Month: June 2002

New York’s in love…

David Bowie took the Roseland Ballroom by storm last night with a show that left fans old and new completely stunned. As he had hinted in more than one interview, (even if nobody did believe him) ‘Low’ and ‘Heathen’ were performed in running order in their intirity.

This really was one of the very best David Bowie shows I’ve ever seen, and the fans that I talked to afterwards agreed, having nothing but praise for the brave, but highly compelling set that David chose. Here are a few pictures that I took at the show to tide you over, with a quick rundown of what happened. I’ll post more pictures over the next few days…and a couple of wonderful crummies.

David bounced onstage in black waistcoat and trousers (very Thin White Duke) with black tie and white shirt, and started the show by explaining the reception RCA gave to ‘Low’ when he first presented it to them 25 years ago. “They offered me more money to go and do another ‘Young Americans’ and told me to forget all about this nasty album.”…Thankfully David stuck to his guns and the influence of ‘Low’ on popular music over the last quarter of a century has proved him right.

‘Low’ sounded astonishing, and it was so good to hear such a faithful interpretation that still somehow managed to give the musicians a chance to add something of their own. This was the first time I had seen Gerry in-the-flesh live (apart from Letterman) and he really is a brilliant addition to the band, as is Cat. It was also great to see David playing that monstrous bloody great big saxophone for the end of ‘Subterraneans’.

After a 15-minute interval, David returned in the tweed “Gilbert and George” ‘Heathen’ clobber that he wore for TOTP. ‘Heathen’ was brilliantly received and I don’t think I have ever heard such a noisily appreciative audience…it was also clear that David was having an absolute ball and enjoying every minute. Mention should also be made at this point of the excellent sound, and quite brilliant lighting…the BOWIE logo as a backdrop was genius.

After what seemed an eternity, (during which the enthusiasm for David’s return didn’t falter for a moment, with the chant of “Bowie, Bowie, Bowie…” growing louder by the minute) David and the band returned to end the show with a high-power encore of ‘Hallo Spaceboy’, Ashes To Ashes’, ‘Fashion’ and ‘I’m Afraid Of Americans’. David was dressed in a long red coat and that big baggy black trouser suit thing with a huge pair of platforms. Very tasty. If you were there you know how good it was, if you weren’t…well.

We’re sure you’ve heard the full HEATHEN albun by now. Whether it was at one of the listening parties we gave you tickets to, or a special promo edition you happened to come across, or even LIVE at Roseland last night. Whatever method these sounds have taken to reach your ears, we want your highly coveted opinions.

Click here to take the ‘HEATHEN’ Album Poll.

Twirling us round and round and upside down…

Those of you that were either present at the taping or watched the broadcast of the David Letterman show last night already know how hot David and the band are right now. Looking particularly good in a mid-nineties, Alexander McQueen ‘Tyre Print’ suit, David lead the band through a cracking version of ‘Slow Burn’, which, while it retains the elements of the studio version, does already have the stamp of the Bowie band all over it. Can’t wait to see them in full flight tonight.

David gave a brief interview after the performance during which he explained one of the reasons for his involvement with the Area: 2 tour was to contribute in ways that Moby couldn’t…namely hair! After Letterman flashed a vinyl version of the ‘Heathen’ album up he enquired if people really still bought vinyl these days, David replied that he wasn’t a format man himself, and that he downloaded everything off the net!

Stay tuned for details of how to win tickets in the A&E LBR ticket give-away in the next couple of hours.

Singing old songs we loved… (and quite a few new ones too!)

Finally we have some good news on the A&E LBR ticket front (sounds like an extreme political organisation), in other words we have a quantity of tickets to give to BowieNetters for David’s appearance on Saturday. I know many of you reading this right now are either seated in internet cafes, or hogging a friends machine or some such thing while you’re in New York, so I’ll keep it brief.

If you want to be in with a chance of winning a ticket to this very special event, then click on the image above to take you to the magic application box. Due to the limit we have on tickets, we can offer just one to each winning BowieNetter. Tickets will be drawn at random sometime on Thursday, and the winners will be notified at some point later that day.

If you aren’t reading this until Wednesday because you were in line at Roseland, don’t panic, if you enter now you stand the same chance as everybody who entered before you. Good luck, and please remember it’s not fair to enter if you can’t be at the show.

Made for a real world…

With the release of ‘Heathen’ in the US today, the album is now available worldwide. So we thought it would be interesting to run another poll similar to the snippets poll we ran last month (05/21/02 NEWS: SO, WHAT DO YOU THINK OF HEATHEN?). I know many of you are keen not to listen until after tonight’s show as you’d rather hear the songs live first, so we will run the poll for the next week to give you the chance to have a good listen.

Don’t forget to enter the region you live in, so we can get a flavour of how different tracks are perceived around the world. Please do take part in this poll, (click on the image above to take you to it) not least of all because David is always very interested to learn how YOU feel about the album. We’ll be posting a round-up of all the recent reviews of ‘Heathen’ sometime this week, and we’ll post the results of the poll a week from now too.

See ya all later… };-)

What to do, What to say, What to wear on a sunny day…

For those BowieNetters here in New York that didn’t manage to get tickets for today’s Letterman taping, here are a few ideas, short of getting wasted, to take your mind of it until you get to view the broadcast or a video at least.

Firstly, the David Bowie: Sound + Vision presentation at MTR is most definitely worth a visit. I traipsed along with a small clan of BowieNetters yesterday to catch Part 1 1964-1973, and I have to say it’s an incredible show…and at only $6 admission it’s also outstanding VFM!

There’s not enough space here to give you the full breakdown of this 2-hour programme, but even if you have video of most of this stuff, you definitely haven’t seen it all, and it’s still worth seeing it on a big screen with a bunch of like-minded folk.

Judging by the audience reaction to much of what was shown yesterday, a large percentage of the full house was people watching for the first time. Part 1 of this retrospective runs until July 7th and you can contact MTR on (212) 621 6800 for screening details. I only wish I was here for the remaining five parts. 🙁

Later today Carlos Alomar will be the special guest at a Meet and Greet at Faces and Names in New York. The start time is 6:00pm so those of you that want to camp out at Roseland can still do so, as Faces and Names is nearby at 161 W. 54th St. New York, NY (between 6th and 7th ave.)

Later still, at 10:00pm, Cinema Classics is hosting Stardust Memories which is a “Ziggy Stardust 30th anniversary retrospective including documentary footage, television appearances, outtakes, and much more!!” – Cinema Classics is situated at 332 E 11TH ST NEW YORK CITY and they can be contacted on (212) 677-1027.

So that’s just a couple of things for those of you that aren’t already camped outside Roseland…I should warn those of you that are already in line though, that Kelmar claimed her spot at the very front last night using some type of unsavoury spraying method, so even though she may not be physically there right now, she will be expecting her spot back whenever she chooses!

He’d like to come and meet you…

It gives us great pleasure to announce the winners of the BowieNet ‘meet ‘n greet’ with David Bowie at tomorrow’s Roseland show. It looks like some of you don’t even realise you have won yet as most of you have not returned a confirmation e-mail yet. Anyway, the lucky people below have won and they all get to take a guest along with them to meet, and indeed greet, David Bowie.

If you are on this list, please respond to the e-mail that you should have received at your BowieNet account. If you are reading this and know any of these people, please inform them of their good fortune pronto.

sunfighter@davidbowie.com
amok@davidbowie.com
brobewlay@davidbowie.com
jeanne@davidbowie.com
niyol@davidbowie.com
matwhant@davidbowie.com

Waiting so long, I’ve been waiting so, waiting so…

Last month we set a competition for BowieNetters to win five copies of the very collectable The Scumfrog vs Bowie version of ‘Loving The Alien’ promotional 12″, and five copies of the regular CD. The question we asked was: “Who, with David Bowie, co-directed the original video for ‘Loving The Alien’?” Well, at least 20 per cent of you thought the answer was Julien Temple and we even had one BNetter suggest it might be Quincy Jones…now that would have been interesting!

But, the answer we were looking for was the man who also had a hand in the videos for ‘Boys Keep Swinging’, ‘DJ’, ‘Look Back In Anger’, ‘Wild Is The Wind’, ‘The Drowned Girl’, ‘Ashes To Ashes’, ‘Fashion’, ‘Let’s Dance’ ‘China Girl’, ‘Dancing In The Streets’, and ‘Hallo Spaceboy’…not to mention David’s appearances on The Kenny Everett Television Show and The Serious Moonlight tour video, and that’s just off the top of my head!

Anway, that man was the very talented David Mallet. And here, a few days ahead of schedule, (…You can’t beat a good old bit of Orwellian revisionism, Shivas!) are the folk selected by TRG?:

Promo 12″
phactor@davidbowie.com
riverswim@davidbowie.com
mannyp106@davidbowie.com
bvr@davidbowie.com
snikpoh@davidbowie.com

CD
ivdf@davidbowie.com
jsimon@davidbowie.com
jasonwhiton@davidbowie.com
beets@davidbowie.com
ferneaux@davidbowie.com

Send your names and addresses to me at TotalBlamBlam@DavidBowie.com with a subject line of: ‘Loving The Alien Winner’, and we’ll have your prize with you as soon as we are able.

I leaned back on my radio

Here are some more highlights of the TV and Radio shows airing over the next seven days. Further details can be found in the Bowie Calendar.

Interview : Virgin Radio : 06/07/02

Virgin Radio’s ‘Pete and Geoff’ will be talking to David by phone tonight around 18.45 BST. Those outside the UK can listen online, here. (from Chas Pearson)

Interview : BBC Radio 4 : 06/07/02

David has given a thirty minute interview for ‘Front Row’ in which he talks about his career as a singer, songwriter, actor, artist, art collector and curator. It airs in the UK tonight at 7.15PM, on BBC Radio 4. Listen online, here.

Interview : BBC Radio 2 : 06/08/02

There is also an interview with David airing as part of the BBC Radio 2, ‘Richard Allinson on Saturday’ programme. The three hour show begins at 3.30PM, and once again you can listen online, here.

Meltdown Preview : BBC Radio 3 : 06/09/02

This week, the BBC Radio 3 show ‘Mixing It’ includes a preview of David Bowie’s Meltdown Festival. Starting at 11.00PM. Listen online, here.

Letterman : CBS : 06/10/02

David’s performance on The Late Show with David Letterman, airs on CBS in the USA at 11.35PM ET.

Letterman : ITV2 : 06/11/02 and 06/12/02

For UK viewers, The Late Show with David Letterman airs on ITV2 at 11.30PM, and again on the 12th June at 7.00PM.

NBC’s Today Show : NBC : 06/14/02

The show airs live, commencing at 7.00AM ET in the USA. David will be performing at least three songs, including a track from Heathen and an old favourite.

:))

Oh, these are the days…

As we mentioned a few days back, (06/03/02 NEWS: BOWIE WOWS FANS AT TOTP RECORDING) David Bowie will appear on tonight’s edition of TOTP here in the UK, performing ‘Slow Burn’. The show is broadcast at 19:30pm and it will be repeated at 02:25am on Sunday 9th June on BBC1. Details of the rest of the acts can be found here.

Needless to say, and as usual, BBC America will broadcast the same programme tomorrow at 19:00pm ET. And it looks like Australia will be getting the show next Friday the 14th too. It’s unclear what of the remaining recorded material will be broadcast or when, though it’s likely that most of it will be shown on TOTP2 in the near future.

I can tell you that there is no plan to broadcast ‘Slow Burn’ on a children’s TV programme after all, despite suggestions elsewhere that it may be on The Saturday Show in the UK tomorrow morning (9.30am, BBC2)…though the show is worth watching for the latest instalment of Cubix alone! It seems the extra version of ‘Slow Burn’ was recorded as a generic version to be shown across Europe, and we’ll obviously give you more details as we get them.