Month: November 2001

‘MOULIN ROUGE – Music Inspired by the Film’ is a companion album to the original film soundtrack album released earlier in the year. (04/16/01 NEWS: FINAL TRACK LIST FOR MOULIN ROUGE SOUNDTRACK) Due next Monday (3rd December) the album concentrates on original versions of the songs that were covered by other artists in the film.

So, not only does the recording contain the Nat King Cole version of ‘Nature Boy’ that David did a version of for the film, but it also contains his own versions of both ‘Diamond Dogs’ and “Heroes”, covered for the original soundtrack by Beck and Ewan MacGregor & Nicole Kidman respectively. ‘Diamond Dogs’ is the regular cut and “Heroes” is the 3:35 single edit.

Here follows the full track-listing:

01 Labelle – Lady Marmalade
02 Nat King Cole – Nature Boy
03 DeBarge – Rhythm Of The Night
04 Disco Diva – Material Girl
05 Marilyn Monroe – Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend
06 Dolly Parton – I Will Always Love You
07 Billy Paul – Your Song
08 Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes – Don’t Leave Me this Way
09 David Bowie – Diamond Dogs
10 Randy Crawford – One Day I’ll Fly Away
11 Philharmonica Orchestra conducted by Herbert von Karajan – Can Can from Orpheous in the Underworld
12 Les Compagnons De La Chanson – The Song From Moulin Rouge
13 T.Rex – Children Of The Revolution
14 Fatboy Slim – Going Out Of My Head
15 Kylie Minogue – On a Night Like This
16 George Michael – Roxanne
17 David Bowie – “Heroes”
18 Queen – The Show Must Go On
19 Jack Lantier – La Complainte De La Butte
20 Edith Piaf – Hymne A L’Amour

You wish and wish, and wish again…

David Bowie is set to play at next year’s Tibet House Benefit Concert almost exactly a year to the day since February’s appearance at the same event. (02/27/01 NEWS: SCREAMS AND SHOUTS FOR DAVID AT TIBET SHOW) David Bowie, Philip Glass and The Kronos Quartet are the artists currently confirmed to play at the benefit on February 22nd, 2002, and the show will take place in the Isaac Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall.

Benefit package tickets, which include prime seats at the concert and a supper party afterwards, are now available through Tibet House, who can be reached on (212) 807-0563.

Concert-only tickets will be available about two months prior to the event by phone via Carnegie Charge (212) 247-7800 or at the Carnegie Hall Box Office, 154 West 57th Street. These concert-only tickets will not be sold through Tibet House.

We will post more relevant details as we get them, so do keep watching this space.

BowieNetter Susans did a helpful bit of research regarding the prices of package tickets for next year’s Tibet House Benefit Concert that we posted details of yesterday…and here are her results:

Benefit package tickets, which include prime seats at the concert and a supper party afterwards:

Party of 10 (non sponsor) = $10,000
Party of 10 (sponsor) = $5,000
Party of 2 (committee member) = $700
Single person $375

Susans also says that she was told that they are only taking names and addresses at the moment….

I am un chien andalusia…

Channel4 in the UK are tonight showing the long-awaited ‘Gouge’, an excellent documentary about Pixies. Airing at forty minutes after midnight (so technically it’s on tomorrow I guess), the programme features some incredible rare early footage of the band, and contributions from U2, Radiohead, PJ Harvey, Badly Drawn Boy, Blur and David Bowie among others.

I don’t need to tell you how big a fan of the band David Bowie is, and I could wax lyrical on this particular subject for far longer than you would want me to myself. So I’ll leave it to the programme makers to impress upon you the importance of this band, as if there’s anybody out there that didn’t already know.

There are tons of Bowie connections to Pixies and Frank Black (formerly Black Francis as singer of Pixies), such as: they supported him on some of the European leg of 1990’s Sound and Vision tour; Tin Machine tackled the Pixies’ classic ‘Debaser’ on their 1991 tour (a song based coincidentally on Luis Bunuel’s 1928 surrealistic masterpiece ‘Un Chien Andalou’, which was shown as a support feature on the 1976 ‘Station To Station tour); David wore a ‘Death to Pixies’ T-shirt on some of those same Tin Machine dates; Frank Black performed ‘Scary Monsters’ and ‘Fashion’ with David at Madison Square Garden as part of the 50th birthday concert celebrations…and probably loads more that I can’t recall off the top of my head right now.

David has also been quoted many times over the last few years on the subject of Pixies, and tonight is no exception. I’ll leave you with one particular quote from ‘Gouge’ to hopefully whet your appetite:

“I found it just about the most compelling music, outside of Sonic Youth, off the entire Eighties.”

And who could disagree with that?

New York’s In Love…Part Two

David’s performance on The ‘Concert for New York City’ CD released yesterday in the US on Sony/Columbia (Next Monday December 3rd in Europe) is already getting great reviews in the US. This from Audio Review a couple of days back…just look at that last line:

“Assembled and shipped in what was likely record time, the two-disc companion piece to last October’s Concert For New York isn’t The Last Waltz, exactly, but it serves as a worthy-and extremely faithful-souvenir of one of the most significant tribute concerts of the past twenty years.

With acts presented roughly in order of appearance, The Concert For New York is parsed into three categories: regulars on the benefit concert circuit (James Taylor, John Mellencamp), classic rock legends (the Who, Paul McCartney, Jagger & Richards), and sops for the kids (Destiny’s Child, Goo Goo Dolls, Jay-Z, the Backstreet Boys).

There are random moments of awkwardness: Listeners could likely do without the scattered spoken interludes (Adam Sandler’s “Operaman,” for example, loses something in translation), and McCartney’s show closing “Freedom,” while obviously well-meaning, is a surpassingly bad song.

That said, stellar moment abound: Five For Fighting are about the only newer act to distinguish themselves, with the ’70s-inspired, oddly Cat Stevens-like gem “Superman.” Elsewhere, the Who, with an awe-inspiring mini-set culminating in a thunderous “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” resolve any lingering questions about their relevancy; James Taylor is in superb voice on the surprisingly fitting “Up On the Roof,” and David Bowie’s cover of Simon and Garfunkel’s “America,” perhaps the disc’s best moment, is moving and fine.”

The Prettiest Star

In advance of the much anticipated, general release of Zoolander in the UK tomorrow, you can catch Jonothan Ross interviewing director and star, Ben Stiller, on the long running UK film review show, Film 2001, at 11.35pm GMT on BBC1 tonight.

Just before you see the film for yourself, you can check out David talking about his cameo appearance in the movie, in this journal entry from Sept 2000.

:))

Here she comes again…

Following on from her shows in Hudson, New York, a few weeks back (11/01/01 NEWS: GAIL ANN DORSEY LIVE IN HUDSON, NY, TOMORROW) Gail Ann Dorsey, informs us that she has three more shows lined up – Here’s the full skinny, as you guys say:

GAIL ANN DORSEY will be performing her solo material with ‘THE HUDSON VALLEY GIRLS’. Bassist, solo recording artist SARA LEE (Gang Of Four, B-52’s, Ani DiFranco, Indigo Girls), and KATE PIERSON (lead vocalist with The B-52’s) have joined forces to showcase new original material and some favorite oldies. A unique and exciting live music experience!

Wednesday, November 28th@ The Fire412 West Girard Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19123Doors: 9:00 PMShowtime: 11:00 PM(267) 671-9298

Thursday, November 29th@ I.O.T.A. Club2832 Wilson BlvdArlington, VA 22201Doors: 7:00 PMShowtime: 8:30 PM(703) 522-8340

Friday, November 30th@ The Canal Club1545 East Cary StreetRichmond, VA 23219Doors: 7:00 PMShowtime: 9:30 PM(804) 643-2582

Thanx to BowieNetter Karen Baker for supplying us with this same information and those all-important telephone numbers. Karen also had this to say:

“They are all shows of solo material by Gail Ann Dorsey, Kate Pierson, and Sara Lee combined together in a set, with the other two backing up whichever one is singing her song at that moment. I was privileged to see a shorter version of their sets on September 20th at the Woodstock Film Festival opening gala. It was really fabulous. I highly recommend the show!”

So there you have it, good luck girls…and please head this way soon.

New York’s In Love…

The ‘Concert for New York City’ CD is released today on Sony/Columbia. As we mentioned earlier in the month David’s performance kicks off the CD, (11/10/01 NEWS: FINAL TRACK-LIST FOR CFNYC CD) the two tracks he performed being Paul Simon’s ‘America’ and his own “Heroes”.

However, the Tori Amos cover of David Bowie’s ‘After All’ does not seem to have surfaced yesterday as promised. (11/13/01 NEWS: TORI CD IS RELEASED AFTER ALL) Despite a copy going on eBay just yesterday for $30, a record company spokesperson said she’d get back to me with another revised release date today…she didn’t. I wouldn’t hold your breath on this one.

Crazy clothes and acid full of soul and crazy hip…

Iman will be signing copies of ‘I AM IMAN’ on December 6th at Sephora Rockefeller NY between 2pm and 3pm local time. Go to Iman’s site for further details on this and how you can have a one-on-one makeup consultation with Jay Manuel, I-IMAN’s national makeup artist, followed by a full makeover with an artist from I-IMAN’s makeup team using this season’s beautiful I-Iman Makeup collection. Almost wish I could get there myself. };-)

While we’re on the subject of ‘I AM IMAN’, a wonderful set of twenty of Patrick McMullan’s pictures from the book launch have become available to view online at Style.com. When you get there click on the picture of Moby, Diane Von Furstenberg, Iman and Damien Loeb to take you to the slide show.

While we’re still on the subject of ‘I AM IMAN’, David and Iman have very kindly agreed to sign another hundred sets of the ‘I AM IMAN’ limited book and CD bundle due to the many e-mails we have received from distressed people worried that they won’t get a set. There is still a load of this second run available, but I imagine that will be the end of them.

The random winners from the first part of the David and Iman chat have now been notified, and for those who haven’t yet noticed it the transcript of that chat has been posted here.

Crazy clothes and acid full of soul and crazy hip…

The long-awaited Omnibus documentary ‘Syd Barrett – Crazy Diamond’ is to be screened on BBC2 this evening at 19:25 (GMT). (Sorry about the short notice…got lost in Syd stuff) The fifty minute programme features contributions from former Pink Floyd colleagues such as Roger Waters who had this to say about ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’, the Floyd tribute to Syd from the album ‘Wish You Were Here’:

“When I’m singing ‘Shine On’, Syd’s right there all the time…the song is just absolutely about him. It describes how I experienced his disintegration.”

Mick Rock also witnessed this “disintegration” during his time with Syd around the late Sixties and the start of the Seventies, when Mick produced the stunning shots for the first solo Barrett album ‘The Madcap Laughs’, released in January 1970. The shot above is an outtake from that session. It was Mick who conducted the last ever interview with Syd for Rolling Stone magazine in 1971.

All of Mick’s pictures of Syd, and indeed the full transcript of that interview, can be found in a new book, ‘PSYCHEDELIC RENEGADES’ released next year through Genesis Publications. There is a beautifully produced version of the book that is actually signed by Syd himself…his first public act since the release of his last solo album. But if you’re interested, I suggest you reserve a copy fast…these volumes are bound to be snapped up in no time at all. Watch for contributions from Mick tonight.

Of course, David Bowie himself has never made secret his admiration for Syd Barrett. Apart from being the proud owner of the picture above, painted by his old friend George Underwood, David recorded a wonderfully unhinged version of the Barrett-penned Pink Floyd classic, ‘See Emily Play’, for his 1973 album, ‘PinUps’.

He has hinted more than once that Syd was one of the many ingredients that helped in the creation of Ziggy. This was his reaction to seeing Barrett live in London:

“Syd Barrett with his white white face and his black eyeliner all around his eyes – this strange presence singing in front of a band that was using light shows. I thought, ‘Wow! He’s a bohemian, a poet, and he’s in a rock band!”

So nip over to BBC2 shortly for one of the saddest Rock ‘n’ Roll tales of unfulfilled promise there ever was.