Month: January 2009

Then turn my face around…

Back in June of last year I posted the above RCA Japan advert for Low in a piece about the album being the best album of all time. (06.08.2008 NEWS: SUNDAY TIMES SAYS LOW IS BEST ALBUM EVER MADE)

In that piece I asked: “What’s up with the album sleeve…did you notice it’s reversed? Did any get printed like that?”

Sadly, nobody got in touch to say they have a version of Low like the one in the advert and I guess I might just have to accept that it appeared like that in the ad only.

However, going through some of my Japanese pressings recently I noticed the anomaly above. It’s the Japanese CHANGESONEBOWIE and the six-page inner lyric booklet has the front cover image reversed for no good reason.

Bearing in mind that Low was released a mere seven months after CHANGESONEBOWIE, could it be that RCA Japan had a maverick designer on board who had their hand on more than just CHANGESONEBOWIE? Let’s hope so…who wouldn’t want a wrong-way-round Low?

They got a message from the action man…

In a promo spot for the 2009 Grammy Awards, Thom Yorke has explained how David Bowie was the trigger for him wanting to pursue a career in music .

In the spot, Thom says this about an early encounter with a groundbreaking Bowie video…

“I remember sitting on a climbing frame in the local play park and I’d just seen the video for Ashes To Ashes by David Bowie…it was the craziest thing I’d ever seen and all the other kids were sort of saying how it was too weird and I just thought: ‘I wanna do that for a living’.”

The 30-second ad will run in the US up to the 51st Grammy Awards on February 8th and also on the Grammy website…though it’s not there yet and it seems YouTube has beaten them to it…inevitably.

I looked and frowned and the monster was me…

The Quiet Earth site has posted an intriguing Q&A with MOON director, Duncan Jones. But beware, some of what Mr Jones says could be considered mild spoilers.

You may have already seen them, but Colider.com managed to get a pretty cool exclusive of five clips from the film which may also serve as spoilers, but have whet my appetite even further, if that were possible.

Finally, IMDB has a round-up of news and reviews relating to MOON and Sundance which you can reach here and is well worth keeping an eye on. (01.09.2009 NEWS: MOON TO PREMIERE AT SUNDANCE LATER THIS MONTH)

Brother you guessed, I’m a dude yeah…

Mott The Hoople front man, Ian Hunter, has made this announcement on his site…

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“Just thought you’d like to know the Mott the Hoople reunion IS going to take place on October 2nd & 3rd, 2009 at the HMV Hammersmith Apollo in London. It will be the original members – Mick, Pete, Phally, Buff and me. They’ve asked our esteemed webmaster, Justin, to formulate a Mott the Hoople site which should be up and running in the near future. Why are we doing it? I can’t speak for the others, but I’m doing it just to see what it’s like. Short of war, death, famine etc. …it’s ON.” – Ian Hunter

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And here’s how Rolling Stone broke the news…

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Mott the Hoople, the British glam-rock band that had a huge hit in 1972 with ?All the Young Dudes,? are reuniting to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the band?s 1969 birth. Mott has scheduled two shows, October 2nd and 3rd, at London?s famed HMV Apollo (formerly the Hammersmith Apollo). The concerts mark the first time the original lineup ? singer Ian Hunter, guitarist Mick Ralphs, organist Verden Allen, drummer Dale Griffin and bassist Overend Watts ? has performed together in 35 years.

?All The Young Dudes? was written and produced by the band?s fan David Bowie. In fact, the song was originally authored during the Thin White Duke?s Ziggy Stardust sessions and shares some thematic similarities to Bowie?s iconic album. He originally offered the band ?Suffragette City,? but they turned it down so he whipped up ?Young Dudes,? and the rest is glam rock history. ?Young Dudes? went on to become a hit single, Number 253 on Rolling Stone?s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?s 500 Songs That Shaped Rock & Roll. Additionally, the All the Young Dudes album ranked 491 on Rolling Stone?s 500 Greatest Albums list.

The band would never repeat the success of ?Young Dudes,? and the original lineup ultimately split in 1974 (Even though the ?band? with new members would release two more albums following Ralphs and Hunter?s departure.) Ralphs went on to form Bad Company with Free?s Paul Rodgers (now with Queen) and Hunter enjoyed a decent solo career, penning the song ?Cleveland Rocks? and authoring the rock memoir Diary of a Rock n? Roll Star. No word whether Mott?s reunion will be limited to the two Apollo shows or if a tour is in the works.

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And here’s the small print from the August 1972 American press ad above…

Indeed, Dudes did zoom upwards. After it’s initial entry in the UK singles chart at #22, it eventually climbed to #3 and became the band’s biggest hit. Ironically it became a bigger hit than Bowie’s three RCA singles that had been released up to that point: Changes, Starman and John, I’m Only Dancing. Though the 4th RCA Bowie single, The Jean Genie, eventually did the trick by making it to #2 in the second week of 1973.

All The Young Dudes continues to keep the name of Mott The Hoople alive. As one of the tracks on the JUNO soundtrack CD, it has recently returned to the Billboard charts. The JUNO soundtrack has been #1 on the soundtrack chart, #1 on the album download chart, and #2 on the Top 200 album chart!

Tickets for the Hammersmith shows go on sale to the general public at 9:00am GMT on Thursday 22nd January.

We’re living in a Planet of Dreams…

I hinted at a Bowie connection to the Sony PS3 game, Little Big Planet, last month. (12.16.2008 NEWS: MORE ALADDIN SANE, ERM…MADNESS)

In that piece I posted a grab of the Aladdin Sane thingy, below right, who can be found snuggling behind the main SackBoy on the Little Big Planet cover.

Now the people at Little Big Planet have got together with Vice magazine to produce a promotional booklet that has all manner of music and fashion spoofs in the SackBoy style, including an album review section wherein fourteen classic albums, including David Sackie‘s “Planets” (see the scan at the top of this piece) along with such important releases as Roxy Planet‘s Planet Life, Iggy and The SackBoys Raw Planet and Sackwerk‘s seminal Trans-Sack Express.

It’s a funny old world.

The Factor Max that proved the fact…

I’m sure a few of you have already seen this, but it’s well worth repeating here. You can get the gist from the bit above, however, the whole Bowie entry is worth a read, from which this excerpt…

“Calling David Bowie a fashion icon is not only cliché but perhaps one of the biggest understatements in this entire series of Fashion Influentials. Bowie has influenced so many people over such a long period (five decades and counting), that those he influenced are now influencing people, making him one of the few (only?) iconic figures in the realm of popular culture to transcend multiple genres while at once remaining confident and true to his image as a vibrant and imaginary innovator.”

Good stuff, eh? See the full 100 Most Influential People in Fashion list here.

Hang him on your wall…

Rockarchive.com has just aquired rights to sell large format prints of many of Geoff McCormack’s David Bowie photographs.

To celebrate the fact, they are running a free exhibition in London in association with Genesis Publications from January 23rd, at which many of Geoff’s incredible shots will be on dispaly.

Here are the exhibition details…

FROM STATION TO STATION: David Bowie – an exhibition by Geoff McCormack.
Exhibition runs from Friday 23rd Jan – 6th Feb
Open Mon – Sat 11a.m – 7p.m, Sun 11a.m – 5p.m. – FREE entry
Rockarchive Chelsea
289 Kings Road
SW3 5EW
Nearest tube – Sloane Square

The show has prompted a couple of tasty magazine features, including an eight-page piece in issue three of ANGLOMANIA magazine, above, and two pages in the current issue (Jan 15 – 21) of Time Out London, see below.

If you live on the south coast of England and can’t be arsed to travel all the way up to that there London, Crane Kalman Brighton is showing a selection of work from the Rockarchive music collective to celebrate Rockarchive’s 10th Anniversary.

As part of the Rockarchive World Tour the exhibition is already showing at Crane Kalman Brighton until February 15th.

Finally, if you can’t get to either of these shows, simply purchase a copy of From Station To Station and look at all of the pictures at your leisure.

It’s happening now…

Mike Garson (pictured above with a piano the other day) has been in touch with a message regarding the filming of an event called Beyond the Secret taking place at Royce Hall at UCLA in California TODAY!

For speed of communication it’s probably best you visit this page on Mike’s website for more details of today’s recording and tomorrow’s cinema screenings of Beyond the Secret throughout the USA.

Oh she’s a tongue twisting storm, come to the show tonight…

Following her much appreciated return to live work in NYC last week, (01.02.2009 NEWS: GAIL ANN DORSEY IS BACK AND ONSTAGE IN NEW YORK) GAD has been in touch to let BowieNetters know that she is back at the same venue a week later when she plays The Living Room again this evening.

Here are the details:

GAIL ANN DORSEY
@ The Living Room
Wednesday, January 14th
Showtime 7:00 PM
154 Ludlow (btwn Stanton & Rivington)
New York, New York 10002
212.533.7235

No Reservations – No Cover – $5 suggested tip jar

Gail tells me that she enjoyed a great turnout last week and this is backed up by BowieNetter kscnyc who kindly sent in the shots above from that show and these words…

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Hello, I attended Gail Ann Dorsey’s gig at The Living Room in NYC last Wednesday and wanted to inform you that she’ll be back this Wednesday, the 14th at the same venue, same time. Gail performed beautifully, as usual. She was very talkative and in good spirits. Her voice never sounded better as she sang old songs and brand new ones, including a song about spiders that she dedicated to one of her friends who is struggling with cancer.

She disclosed that she’s a big Scrabble fan and would love to play in the world championships! The Living Room is the perfect venue to see Gail perform at. Last week it was standing room only. In attendance were many of Gail’s friends, including Sterling Campbell and Mark Plati. Who knows who’ll be in attendance tonight, lucky enough to witness Gail in all her glory!

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The good news for some of us across the water from NYC is that Gail is planning to come over to London to play some solo shows this year too!