Month: January 2017

 

“If you think we’re gonna make it, you better hang on to yourself”

 

Today is the 45th anniversary of the very first Ziggy Stardust gig, which took the form of a warm up show at Aylesbury Friars, Borough Assembly Hall, on January 29th, 1972.

 

Billed by the club as THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PERSON IN THE WORLD, Bowie gave the Friars audience an exciting taster of the phenomenon that would shortly sweep the UK and ultimately the civilised world.

 

The original poster from the gig in our montage is considered one of the holy grails for Bowie memorabilia collectors. However, there’s an even rarer Bowie Aylesbury Friars poster, which we’ll be sharing with you shortly.

 

Go here for further details regarding the Aylesbury Bowie Statue Campaign, where you can still support the project with the various pledges that are still available.

 

 

#BowieZiggyStardust  #BowieFriarsAylesbury  #BowieAylesburyStatue

 

“Oh, wait until the crowd goes”

 

A new ticket type is now available for the February 2017 stint of the David Bowie is exhibition at Warehouse TERRADA G1 Building in Tokyo, it’s the ‘February Weekdays Only Ticket’.

 

For a more enjoyable experience all round, we would encourage people to visit as early as possible. Many attendees tend to go towards the end of the exhibition period, when things get a bit more crowded and store items sell out.

 

Just to reiterate, Tokyo is the only Asian city to hold this exhibition and it runs through to Sunday 9th April 2017.

 

Go here for exhibition information and ticket links. Tickets are also available on the door.

 

 

#ボウイ展  #DBisTokyo  #BowieTokyo  #DavidBowieIs  

 

“I’m not a popstar”

 

In a ceremony at The Design Museum on London’s High Street Kensington, presented by Will Gompertz (Arts Editor of the BBC), this evening, the jury for Beazley Designs of the Year selected Jonathan Barnbrook’s Blackstar design as the winner of the Graphics category.

 

A jovial but humbled Barnbrook was there in person to collect the award, and his acceptance speech included a piss-poor impersonation of Bowie (albeit, for comedic effect and very tongue-in-cheek…actually, it wasn’t THAT bad), as he recounted his communications with DB over the years. He also sang a bit of Changes for good measure. Obviously this didn’t detract from the quality of his brilliant design work, as highlighted in the entry from tonight’s catalogue…

 

 

★ Designed by Jonathan Barnbrook at Barnbrook for David Bowie/Sony Entertainment Inc. – Nominated by Shane Walter

 

David Bowie’s career has been defined by changes as much in his visual image as his music, so it is testament to Barnbrook’s talent that he has worked on projects for him since 2002. The pinnacle is the artwork and graphic visual design he produced for Bowie’s final album Blackstar.

 

Bowie was a star who burnt very bright in his lifetime. It’s poignant and powerful, therefore, to have a dark star represent someone whose legacy will never fade. As Barnbrook says, ‘The symbol, rather than writing “Blackstar”, has as a sort of finality, a darkness, a simplicity, which is a representation of the music.’

 

It is remarkable and restrained, stripped back yet an almighty work of compelling graphic art. It is a clear counterpoint to the visual clutter that litters our daily view. It was created with deep trust and mutual respect: iconic design, worthy of an icon. – Shane Walter

 

 

John Morgan also had this to say about the decision to award Barnbrook:

 

“The Graphics category caused heated debate among the jury. Are we looking for impact, creativity, popularity, significance, timeliness? The Blackstar design is an iconic piece of graphic design that defined an important moment in musical history. It has the ability to connect with an audience and demonstrates the power that music and design has to connect and unite people.” – John Morgan, Founder of John Morgan Studio

 

Well done, Jonathan, much deserved.

 

You can watch Barnbrook’s acceptance speech, via Periscope, here on the Design Museum Twitter page.

 

 

#DesignsoftheYear  #DesignMuseum   #BeazleyGroup  #BowieBarnbrook  #BarnbrookBowie  #BowieBlackstar  #Blackstar  #BowieVinyl  

 

“Somebody send me” 

 

Royal Mail in the UK has announced it will issue a set of 10 Special Stamps (pictured) as a tribute to David Bowie in March.

 

Among the items being produced are the following:

 

Set of 10 David Bowie Special Stamps (6 album covers and 4 live shots)

Presentation Pack

First Day Cover – Stamps

First Day Cover – Stamp Sheet

The Berlin Years Souvenir Cover

Album Art Fan Sheet

“Heroes” Framed Stamp and Print

 

Fans and philatelists alike can view all of the permutations and pre-order the stamps from today by visiting: www.royalmail.com/davidbowie 

 

The stamps will be on sale from 14 March 2017 at www.royalmail.com/davidbowie and from 7,000 Post Office branches across the UK and by calling 03457 641 641

 

Keep reading for the full press release.

 

 

#RoyalMailBowie  #BowieStamps

 

 

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ROYAL MAIL TO HONOUR DAVID BOWIE WITH A SET OF 10 SPECIAL STAMPS

 

• Royal Mail will issue a set of 10 Special Stamps as a tribute to one of the most influential music and cultural figures of all time

• This is the first time Royal Mail has dedicated an entire stamp issue to an individual music artist or cultural figure.

• Six stamps will feature images of the album covers : Hunky Dory; Aladdin Sane; “Heroes”; Let’s Dance; Earthling and ★

• Completing the set, four additional stamps will show Bowie performing live on tours across four decades: The Ziggy Stardust Tour, 1973; The Stage Tour, 1978; The Serious Moonlight Tour, 1983; and A Reality Tour, 2004.

• Fans can pre-order the stamps from today by visiting www.royalmail.com/davidbowie  

• The stamps will be on sale from 14 March 2017 at www.royalmail.com/davidbowie and from 7,000 Post Office branches across the UK and by calling 03457 641 641

 

 

Royal Mail today revealed it will issue a set of 10 Special Stamps to honour David Bowie – one of the most influential music and cultural figures of all time.

 

This is the first time Royal Mail has dedicated an entire stamp issue to an individual music artist or cultural figure.

 

The stamps are issued in the year of what would have been his 70th birthday, and 50 years since his first album release.

 

Endlessly innovative and pioneering, he is widely regarded as having elevated his music to an art form.

 

Six of the stamps showcase Bowie’s changing musical styles and personas across the decades and feature images of some of his most admired and defining album covers: Hunky Dory; Aladdin Sane; “Heroes”; Let’s Dance; Earthling and ★. The arc of the vinyl album protrudes from the right hand side of each stamp.

 

Completing the set, four stamps show Bowie in action performing live on tours across four decades; The Ziggy Stardust Tour, 1973; The Stage Tour, 1978; The Serious Moonlight Tour, 1983; and A Reality Tour, 2004.

 

The stamps and a range of limited edition souvenirs are available to pre-order from today at www.royalmail.com/davidbowie and will be on sale from 14 March 2017.

 

Bowie’s 1972 album cover for The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars was featured in the Classic Album Covers stamp set issued in January 2010.

 

The only other music artists to have been honoured with a dedicated stamp issue are groups; The Beatles (2010) and Pink Floyd (2015).

 

A year-long poll undertaken by New Musical Express magazine in 2000 canvassed opinion from musicians worldwide as to the most influential artist. The result of this poll placed Bowie at Number One.

 

Album cover stamps

 

Hunky Dory, Bowie’s fourth album and released in December 1971. Time magazine chose it as part of their “100 best albums of all time” list in January 2010.

 

Aladdin Sane, his sixth album and released in April 1973. The album features the iconic photograph by Brian Duffy. 

 

“Heroes”, his twelfth studio album and released in October 1977. This was the second instalment of his “Berlin Trilogy” recorded with Brian Eno and Tony Visconti. The title track remains one of Bowie’s best known and acclaimed songs.

 

Let’s Dance, his fifteenth studio album and released in April 1983. Co-produced by Nile Rodgers, and featuring three of his most successful singles Let’s Dance, Modern Love and China Girl. Let’s Dance is Bowie’s best-selling album.

 

Earthling, his 23rd studio album and released in February 1997. The striking cover art features Bowie in an Alexander McQueen designed Union Flag coat.

 

★, Bowie’s 28th and final studio album, released on his 69th birthday – 8 January 2016 – and charting at No.1 in more than 20 countries. Bowie died two days after the release of ★, the album reaffirming his legacy as modern music’s most unrelenting innovator and topping critics’ ‘Best of 2016’ lists. 

 

Live stamps

 

The Ziggy Stardust Tour, 1973. The tour promoted Aladdin Sane and took in the UK, North America, and Japan.

 

The Serious Moonlight Tour, 1983. The tour was designed to support the Let’s Dance album and up to that point was Bowie’s longest and most successful concert tour.

 

The Stage Tour, 1978. Also known as Isolar II – The 1978 World Tour was staged to promote the Low and “Heroes” albums.

 

A Reality Tour, 2003/2004. Staged to promote the Reality album, this tour became Bowie’s longest tour and it would also be his last.

 

Philip Parker, Royal Mail stamp Strategy manager, said: “For five decades David Bowie was at the forefront of contemporary culture, and has influenced successive generations of musicians, artists, designers and writers. Royal Mail’s stamp issue celebrates this unique figure and some of his many celebrated personas.”

 

The stamps are available from 14 March 2017, at 7,000 Post Office branches across the UK and www.royalmail.com/davidbowie

 

“I’ve got drama, can’t be stolen” 

 

We were trying to think of a way of thanking everybody involved with the success of Lazarus after a very emotional final performance on Sunday. Help arrived unexpectedly in the form of a hand-written letter given to cast member Amy Lennox (Elly), after Sunday’s show.

 

The note was written by 15-year-old, self-confessed Bowie superfan, Anna Mallon. We tracked Anna down and she gave us permission to reproduce the note here. We think you’ll agree that she pretty well managed to say everything we would have wanted to say.

 

It just remains for us to say thank you to Anna and the rest of you who went to see Lazarus in both New York and London. And thanks also for showing such enthusiastic support. It was always very much appreciated.

 

FOOTNOTE: Swipe for a bigger version of Anna’s letter for better legibility.

 

(Cast photo by Pamela Raith Photography)

 

 

#LazarusMusical  #LazarusLondon  #Lazarus  #TMWFTE  #TJNewton

 

“Bow-wow, woof woof, bow-wow, wow” 

 

You may have seen a Tweet from Duncan Jones which we Retweeted back at the start of the year. It was regarding the sad tale of a three-year-old Lurcher cross, Bowie, who had been “overlooked by hundreds of potential new owners because his eyes are different colours”.

 

Bowie had been looking for a home since November, and following an appeal by Dogs Trust Bridgend, Duncan Tweeted the following:

 

“Hoping someone near that dog might be able to help him find a home. One of those weird ones that got to me. “

 

Well, the good news is that Bowie (Photoshopped together here with his equally odd-eyed namesake), has found love in the form of new owner Doctor Nia Bowen and Andrew Snow.

 

Keep reading for the press release from www.dogstrust.org.uk

 

(Apologies to Terry O’Neill for the appropriation of a frame from his classic photo session for the human* Bowie’s 1974 Diamond Dogs album. Thanks also to Eleanor at Dogs Trust Bridgend for the photo of canine Bowie.)

 

*Allegedly

 

 

#BowieDog  #DiamondDogs  #DogsTrust  #BOWIEbyONEILL 

 

 

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Blue-eyed Bowie catches the eye of new owners – Hypnotic hound finds home after rehoming appeal

 

Bowie, an overlooked pooch at Dogs Trust Bridgend, whose eyes resembled his namesake, David Bowie, has finally found his furever home.

 

Bowie was overlooked by hundreds of potential new owners because of his different coloured eyes but after an appeal to find him a home, and support from David Bowie’s son, Duncan Jones himself, he has finally found the home he deserves.

 

The three-year-old Lurcher cross had been residing at the Charity’s rehoming centre in Bridgend since November 2016, until he caught the eye of new owner Doctor Nia Bowen who had seen the appeal online to get him a home.

 

Nia said: “We had recently lost our dogs so we weren’t necessarily looking to get another one straightaway. But when we saw Bowie’s photo online calling for people to give him a home, we fell in love instantly. He is a brilliant, bouncy boy, with a real zest for life and we’re so pleased to be able to give him a happy home.”

 

Angela Wetherall, Rehoming Centre Manager at Dogs Trust Bridgend comments:

“We are so pleased that Bowie has found the forever home he deserves. He was quite the celebrity at the centre with staff and we’re so pleased that the appeals to get him a home were seen and heard.  We are very grateful for the media attention and to David Bowie’s son for tweeting about this lovely dog. He’s a little star and we know he’ll be very happy with his new owners.”

 

If you would like to rehome a dog, contact Dogs Trust Bridgend on 0300 303 0292.

 

Dogs Trust is working towards the day when all dogs can enjoy a happy life, free from the threat of unnecessary destruction.  Dogs Trust is the UK’s largest dog welfare charity and cares for nearly 17,000 dogs each year through its network of 20 Rehoming Centres across the UK and one in Dublin. www.dogstrust.org.uk

 

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“I know all the best ways to break out of here…”

 

For those of you that don’t subscribe to the David Bowie newsletter, you may have missed that following the release of last year’s acclaimed ‘Who Can I Be Now? 1974-1976’ box set, break outs of five selected albums from the set as stand-alone releases will be released on February 10 and are now available for pre-order:

 

Diamond Dogs

David Live (2005 mix)

Young Americans

Station To Station

Live Nassau Coliseum ’76

 

 

#WCIBNBox  #WCIBNBreakouts  #WhoCanIBeNowBox  #BowieVinyl

 

“There’ll be others on the line filing past, who’ll whisper Low”

 

Among the various celebrations of Low’s 40th birthday was a sweet piece by Moby on billboard, well worth a look for those that missed it.

 

Here’s a bit from the intro…

 

Forty years ago today, Jan. 14, 1977, David Bowie released Low, one of his several masterpieces and the first album of his “Berlin trilogy.” The heavily electronic, Krautrock-indebted art rock album signaled a new creative period for Bowie. It peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard 200 (a bit of a miracle given how experimental it is), but its impact on the next wave of synth-based and electronic musicians far outstretches its commercial performance.

 

To help contextualize and honor the album’s massive impact, techno legend Moby shared with Billboard his memories of discovering Low, the lesson it taught him, and a few stories about his friendship with the late icon. As told to Joe Lynch.

 

And here’s Moby’s conlusion…

 

Bowie was the patron saint of every new wave artist. Every person who bought a synthesizer was obsessed with David Bowie — Depeche Mode, New Order. The bands who helped birth electronic music, deep down, wanted to be David Bowie.

 

Read the full thing over on billboard.

 

 

#BowieLow  #BowieMoby  #Bowiebillboard 

 

“It’s love back to front on two sides”

 

January 14 1977 saw the release of the first instalment of what came to be known as Bowie’s Berlin trilogy. That album was the Bowie/Visconti produced Low and it was followed later the same year by “Heroes” with the trilogy completed in 1979 by the arrival of Lodger.

 

Most of the music across the three albums wasn’t even recorded in Berlin, the unifying factor actually being Bowie, Visconti and Eno.

 

Much has been written about the brilliance and braveness of the music on Low, and rightly so. It’s probably hard to imagine with the ears of today how absolutely unique the record sounded back in 1977.

 

Apart from the obvious slicing of the album into two distinct sides (reflected better in the original working title of New Music Night And Day), Visconti gifted Low that distinctive drum sound, among other things, via his latest gadget, the Evantide Harmonizer. The Eventide was a machine that Visconti described to Bowie and Eno in a conference call before the sessions, thus: “It fucks with the fabric of time.”

 

Though Low was a record purportedly informed by the likes of Kraftwerk and other German musicians of the time, it actually sounded far more organic and not at all mechanised.

 

This was in no small measure due to the nucleus of the band Bowie had favoured during this whole period (starting with Station To Station), of Carlos Alomar (guitar), Dennis Davis (drums) and George Murray (bass).

 

Despite a very mixed press reaction to Low, the album was a commercial success, peaking at #2 on the UK Albums Chart and #11 on the US Billboard Pop Albums chart. “Sound and Vision” and “Be My Wife” were released as singles; the former reaching #3 on the UK Singles Chart.

 

More recently, the album was also voted #1 on Pitchfork.com’s “Top 100 Albums of the 1970s”. 

 

If you’ve not heard Low, go listen now and prepare to be transported by its gloriously uplifting melancholia and majestic musical language from a time and place that has yet to arrive.

 

Low sounds as fresh today as it ever did…thirty nine minutes of untouchable genius.

 

 

#BowieLow

 

“Battle For BRITs”

 

We’re very pleased to announce that David Bowie has received two nominations for this year’s BRIT Awards.

 

He is nominated for both British Male Solo Artist and Mastercard British Album Of The Year for ★.

 

BRITISH MALE SOLO ARTIST

Craig David

David Bowie

Kano

Michael Kiwanuka

Skepta

 

MASTERCARD BRITISH ALBUM OF THE YEAR

The 1975 – i like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it

David Bowie – Blackstar

Kano – Made In The Manor

Michael Kiwanuka – Love & Hate

Skepta – Konnichiwa

 

Bowie won the best male category in 1984 and also went on to receive an “outstanding contribution” award in 1996.

 

He won British Male Solo Artist in 2014, for which Kate Moss collected the statuette, while also delivering a particularly memorable message from Bowie.

 

In 2016, following moving spoken word tributes from singer Annie Lennox and actor Gary Oldman, Oldman accepted the BRITs Icon Award on Bowie’s behalf. Lorde then joined David Bowie’s touring band for a beautiful and heartfelt rendition of Life On Mars? 

 

The BRIT Awards 2017 take place at London’s O2 Arena on 22 February and will be broadcast live on ITV.

 

You can see all the nominations here.

 

 

#BRITs  #BRITs2017  #BowieBRITs  #Blackstar  #BlackstarAlbum