Month: June 2010

We may pick him up on Radio 2…

Ahead of his two part documentary, The Glory of Glam, which kicks of at 22:00 on BBC Radio 2 this evening, Gary Kemp has a full page piece in today’s Guardian entitled Life on Planet Glitter, or more succinctly: Gary Kemp: My teen crush on David Bowie…as the online version has it.

It’s a great piece, the sentiment of which I know is shared by men of a certain age…not least of all myself. (07.30.2006 NEWS: SAY GOODBYE TO TOP OF THE POPS TONIGHT) Here’s the introduction to the article…

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The first time I fell in love it was with a man. It happened one Thursday evening in the bedroom of a flat in King’s Cross. I was a wide-eyed boy of 12 and the object of my passion had dyed orange hair and white nail varnish. Looking out from a tiny TV screen was a Mephistophelean messenger from the space age, a tinselled troubadour to give voice to my burgeoning sexuality. Pointing a manicured finger down the barrel of a BBC lens, he spoke to me: “I had to phone someone, so I picked on you.” I had been chosen.

Next to him, in superhero boots, his flaxen-haired buddy rode shotgun with a golden guitar. As my singing Starman draped his arm around him, I felt a frisson of desire and wanted to go to their planet. I had witnessed a visitation from a world of glitter. That night, I planned my future. After all, “If we can sparkle,” he’d told me, “he may land tonight.”

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Ring any bells boys…and girls?

You can read the full article online here and you can tune in to The Glory of Glam here.

Never saw in all my life a more shining jewel case…

Speaking of Mick Ronson, (see yesterday’s news) … EMI will be releasing a standard jewel case version of David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars – The Motion Picture Soundtrack on September 6th to ensure it remains available on catalogue, as supplies of the limited edition box version have long since been exhausted.

This version will most likely contain an eight-page booklet with none of the extras that came with the limited edition box.

All of the Bowie live albums originally released by EMI in special packaging are now available in the standard jewel case format and prices for the original limited versions of the Bowie back-catalogue special packaging CDs are constantly on the rise…particularly the 30th Anniversary editions of the studio albums: Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane and Diamond Dogs which are selling for two to three times their original RRP on Amazon.co.uk.

I’ve got ninety-nine ways to play my guitar…

Speaking of Mick Ronson, (see yesterday’s news) David Bowie recently wrote to the committee at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, recommending that Ronno be inducted into their hallowed ranks.

Bowie/Ronson fan, Colin Blade, had been running a petition to this end for some time and news of Bowie’s communication first broke on MickRonson.com last month.

I wasn’t going to announce David’s involvement as it’s my guess that he probably likes to do these things quietly.

However, I’ve had so many e-mails asking if it’s true that I thought it was time to verify the story and I’m sure that confirmation of his involvement can only help the cause.

The petition is now closed and Colin managed to gather over 3,500 signatures…so fingers crossed that the combined effect of your signatures and David’s recommendation will oil the wheels somewhat and Ronno will be given his rightful position in the Hall of Fame.

David Bowie himself, (that’s his arse next to Ronno’s top right in the above montage) was inducted in 1996. You can view his entry here.

Someone passed some bliss among the crowd*…

As music lovers ready themselves for an evening of top flight popular music on the first day of the 40th Glastonbury Festival in England today, it’s appropriate that various polls have been published highlighting the popularity of David Bowie’s 2000 set at the world’s most famous annual music festival.

Today also happens to be exactly ten years since that sublime Bowie performance and it’s thirty nine years since his June 23rd appearance at the second ever Glastonbury in 1971.

The first poll is from the current issue of NME (above) under the banner of Glasto’s Most Historic Sets. There’s a full page on Bowie’s 2000 Pyramid Stage performance with the following standfirst: “With a career even longer and as colourful as that of Glastonbury, one man had enough mighty crowd-pleasers to leave Worthy Farm reeling.”

For those of you that haven’t internalised it, here’s that 21-song, crowd (and long-term-fan) -pleasing set list from June 25th, 2000…

Wild Is The Wind
China Girl
Changes
Stay
Life On Mars?
Absolute Beginners
Ashes To Ashes
Rebel Rebel
Little Wonder
Golden Years
Fame
All The Young Dudes
The Man Who Sold The World
Station To Station
Starman
Hallo Spaceboy
Under Pressure

Encore
Ziggy Stardust
“Heroes”
Let’s Dance
I’m Afraid Of Americans

What a night, what a band, what a man!

Two other polls have been published in the last 24 hours. First up, 6 Music had the following…

BBC 6 Music listeners’ top 20 Glastonbury performances

01. Blur – 2009
02. Radiohead – 1997
03. Radiohead – 2003
04. Pulp – 1995
05. David Bowie – 2000
06. Orbital – 2004
07. Coldplay – 2000
08. The Cure – 1990
09. REM – 2003
10. Elbow – 2004
11. Johnny Cash – 1994
12. Jeff Buckley – 1995
13. The Chemical Brothers – 2000
14. Robert Plant and Jimmy Page – 1995
15. Manic Street Preachers – 1999
16. Morrissey – 2004
17. Joe Strummer and The Mescaleros – 1999
18. Portishead – 1998
19. Beastie Boys – 1994
20. Suede – 2003

The Top Ten Glastonbury individual song performances as voted for by 6 Music listeners

01. Blur ? The Universal (Pyramid Stage, 2009)
02. Radiohead ? No Surprises (Pyramid Stage, 1997)
03. Radiohead ? Karma Police (Pyramid Stage, 2003)
04. Pulp ? Sorted For E?s & Wizz (Pyramid Stage, 1995)
05. David Bowie ? “Heroes” (Pyramid Stage, 2000)
06. Orbital ? The Box (Other Stage, 2004)
07. Coldplay ? Yellow (Other Stage, 2000)
08. The Cure ? Just Like Heaven (Pyramid Stage, 1990)
09. R.E.M. ? It?s The End Of The World As We Know It (Pyramid Stage, 2003)
10. Elbow ? One Day Like This (Other Stage, 2008)

I’ll leave you with the results of a survey conducted by music video website www.muzu.tv …this is their top ten Glastonbury sets of all time…

01 – Radiohead – 1997
02 – Sir Paul McCartney – 2004
03 – Blur – 2009
04 – Jay-Z – 2008
05 – David Bowie – 2000
06 – Pulp – 1995
07 – White Stripes – 2005
08 – Bruce Springsteen – 2009
09 – Coldplay – 2002
10 – REM – 1999

* It was David Bowie.

The Sun Machine is coming down, And we’re gonna have a party…

Speaking of festivals, (see yesterday’s news) David Bowie’s re-recorded version of Memory Of A Free Festival was released as a single forty years ago today.

Issued on June 26th in the UK and the following month elsewhere, the 45 was released around the globe on the Mercury label as a follow up to The Prettiest Star. (03.06.2010 NEWS: THE PRETTIEST STAR AND THE WORLD OF ARE FORTY)

Memory Of A Free Festival (Part 1 & 2) was notable for being the debut on a Bowie disc of a certain Michael Ronson, who certainly helped electrify the track, particularly when compared to the album version.

The Beckenham Free Festival at Beckenham Recreation Ground, Croydon Road on August 16, 1969, (08.16.2009 NEWS: BECKENHAM FREE FESTIVAL FORTY YEARS AGO TODAY) was the inspiration for the original song.

Like it’s predecessor, Memory Of A Free Festival didn’t bother the UK singles chart…indeed, it would be two long years, almost to the day, before another Bowie 45 entered the charts…but that’s another story.

You know you got something, you know you got style…

Wayne Hemingway, British fashion designer, taste-maker and co-founder of Red or Dead, has made five style observations in the latest Observer Magazine in the UK.

It’s not the first time Wayne has highlighted David Bowie as an important catalyst and innovator in the world of style and fashion, but here he is on the event that first triggered his imagination…

“Seeing David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust tour in 1972 in Blackburn changed everything for me. The next day I bought a black tank top with a white star on it, some bright trousers and platforms. From that point on, my life revolved around music and fashion.”

Wayne was actually talking about a show on the Aladdin Sane tour on May 31st 1973 (not 1972) at King George’s Hall, Blackburn. But I’m sure the effect was just the same.

Wayne is also co-founder of the Vintage at Goodwood three-day doo dah, which runs from August 13th to 15th. You can find out more about it by clicking on Bowie’s beauty spot above.

Boogie down with daddy now…

Three of David Bowie’s finest songs have been used for the soundtrack of Lisa Cholodenko‘s Sundance Film Festival hit, the upcoming The Kids Are All Right, with two of those tracks making it to the soundtrack CD.

The film stars Annette Bening and Julianne Moore as a same sex couple whose sperm bank children, Mia Wasikowska and Josh Hutcherson, decide to search for their biological father, played by Mark Ruffalo.

Here’s a bit from an interview with Liza Richardson, Music Supervisor for The Kids Are All Right…

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Defining character, in fact, may be the principal role that songs play in The Kids Are All Right. In addition to the specific choices for the mothers, Richardson looked for music, old and new, that would define Ruffalo?s biological father character as well as their two children. ?David Bowie represents Mark Ruffalo?s character,? says Richardson. ?I made a package deal for three Bowie songs ? ?Win,? ?Panic in Detroit,? and ?Black Country Rock.? Mia Wasikowska?s Joni character ?has really cool taste,? says Richardson ? ?Deerhoof and Fever Ray.?

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This is the full tracklisting…

01 – MGMT – The Youth
02 – David Bowie – Black Country Rock
03 – Tame Impala – Sundown Syndrome
04 – Fever Ray – When I Grow Up
05 – Leon Russell – Out In The Woods
06 – Deerhoof – Milk Man
07 – X – The New World
08 – Uh Huh Her – Same High
09 – David Bowie – Win
10 – Quadron – Slippin’
11 – Joni Mitchell – All I Want
12 – CSS – Knife
13 – Geology ft. Yukimi Nagano – Blues Alley
14 – Gabor Szabo – Galatea’s Guitar
15 – Betty Wright – Good Lovin’
16 – Deerhoof – Blue Cash
17 – Little Dragon – Fortune

The soundtrack will be available digitally on July 6th ahead of the film’s theatrical release in the US on July 9th. The CD will be available the following month on August 3rd.

Visit the official The Kids Are All Right website for all the usual wotsits.

Two more recent film soundtracks that included a Bowie song are Bus Palladium and Hot Tub Time Machine.

Bus Palladium features Rock ‘N Roll Suicide and Hot Tub Time Machine has Modern Love.

A gentle face you’ve seen before…

The headline says it, but here follows the detail from the SFAE press release too….

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BEATLES TO BOWIE PHOTOGRAPHY SHOWCASE AT SAN FRANCISCO ART EXCHANGE, JULY 2010 – London?s recent National Portrait Gallery exhibition finds counterpart at San Francisco gallery.

SAN FRANCISCO ? From British invasion to glams and punks, San Francisco Art Exchange offers a visual journey, showcasing the revolution of the 60s and early 70s. Over 50 photographs will be on display from American and European photographers whose lenses were inside witnesses capturing the most iconic images from 1962-1974, along with photos from archives that have never before been seen or printed.

Last year London?s National Portrait Gallery opened a groundbreaking visual exploration into the musical evolution from the bookends, the Beatles and David Bowie.

?We want to highlight the influence on culture and fashion by musical avant-garde change agents,? said Theron Kabrich, San Francisco Art Exchange co-owner.

The journey starts with The Beatles in Hamburg and travels to their stroll across Abbey Road. Moving west, Bay Area bands and San Francisco?s blossoming counterculture are chronicled, before showing the shattering emergence of the Punks, and ending with the spectacle of oddity provided by Glam.

Beatles to Bowie will be showing at the San Francisco Art Exchange from Saturday, July 17 through mid August. Photos of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, The Kinks, Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd, Janis Joplin, The Doors, The Grateful Dead, Eric Clapton, Mothers of Invention, Led Zeppelin, Queen, Debbie Harry, David Bowie, and others will all be showing at the gallery starting July 17.

Featured photographers include Brian Duffy, one of the true giants of English photography who recently passed away, never before seen images by Terry O?Neill, Mick Rock, Joel Brodsky, Ethan Russell, Gered Mankowitz, Ian Dickson, Barry Feinstein, Paul Saltzman, Baron Wolman, Bob Seidemann, Jerrold Schatzberg, and Astrid Kirchherr.

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It seems this exhibition is stretching the brief of the original London version which concerned itself strictly with the 1960s. Not sure how they are intending to include images from the punk era though, as they claim the exhibition covers the period 1962 to 1974.

You can view a great gallery of some of the Bowie images likely to be on display here and if you’re in the UK, there’s still a touring version of the original Beatles To Bowie at Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery which runs until September 5th.

There’s no mention of the exhibition on the SFAE site just yet, but they do currently have a huge online gallery of Ronnie Wood paintings here.

You may or may not recognise the above painting of David Bowie from 1987 by Ronnie…and I have to say, though he has done some fine work over the years, this isn’t one of his best.

In fact, if you look at the picture long enough it looks like he found it hard to get out of the habit of painting one of his fellow band members!

Who will love AladdinSane? (…and Diamond Dogs and Echo Bowie?)

Welcome to another update in an occasional series. We don’t always manage to post the details of all of the Bowie tributes we receive information about, and still by far the best way to find out what each of them are up to is to check out the gig guides on their own pages.

Apologies to those of you that haven’t got a mention this time around, we will endeavour to give you some news page space next time…Remember though, you can only be included if you send in your details.

First up is AladdinSane (that’s lead singer Paul Henderson above) who play the Princess Theatre Hunstanton in the UK on June 19th. See their gig page for more forthcoming shows and further details of this one.

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Next up is Diamond Dogs who play the following Saturday, June 26th, at 8:00pm on The Kent Stage, 175 East Main Street, Kent, Ohio 44240 in the USA. You can find more details about these chaps on their myspace page.

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Finally, Echo Bowie have already played a couple of dates on their 2010 European Festival Tour, but you have a few more chances to catch them in July and August with details of each show here.

I like your face in the crowd…Part 2

The July edition of The Word magazine has a follow up to the piece they did about Bowie arriving at Hammersmith Odeon on the afternoon of the last Ziggy show on July 3rd, 1973.

One fan in the welcoming crowd responded via the letters page of The Word. Malcolm Green, 51, recalls his 14-year-old former self thus…

We’d love to hear from any more of you out there in this shot. In fact, we’d love to see any shots of you with David Bowie from any time or place and the story behind your picture.