Month: April 2001

I’m stuck with a valuable friend…

George Underwood’s official website is now up and running. You all know George through his association with David, via paintings, album sleeves and anecdotes of their time together as friends since childhood. Apart from the stuff you would expect to see, this site shows another side of George through a short biography, and part one of a brand new interview conducted by Kevin Cann, from which follows a couple of lines about the painting from The Man Who Fell To Earth below:

A lot of your most recent work is in oils, have you always worked in this medium?
“No, I started painting in oils around 1972 (see Tryptych under ‘paintings’ page 4) but my first oil painting for a job was The Man Who Fell To Earth book jacket.”

A painting you featured in your solo About Face exhibition a few years back…
Yes, it’s one of my favourites of David, and David now owns it. He loaned it back to me for the show.

Keep your eye on the site for part two of this interview, and while you’re there check out some of George’s other work. If you aren’t already familiar with it, it truly is magnificent stuff and it also makes the failure of Calvin James’ career in music seem not such a bad thing. After all, had Calvin been successful, George may never have had the urge to pick up his brushes quite so frequently. If that makes no sense to you whatsoever, check out the interview and all will become as clear as turpentine.

Careful, it’s flat! Don’t fall off the edge…

Are you feelin’ the lerve and the krazy karma fresh off the launch of BowieRadio? Well so are we! We figured, why let it stop there, let’s get the new, enhanced message boards off the ground while we’re at it!

The new message boards allow you to store your own preferences. You can choose between flat or threaded mode and add your automatic signature. You can also select things like the sorting order (oldest posts on top or most recent), whether to sort messages by author, date, karma, replies or subject, and how many messages to view per page. And you can edit your posts for up to 15 minutes after you’ve posted! There should be no disruption to the boards during this launch.

We hope you enjoy them!

All aboard for funtime

Take a look over at I-Iman.com and you will see Iman’s latest diary entry for March 2001. Read about Alex’s first trip to Jamaica and find out about her favourite toy. You can also check out English painter Claire Shenstone’s pencil drawings of David and Iman (David above).

There are some wonderful new photographs of Alex, which you will see if you click on the small pictures in the diary. (All together girls……”AWWR!!…aint she SWEET!!”)

Enjoy!

:))))

Thanks, Spaceface!

Bowie Radio has officially launched! Hoorah! You can access the radio through the link in the Mutations box on the home page, or simply click here to listen!

BOWIENET MEMBERS ONLY
For information on becoming a member
click here.

Enjoy!!!

Check out the links below to read some of the press coverage the launch has received:

Billboard

Yahoo!

JamMusic

Spin

Don’t think we had a wrong answer on this one. But I guess it was pretty easy wasn’t it. We asked you ( 04/02/01 NEWS: WIN A SIGNED COPY OF BLOOD AND GLITTER ) to tell us when and where the shot of a young Ziggy we posted was taken, and what significance the photograph had? The answer being that the picture was taken backstage, before a show at Birmingham Town Hall, in February 1972 and it was the first or second frame Mick ever shot of David.

We also asked you the name of the first band that Mick Rock photographed, and in which year the session took place? To which you all correctly answered, The Pretty Things in 1969. Well done to the ten winners who were picked by TRS. Go here to see if you are one of them.

BOWIENET MEMBERS ONLY
For information on becoming a member
click here.

By the time you read this Mick will no doubt be suffering from RSI of the wrist (no, don’t be rude), from signing many thousands of books at Tower Records in London. If you didn’t make it along, then you still have a chance to get a scribble in your copy of ‘Blood and Glitter’ if you pop along to the Oxford Street branch of Borders in London at 6:30pm (GMT) tomorrow (Friday 6th April) where Mick will probably be using his other hand.

As you can’t have failed to notice, today is the official opening of the ‘Blood and Glitter’ exhibition at the Proud Galleries, 5 Buckingham Street, London WC2N 6BP. The exhibition runs for a month until May 6th (open daily between 10:00am and 7:00pm) and any one of approximately two million people at last night’s preview will tell you how good the exhibition is, not least of all Cilla Black (above) who was reportedly blown away by the great big Bowie pictured with Mick Rock, below.

*Get it? Mick Rock picture taken in Birmingham? Black Country Rock? Oh, don’t worry…

New angels of promise

Okay, it’s time to get our experimental Helping Hands program off the ground. Please keep in mind that this is a new idea we have decided to try based on your feedback. As we move forward, we might add or remove roles as the need arises, or possibly drop the whole program altogether. It really depends on how things unfold.

The response to the announcement was overwhelming! To make sure everyone who is interested has an opportunity to try this, we will rotate these positions every three months. If you applied but were not selected, please don’t take it personally! Everyone who responded was very qualified and enthusiastic, so these selections were largely based on chance. Plus you’ll have another shot at it in July!

On with it, then! Our first round of Helping Hands are:

U.S. Calendar Cat – jamesfranco

European Calendar Cat – chris.lequellec

Calendar Cats will keep an eye out for Bowie related events (such as TV shows, radio programs, etc.) that are ommitted in the Bowie Calendar and submit their finds via e-mail.

U.S. News Nanny – pozie

European News Nanny – susans

News Nannies will act as assistants to BowieNet News Correspondents by checking links, doing research, looking for news, etc.

Gallery Gurus – Riabear and Collingould

Gallery Gurus will help keep the Gallery free from duplicate postings, point out broken links we might have missed and also help to catch any unwanted postings that fell through the cracks like work that is not original (for example, cartoons that are scanned or copied from outside sources do not belong in the Gallery).

Thanks again to everyone who applied, and we encourage you to submit your thoughts about this experimental idea as we move forward. If you have any questions or comments, you can e-mail da Saint!

People who have been selected for this first round should please check their e-mail for further details.

Mick Rock and sculptor, Andrew ‘Alternative Miss World’ Logan, at the ‘Blood and Glitter’ launch party on Wednesday night. Picture by Total Blam Blam.

What’s Rock doing?*

OK, this is the last bit about ‘Blood and Glitter’ this week, unless we get something for tomorrow. Sort of losing track of Mick’s appearances here, so busy has he been. Today’s Times has a piece, as did Wednesday’s Evening Standard, and as will tomorrow’s Express. The May issue of Mojo is planning some sort of supplement as far as I can tell, and expect bits dotted around other magazines, particularly London listings magazines, all, I’m sure, will have some sort of Bowie content.

Mick has done a few radio interviews over the last few days, and also a web chat with cheeky chappy Jules Holland yesterday. More radio is scheduled for tomorrow on LBC and on Monday the studios of Capital Gold will be graced with Mr Rock’s presence.

*Yeah, I know it’s a quote from an Iggy lyric…get outta here!

Total Blam Blam (European Correspondent)

we can beat them, for ever and ever

At the opening ceremony for Sunday’s Harrah’s 500 at Fort Worth in Texas, tribute was paid to the seven-time champion, Dale Earnhardt, who was killed in a crash at Daytona in the opening race of the season, reports The New York Times online.

“An Air Force F-117 Stealth fighter flew over twice at the end of the ceremony, as David Bowie’s song “Heroes” played. A special flag — based on Texas’ state flag and bearing Earnhardt’s trademark No. 3 on a black field instead of the Lone Star on blue — flew above Victory Lane throughout the race.”

:))

Thanks, Spaceface!

Test all

I’m on a radio show….

BowieRadio launched today! Yahoo! You can access the radio through the link on the Mutations box on the homepage, plus we’ll mark the occasion with a handy dandy link right here!

Here are some press snippets about BowieRadio:

Billboard

Yahoo!

JamMusic

Spin

More BowieNet goodies to come in the days ahead, including enhanced message boards and a brand new public site! Thanks again to all the BNutters who helped test the radio – got more comments / suggestions about it? Send ’em to Saint Alphonzo!