Month: April 2015

 

“The Pretty Things Are Going To Hull“

 

The sad passing of Mick Ronson is commemorated on this day. It’s 22 years since Ronno succumbed to liver cancer on 29 April 1993 at the age of 46.

Music On Vinyl (MOV) are remembering Mick with the release of his final solo album, Heaven And Hull (1994), on 180 gram audiophile vinyl on May 18th.

This will be the first time the album has appeared as a quality pressing, the original vinyl was only ever released as a picture disc.

David Bowie’s contributions to the album are: lead vocal on Like A Rolling Stone, backing vocals on Colour Me and backing vocals and saxophone on the live version of All The Young Dudes from the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert at Wembley Stadium in April 1992.

Our montage shows the original advert for the album, along with a shot of Bowie and Ronno from the Black Tie White Noise sessions. Bottom right is a live shot of the pair from September 1983, when Mick guested on The Jean Genie during The Serious Moonlight Tour in Toronto.

Read more about the MOV issue of Heaven And Hull here.

 

“If we can sparkle he may land tonight”

 

David Bowie’s game-starting single, Starman, was released in the UK on April 28th 1972.

In case you can’t read it in our montage, the text in the 1972 US “David Bowie Is The Starman” advert reads thus…

“He’s thin and he’s English. He’s got orange hair and he sings and plays electric guitar. He’s got a hit record called “Starman” which is from his new album called “The Rise and fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.” David Bowie. He’s Ziggy Stardust and he is beautiful.”

Remind yourself of that last statement here.

 

“Time may change me, But I can’t trace time“

 

Great to hear the news that you people have kept both of David Bowie’s RSD single releases in the Top Three of the latest UK Official Vinyl Singles Chart.

Changes remains at #1 for a second week after entering the chart at the top spot upon release, while Kingdom Come has moved up one place to #3.

Thanks folks, it’s appreciated.

 

“Fame, What’s your name?”

 

You must be getting the hang of this by now and will have realised some time ago that the next limited David Bowie 7″ picture disc will be the 40th anniversary edition of Fame.

Originally issued in the UK on Friday July 18th 1975, this 40th anniversary disc will be released 40 years and 6 days on from that date, on Friday July 24th 2015.

Fame was the second 45 released from the Young Americans album and it gave Bowie his first #1 single when it reached the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100.

Here follows the full details.

 

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DAVID BOWIE ‘FAME’ LIMITED EDITION 40th ANNIVERSARY 7″ PICTURE DISC.

 

Friday July 24th 2015 sees the release of the latest special limited DAVID BOWIE 7″ picture disc, the 40th anniversary edition of FAME.

Originally released in Summer 1975, FAME was taken from the album YOUNG AMERICANS, it was co-written with John Lennon and guitarist Carlos Alomar and was Bowie’s first #1 in the USA.

The b-side of the single at the time was the YOUNG AMERICANS album track RIGHT. For this 40th anniversary RIGHT is now the AA-side and appears as an alternate mix previously released by Ryko/EMI in 1991. However, due to a mastering error it was released at the wrong speed. For this release that issue has been rectified.

 

DAVID BOWIE – FAME LIMITED EDITION 40th ANNIVERSARY 7″ PICTURE DISC.

 

A-Side Fame (Original single edit)

Produced David Bowie & Harry Maslin

 

AA-Side Right (Alternate Mix)

Produced & mixed by Tony Visconti & Harry Maslin

 

The colour image used on the A-side of the picture disc is by Andrew Kent taken whilst David was performing Golden Years on the Soul Train TV show in November 1975. He also performed Fame on the show on account of its recent success on the Billboard Hot 100.

The AA side image is an outtake from a session with renowned 1940’s/50’s Hollywood photographer Tom Kelley.

FAME is released on Parlophone on Friday July 24th 2015.

 

FOOTNOTE: You may have noticed that we normally use the Monday UK release date when mentioning new releases. However, in February a Global Release Day was confirmed so that new music releases will be aligned internationally on a Friday. Read more about this adjustment here. http://smarturl.it/GlobalReleaseDay

 

“They’ll never clone ya“

 

One of the very best 45s of all time and another Top Ten hit for David Bowie was released this day in 1979, accompanied by an equally brilliant video.

The Bowie/Visconti produced Boys Keep Swinging was a breath of fresh air in a musical landscape dominated by folk taking themselves a little too seriously.

Both the humour and the role reversal of the recording (Guitarist Carlos Alomar played drums and drummer Dennis Davis played bass), transferred perfectly to the David Mallet video, with Bowie taking on the guise of his own female backing singers.

If you’ve not had the pleasure yet, go and enjoy Boys Keep Swinging now.

 

“And they were alright, the band was altogether”

 

Tony Visconti and Woody Woodmansey’s Holy Holy with Glenn Gregory and Steve Norman are set to release a live double CD version of the entire The Man Who Sold The World album and a set of other live Bowie favourites.

Special guests on the album include Marc Almond singing After All and Watch That Man – the latter as a duet with Glenn Gregory – Spandau Ballet’s Gary Kemp, drummer Dylan Howe and style icon Daphne Guinness.

The album was recorded live at the O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire in September 2014 and was produced and mixed by Tony Visconti in New York.

The Man Who Sold The World Live In London will be released on June 1 and you can pre-order it here:

The release date is 1 June 2015 and the double album can be pre-ordered here.

A vinyl version of the The Man Who Sold The World songs only will be available at the Visconti and Woodmansey gigs this Summer and not on general sale.

 

The tracklisting is: 

Disc One

Track listing on the live album:

1. The Width Of A Circle

2. All The Madmen

3. Black Country Rock

4. After All

5. Running Gun Blues

6. Saviour Machine

7. She Shook Me Cold

8. The Man Who Sold The World

9. The Supermen

 

Disc two

1. Life On Mars?

2. Hang Onto Yourself

3. Ziggy Stardust

4. Watch That Man

5. Cracked Actor

6. Lady Stardust

7. Starman

8. Time

9. Five Years

10. Moonage Daydream

11. White Light/White Heat

12. Jean Genie – Love Me Do

 

Meanwhile, the band will play at Billboard Live in Tokyo on 6 and 7 July.

Woody Woodmansey is delighted to be returning to Japan: “Really excited to be going back there, love the audiences, culture, food, Japan basically. We have a ‘black belt’ in rock and roll….So it’s the Isle Of Wight Festival to start, then UK, Ireland, and Japan….what a summer!”.

Tony Visconti said of this project “So to say I’m in HEAVEN when I’m playing with this band is understating how satisfying it is to revisit something I’ve been wanting to do all these years, and so LOUDLY, too.”

Tickets for the Tokyo shows are available here.

 

These Tokyo gigs are the last leg of a tour that also includes 14 dates in the UK and Dublin:

 

12 June – Isle Of Wight Festival http://isleofwightfestival.com/tickets/

13 June – Oxford Academy http://www.o2academyoxford.co.uk/event/73686/tony-visconti-and-woody-woo…

14 June – Bournemouth Academy http://www.o2academybournemouth.co.uk/event/73677/tony-visconti-and-wood…

15 June – Bristol Academy http://www.o2academybristol.co.uk/event/73678/tony-visconti-and-woody-wo…

17 June – Norwich Arts Centre https://norwichartscentre.co.uk/events/tony-visconti-woody-woodmansey-gl…

18 June – Liverpool Academy http://www.o2academyliverpool.co.uk/event/73681/tony-visconti-and-woody-…

21 June – Leeds Academy  http://www.o2academyleeds.co.uk/event/73682/tony-visconti-and-woody-wood…

22 June – Hull The Welly http://www.seetickets.com/event/tony-visconti-woody-woodmansey/the-welly…

24 June – Dublin Olympia http://olympia.ie/whats-on/visconti-and-woodmansey/

25 June – Glasgow ABC http://www.o2abcglasgow.co.uk/event/73676/tony-visconti-and-woody-woodma…

26 June – Newcastle Academy http://www.o2academynewcastle.co.uk/event/73685/tony-visconti-and-woody-…

28 June – Colchester Arts Centre http://www.colchesterartscentre.com/events/gigs/tony-visconti-woody-wood…

29 June – Birmingham Academy http://www.o2academybirmingham.co.uk/event/73680/tony-visconti-and-woody…

30 June – London, Shepherds Bush Empire http://www.o2shepherdsbushempire.co.uk/event/73679/tony-visconti-and-woo…  

 

“Oh, look out you rock ‘n rollers“

 

Congratulations are due to David Bowie with the news that both his RSD single releases have entered the Top Five in the latest UK Official Vinyl Singles Chart.

Changes has gone straight in at #1, while Kingdome come has also entered the chart at #4.

This news is hot on the heels of last week’s announcement that Life On Mars? has been recognised as the best-selling vinyl single of the decade so far by The Official Charts Company (OCC) in the UK.

Despite being a BBC Radio1 Single Of The Week, Changes didn’t enter the UK singles chart at all on its original release in January 1972, so thanks to all of you for reversing that situation 43 years later.

This may be a good time to point out that on April 1st 2014, we posted an April Fools’ Day hoax about a late addition for RSD 2014. One year later that hoax has become a very successful reality.

 

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Read more about both releases via the links below.

Changes / Eight Line Poem (GEM promo version)  

Kingdom Come by David Bowie (1980) / Kingdom Come by Tom Verlaine (1979)  

 

“Just about the best you can hear“

 

Lulu, the 2011 collaboration between Lou Reed and Metallica, certainly had more than its fair share of detractors. However, it transpires that the album does have a particularly enthusiastic fan in David Bowie.

This information was shared with the audience at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Saturday night (April 18), when Lou Reed’s widow, Laurie Anderson, gave a speech in tribute of her late husband.

Here’s an excerpt from it…

 

“One of his last projects was his album with Metallica, and this was really challenging, and I have a hard time with it. There are many struggles and so much radiance,“ she continued, “And after Lou’s death, David Bowie made a big point of saying to me, ‘Listen, this is Lou’s greatest work. This is his masterpiece. Just wait, it will be like Berlin. It will take everyone a while to catch up.’”

 

But even though Anderson admitted she may not have understood LULU at the time, the 18 months since Reed’s death in October 2013 have given her the opportunity to re-evaluate it.

 

“I’ve been reading the lyrics and it is so fierce. It’s written by a man who understood fear and rage and venom and terror and revenge and love. And it is raging. Anyone who heard Lou sing ‘Junior Dad’ will never forget the experience of that song, torn out of the Bible. This was rock & roll taken to whole new levels.”

 

And David Bowie knows all about some folk taking a while to catch up. Low anyone?

 

“But let’s face it, things are so much easier today“

 

RSD 2015 is finally upon us and the message to Bowie fans hoping to pick up the two limited 45s released today is, do not panic buy!

Apparently, 15,000 copies of each disc have been pressed which should be more than enough to meet the demand.

If your favoured emporium is out of stock, don’t pay silly prices via online auction sites, be patient and you should easily pick up a reasonably priced copy of both vinyls.

If news of these releases passed you by, read more about both via the links below.

 

Changes / Eight Line Poem (GEM promo version)

Kingdom Come by David Bowie (1980) / Kingdom Come by Tom Verlaine (1979)

 

“I’ll say I came from Earth“

 

We are very pleased to be able to pass on a most generous 20% discount to DavidBowie.com users for the beautiful The Man Who Fell To Earth trading card sets produced by Unstoppable Cards.

If you’re not familiar with the cards, scroll/swipe the images accompanying this piece (or click on the little dots at the bottom of the picture) to get a taste of just a few of the images that make up the sets.

As you’ll notice, among other things there are two separate cards of Bowie as TJ Newton (with and without hat) signed by Bowie in 2013 and limited to just 50 of each.

These particular cards signed by Bowie are only available as a part of ‘cases’.

View the various permutations here: http://smarturl.it/UnstoppableTMWFTE and click on the ‘Learn More’ link underneath each listing to see a breakdown of what each package contains.

You may find it advantageous to club together with other interested parties for deals like the TRIPLE CASE OFFER which will get you four of the signed Bowie cards.

When you are sure you understand exactly what you are ordering, apply this discount code on checkout: OFFICIALBOWIEFAN

We should point out that we are just the Man In The Middle for this promotion and any enquiries regarding orders or product details should be put directly to the folk at Unstoppable Cards.