Month: May 2015

 

“Who will guess Aladdin Sane?”

 

A few weeks back we set a contest to win copies of Bowie’s Piano Man: the life of Mike Garson signed by author Clifford Slapper, along with a copy of Mike’s CD, The Bowie Variations for Piano, which he has also signed. 

To be in with a chance of winning, we asked you to tell us what was the first Bowie album on which Mr Garson played? The lucky random selections below were among the many who correctly answered Aladdin Sane.

 

Katherine Ellis

Julian Davis

James Lark

 

Could you all confirm your postal addresses and tell us if you want Clifford to personalise your copy of the book. Please email your preference to dbcontests@davidbowie.com with a subject line of: Garson Winner.

Meanwhile, scroll/swipe the images here to view an exclusive and previously unpublished shot of David Bowie with Clifford behind the scenes at the shooting of Extras, taken by photographer Ray Burmiston.

 

Bowie’s Piano Man: the life of Mike Garson by Clifford Slapper is available now. (Fantom, 2015) 

 

“But I never wave bye-bye”

 

As Paris waves a sad adieu to David Bowie is (last day today), those of you that didn’t manage to make the exhibition can still get a flavour of what you missed via screenings of Hamish Hamilton’s superb David Bowie Is documentary film throughout France tomorrow. (Monday June 1st)

Go here to check for local listings. (Those of you in Le Havre can enjoy a screening hosted by our good friend, Jérôme Soligny.)

Meanwhile, New Zealand has also been hosting the film and will continue to do so until June 3rd. Details and local listings here.

 

“Ground Control to Top Space Man”

 

An outfit calling themselves Alaska Robotics have created a wonderful new take on David Bowie’s 1969 classic, Space Oddity, with one major difference to the original…they’ve limited themselves to words taken only from the thousand most common words in English. As you might imagine, that places some restrictions on the original Bowie lyric.

Here are a few before and afters…

 

“Take your protein pills and put your helmet on” becomes: “Take your small food rocks and put your head-safe on”

“Planet Earth is blue and there’s nothing I can do” is now: “Home space ball is blue and there’s nothing I can do”

“Though I’m past one hundred thousand miles” translates to: “Though I’m past five hundred hundred hundred hundred feet”

 

Despite the new lyric not scanning quite as well as Bowie’s original, the new recording works remarkably well.

Molly Lewis, Marian Call, and Seth Boyer modified the lyrics and performed the song. Patrick Race had the original idea, and he filmed the hilarious version of the video (based on the original Bowie promo), with help from Ben Soileau and Aaron Suring.

We’ll leave you with the Alaska Robotics version of the lyrics so you can sing along to the video here.

 

 

SPACE WEIRD THING

(David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” translated into Up-go)

 

Ground control to top space man

Ground control to top space man

Take your small food rocks and put your head-safe on

 

Ground control to top space man

(ten, ten less one, ten less two, seven,

Start the numbers-down, big fires on

six, five, four, three, two, one, up-go!)

Check the start thing and may God’s love be with you…

 

This is Ground Control to top space man,

you’re really first in class

and the papers want to know which person’s shirts you wear

now it’s time to leave the space-house since you’re there

 

This is top space man to Ground Control,

I’m stepping through the door

and I’m relaxing in the air and it’s weird

and the stars look very different today

 

For here am I sitting in a lunch box, far above the world

Home space ball is blue, and there’s nothing I can do

 

Though I’m past five hundred hundred hundred hundred feet,

I’m feeling very cool

And I think my space car knows which way to go

Tell my wife I love her very much — she knows

 

Ground Control to top space man,

your talk line’s dead, there’s something wrong

Can you hear me, top space man? Can you hear me, top space man?

Can you hear me, top space man?

 

Can you….here — I’m relaxing in my lunch box

Far above the space night light ball

Home space ball is blue, and there’s nothing I can do

 

“Scanning life through the picture window”

 

TASCHEN has published a brief Mick Rock interview conducted by Barney Hoskyns, one of the contributors to The Rise of David Bowie. 1972-1973.

Here’s one of the Q&As from it…

 

BH: What appealed to you about Bowie?

 

MR: Initially I was inspired by his music, and then I was fascinated by his aura. I felt hypnotized by all the mutating and shifting around. In truth the persona interested me more than the personality, coupled with the naked ambition. It’s all there in the Ziggy lyrics. He wasn’t thinking about money, he was thinking about stardom. You’ve got to remember how young we all were. I first met David forty-two years ago, when the world was a very different place. Psychologically it was a very impressionable time. What everyone now accepts as modern pop culture was brand-new.

 

You can read the full thing here and perhaps pre-order one of the various editions while you’re there.

 

“Ain’t that poster love?”

 

The June 2015 edition of Japanese magazine, rockin’on, boasts a Mick Rock Bowie cover, along with a great live ’73 shot by Gijsbert Hanekroot as a fold out poster, just over 20” wide, or 51.5cm to be precise for all you metric freaks.

The 8-page feature inside (by Tom Howard of NME) has another striking two-page Hanekroot live ’73 photo, along with one of Sukita’s beautiful mirror shots of Bowie at Radio City Music Hall, New York, in February 1973.

Elsewhere there are bits on Aphex Twin, Bauhaus, Björk, Blur, The Cure, Daft Punk, Lady Gaga, Noel Gallagher, Marilyn Manson, My Chemical Romance and Slipknot…all self-confessed Bowie fans as it happens.

 

“It’s all I ever wanted”

 

David Bowie’s Diamond Dogs album was unleashed on a very expectant public in the UK on May 24, 1974.

Anticipation was high because the album had already been delayed for a month and images of the human/dog hybrid on the cover had featured heavily in the music press.

Preceded by the Top 5 single Rebel Rebel, Diamond Dogs entered the UK album chart at #1 where it remained for three weeks.

In North America (where it also went Top 5), the publicity was even more intense ahead of the ambitious Diamond Dogs Tour extravaganza.

Along with the scene-setting opener, Future Legend, the title track offered a vision of a post-apocalyptic Hunger City, wherein Halloween Jack and the Diamond Dogs roamed the streets and the rooftops.

Though constructed from Bowie’s own imagination and various literary influences, George Orwell’s 1984 flavoured side two of the LP with the tracks We Are the Dead, 1984 and Big Brother.

The album was produced by Bowie himself who also provided much of the instrumentation.

Aside from Rock ‘N’ Roll With Me, the ominous closing Chant Of The Ever-Circling Skeletal Family and the aforementioned tracks, Diamond Dogs also contained the epic, nine minute Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing (Reprise), an astonishing recording that you’ll find in the top ten of many Bowie fans’ favourites.

If you’ve managed to resist the charms of this canine beauty thus far, let the dogs lick you to death over on Spotify now.

 

Pictured here is a print of Guy Peellaert’s original artwork and the withdrawn RCA sleeve before the poor pooch’s emasculation.

 

FOOTNOTE: In Diamond Dog years, the album is in fact 287 today!

 

“Are you sure that it really was him?”

 

The first Tin Machine album was released on this day in 1989. Criminally overlooked, a reappraisal is long overdue.

If it’s a release you’ve avoided to date, have a taste via these promos on YouTube, you may be pleasantly surprised.

And if that whets your appetite, listen to the full album on Spotify now.

More than a quarter of a century later, we hope you’ll agree that Tin Machine mainly still kicks bottom somewhat.

 

“Oh! You pretty thing”

 

We mentioned this one back in September of last year, it’s TASCHEN’s beautiful volume of Mick Rock’s photographs: The Rise of David Bowie. 1972-1973.

TASCHEN are known for their limited edition high-end art books and this one, which includes approximately 50% previously unpublished photographs, continues their great tradition of quality and exclusivity.

With texts by Barney Hoskyns and Michael Bracewell, The Rise of David Bowie. 1972-1973, is published in September and is available to pre-order now in three different versions.

Limited to a total of 1,972 numbered copies signed by David Bowie and Mick Rock, this book is available as a Collector’s Edition and also in two Art Editions of 100 copies each, with a pigment print signed by Mick Rock.

 

Collector’s Edition: (201-1,972) ($700)

Art Edition A: 100 copies with a print signed by photographer Mick Rock. (1-100) ($1,800)

Art Edition B: 100 copies with an alternative print by Mick Rock. (101-200) ($1,800)

 

Each edition comes with 3 foldouts in a 12.4 x 17.3 inch clamshell box with lenticular cover and all are signed by David Bowie and Mick Rock.

Scroll/swipe the images here to view some of the content.

 

Visit the TASCHEN site for further details and pre-order links.

 

“Waiting so long, I’ve been waiting so, waiting so”

 

It is with much pleasure that we can exclusively announce a release that many of you have been waiting to get your ears on for the past sixteen years.

On June 15th, Music On Vinyl (@musiconvinyl) will issue David Bowie’s ‘hours…’, the first time the album has received an official release on vinyl.

We’ll leave you with the details, but you can read more about the release here.

 

DAVID BOWIE – HOURS

MOVLP1400

8718469538898

1LP, 180 GRAM

3mm sleeve

 

• 180 gram audiophile vinyl

• 20-page booklet

• Available on vinyl for the first time!

• First pressing available in 2 colours:

– 2.500 numbered copies on mint green vinyl

– 2.500 numbered copies on blue / purple mixed vinyl

• Also available on black vinyl

 

Side One

1. Thursday’s Child 

2. Something In The Air 

3. Survive 

4. If I’m Dreaming My Life 

 

Side Two

1. Seven 

2. What’s Really Happening?  

3. The Pretty Things Are Going To Hell 

4. New Angels Of Promise

5. Brilliant Adventure  

6. The Dreamers              

 

Also available:

EARTHLING [MOVLP815]

EXCERPTS FROM OUTSIDE [MOVLP500]

HEATHEN [MOVLP470]

REALITY [MOVLP875]

PETER AND THE WOLF [MOCL011]

 

“Someone’s back in town”

 

Nothing Has Changed – The Very Best of David Bowie, has re-entered the Official UK Album Chart at #40.

The Top 10 album climbed five places from last week’s positon of 45, with sales possibly being reactivated by the success of the #1 RSD picture disc 45, Changes, which appears on the album.

Among other things that may have nudged the album back into the Top 40, was the use of Moonage Daydream (also on NHC, but not on the vinyl), in the trailer for Channel 4’s excellent Grayson Perry’s Dream House which aired on Sunday evening.

Grayson himself likes a bit of Bowie, you may remember he chose The London Boys for the 6 Music Playlist back in 2012. 

If you want to contribute to the continued success of NHC, go here for buy links.

 

Official UK Album Chart

#NothingHasChanged