom in New York in June 2002 and it’s signed by the photographer (aka MASK) and Rex Ray and DB.

The one on the left advertises three US shows promoted by Bill Graham in January 2004 and while it’s not signed by the photographer (me) it is signed by Rex and DB, as can be seen in the background detail.

We may throw in a couple of extras too, in fact we definitely will, but we haven’t illustrated them here as it will make the answer to the contest far too easy…and obviously we can’t have that.

So, what you have to do to be in with a chance of winning this week is give me the details of two other Bowie shows that Rex Ray has designed the posters for…there are more than two more (at least four off the top of my head) but we only need two.

When you’ve found the date and venue for the two shows other than those above, send them to me here before midnight NY time this coming Wednesday December 31st.

The winner will be announced here on New Year’s Day and the final instalment will go live soon after that.

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.

Good Luck, kidz.

She got males all hung up on her Matermind filters…

Actress and singer Toyah ‘mega for a year in the 80s’ Willcox was one of the contestants on Celebrity Mastermind in the UK earlier this evening.

Toyah, wife of guitarist Robert Fripp, chose David Bowie 1967-77 as her specialist subject on the popular TV quiz show.

I have to say that she did better than I personally expected, but I won’t give anything away in case you’ve not seen it yet.

If you missed Mastermind, you can still watch this episode up until 6:59pm on Sunday 4th January by clicking on the subtle clue to one of the questions Toyah passed on in the image above.

Thanx to BowieNetter kennymoore for the pointer…well, it was a phone call more than a bit of pointing to be precise.

Breaking glass in your room again…

Sorry folx, for one reason or another Christmas took a little longer than expected this year…still, I’m sure the extra wait kept the anticipation high.

I won’t prolong the agony further by reiterating the rules of the contest, but if you missed it, the details are here: 12.21.2008 NEWS: WIN SIGNED ALADDIN SANE ARTIST’S PROOF

Most of you managed way more than fifteen examples, and indeed one particular show off (hallo mate) managed fifty seven!

However, there could only be one winner and The Random Generator chose BowieNetter breakingglass to be that person.

Well done bg, please send your real name and address and we’ll have this valuable beauty to you pronto.

Thanx again are due to those very generous folk at St Pauls Gallery who are still offering a healthy discount to BowieNetters for those of you that didn’t win this contest. (12.07.2008 NEWS: ALADDIN SANE PRINT ON SALE NOW WITH BOWIENET DISCOUNT)

Stay tuned for the next instalment shortly.

Sailors in snow…

DB has sent in the following seasonal greeting for you all…

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Happy Holidays folks and a peaceful but inventive new year.

sailor

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Thanks David …all love back to you and yours, and to everybody else reading this, from everyone here at BowieNet.

Members are welcome to respond to Sailor via this thread on the MBs where you can also download a large version of the above image and print it out with sailor’s message to create your very own card from the man himself!

Loving The Alien…

I’m sure the majority of you interested in this already know, but despite the curveball we were thrown at the end of last month, (11.30.2008 NEWS: CRITERION TMWFTE BLU-RAY RELEASE DELAYED?) it seems our previous reports on here regarding Criterion’s The Man Who Fell To Earth Region A Blu-ray were accurate after all. (05.17.2008 NEWS: THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH DUE ON BLU RAY & 08.22.2008 NEWS: CRITERION TMWFTE BLU RAY RELEASE DETAILS)

The film did receive it’s debut Blu-ray release on December 16th, and above are scans of my physical copy proving it does now truly exist…even if I can’t play it on my son’s PS3 here in the UK!

As with practically all of Criterion’s releases, this one has had particularly favourable reviews, not least of all by Dr. Svet Atanasov last month over at www.blu-ray.com, who concluded his item thus…

“The Man Who Fell To Earth is another definitive presentation of a cult classic that will surely impress plenty of serious film aficionados. Very Highly Recommended!”

Who will find Aladdin Sane?

And so, on to the third of our weekly competitions that will take us into the new year, whereby each of the prizes in the contests are signed by David Bowie!

This is for an extremely rare AP (Artist’s Proof) of the above print, very kindly donated by those generous folk over at St Pauls Gallery.

The print has been signed in pencil by both David Bowie and Celia Philo, as explained in our previous news story regarding the print. (12.07.2008 NEWS: ALADDIN SANE PRINT ON SALE NOW WITH BOWIENET DISCOUNT)

For your chance to win this breathtaking beauty, all you have to do is send me a list of at least fifteen BowieNet news stories this year that either mention Aladdin Sane by name, or have some representation of Aladdin Sane in the news story whereby the lightening bolt or the Aladdin Sane flash has been used.

Copy and paste the date heading of each story thus: 12.07.2008 NEWS: ALADDIN SANE PRINT ON SALE NOW WITH BOWIENET DISCOUNT until you have at least fifteen…there are more than fifteen, but obviously you can’t use today’s news item or the example earlier in this sentence.

When you have your list, send it to me here before midnight NY time this coming Wednesday December 24th.

The winners will be announced here on Christmas Day and the penultimate instalment will go live soon after that.

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.

Good Luck, kidz.

Goodbye Mr. Conn…

It is with great sadness that I report the death of Leslie Conn. Les passed away at his home after suffering a heart attack on Saturday morning, the eve of his 79th birthday.

You all know how important Les was during the early stages of David’s career, securing him his first record contract for Liza Jane, a song which Les was also credited with writing and producing.

We’ve mentioned the recording on these pages many times, (06.05.2004 NEWS: HAPPY 40TH ANNIVERSARY TO DAVID AND LIZA JANE & 03.02.2008 NEWS: BOWIE 45 SELLS FOR $3,550 ON EBAY – THE BUYER TALKS & 05.03.2008 NEWS: WATCH OUT FOR LIZA JANE COUNTERFEITS & 05.28.2008 NEWS: LIZA JANE DEMO 45 FETCHES $3,000 – PLUS MORE FAKE STUFF) and David remained fond enough of the song to re-record it for the aborted Toy album and he even tackled the song during a live show in June 2004, on the 40th anniversary of the single release of Liza Jane.

On a personal note, I had visited Les at his Maida Vale flat just a couple of weeks before his death, and it quickly became clear how he had helped many fledgling artists off the starting blocks.

However, despite being a formidable talent scout, he never stood in the way of their progress and instead he would frequently hand over the reigns to somebody better positioned to help these artists.

Another thing about Les was that he never once doubted that David would find major and lasting success, and, if for nothing else, he must be applauded for recognising that spark and for helping to fan it into the roaring fire it would eventually become.

Goodbye Les, you will be missed.

All you had to do was win…

This was the second of our weekly contests that will take us into the new year, whereby each of the prizes are signed by David Bowie!

As stated at the time, if you entered this contest, win or lose, you are not allowed to enter any of the remaining three competitions in this series of five.

And here are the five BowieNetters who probably couldn’t care less about that, seeing as they won this one…

chris_carry
diepstraten
keef
mikegateley
stickyp

If you lot could supply us with your names and addresses we’ll attempt to get your albums on Santa’s sleigh to save on shipping.

Who will love Aladdin Sane? (Pt 183)

So frequently is the image of Mr Sane being reproduced these days, we could almost have a daily ‘spotted’ section.

First up is the, at first glance, fairly unremarkable black and white T-shirt above. This medium size garment just sold on eBay for $248.00.

The reason being is that the shirt is apparently one that would have been available on the 1973 UK tour and the seller claims it is from never worn deadstock direct from the production company.

I’ve no reason to doubt this claim, but perhaps one of BowieNetters who were at the show can confirm?

Either way, there is another one up for grabs with a ‘buy it now’ price of $220.00 and I have a feeling that may not be the last.

Fast forwarding thirty five years, BowieNetter Darin sent in the shot below with the accompanying caption…

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Hi. On a trip to San Francisco last month, my wife found this awesome shirt at a consignment shop. In was a big hit on the plane ride home to Philadelphia. I’ve been a fan since 1979. Now my three-year-old son, Quinn, is too! – Darin

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Thanx Darin. Is this the youngest example of a child in a Bowie shirt? I have a feeling it isn’t. Anybody get their nipper to model the Baby Universal T-shirt back in the early 90s?

All of the T-shirts here are officially licensed, including the one below which is another child’s T available here through Lucky Brand.

Finally, the little fellow on the right above can be seen on the cover of the Sony PS3 game, Little Big Planet…more of which later.

He followed me home Mummy, Can I keep him?

Hot on the heels of the Japanese pressing of The Prettiest Star that went on eBay for five USA grand recently, (12.09.2008 NEWS: JAPANESE PHILIPS PRETTIEST STAR FETCHES $5,100 USD) a stock copy of the withdrawn American All The Madmen/Janine 45 on Mercury (Mercury 73173) has sold on eBay for $3,781.85 USD!

A scarce double-sided mono promotional 45 of All The Madmen issued in December 1970 has turned up a couple of times a year over the past few years on eBay, and has fetched anywhere between $75 and $350 USD, but this is the very first time I’ve personally seen a stock copy.

As with the promo, the stock copy is edited from 5:38 down to 3:14. Like the US Space Oddity edit before it, All The Madmen still kind of works, despite the savage edit, particularly if you weren’t familiar with the original.

The edit omits the section right after the second verse, from “So I tell them that…” including the wonderfully sinister spoken section “Where can the horizon lie…” and instead goes straight from the second verse into the verse that starts: “Day after day, They take some brain away…”. The fade is also shorter.

I’m not sure if the B-side, Janine, is identical to the album version. But, with a running time of 3:18 it’s unlikely that it has been tampered with.

The original eBay listing suggests that the seller wasn’t fully aware of exactly what it was he was offering up for auction. I contacted him and here’s what he had to say…

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I bought this two weeks ago. Some lady I talked to mentioned she had three cases of 45s that came from an estate, so I wasted no time getting over there the next day. The 45s that impressed me were the soul & psych ones on odd labels.

I’ve had several stock copies of Space Oddity over the years and being that this 45 I bought two weeks ago was a cut-out with an LP cut led me to believe it probably wouldn’t sell, but I listed it anyway!

About three days before the auction ends some guy e-mails me and says he’s going out of town for a few days and asks me if I’d sell it to him for $100. Usually when that happens they go much, much higher. At that point the bid is only up to $15 with fifteen watchers and I told him to go ahead and place his bid of $100. I don’t think he did.

Anyhow, I’d seen DJ copies of this for about $200 but NO stock copies and I was rather more frightened than surprised when I saw the final price and wondered if it’s really for real. Needless to say, as a dealer/collector/die-hard musician myself, having been a dealer since ’76, this is definitely the highest price I’ve ever sold a record for. This will make a nice car payment for me that I need really bad.

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There you go, a heart-warming tale of good fortune for the festive season. Thanx for taking time to tell us your story, Nathan. Also thanx to the people who e-mailed in about this auction.