Month: June 2001

Round and round the rumours fly…

The Dorling Kindersley published ‘Writers on Artists’, due later this year, will not include a foreword by David Bowie. Sites that already have the book available for pre-order have illustrated details on the book with what looks like an early proof cover seeming to add weight to the ‘Foreword by David Bowie’ theory, that’s it above.

However, despite the inaccuracy of this claim, there is a Bowie contribution in the book in the form of a piece David wrote for the Spring 1996 edition of Modern Painters. The original article was entitled ‘Basquiat?s Wave’, which was a fine piece on Jean-Michel Basquiat’s ‘stuff’, by the man who played Andy Warhol in the film version of Basquiat?s life story. Just thought you should know.

New York, NY – June 11, 2001 – EMI announce the release of the long awaited David Bowie instrumentals album, All Saints. This extremely special release will available on July 9th.

All Saints, a collection of Bowie?s instrumental tracks from 1977 to 1999 was originally compiled by David in 1993 as a Christmas present for his friends and is highly sought-after by fans. David?s original gift was as a 2-CD set, but for this, its first commercial release, it has been recompiled to a single CD and features brand new artwork, bringing it up to date with the inclusion of ?Brilliant Adventure? from his last studio album, ?hours??.

All tracks have been remastered and three tracks, ?All Saints?, ?Abdulmajid? and ?Crystal Japan? are currently unavailable on any release.

All Saints is a real gem for Bowie fans worldwide.

Track Listing:

A New Career In Town
V-2 Schneider
Abdulmajid
Weeping Wall
All Saints
Art Decade
Crystal Japan
Brilliant Adventure
Sense Of Doubt
Moss Garden
Neukoln
The Mysteries
Ian Fish UK HeirSubterraneans
Warszawa
Some Are

A New Career In Town -The second short instrumental from side 1 of ‘Low’ features a battle between European calculated metronomic synths and a Yankee harmonica.

V-2 Schneider -Probably the best of the instrumentals on ‘Heroes’, this track features an off beat sax, great guitars and military style drumming.

Abdulmajid -A haunting middle eastern flavoured instrumental previously available a a bonus track on the now deleted Ryko/EMI 1991 remaster of ‘Heroes.’

Weeping Wall -A piece inspired by Philip Glass takes on Berlin as it’s subject matter. Bowie plays all of the instruments on this track from ‘Low’ including the vibraphone and xylophone.

All Saints -A short instrumental and title track of this album. Previously available as a bonus track on the now deleted Ryko/EMI 1991 remaster of ‘Low’.

Art Decade -A stark unnerving instrumental from ‘Low’ capturing the ambience and isolation of West Berlin

Crystal Japan -Appeared previously as the b-side to the single ‘Up The Hill Backwards’ and as a bonus track on the Ryko/EMI 1991 remaster of ‘Scary Monsters’. The track was originally recorded for a Japanese Saki advert which featured David himself.

Brilliant Adventure -The most recent track recorded for and featured on David’s 1999 album ‘hours?’.

Sense Of Doubt, Moss Garden and Neukoln – Three tracks that segue into each other on the album ‘Heroes’. ‘Sense Of Doubt’ is a funereal minimalist masterpiece that sounds as disturbing today as when it was recorded. ‘Moss Garden’ has a Japanese flavour and features a Koto, a stringed instrument similar to a guitar. Neukoln, an area in former East Berlin populated in the main by Turkish immigrants, has a Zen quality disturbed by fine guitar work and the lone booming sax which finishes the piece.

The Mysteries -A true ambient piece from the album ‘Buddha Of Suburbia’ features what sounds like a backwards slowed down piano.

Ian Fish UK Heir -An intriguing ambient piece featuring copious amounts of surface static from the album ‘Buddha Of Suburbia’.

Subterraneans -This track, or an earlier version of it, was demoed for the ‘Man Who Fell To Earth’ soundtrack. It eventually appeared as the final piece about Berlin on the ‘Low’ album.

Warszawa -This bleak slow instrumental was Bowie’s attempt to capture the essence of the Polish capital and it’s countryside in general. From the album ‘Low’ it features Bowie singing in a non existent language similar to the ‘Sound Poetry’ developed by the Dadaists in the 1910’s.

Some Are -The original instrumental featured as a bonus track on the Ryko/EMI1991 remaster of ‘Low’. This version is the long orchestral version arranged by Philip Glass from his ‘Low Symphony’.

BowieNet: www.davidbowie.com

The latest updates at I-Iman include a story on Mya who wore I-Iman make-up for her appearance at the MTV Movie awards, singing Lady Marmarlade from Moulin Rouge.

Also featured is more on the story about Iman, David and Style from People magazine (BOWIENET NEWS 05/06/01). Iman was chosen as winner of their Style Watch Winner’s Circle, and you can see the photographs of David and Iman from the article.

Check it out!

(info Pozie)

:))

Last call for tickets to the UK Bowieland party. (BOWIENET NEWS 03/31/01) Only two more weeks to go until we meet up to enjoy an evening of Bowie music and, of course, each other’s company! There will be lots of fun to be had, and Bowienet have donated some cool prizes for the raffle. The party aims to raise funds for Save The Children and The National Canine Defence League, and Tony Day will be DJ for the event.

Don’t delay, check out full details at Charly’s Bowieland party page, and email her for your tickets this weekend!

See you there!

:))

Who could ask for more…

Here they are again:

Question One:
Of the 58 songs that are on the current BowieNet, BowieRadio Station 2 playlist, two are from albums which have cover photographs taken by Mick Rock. Name those two albums.

Mick Rock and Ziggy Stardust at the Rock Style
exhibition in London by Total Blam Blam.

Question Two:
We all know that the picture that Mick is sitting below in the photograph above was taken at Haddon Hall, but where specifically in the building was it taken?

Question Three:
In his foreword for Blood and Glitter, David Bowie described William Burroughs how?

Question Four:
Name two other books, apart from ‘Blood and Glitter’, that have had a Mick Rock author credit.

Question Five:
List ten David Bowie compositions that contain the word ROCK. Each song must have a songwriting credit to David Bowie alone.

?????? ??????? and David Bowie, 1973 © Mick Rock.

Question Six:
Who is the man in the picture above?…no, not the one on the right, the other one!

Question Seven:
“What’s most interesting about those three – The Unholy Trinity – besides the amazing careers they all have – is the fact that they are still alive.”
Who were the three people Mick Rock was talking about in the above quote from 1996?

“While ya down there”
Ronno and Ziggy, 1972 © Mick Rock.

Question Eight:
This classic Mick Rock photograph (above) is (in)famously known as the “fellatio” shot…but when and where was it taken? The venue, year and month will suffice.

Ziggy, Santa Monica, 1972 © Mick Rock.

Question Nine:
Above is a detail from one of my very own favourite Mick Rock Ziggy shots, no doubt helped a little by the lovely leopard-skin-print earrings. But, what I want to know is, who did those earrings belong to?

Question Ten:
We recently announced details of a David Bowie/Mick Rock collaboration due one year from now. What exactly is the project, and what is the title of it?

Send your ten answers to me at MrTotalBlamBlam@AOL.Com with a subject heading of: “Blood and Glitter competition – the answers”. The competition ends at midnight in your timezone on Sunday the 17th June. We will announce the five winners the very next day on Monday the 18th. As always, you must send from a BowieNet address to enter the competition. Good luck.

David Bowie : The Independent : 06/04/01. From Simon Price’s review of Missy Elliott’s recent gig at Brixton Academy. Occasionally, maybe once a decade if we’re lucky, pop history will throw up a precious instance when a person and a moment coincide. When one artist at the height of their powers seems to tower over everyone else, seems capable of almost anything. In 1972, it was David Bowie.

Life On Mars : MOJO : July 2001. In the regular MOJO feature, All Back To My Place, Ian Astbury of The Cult was asked “What was the first record you ever bought? And where did you buy it? Life On Mars. I’ve still got it and I remember buying it in 1973 from Woolworths on Birkenhead High Street. I was 11. I just loved it to death.

Pictures Of Lily : The Telegraph : 06/02/01. From Neil McCormick’s review of Substitute : The Songs Of the Who. David Bowie breathes new life into Pictures Of Lily with colourful Ziggy Stardust stylings.

Blood and Glitter : MOJO : July 2001. From Mojo’s review of Blood and Glitter. “Mick Rock celebrates the star spangled egos of rock ‘n’ roll in the days when Ziggy Stardust reigned supreme, and his mutant bastard son Johnny Rotten was a cosmic gob waiting to happen”.

Pictures Of Lily : Uncut : July 2001. From Uncut’s review of Substitute : the Songs Of The Who. …and of course there’s Bowie, whose slow but steady ‘Pictures of Lily’ arrives like the long-lost relative of his previous Who tributes on 1973’s ‘Pin Ups’

‘Heroes’ : NME : 06/09/01. NME asked some of our youngest MP’s some important political questions in the run up to the election. Thomas Docherty, Labour MP for North Tayside was asked about his favourite song. The answer was ‘Heroes’ by David Bowie.

(contributors, susans, spaceface)

:))

The July 2001 edition of Arena magazine (UK) has a survey of British celebrities, all asked to comment on just what makes us British.

They’re all big success stories, and all addressing that weird and wonderful idea we call Britishness….

Each contributor was asked a series of questions and two of them chose David in their replies :-

Dougie Payne (bass player : Travis)

Q : One person who defines Britishness?

A : The Britishness you’d want to have portrayed abroad would be David Bowie. A true British gent.

Norman Cook (Fatboy Slim)

Q : What song should be the new national anthem?

A : David Bowie’s ‘Heroes’. It says : ‘We could be heroes…’ We aren’t but we could be.

So its singalong to ‘Heroes’ at the England V Germany match then 😉 We always stand up to this song anyway, don’t we?

:))

You never know, you might find it here…

This is question number ten and the last in our Blood and Glitter competition, so we’ll end with an easy one.

Question Ten:
We recently announced details of a David Bowie/Mick Rock collaboration due one year from now. What exactly is the project, and what is the title of it?

So that’s it. Ten questions of varying degrees of difficulty. If you can wait, we will be posting all ten again tomorrow, but if you can’t, send your ten answers to me at MrTotalBlamBlam@AOL.Com with a subject heading of: “Blood and Glitter competition – the answers”. The competition ends at midnight in your timezone on Sunday the 17th June, so that gives you ten full days from now to find the answers, if you don’t already have them. We will announce the five winners the very next day on Monday the 18th. As always, you must send from a BowieNet address to enter the competition. Good luck.

What you need you have to borrow…

Question number nine in our Blood and Glitter competition.

Question Nine:
Above is a detail from one of my very own favourite Mick Rock Ziggy shots, no doubt helped a little by the lovely leopard-skin-print earrings. But, what I want to know is, who did those earrings belong to?

We will post details of how to enter the competition with the final question tomorrow.

The Chat Transcript from last night’s chat with David is up! If you missed all the fun and laughs, check out the transcript to recreate the moment.

David answered questions about Toy, Contamination and his toothbrush and gave us profound, metaphysical insights regarding fun with prepared sofa springs, tips for Zappy navigation, daddifying, and his polystyrene plans for the future. Check it out!