Month: July 2011

Ain’t that poster love?

We’ve already run a couple of items regarding the North American theatrical release by Rialto Pictures of a new 35mm print of The Man Who Fell To Earth. (06.20.2011 NEWS: THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH BACK ON THE BIG SCREEN & 07.10.2011 NEWS: TMWFTE IN LOS ANGELES PLUS CONTEST UPDATE)

Following a great reception for the opening dates, more screenings have now been added to the schedule as we head in to August…as you can see from the updated list below…

Meanwhile, below is the first of several images you will need to identify from the film to be in with a chance of winning one of the huge 40″ x 27″ specially-commissioned, Keiko Kimura-designed, limited edition posters at the top of this piece.

The poster is still available here for $45, but members have a chance to snaffle up a free one with this contest, so they can then save their cash for the cinema…You’d be surprised how much a jumbo hot dog and a sea bird flavour choc ice sets you back these days.

You don’t need to do anything just yet, but do try and remember the scene from where the above still was taken…there will be lots more to follow so I wouldn’t actually go scanning through the film just yet.

I could do with the money…

Though originally mooted for inclusion on the first issue of Brixton’s very own paper currency in 2009, according to a couple of reports today David Bowie finally gets his phizog printed on the cash for a new issue due in September.

I couldn’t get confirmation directly from B£. (The Brixton Pound) today, but as soon as we get that and an image of the note we’ll post an update on these pages.

The glam rock superstar will be joined by reggae legend Bob Marley for the new issue. You can read more about the whole concept of the B£ here.

Morning star you’re beautiful…

Today is Iman‘s 56th birthday and I’m sure you’ll all want to join us here at BowieNet in wishing her many happy returns of the day.

She is pictured last Tuesday (July 19) at Invisible Beauty Sponsored By LVMH Moet Hennesy Louis Vuitton, New York at LVMH Tower Magic Room in New York City.

Best wishes from everybody here at BowieNet, Iman, and if you’re reading this, please send all our love to your old man too.

We’ve had a few understandably excited e-mails following a report of a dozen Bowie live shows for 2012 on a German website yesterday.

Sorry to dash your hopes folx, but it was yet another complete hoax.

Following reports of tweets suggesting a vocal contribution yesterday, we can tell you that David Bowie is not singing on the new album by Jay Electronica.

Philadelphia, PA, LA in California now, Don’t forget the motor city…

We told you about this one last month, (06.20.2011 NEWS: THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH BACK ON THE BIG SCREEN) it’s the North American theatrical release by Rialto Pictures of a new 35mm print of The Man Who Fell To Earth in recognition of the 35th anniversary of the original US release.

Had a few e-mails from folk who caught the NY screening and all are generally agreed that it’s so good to see such a decent quality print on the big screen after all this time…particularly one that hasn’t been butchered by the censors, like the original US cut was.

The film has now moved to the Nuart Theatre in LA, but be quick as it moves again on the 15th.

Tickets are still available here for LA and with three screenings a day you should find a time to suit.

If you’re the type that’s always swanning about the United States, you may want to print out the above cut-out-and-keep schedule in case the film is showing wherever you happen to be at any given moment.

Those generous types at Rialto Pictures have promised us a bunch of the above Keiko Kimura-illustrated posters for a contest due to start any day now.

FOOTNOTE: While we’re on the subject of contests, EMI in the UK are giving away nine more promotional S2S T-shirts in a competition that ends at midnight UK time on the 15th. Go here to enter.

While we’re on the subject of S2S contests, we will finally be running the second part of our gigantic S2S giveaway before the end of the month.

A total blam blam…

Though a handful of territories saw the release of Suffragette City as an A-side in July (9th in the UK) 1976, an equal number had the B-side of the single, Stay, elevated to A-side status the following month with Word On A Wing as the B-side.

Suffragette City was seen as a promotional tool for the recently-released CHANGESONEBOWIE, but despite having a picture sleeve, (which was still considered a big deal at that point in the UK) the 45 flopped.

Out of the twenty or so RCA single releases from Changes in 1972 up to Beauty And The Beast in 1978, (when Bowie picture sleeves became standard issue) only four were picture sleeves and Suffragette City was the fourth. Not that it helped sales any.

Aside from the false start of Changes, (which sold healthily for years as a back catalogue single despite not charting originally) as far as I can tell, Suffragette City has the dubious honour of being the worst performing post-Mercury Bowie single of all time in the UK, (excepting old label re-issues and the like) it didn’t even trouble the Top 100.

This was most likely down to the fact that it had already been available on the Ziggy Stardust album and CHANGESONEBOWIE, not to mention as a B-side to Starman. A live version appeared on both David Live and as the B-side of Young Americans. All this in the space of four years.

Benefit of hindsight and all that, but I think Stay may have performed better as an A-side…and it seems a few territories agreed with that theory the following month. Anyway, this overkill didn’t spoil fan enjoyment of the song and it remained a live favourite across the years.

Indeed, it’s great to see that Suffragette City is still turning people on to David Bowie even now. One of the items that didn’t appear in ARTROCKER’s COMPLETE ARTICLE GUIDE in our previous news story was a piece by Daniel “Sped” Spedding of the Dutch Uncles, a band who enjoyed iTunes single of the week in the UK a couple of months back with the excellent Cadenza.

The piece is called Dutch Uncles on ‘Suffragette City’ and here it is…

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BOWIE WEEK: Dutch Uncles on ‘Suffragette City’

Sped from Dutch Uncles reveals how car trips with his parents – and ‘Suffragette City’ – turned him into the man he is today…

Suffragette City by David Bowie takes me back to being five years old, in the back of a white Ford Capri, rocking vigorously from side to side, on a booster seat with a 90’s centre parting and a big mouth (only the hair has changed).

Parents up front. Dad driving with the window down whilst smoking and doing his best Bowie impression. My Mum shouting “Sing in your own voice, you’re not David Bowie and you’re never going to sound like him…”. The track would change to Neil Diamond or something, and again my Mum pipes up with “Sing in your own…!”

So yeah, I’ve been a fan of Bowie since I can remember and this is one of my favourites. As an artist he’s always been in my head as brilliant and iconic – nothing has changed over the years in terms of my opinion of him and I don’t believe it ever will.

It was key in shaping my musical taste which I can trace back to me wanting to pursue the guitar through to eventually meeting my band mates. Wanting to play guitar came from being inspired by great music pushed onto me by my family from a very early age… it’s what I am doing today, and seems what I have always wanted to do.

All that’s left to say is…Wham bam thank you Ma’am… & Dad!

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Indeed, that immortal line is all that is left to say, courtesy of the current online Durex campaign in Switzerland! Thanx to French BowieNetter Eric for the pointer…so to speak.

Tracks are on TV…

Well you may not have noticed this one while it was actually happening, but you haven’t missed anything because the wonderful folk at Artrocker have posted a COMPLETE ARTICLE GUIDE to their just ended Bowie Week.

You can get straight to it by going here, but if you’re the type who likes to self-tantalise a bit, here’s a list of what to expect…

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BOWIE WEEK ON ARTROCKER TV: COMPLETE ARTICLE GUIDE
Here’s your one stop shop to all the articles we’ve been posting during Bowie Week!

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS
~ TONY VISCONTI REMEMBERS MICK RONSON & THE EARLY SPIDERS FROM MARS
~ WE WERE SO TURNED ON: THE INSIDE STORY OF HOW CARLA BRUNI, WARPAINT & MORE RECORDED A BOWIE TRIBUTE ALBUM

ALBUM ESSAYS
~ POP VS THE AVANT GARDE: LOW UNDER THE MICROSCOPE
~ ORWELL GOES POP: THE YEAR OF THE DIAMOND DOGS
~ THE INDUSTRIAL NIGHTMARES OF THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD
~ WATCHING THE DETECTIVES: ONE OUTSIDE

PERSONAL HISTORIES
~ ALAN MCGEE DISCUSSES ‘HEROES’.
~ TOM ARTROCKER: MY LIFE WITH DAVID BOWIE
~ TEENAGE WILDLIFE: SAMUEL BREEN ON DISCOVERING BOWIE

STRANGE FASCINATIONS
~ CSS ON WORKING WITH ALADDIN SANE PIANIST MIKE GARSON
~ VIDEO BLOG: THE BEST OF ZIGGY STARDUST LIVE

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Not sure what the TV in ARTROCKER TV stands for, unless it’s Tony Visconti. Speaking of whom, he is interviewed about Mick Ronson for this and he has a theory regarding DB and Ronno’s first meeting.

According to TV, not only did they meet several months ahead of the previously accepted dates (believed to be days before John Peel’s Sunday Show BBC session of February 1970), but apparently Mick Ronson actually played on the David Bowie Philips album (Space Oddity) too.

If Tony has this right, it’s a revelation he didn’t mention in his book, though he did say they met during the recording of the Philips album.

So, despite David’s claim to Peel on the Sunday Show that: “Michael’s just come down from Hull. I met him for the first time about two days ago”, according to Tony they actually met at least three months earlier.

Aside from the TV interview, there are lots of other goodies to read and you should continue to keep an eye on the page for a contest in the coming days.

Well hung and snow white tan… (See below, if you’ll excuse the pun)

You’re probably already aware of this one since it was released at the tail-end of last month (June 27th), but now we’ve received contest copies and I’ve had a good listen, I think it’s safe to mention here.

Ziggy Played Surf Guitar – The Surf Instrumental Bands Of The World Perform The Music Of David Bowie is one of those albums that has to be believed to be heard, or something similar…and we’re giving you the chance to do just that.

If surf instrumental isn’t a genre you’re particularly familiar with, (and why wouldn’t it be) imagine the sound of the late fifties/early sixties guitar instrumentalists such as Link Wray, Duane Eddy, Dick Dale and The Shadows, with a bit of seventies menace thrown in by The Cramps here and there,

I’ve had a few good listens since last week and I have to say I think these versions are genuinely affectionate renditions of the Bowie originals…anyway, five of you can make up your own mind about that by answering the following question correctly…

All twenty one tracks on this album are instrumentals, obviously, (be a daft title otherwise). However, only one of the tracks was an instrumental when originally released by David Bowie. Please identify that track.

Here follows the tracklisting for you to do your research, that’s if you can keep your eyes off the picture for a moment…sorry David, couldn’t resist…

Ziggy Played Surf Guitar – The Surf Instrumental Bands Of The World Perform The Music Of David Bowie

01 ~ The Gospel According To Tony Day – The Green Windows
02 ~ Five Years – Surfadelica
03 ~ Starman – The Vara-tones
04 ~ Moonage Daydream – The TomorrowMen
05 ~ Ziggy Stardust – The Thurston Lava Tube
06 ~ Surfer Jet City – The Pterodactyls
07 ~ Did You Ever Have A Dream – The Muffinmates
08 ~ All The Young Dudes – The Razorblades
09 ~ Life On Mars? – The Weasletones
10 ~ “Heroes” – The Incredible Mr. Smith
11 ~ Speed Of Life – The Insect Surfers
12 ~ All The Young Dudes – The Glasgow Tiki Shakers
13 ~ Rebel Rebel – The Red Planets
14 ~ Modern Love – The Swamp Coolers 1
5 ~ China Girl – The Mighty Surf Lords
16 ~ Let’s Dance – The Bowbridge Band
17 ~ Cat People (Putting Out Fire) – The Breakaways
18 ~ The Man Who Sold The World – The Lost Boys of Penzance
19 ~ The Jean Genie – Monkey Versus Robot
20 ~ Panic In Detroit – Pollo Del Mar 21 ~ Lady Grinning Soul – Los Fantasticos

Free Downloads
22 ~ Starman – The Pterodactyls
23 ~ Ashes to Ashes – The Weasletones

You can get a flavour of the thing via the two free downloads over at the Cordelia Records site…

Meanwhile, if you think you know the answer to the above question, send it to me here. (Link is only active when logged in to BowieNet)

This contest closes on Saturday, July 30th, at midnight New York time with the winners being announced at the start of August.

Usual BowieNet rules apply: Only one entry per BowieNet account 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 and happy Bowie instrumental spotting!

Loves to be loved…

For far too long now, (thirty eight and a half years) thanks to the BBC’s insane tape-wiping policy, we’ve tolerated the above, rather poor quality mono shot of Ziggy and Ronno as the only evidence of their performance of The Jean Genie on the UK’s most successful weekly TV pop show.

I wouldn’t dare expect to ever see the actual footage of this legendary Top Of The Pops performance by David, The Spiders and Mike Garson. But, there has to at least be a colour photographic still that has survived the journey since the taping on January 3rd, 1973.

I’m sure if we all make a concerted effort we can find one and I don’t mean some nasty, hand-coloured version of the above black and white shot. Please let us know if you strike lucky.