Month: February 2009

Those midwives to history put on their duffle coats…

David Quantick‘s humorous Blagger’s Guide has returned to the airwaves. I’m fairly certain it was first broadcast a few years back, but if you missed it then, it’s available once more via BBC 6 Music’s listen again feature.

Episode 2 takes a look at punk rock, David Bowie and Ireland and though you may not like the idea of David Bowie’s career being given such irreverent treatment, it’s fairly clear that Quantick is actually a big Bowie fan…which he apparently is anyway.

The Bowie bit is around 7:20 minutes in, but it would be more polite to listen from the beginning…anyway, here’s all the guff…

6 Music Plays It Again, The Blagger’s Guide – Episode 2

David Quantick continues his comic, cut-out-and-keep guide to the entire history of popular music with a look at punk rock, David Bowie and Ireland.
Broadcast on: BBC 6 Music, 12:00am Wednesday 25th February 2009
Duration: 30 minutes
Available until: 12:32am Wednesday 4th March 2009
Categories: Comedy, Spoof, Music, Classic Pop & Rock

Make some new computer thing, That puts me on the moon…

Great little video interview with Duncan Jones over on firstshowing.net which you may have already seen, but it’s worth posting here for those that haven’t.

As ever, it’s hard to discuss Moon without giving some stuff away, and this interview is no exception. So, if you don’t like spoilers, don’t go here.

Duncan does give a great insight in to how some of the more technical stuff was created…thus today’s lyric quotation.

A couple of other good omens for the film include the TOMATOMETER over at rottentomatoes.com, currently rating the film at 100 per cent, and the fact that The Times newspaper in the UK reckons Moon is a contender for being the next Slumdog Millionaire in terms of it’s unexpected commercial success.

Thirty-five years pass him, Like an evening at the Circus…

BowieNetter Dez recently posted a 1.600 word stream of consciousness celebration of Aladdin Sane on the BowieNet MBs.

In the post, Dez imagined his version of the album’s artistic genesis and tried to identify who some of the characters that populated the album may have been in real life.

While reading his words bells started ringing as I seemed to remember DB talking about these very things personally.

Then sure enough I recalled a copy of Circus magazine from July ’73 (above) that had a five-page feature wherein “David Bowie sat in his posh New York hotel room writing about the sequinned crowd who had danced across his carpet until dawn, and Circus Magazine got the inside scoop.”.

It’s a great read with a glimpse into Bowie’s writing methods of the time. Go here to see the bit that specifically talks about one of the scenes Dez imagined: Shakey‘s party!

Rock ‘N Roll With Me…

Not yet decided where to take your summer vacation this year? Like the idea of somewhere tropical and a little bit exotic? Fancy something out of the ordinary, like playing and recording alongside one of David Bowie’s most famous guitarists? Got plenty of cash you don’t know what to do with?

Then click on Mr Slick‘s more than adequate belt buckle in the picture above for the perfect solution to your summer conundrum.

Thanx to BowieNet’s very own Earl Zardoz for the pointer.

I see my times and who I’ve been…

I’ve had a few e-mails asking about the origin of the Bowie illustration in our recent Sean Bean piece. (02.17.2009 NEWS: BEAN ADMITS TO DOING A ZIGGY…BUT STRICTLY NO LIPPY)

Well, it was by Yvonne Gilbert for the Sunday Telegraph magazine in the UK sometime in 1976.

In a four page feature entitled: HOW DO THEY SEE THEMSELVES? the magazine invited six celebrities to “take all of history and become any of its personalities – saints and sinners”.

As you might guess, David’s choices were a little unconventional to say the least, with not only characters from the past, but a few from the future too…including: space pioneer, Ed Avalon and Xeros, Emperor of Isolar.

You can see the complete illustration and read the full article here on the MBs, but please bear in mind that it was 1976…I’ll say no more than that!

And who’s gonna take the gun away?

A quick reminder to all you vinyl junkies out there that the instant collectable above, which we told you about last month, (01.29.2009 NEWS: LIMITED EDITION WAR CHILD 7 INCH 45 VINYL BOX SET DUE) is out on Monday.

The box holds fifteen heavyweight 7″ singles in plain white sleeves and it’s limited to 5,000 sets worldwide. That may sound like a lot, but when one considers how many of the participants are collectable, I’m sure the box won’t be available for very long at all.

The label above, which is on the flipside of TV On The Radio‘s version of “Heroes”, is from the box set and it’s of David Bowie’s original 1977 version of the song.

While we’re on the subject, Kyp Malone of TVOTR had this to say about the Bowie cover in an interview with Pitchfork…

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Pitchfork: So were you intimidated to cover “Heroes” — one of the greatest songs of all time — for the War Child album?

KM: Since it is one of the greatest songs of all time I think it’ll stand on its own two feet regardless of whether or not Bowie’s doing it. I hope that we did it justice; I honestly haven’t listened to it since it’s been mixed because I actually did get intimidated after the fact.

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The band has also just announced a North American tour for which pre-sale tickets are on sale now.

A few good times before it ends…

As we mentioned back in December, (12.14.2008 NEWS: SW 30 CENTURY MAN SHOWING IN NY, LA AND SF) director Stephen Kijak‘s film Scott Walker: 30 Century Man will be showing at the Nuart Theatre in Los Angeles for a week from Friday February 27th.

To celebrate the LA premiere of the film, there will be A Tribute to Scott Walker live at Bordello on Wednesday February 25th at 7:30 pm.

On the opening night of the Nuart Theatre run on February 27th from 9:00 pm another Scott Walker Lounge has been organised at Liquid Kitty.

Read more about all of these events in the press release section above and at www.scottwalkerfilm.com.

We’re painting our faces and dressing in thoughts from the skies, From paradise…

I’m sure you all remember the Vancouver Bowie bash that we told you about a couple of weeks ago. (02.04.2009 REMINDER: GLAM VALENTINES BALL IN VANCOUVER TOMORROW)

Well, Vernard has been in touch again with links to visual evidence of the fun that had been promised on the night…so here they are…

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BOWIE-GLAMBALL by Various

BOWIE-GLAMBALL by NEIL PELMAN

Space Oddity a review by Photographer/columnist TREVOR JONES

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Here’s a couple of other links that Vernard sent a while back, but are still worth checking out. Over to Vernard…

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Hey Blam – Here is the Bowie article/interview I promised you. Its a fabulous piece written by one of Canada’s great columnists Guy Babineau describing Bowie’s influence on gay and outsider culture. It also talks about Bowie’s influence on Guy as a gay man and his influence on myself + the Luvafair BowieGlamBall.

Rebel, Rebel – GAY CULTURE / How David Bowie made it okay for a generation of teenagers not to fit in

Guy also conducted an interview with Mick Rock a few years ago called: The Man who shot Ziggy Stardust that is definitely still worth reading:

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Vernard will be hosting another BowieGlamBall later in the year.

People stared at the make-up on his face…

Sean Bean has never made a secret of his love for the music of David Bowie, indeed I’m sure he wouldn’t disagree that he would have been happily referred to as a Bowie Freak back in the day.

A Google search will highlight just how many times he’s mentioned his Bowie worship over the years, but now he has elaborated further with Amy Raphael in The Times.

Here’s the relevant bit…

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In his bedroom in the modest family home he had Airfix model planes dangling from the ceiling on strings; David Bowie, Lou Reid (sic) and Iggy Pop posters covered the walls. Asked about Bowie, almost immediately Bean’s guard drops. He sits back on the sofa, looks at me sideways, smiles. He seems to be enjoying the nostalgia. ?I saw Bowie at Earl’s Court during his Thin White Duke period. It was fantastic. The show started with clips from Luis Buñuel’s surrealist films Un Chien Andalou and L’Age d’Or. There was an image of a razor blade slashing through an eye, a cloud went over the moon, the stage went dark. Then Bowie came on. It was properly exciting.?

Did he glam up? He hides his face in the china tea cup and starts mumbling again. ?Er, well.? So the answer is yes? He shrugs. ?OK, I wore similar outfits to Bowie. The truth is, I was a clone. I dyed my hair red, wore jumpsuits and big stack heels decorated with stars.? So here he was, this working-class Sheffield United fan, glamming it up as a 17-year-old. How did that go down locally? ?People in Sheffield thought I was a poof. A weirdo. Which encouraged me to do it even more. I risked getting my head kicked in for a while, but then glam rock became more mainstream and dyeing your hair, wearing make-up and dressing up became more acceptable.?

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Obviously pedants such as myself will feel the urge to point out that the show Sean mentions was at Wembley, not Earl’s Court. Also it was only Un Chien Andalou shown and not L’Age d’Or…and Un Chien Andalou was shown in its entirity before the show started.

In other interviews where Bean has spoken about the Bowie influence he was quick to point out that though he wore make up and died his hair, he “…never wore lipstick. Ever!” But he did admit that it was the writers and other cultural aspects he picked up on through Bowie’s influence that probably sent him down the acting road in the first place.

Sadly, we couldn’t trace any pictures of Bean as Bowie, so instead I’ve posted the drawing above of David Bowie in the sort of clobber Sean Bean might feel more comfortable in.

You can read the full interview here and if you’re in the UK you can catch Sean in his latest dramatic role as the sinister John Dawson in The Red Riding Trilogy which is set in the years 1974, 1980 and 1983 on Channel 4 soon.