Bowie Mash-up For New Single?

Rebel where d’ya wanna go?

Many of you have already seen a TV spot for Audi directed by Lance Acord of Park Pictures, which premiered on American TV recently. McKinney + Silver’s Audi campaign features a series of visuals following the technological progression of objects including a wheel and a headlight.

Earlier this week ads for the campaign started to appear in print too, with the depiction of a wooden wheel, a bicycle wheel, an antique car wheel and finally an Audi wheel, illustrated by the legend: “Move forward. Go where no one else has gone before, with road-gripping quattro all-wheel drive.”

Another ad shows the moon, a candle, a light bulb and Audi’s speed-sensitive headlights that “pivot when you steer.” The TV spot depicts a similar series of four images… all using the tagline, “Never follow.”

“Move forward. Go where no one else has gone before…” and “Never follow.” Who better to illustrate those notions than David Bowie? The musical soundtrack for the TV ad, created by Endless Noise, continues the theme of progression. It starts out as an acoustic version of Rebel Rebel, which then morphs into the rock version of the song, which in turn segues in to Never Get Old.

Moving on from the ideas suggested by the Audi campaign, is the creation of a Bowie ‘mash-up’ called Rebel Never Gets Old. Created by Mark Vidler of Go Home Productions, the track combines Rebel Rebel with Never Get Old to magnificent effect. David himself has made no secret of his love for mash-ups, and indeed, he championed the work of the mash-up duo, 2manydjs, absolutely zonks ago.

Neither is Mark Vidler a stranger to the music of David Bowie. He created a Bowie mash-up called David X almost a year ago for the May 2003 XFM Remix Superchunk, where he combined Let’s Dance with the vocals of the Liberty X track Got To Have Your Love …Not sure how legal the whole thing was, but you can listen to it here, as long as you don’t say we sent you! He also worked on a thing called Jacko Under Pressure (combining Michael Jackson‘s Rock With You with Queen and David Bowie’s Under Pressure) which received national radio play here in the UK.

Here’s a short Q&A I did with Mark today (small world… he lives three miles down the road from me) where he mentions other Bowie mash-ups he’s worked on.

What was your very first Bowie-related mash-up?

The first mash-up that I used a David Bowie track in was “David X”, which used “Let’s Dance” as the backing and Liberty X’s “Got To Have Your Love” acapella. This was used within a 30 minute ‘superchunk’ mix for XFM’s The Remix show back in May 2003.

What other Bowie mash-ups have you worked on since then?

Around July 2003 I was approached by EMI / Virgin to produce two tracks for a Bowie ‘mash-up’ / ‘remix’ project. “I’m Afraid Of Making Plans For Americans” was a mixture of Bowie’s ‘I’m Afraid of Americans’ and XTC’s ‘Making Plans For Nigel’ and I also supplied a remix of ‘Fame’.

In November I put together a track called ‘Jacko Under Pressure’ which blends Queen & Bowie’s “Under Pressure” with Michael Jackson’s ‘Rock With You’ and must admit that it caused quite a stir as it coincided with Mr Jackon’s arrest. David Bowie’s vocals are the only other vocals left in the mix other than Michael Jackson’s and work really well after the build up of the chorus.

In January I also created a track for inclusion in a longer radio mix, that used vocal elements from David’s ‘Young Americans’, called “Cry Dub”.

How were you approached by the Bowie organisation and what was the trigger for that?

After the initial interest from EMI / Virgin last year, the Bowie organisation requested to hear my Sex Pistols vs Madonna mix ‘Ray Of Gob’ and seemed impressed enough to commission the two tracks that I mention above. I am of the understanding that they were quite ‘familiar’ with my mixes.

Were you already a fan of David’s music particularly?

To be honest I grew up with David Bowie’s music in the seventies and have been an avid fan and admirer of his work since then. I distinctly remember wearing out my uncle’s copy of ‘Low’ in the late seventies, due to my love of ‘Sound And Vision’ and the whole buzz that surrounded ‘Scary Monsters’ whilst getting into buying and collecting records, at that time. ‘Life on Mars’ remains my favourite single and ‘Aladdin Sane’ my favourite Bowie album, although I could quite easily name several.

How do you feel about the possibility of Rebel Never Gets Old receiving a release as a legitimate David Bowie single?

It’s fantastic. Very exciting. I think that being such a fan of David’s work in the first place gives it that ‘special’ meaning for me. It’s great that it is being considered and I think the track is quite unique in it’s own way, in terms of being a single. It may well surprise a few people.

How many mixes have you made for Rebel Never Gets Old?

I have produced three versions. A 3.25 ‘single’ mix that maintains the ‘rock’ feel of both ‘Rebel Rebel’ and ‘Never Get Old’. There is a 7.22 ‘Seventh Heaven Mix’ which adds contemporary ‘dance’ elements but with more of an early eighties guitar ‘edge’ to the production. Finally a 4.17 ‘Seventh Heaven Mix’ edit.

Thanx so much for that Mark…hope your wardrobe came together OK! };-)

Anyway kidz, as you just read above, the good news is that Rebel Never Gets Old is being touted as a possible single release and we’ll be posting one of the versions of it here shortly.

Also, stay tuned to BowieNet to see how you can get involved with creating a Bowie mash-up of your very own, in an exciting new competition we’ll be running in the very near future.