Month: March 2013

 

“Just playing that latest record”

 

Just to keep you in the picture and so you don’t think it‘s some kind of cheap April Fool’s Day prank on the day, The Next Day vinyl set will now be released worldwide on April 1st.

Though the delay may disappoint some of you, hopefully the news that the 180 gram, 17-track double vinyl set will include the 17-track CD too will cheer you.  

It’s another beautiful Barnbrook-designed package that is a pleasure to behold. Speaking of Jonathan B, here’s an interview with him on the V&A channel that you may not have spotted yet.

One of the zillions of items of interest at the David Bowie is Exhibition at the V&A (which officially opened to the public today) is a set of Barnbrook mock-ups for alternative sleeve ideas for The Next Day.

We think you’ll agree that DB and JB settled on the right one when you see them.

 

”As long as we’re together”

 

EMI is repackaging the existing versions of the Low (1977), “Heroes” (1977), Stage (1978) and Lodger (1979) CDs together in a cardboard slipcase, under the box set name of DAVID BOWIE – ZEIT! 77-79.

You may be familiar with this kind of repackage that seems to be a popular method of grouping ’related’ albums together. Check out the superb IDBD for examples. 

The three studio albums here were released between 1977 and 1979 and are generally referred to as the somewhat misleading Berlin Trilogy.

A more unifying theme throughout the three recordings is the presence of Mr Bowie, Mr Eno and Mr Visconti.

Stage (the 1978 double live recording of the attendant tour), is included here for good measure.

We’ll update this story with a release date for DAVID BOWIE – ZEIT! 77-79 as soon as we have it.

 

“Listen”

 

If for one reason or another you’ve not yet heard The Next Day, you can go check it out on Spotify right now. 

Once it has its hooks in you’re probably not going to want to listen to anything else, but pretty much the whole of the Bowie back catalogue is there if the fancy takes you.

 

“We have a nice life”

 

As you’ve no doubt seen or heard, Tilda Swinton was a speaker (along with Sir Paul Ruddock) at a dinner in celebration of David Bowie is at the V&A on Tuesday evening.

The V&A has now posted her speech online, and rather good it is too.

 

(Note: scroll across for full landscape version of this gorgeous new Jimmy King portrait of Bowie)

 

David Bowie’s ‘The Next Day’ Debuts #1 on Charts in 12 Countries and Tops iTunes Chart in Over 60 Countries

 

First Album in Decade Sparks Passionate Global Response

 

New York, NY – March 20, 2013 – David Bowie’s new album ‘The Next Day’ (ISO/Columbia Records) has debuted at #1 in the U.K., Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland a week after its release, and has topped the iTunes chart in over 60 countries across the world.

The album is scoring landmarks for Bowie, including his highest-ever chart position in the U.S. (#2), and the title-holder as the fastest-selling album of the year so far in the U.K.

‘The Next Day’ has already achieved Gold status in the U.K., Austria, France, Ireland, Poland and Sweden, is the musician’s first-ever #1 in Germany, Netherlands, Portugal and Switzerland and is his first #1 album in the U.K., Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland and New Zealand in decades.

‘The Next Day,’ which was written by Bowie and co-produced with long-term collaborator Tony Visconti, also skyrocketed to the top of iTunes charts in over 60 countries across the world after its release. (Full list of countries at bottom of press release.)

 

Worldwide critical acclaim for ‘The Next Day’ has paralleled the album’s chart-topping successes. Bowie’s triumphant return from a decade-long hiatus has been embraced by critics as a “masterpiece” (The New York Times, USA) and “the greatest comeback album ever.” (The Independent, UK)

 

More Press Quotes:

 

“Breathtaking… a marvelously successful return” – LA Times (U.S.)

 

“Music that’s rich, dense and urgent” – Wall Street Journal (U.S.)

 

“A great album and something that is rare in an age when everything is explained and revealed: a sense of mystery” – The Times (U.K.)

 

“An absolute wonder: urgent, sharp-edged, bold, beautiful and baffling” – The Telegraph (U.K.)

 

“Sonically rich, lyrically intriguingly and elegantly energized. The bad news? There is no bad news.” – Globe and Mail (Canada)

 

“Some of the best work in recent rock music.” – Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Germany)

 

“[Bowie] dazzles with his new album” – El Mundo (Spain)

 

“A triumphant return.  And a reminder of how the musical world is sorely missing a self-propelled superstar like David Bowie” – Herald Sun (Australia)

 

‘The Next Day,’ topped iTunes chart (64 Countries):

 

“Ich bin dann König”

 

Sony Germany reports that David Bowie‘s The Next Day has entered the album chart there straight in at number one.

The Next Day is Bowie’s first #1 album in Germany, his previous best being Let’s Dance, which reached #2 in 1983.

Exciting times indeed.

 

“He’s in the best-selling show”

 

On Sunday the Observer newspaper in the UK reported the excitement surrounding the launch of the David Bowie is Exhibition at the V&A this coming Saturday thusly: “Bowie mania as V&A exhibition smashes records”.

The item went on to declare that the exhibition is breaking all previous records at the museum adding that “More than 42,000 advance tickets for the in-depth retrospective have been sold, more than double the advance sales of previous exhibitions.”

All this in the week that The Next Day became the nation’s favourite long player when it hit the #1 spot on the official UK album chart and it was announced that it is the fastest selling album so far this year.

There has barely been a day since January 9th when David Bowie hasn’t been in one of the UK newspapers in some shape or form. Bowiemania indeed.

Anyway, Monday saw excellent eye-witness previews of the David Bowie is Exhibition published in both The Guardian and the London Evening Standard among other publications.

The Standard has a three page feature which includes first-hand accounts of the show from Gary Kemp, Jarvis Cocker, Boy George, Pam Hogg and Jeremy Deller, which you can read here. 

Elsewhere in the paper there’s a 5-star review by Ben Luke which concludes: “David Bowie Is… a triumph”.

The Guardian also has a substantial report over two pages with a piece by The Guardian’s fashion editor, Jess Cartner-Morley, and another by Alexis Petridis whose review echoes Ben Luke’s conclusion.

We’ll leave you with the closing paragraph of the Petridis review.

But David Bowie Is ends in triumph anyway. The floor-to-ceiling screens showing live footage are genuinely awe-inspiring, a final room collects together umpteen examples of how his influence has leaked not just into music but everyday life: fashion, packaging, video game design, advertising. As it turned out, the plan about communicating ideas that Bowie outlined in the Beckenham Arts Lab proposal seems to have worked out perfectly.

The David Bowie is Exhibition at the V&A opens on Saturday March 23 and runs until Aug 11.

 

“And so the story goes they wore the clothes, They said the things to make it seem improbable”

 

Saturday’s edition of the Telegraph Magazine in the UK has an interesting piece wherein Kansai Yamamoto talks about the clothes he designed for Bowie’s Aladdin Sane tour.

He specifically mentions making the asymmetrical woollen creation pictured here, just one of nine costumes that Kansai presented to Bowie in Tokyo on his visit to Japan for nine shows in April 1973.

Coincidentally, the same day the BBC’s Radio 4 broadcast a half hour show entitled: I dressed Ziggy Stardust. (Saturday, Radio 4, 10:30am) 

Here’s the synopsis for the programme:

For more than four decades, David Bowie has entranced his followers. As he releases his first new material in ten years, Samira Ahmed looks at his particular appeal for British Asian women.

Across the generations, they have been inspired by the skinny South Londoner who challenged gender barriers and who played with alien identity and other worldliness.

Beneath the make up and exotic costumes, he was also the intelligent, politely spoken suburban young man who you could potentially introduce to your mother.

As Samira explores Bowie’s impact on British Asian teenagers, she talks to Shami Chakrabarti, the Director of ‘Liberty’, about Bowie’s changing identities. Sociologist Rupa Huq tackles his suburban psychoses and Shyama Perera takes Samira on a journey to explain how her teenage obsession with Bowie even extended to sending costume designs to her hero – enabling her arguably to claim that “I Dressed Ziggy Stardust”.

And the outfit Shyama Perera is specifically talking about in the piece, that she feels she may have had a hand in creating? It’s also the one pictured here.

You can read more and listen to I dressed Ziggy Stardust here

 

The Official Charts Company in the UK has just announced that David Bowie‘s The Next Day has entered the album chart straight in at Number One.  

The Next Day is Bowie’s first number 1 album since 1993’s Black Tie White Noise and it’s also the fastest selling album of 2013 so far.

Bowie outsells the second highest new entry of the week, Bon Jovi’s What About Now, by more than two copies to one.

Congratulations to David Bowie for his ninth number 1 album in the UK and thanks once more to all of you that bought The Next Day and put David Bowie back where he belongs.

 

“They can’t get enough of it all”

 

Earlier today we posted a piece about how you Young Americans should help save the USA from yet another Bon Jovi #1 album by investing in The Next Day instead.

Well, we were always going to be mildly biased in this matter and why should you take our word for just how good a record The Next Day is?

Here instead are the condensed opinions of forty plus American journalists who just happen to concur:

 

 

“Mr. Bowie’s twilight masterpiece” – New York Times

“Breathtaking… a marvelously successful return” – LA Times

“4 stars… a glorious homecoming” – USA Today

“A magnificent album” – New York Post

“Music that’s rich, dense and urgent” – Wall Street Journal

“Triumphant” – People

“Simultaneously accessible and ambitious” – Billboard

“An endlessly enjoyable listen” – NPR Morning Edition

“A thriller, not merely a return to form” – NPR Fresh Air

“A fine rock record” – New Yorker

“The Next Day is great,” – Time Magazine

“Fascinating, expectations-defying” – The Atlantic

“Stellar” – Hollywood Reporter

“A stunning, resonant piece of expression” – AV Club

 “Brilliant” – Buzzfeed

“One of the best albums of his career” – LA Daily News

“Mesmerizing, as the songs get richer with each listen” – Boston Globe

“‘The Next Day’ is the work of a master” – Newsday

“Totally worth the wait” – Esquire

“Vigorous… adventurous” – Stereogum

“Bowie’s strongest work to date” – CBSNews.com

“One of the best albums of his career” – Oakland Press

“The best Bowie since ‘Scary Monsters'” – Chicago Sun-Times

“[An] artistic step forward” – Philadelphia Inquirer

“Still adding classics to [his] legacy” – Arizona Republic

“A strong new set of songs” – Newark Star Ledger

“Rewarding” – Chicago Tribune

“A treat” – Boston Herald

“The songs shine with ferocious life” – Miami New Times

“Invigorating” – American Songwriter

“One of [Bowie’s] most intimate outputs” – Village Voice

“A strong return to the spotlight” – Louisville Courier-Journal

“Triumphant” – Bloomberg News

“The most intriguing yet” – Flavorwire

“A return to form” – MTV Buzzworthy

“Gorgeous, groovy, thoughtful” – Simon Doonan, for Slate

“Bowie amazes and astounds” – Blurt

“Inspired” – Patriot News (PA)

“A rewarding, fascinating listen” – Consequence of Sound

“A sweet coda to a towering career” – All Music Guide

“Excellent” – Gothamist

“A triumph” – Pretty Much Amazing