Month: May 2001

Join Saint Alphonzo in the BowieNet Chat Room on Wednesday, May 23rd at 5PM EST for another round of David Bowie Trivia! Test your knowledge, win prizes and have a laugh. Hope to see you there!

Reporting in the San Francisco Chronicleon Saturday, Ryan Downey waxes lyrical on David’s patronage of Placebo, and his influence on their sound.

“Few pop bands have had iconic patrons such as David Bowie. But then, not many bands sound as instantly catchy and credible as England’s abrasive yet accessible Placebo. When the band’s third album, Black Market Music (Virgin), was released recently in the United States, American listeners got a special treat: a reworking of “Without You I’m Nothing,” the last album’s title track with David Bowie sharing the vocals.

Bowie is actually an obvious kindred spirit for the trio; there’s a clear line of evolution between his groundbreaking career to Placebo’s current image and sound. The band owes its syrupy and often-contemplative pop sound to Bowie, as well as Lou Reed and the Sex Pistols.”

As he points out, the USA version of Black Market Music has the excellent collaboration between David and Placebo, Without You I’m Nothing, as a bonus track.

Placebo’s tour of America continues, with these dates remaining. Catch em if you can…

5.15 Los Angeles, CA – Palace
5.17 Mexico City, MX – Teatro Metropolitan
5.19 Dallas, TX – Trees, Dallas
5.20 New Orleans, LA – House of Blues
5.22 Atlanta, GA – Roxy Theatre
5.24 Washington, DC – 9:30 Club
5.25 Philadelphia, PA – Theater of Living Arts
5.26 Boston, MA – Paradise Rock Club
5.29 New York, NY – Irving Plaza

Just gonna have to be a different man…

Had a few e-mails congratulating me on my new role as producer for some of the tracks on the Moulin Rouge soundtrack, which was released yesterday in the UK and last week in the US. Several of the tracks on the album, including David’s solo version of ‘Nature Boy’, (how good is his vocal on that…wow!) have a production credit to BLAM!

While I have no problem with royalty cheques heading my way, I have to admit that the BLAM credited on the soundtrack and the Blam writing this are, unfortunately, not one and the same. 🙁

Please don’t let this terrible revelation spoil your listening enjoyment of this fine recording…it really is a fantastic piece of work, and probably wouldn’t have been much better had I been behind the desk. };-)

DAVID BOWIE! The popular Saturday night UK TV show, Stars In Their Eyes, in which the contestants impersonate their favourite singer, had a special something for David Bowie fans this week. Tony Perry, from Benfleet in Essex, was one of five contestants for a place in the grand final this summer.

The host, Matthew Kelly, introduced Tony with these words about David :-

“Its fair to say our next star changed Rock ‘n’ Roll forever and changed himself in the process.”

Tony had his own business, but now stays at home and looks after his children and the house, while his wife works as a teacher. Matthew Kelly asked him about his life :-

MK : “It can’t be easy to be a house-husband – but I know for you there was a defining moment”.

TP : “I think it finally hit home when I found myself sewing up a peg bag and enjoying it. It was a floral one as well!. The reason I chose the person I’m going to be tonight is because he’s got a smashing haircut.”

Tony sang Ashes To Ashes, wearing a copy of David’s outfit for The Brit Awards 1996, complete with stillettos and earing. He was voted best of the night and won a place in the final later this year, when the general public can vote as well as the studio audience. Well done, Tony, and best of luck next time! (Anyone for a peg bag? – form an orderly queue after me 😉

:))

Pictures of Lily made my life so wonderful…

Last week (05/09/01 NEWS: WIN PICTURES OF LILY PROMO CD) we posed the question: “who produced David’s version of Pictures Of Lily” that appears on the upcoming ‘Substitute‘ album? Well, the good news is that if you look to BowieNet for accurate information at times like this, then you are in with a greater chance of being one of the lucky five winners of the above four-track promo.

A few misguided souls that were misinformed elsewhere did answer Tony Visconti, but the majority of you were smart enough to check out the pop-up on the competition page that contained the winning combination of David Bowie and Mark Plati, who did actually produce the track. The five BowieNet members that TRS did randomly select were:

bjossilu@davidbowie.com
perrottg@davidbowie.com
msimmo@davidbowie.co.uk
horstschickedanz@davidbowie.com
traveler@davidbowie.com

But then in an uncharacteristic malfunction, TRS spat out a further two names, which I guess we’ll just have to honour:

aztecflesh@davidbowie.com
raisin13@davidbowie.com

So if the seven of you could please send your real world names and addresses to MrTotalBlamBlam@AOL.Com, Post Mistress Nanny Susans will service you immediately in a way that only she can.

Have a wonderful stress free Sunday

I love you, mum!

Alex (and daddy)

The Italian Bowie fanclub site Velvet Goldmine is sponsoring another Bowie night. 2001: A Bowie Odissey, is on Saturday, May 26th, 10 pm, at MAGO DI OZ, Via Senofane 119 (in front of the drive-in), Casalpalocco, Rome.

Special live guests will be the coverband Mr.Ziggy and The Glass Spiders. The music on the dance floor will be ?only Bowie? and the party will last all night.

For more information, email velvetgoldmine.

:))

…when somebody wants something you want too

Record Collector magazine (May 2001) has this month published its yearly reader poll of the top 500 most collectable artists. David Bowie has improved on last year’s position by two places, now putting him at four in this new list. Here’s what they had to say about our man…even if they’re not quite sure what year it is:

“Bowie has had a stunning year, reflected in his rise into our top 5. He became a father again, played a triumphant Glastonbury, voted the Most Influential Artist Of All Time by the NME, saw his BBC sessions released and is currently in the process of recording a new album with Tony Visconti.”

Here’s the full top ten with last year’s positions in brackets:

1 (1) The Beatles
2 (2) The Rolling Stones
3 (4) Elvis Presley
4 (6) David Bowie
5 (9) Pink Floyd
6 (8) Bob Dylan
7 (3) Queen
8 (7) Led Zeppelin
9 (5) The Who
10 (18) The Beach Boys

So hang onto that signed Roseland poster it just might be your pension fund…as if you would ever sell!

If you want to see the other 489 placings between The Beach Boys and Magnum, I’m afraid you’ll have to buy the magazine. This issue also has a superb Grandaddy discography (even though, in my anal way, I have noticed a few mistakes) and if anybody can sort me out with a 7″ vinyl single of ‘Taster’ I will marry them. };-)

Last night’s chat with Sterling was a blast – an hour and a half of goods & giggles with Mr. Backbeat himself! Sterling talks about everything from working with David to how he first met Dennis Davis to fun with peanut butter. Just go to the BowieNet Chat page or click here to read the transcript!

Do you remember a guy that’s been, in such an early song?

A postscript to the Record Collector piece I posted yesterday, and specifically the Grandaddy discography, is the mention of similarities in concept between David Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’ and Grandaddy’s ‘He’s Simple, He’s Dumb, He’s The Pilot’. I have to admit that this isn’t the first time this has been pointed out to me. Here’s what the magazine said:

“…Eight seconds short of nine minutes, the track’s structure and subject matter is, presumably, the basis for descriptions of Grandaddy as “the American Radiohead”, and has also drawn comparison with Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’. On the track, Lytle imagines a pilot – “2000 man” – adrift without maps and plans, apparently presenting an allegory of the vague sense of loss, misplacement and anti-climax that many people found came with the new millennium. I wonder where the band’s recurrent use of space imagery comes from? “I don’t know,” admits Fairchild.”

This theme isn’t new to Grandaddy. ‘Everything Beautiful Is Far Away’ from ‘Under The Western Freeway’ deals with a stranded shuttle pilot, doomed to spend the remainder of his life in a cave on a non-specific planet, with faded photographs of his loved ones back on Earth as the only reminder of the place from whence he came.

“Planet Earth is blue, and there’s nothing I can do”…Beautiful.