Month: June 2017

 

“You remind me of the babe”

 

David Bowie and Trevor Jones’ soundtrack album to Jim Henson’s enduring fantasy classic, Labyrinth, has long been out of print. Indeed, original UK pressings of the vinyl LP (which didn’t even include the inner sleeve found in other territories), sell for around fifty pounds secondhand, and have sold for as much as £120 (GBP).

 

But now help is at hand in the shape of limited edition green and lavender vinyl editions, due to be released on August 4 via Ume. Limited to 1500 copies of each worldwide, the special coloured vinyl variants are available exclusively for pre-order at UDiscover.

 

This edition of Labyrinth was remastered at Capitol Studios and includes the faithfully replicated original jacket and artwork, including the EMI America logo and the printed inner sleeve featuring photos of Bowie from the film.

 

Praised by film critics and moviegoers alike for its astonishing imagery and distinct characters, Labyrinth has been celebrated for being wildly ahead of its time. Directed by Jim Henson and executive produced by George Lucas, the film, which stars David Bowie as Jareth, The Goblin King, is full of memorable creatures brought to life by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop™, working closely with acclaimed artist and conceptual designer Brian Froud.

 

In a 1986 interview with Movieline, Bowie recalled his first meeting with Henson to discuss the film: “Jim Henson set up a meeting with me while I was doing my 1983 tour in the States, and he outlined the basic concept for Labyrinth and showed me some of Brian Froud’s artwork. I’d always wanted to be involved in the music-writing aspect of a movie that would appeal to children of all ages, as well as everyone else, and I must say that Jim gave me a completely free hand with it. The script itself was terribly amusing without being vicious or spiteful or bloody, and it also had a lot more heart than many other special effects movies. So I was pretty well hooked from the beginning.”

 

Described by The Atlantic as “101 minutes of Bowie rock opera and Hensonian spectacle,” Labyrinth was the second major soundtrack that Bowie worked on, falling between his studio albums, Tonight and Never Let Me Down. He wrote and recorded five original songs for the film, including “Underground,” “As The World Falls Down” and “Magic Dance” with its famous, oft-repeated opening: “You remind me of the babe/What babe? The babe with the power/What power? The power of voodoo/Who do? You do/Do what? Remind me of the babe.”

 

Those opening lines, spoken rather than sung, are a direct homage by Bowie to a classic comedic exchange from the 1947 (Bowie’s birth year) movie The Bachelor And The Bobby-Soxers. In that film, older man Richard Nugent (Carry Grant) and admiring teenager Susan Turner (Shirley Temple) have the exact same exchange, except Bowie replaced the word man with babe and hoodoo with voodoo. And why not?

 

All songs were performed by Bowie except “Chilly Down” which was sung by Charles Augins, Richard Bodkin, Kevin Clash, and Danny John-Jules, the actors who voiced the ‘Firey’ creatures in the film. In the aforementioned interview with Movieline around the film and soundtrack’s release, Bowie revealed an obstacle he encountered while recording. “With ‘Dance Magic’ – the song for Jareth and the baby, sung by them and the goblins in the castle throne room – I had problems,” Bowie explained. “The baby I used in the recording studios couldn’t, or wouldn’t, put more than two gurgles together, so I ended up doing the baby-gurgle chorus myself! It’s an up-tempo song, and visually exciting.”

 

The 12-track soundtrack is rounded out with Trevor Jones’ memorable score. The synth-based instrumentals, described by All Music Guide as “synthesizers blended cautiously into orchestral ensembles to provide a suitably ethereal tone,” represent pivotal moments from the film and include “Into the Labyrinth,” “Sarah” “Hallucination,” “The Goblin Battle,” “Thirteen O’Clock” and “Home at Last.” Jones and Henson previously worked together on the live action fantasy classic, “The Dark Crystal.”

 

Labyrinth celebrated its 30th anniversary last year and the film and soundtrack have only grown in popularity since its release on June 27, 1986. Last year, a newly restored 4K version of the movie was released back in theaters with a limited engagement theatrical run in the United States giving fans the opportunity to see it back on the big screen. On September 20th, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the film on Blu-ray, next-generation 4K Ultra HD™, and as a multi-format 30th Anniversary Collector’s Edition complete with unique “mirrorbox” packaging that included a mini replica of the film’s climactic and iconic final scene. All versions include a host of all-new bonus content and a gorgeous 24-page Digibook filled with rare photos and a look behind the scenes.

 

LABYRINTH OST TRACK LISTING

 

SIDE 1

1. Opening Titles Including Underground

2. Into The Labyrinth

3. Magic Dance

4. Sarah

5. Chilly Down

6. Hallucination

 

SIDE 2

1. As The World Falls Down

2. The Goblin Battle

3. Within You

4. Thirteen O’Clock

5. Home At Last

6. Underground

 

 

#Labyrinth  #LabyrinthTheMovie  #Jareth  #LabyrinthBowie  #JarethBowie

 

“Fill your heart with love today”

 

As if you didn’t already know about them, here’s a round-up of three releases issued by Parlophone today, on this day of the 45th anniversary of The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars album release, and the eve of the 40th anniversary of the Be My Wife 45.

 

 

Cracked Actor 2 x CD

 

Be My Wife picture disc

 

Ziggy Stardust Gold Vinyl

 

 

#CrackedActor  #DBCA74  #ZiggyStardust45  #DBBMW40  #BowieVinyl

 

“We’ve got forty five years, what a surprise”

 

As previously mentioned, David Bowie’s 1972 classic album, The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, was released on June 16th 1972.

 

In the unlikely event that you’ve not heard this timeless recording, you’ve possibly come to the wrong page. Either way, go listen here on Spotify, but please bear in mind that this LP is “TO BE PLAYED AT MAXIMUM VOLUME” by order of Ziggy Stardust himself!

 

 

#ZiggyStardust45  #ZiggyStardust  #BowieVinyl

 

“Passionate bright young thing…”

 

The August 2017 issue of Uncut magazine has an 11-page cover feature in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Bowie’s Deram debut.

 

Here’s a bit from John Mulvey’s monthly introduction to the new issue…

 

 

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History is rarely as neat as we hope it to be, especially when sitting down to write a blog about the brand new edition of Uncut (out on Thursday in the UK, though subscribers should hopefully see their issues a bit before that).

 

Popular myth insists that David Bowie’s debut album sneaked out on the same day as “Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” – June 1, 1967 – when in fact the Beatles’ opus had been rush-released a few days ahead of that official launch date. The timelag did not materially help “David Bowie”’s sales figures, of course. That album, along with many more of the bold schemes and fleeting projects hatched by Bowie in the run-up to “Space Oddity”, have long been dismissed as juvenilia, from a time when the singer was supposedly more of a camp follower than fearless innovator. Every Beatles song can be seen to have had its own cultural impact; there are few who would argue the enduring significance of, say, “Please Mr Gravedigger”.

 

Nevertheless, the music that Bowie made in the ‘60s critically influenced one superstar in the making: David Bowie himself. Our cover story this month revisits those years to uncover the invention of David Bowie as we know him, with Michael Bonner conducting deep new interviews with an extensive circle of Bowie’s early court: Mary Finnigan, Keith Christmas, George Underwood, Hermione Farthingale, Phil May, John ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson, Alan Mair, Lindsay Kemp, Ray Stevenson, Herbie Flowers, Rick Wakeman and John Cambridge. “Everything David did in the ‘60s lead up to the ‘70s,” Farthingale, Bowie’s former girlfriend, tells us. “Everything was an experimental part of that learning curve.”

 

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In a separate piece, albeit germane to the theme of the main feature, Mark Plati discusses the creation of Toy, the unreleased album which revisited the period.

 

Go here for more detail regarding this particular issue.

 

 

#BowieUNCUT  #DavidBowieDeram  #DavidBowieDebut  #DavidBowie1967  

 

“All things must pass”

 

David Bowie’s Heathen album was released 15 years ago this week in 2002. (June 10 UK/June 11 US)

 

In celebration of that fact, Bowie played a BowieNet only show at The Roseland in NYC on the day of the album’s US release. Not only did he play Heathen from start to finish, but he also performed Low in its entirety.

 

This was considered a bit of a warm up show for the headline performance at David Bowie’s Meltdown Festival on June 29th, even if it felt so much more than a warm up, as those who were there will attest.

 

Bowie’s Meltdown actually kicked off properly on this day, in 2002, when the London Sinfonietta performed Philip Glass’s Low and “Heroes” Symphonies (from the music of David Bowie and Brian Eno) at the Royal Festival Hall on London’s Southbank.

 

The advertising campaign for Heathen utilised the legend: CLASSIC DAVID BOWIE CIRCA 2002.

 

Remind yourself of just how accurate that statement is here.

 

Stay tuned for some of Total Blam Blam’s photographs from Roseland and Meltdown.

 

 

#Bowie2002  #BowieHeathen  #BowieRoseland2002  #BowieRFH2002

 

“Well I might take a train”

 

As we told you last month, a signed-by-David Bowie collection of Geoff MacCormack’s beautiful Bowie photographs are to be offered as part of Bonhams’ Entertainment Memorabilia sale on June 28th.

 

The images will be on view at Bonhams Knightsbridge saleroom from June 25th till the sale on the 28th, accompanied by a never-before-seen film of Geoff and David’s journey from Japan to Moscow (for the ‘May Day Parade’), shot by Bowie himself and seen through his eyes, interspersed with MacCormack’s photographs. Called: ‘The Long Way Home, a film by David Bowie’, the short will be screened exclusively at the sale preview in Knightsbridge.

 

Viewing at Bonhams Knightsbridge:

 

Sunday 25th June 11am – 3pm

Monday 26th June 9am – 4:30pm

Tuesday 27th June 9am – 4:30pm

Wednesday 28th June 9am – 10am

 

“That’s all well and good,” you might say, “But what’s with the turquoise fabric with gold thread piping, Turkish-style shoes in the montage?”

 

Well, that’s the actual footwear worn by Bowie’s Screaming Lord Byron character during his performance of ‘Blue Jean’ in the Julien Temple directed 20-minute film, Jazzin’ For Blue Jean.

 

And the shoes are just one of the lots in a whole bunch of exciting auction items up for grabs in the same Entertainment Memorabilia sale.

 

Go here to download a PDF of the catalogue.

 

The auction lots of interest are on pages 34 & 35, and then there’s Geoff’s four pages from 36 to 39, and you might want to check out pages 65 and 80 too.

 

 

#TheLongWayHome  #GeoffMacBowie  #BowieSothebys  

 

On the 25th anniversary of David Bowie and Iman’s official church wedding at Saint James Episcopal Church, in Florence, Italy in 1992, Iman paid a moving online tribute to David today:

 

“I would walk forever, just to be in your arms again“ – IMAN

 

#BowieForever

 

“Hey babe, your hair’s alright”

 

UNCUT magazine in the UK has an exclusive first play of Rebel Rebel from the upcoming CD and download of David Bowie Cracked Actor – Live Los Angeles ’74.

 

So we’ve grabbed the opportunity to use another of Terry O’Neill’s superb shots from the show, courtesy of Iconic Images.

 

Fans of a certain vintage may remember an A2 version of this exact image in a poster magazine published in 1975. For those outside of North America who never got to see these concerts, it really was images like this that fed Bowie fans, hungry for more news of their man. Not to mention something to take to the hairdresser for instructions on how to create the latest copydog hairdo.

 

The CD will be released via Parlophone on June 16th. Read more here.

 

View more images from the Bowie By O’Neill book here.

 

 

#CrackedActor  #DBCA74  #BowieUNCUT  #BOWIEbyONEILL  

 

“Did you ever have a Deram?”

 

David Bowie released his first album this day in 1967, albeit lacking the fanfare of The Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper, purportedly released on the same day. In fact Pepper was released sometime earlier. But that’s for Beatles’ buffs to explain.

 

In celebration of this birthday we’ve got regular contributor (the Isle Of Wight’s very own Patrick Moore), Andy Barding, to write about the album. Andy was born on the very day of the release of Bowie’s debut single, Liza Jane, so it seems fitting for him to talk about the debut album, a record he loves.

 

You may know Mr Barding’s writing from the fine publications produced by Cygnet Committee. Over to you Andy…

 

 

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CDs mean little to me, downloads even less. Vinyl reissues? Love some, dislike others.

 

But my original David Bowie LPs, even the blatantly battle-scarred and battered ones, take pride of place on my record shelf. I have a full set, arranged chronologically to span a five-decade timeline from Blackstar on the far right to today’s birthday boy – the first ‘David Bowie’ LP on Deram – on the left.

 

That debut was released 50 years ago, today. And, boy, is my personal copy showing its age! It’s the 1967 UK mono pressing on the usually progressive Deram label which graces my shelf. I say ‘usually progressive’, since the LP released immediately before David’s debut was a collection of big band swing covers (Tuxedo Junction, Take The ‘A’ Train, etc etc) entitled ‘Oscillate ’67!’, while the one which followed was easy listening maestro Les Reed’s orchestral take on the likes of Banana Boat Song and Spanish Harlem. I suppose you could say David with his first LP (catalogued DML 1007) was already getting used to standing out from his crowd.

 

I obtained my copy in a sweet deal negotiated over the counter of the now sadly-gone JB’s records in Hanway Street, London. It was a poignant place to find it, being just around the corner from where David used to park his band’s converted ambulance, and close to the (also long-gone) Robin Hood pub where David would sometimes hold fort with his sixties mod and beat cohorts: the London boys.

 

The LP which would become mine was in a PVC hanger stuck to the wall when I first clapped eyes on it. It had a £100 price tag (this was some years ago), which was well out of my spending range at the time. But while lacking the cash, I DID have a spare copy of Bowie’s ‘Can’t Help Thinking About Me’ single on Pye Records. A rare and original 1966 disc which I’d been able to snap up for a bargainous £30 a few weeks before. I offered it up as part-ex… and was delighted to be offered full-ex: a straight swap. And with that exchange, the Deram album was taken down from the wall, slipped into a bag and pressed into my gleeful hands. A copy was finally mine.

 

I’m looking at it and playing it now. It’s an ex-BBC Gramophone Library copy, and the faded purple BBC ink stamps are still visible on the back cover and labels. The sleeve has numerous little nicks and creases, and a brownish hue on the back – a legacy, maybe, of decades of being handed around BBC DJs at the smoky old Broadcasting House… not that it received a tremendous amount of airplay at the time!

 

It plays with plenty of crackle – each pop and rattle presumably imbued with some kind of story. None of these are my stories, of course, since I have only owned it for a trifling 20 or so years. But secondhand character is better than no character at all, and I massively prefer my ragged and bashed-up UK LP to the mint condition American copies I had owned before. Those might have been in impeccable shape, but that’s for a reason – they were warehouse finds or unsold stock… never owned, loved or abused by anybody. My UK copy has obviously lived a full, secret life. It looks like it has partied hard…

 

Looking and listening back today, I’m struck by a few (five) trivial thoughts:

 

1) That cover pic! Serious-looking David, trend-setting to the max in his military jacket, Mod as you like with his shortish hair-do and dry, chapped lips (looks to me like an indicator of a London Boy-style existence), and NOT SMILING. The very antithesis of some of the jaunty, Newley-esque ditties to be found in the record’s grooves.

 

2) Kenneth Pitt’s cover notes! Isn’t it fantastic how David’s then-manager shaves a year from his golden boy’s age, declaring him to be 19 instead of 20? Like 20 is SO old.

 

3) The songs! They really are quite brilliant… in places. Fantastic little vignettes and stories. ‘She’s Got Medals’, ‘Uncle Arthur’ and ‘Love You Till Tuesday’ are charming as you like.

 

4) The songs (again)! ‘Silly Boy Blue’ and ‘When I Live My Dream’ have to be counted among the best of Bowie’s work.

 

and 5) The sneeze! It’s easy to forget how utterly brilliant an idea it was to break up the murderous semi-spoken tale ‘Please, Mr Gravedigger’ with a mock-impromptu sneezing sound effect. That’s genius, right there.

 

So there we go. David’s career as an album artist is fifty years old today. And while it’s often overshadowed by the incredible Bowie albums which followed it, there’ is still no reason to dismiss DML 1007 out of hand.

 

It’s a sweet, occasionally brilliant little oddity – and it sounds great. And, without this first stab at album artistry, well, there might have been no David Bowie. I’m glad I gave it a timely revisit, today.

 

Happy birthday, ‘David Bowie’!

 

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Thanks Andy, great stuff.

 

If that wasn’t a long enough piece for you, dear reader, try this excellent article on the same subject by Pete Paphides over on The Quietus.

 

FOOTNOTE: Our montage shows that original MONO copy of the album, complete with BBC Library stamp, the original Deram press release and the impossibly rare US 8-track cartridge…surely the rarest of all versions of this album.

 

Scroll/swipe image for aforementioned Ken Pitt sleeve notes.

 

 

#DavidBowieDeram  #DavidBowieDebut  #DavidBowie1967  #BowieCygnetCommittee