You can’t afford the ticket…
It seems that Monday night’s presentation of David Bowie’s videos at
I have even heard whispers of some kind of touting with tickets selling for many times their face value as if the evening were actually a David Bowie concert.
Thurston gave a fairly lengthy introduction that was by turns humorous and heartfelt and had Bowie fans of a certain age nodding in agreement when he recalled how hard it was at first to get any sort of glimpse of this mysterious man David Bowie, let alone see films of him.
The evening was attended by some of the video’s directors including: Mick Rock, Mark Romanek and Sam Bayer.
BowieNetter Shammy was one of our lucky winners and she kindly sent in her impressions of the evening which you can read below…
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Hey Blam…Thanks so much for the tickets. I had a great time. Got there nice and early and saw many many people waiting for tickets on a stand-by basis. (Hopefully they all got in).
Thurston talked quite a bit for his introduction. He spoke about how important magazines were back in the 70’s as our link to all things rock ‘n roll…he mentioned blasts from the past like “Circus” and “Cream” and how you could pick them up at your local grocery store…and at first you’d only get snippets in the backs of the pages on people like Bowie and Iggy and Bolan…but after the “hippy era” the magazines got on track with putting people that dared to be different on the covers. After all the long-hairs of The Allmans, ELP, etc…it was a shock to see an Alice Cooper with eye make-up running down his face…or a strangely dressed looking person with orange cropped hair on the covers…he felt it was the first time he had to hide magazines from his mother.
Thurston also spoke about living in rural Connecticut during the 70’s – which was about an hour and a half away from NYC…so he still felt the “edge” and the enticement of it all. He said you NEEDED to get in there (the City)…go to the shows…check out Max’s Kansas City or any of the other spots the rockers were frequenting (this I could definitely relate to having been living in rural long island during the mid 70’s)…you felt the allure of it all…and you wanted to be a part of it.
He mentioned how Sonic Youth played with Bowie at his 50th birthday bash at Madison Square Garden and thought to himself… “damn…the man is 50 and how it must suck to be 50 but he still had such a passion for his music”. Thurston said he now has turned 50 himself and is thinking.. “fuck! I’m 50…and the bad part is I have to keep reminding myself that I’m not 15”.
Thurston talked about having children and how he “had to watch Labyrinth” over and over and over again with the kids. But after watching more than once or twice, he could realize just how great some of the stuff was in it.
As for the show itself… of course it’s wonderful to see Bowie up on a big screen and get that infusion of music into your system. I think I might have chosen a few different videos and would have loved to see the full Blue Jean as opposed to the short one (but I realize there were time constraints). I personally find it very hard to even sit still when the music is going…at first everyone seemed unsure as to what to do when the first video ended…by the next one and subsequent others, you had people clapping at the end of each.
Those early videos are just plain sex to me! I mean?that face…That bone structure?androgyny to the hilt and I just absolutely love it to death! Thanks again for a great night BowieNet.
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Thanx Shammy, glad you had such a good time. Thanx also to Jimmy King for the pictures here, all of which he took on the night.
It seems
I’ll leave you with a reminder of the videos screened on Monday evening…
1972 JOHN I’M ONLY DANCING 2:49
Director: Mick Rock
1972 JEAN GENIE 4:02
Director: Mick Rock
1973 LIFE ON MARS? 3:55
Director: Mick Rock
1977 “HEROES” 3:27
Director: Stanley Dorfman
1979 DJ 3:58
Director: David Mallet
1980 ASHES TO ASHES 3:33
Director: David Mallet & David Bowie
1983 CHINA GIRL 4:03
Director: David Mallet & David Bowie
1984 BLUE JEAN 3:17
Director: Julien Temple
1986 AS THE WORLD FALLS DOWN 3:41
Director: Steve Barron
1990 FAME 90 3:33
Director: Gus Van Sant Edited By: Edouard Lock
1993 JUMP THEY SAY 4:00
Director: Mark Romanek
1995 THE HEARTS FILTHY LESSON 4:58
Director: Sam Bayer
1997 DEAD MAN WALKING 3:49
Director: Floria Sigismondi
1997 I’M AFRAID OF AMERICANS 4:25
Director: Dom + Nic
1999 SURVIVE 3:29
Director: Walter Stern