So BoB your sweet head… I’m just about the best you can hear…
In celebration of the release in a few weeks (now apparently put back to November 4th in the UK) of the brilliant new Bowie compilation, ‘Best of Bowie’ (BoB), we have much pleasure in announcing the BowieNet ‘Best of Bowie’ mini-site. Here you will find a player where you can listen to snippets of each of the songs on this fantastic collection of “hits and best-loved songs”, an album that needed 23 versions to satisfy the world.
Of course, members get the advantage of a little something extra on
French promotional leaflet for ‘Best of Bowie’.
You can also pre-order the double and single disc copies of the US version of ‘Bob’ while you’re there, and you’ll automatically be entered into a
Fifty runners up will receive the very tasty official ‘Best of Bowie’ promotional poster, designed by that god of cool, Rex Ray. Obviously “no purchase necessary to enter or win”, and all that legal malarkey.
As if that wasn’t enough, you can send the player to a friend, or just anybody you feel needs a bit of Bowie in their lives. So click
——————————————————————————————————————————
BEST OF BOWIE DVD RELEASE UPDATE
Waiting for the gift of sound and vision…part 286
According to the latest edition of UK trade magazine Music Week, the release of the Best of Bowie DVD is scheduled for a November 11th release in the UK, one week after the release of the CD. The magazine has a full page advert for the double DVD (below) with a breakdown of the tracklisting that we first revealed to you a month ago. (08/24/02 NEWS: BEST OF BOWIE DVD TRACKLISTING RELEASED)
The ad has a heading of “The Man Who Changed The World” with screen grabs from both discs, and it states that the 47-track compilation has a running time of 4 hours and 12 minutes. Here’s the blurb from the ad:
This 47-track double DVD includes the legendary ?Starman? Top Of The Pops performance, ?Oh! You Pretty Things?, ?Five Years? & ?Queen Bitch? all from The Old Grey Whistle Test, ?Young Americans? from the Dick Cavett Show and ?Rebel Rebel? taken from the Dutch TV programme Top Pop. Plus classic videos and live concert appearances. The Best of Bowie.
Elsewhere in the magazine a half page feature concentrates on the restoration process used in preparing the old video recordings for a DVD release. Sarah Layish-Melamed, producer with Abbey Road Interactive, explains: “Often there is a great deal of restoration and re-mastering work to be done. This must always be carried out with sensitivity to the original.”
The restoration process involves digitising old material and viewing it on a frame-by-frame basis. Impurities are removed via a cutting and pasting process. This can be a very time consuming process, as business developer with 4MC, Alex Reid, illustrates: “A four-minute track can take hours. The Jean Genie track took a day to restore, while the whole project took about a week-and-a-half.” You’ll be pleased to note that this restoration meant going back to the original far superior print of Mick Rock’s classic ‘Life On Mars?’ promo.
In a separate feature about DVD releases, EMI product manager, Stefan Demetriou says that the Bowie DVD will be “the definitive collection of promos, TV performances and hidden Easter eggs”. Obviously I’m not about to spoil the surprise of those hidden treats, suffice to say that some of those things you thought should also be on this release, may very well be. Not that I know… just thinking aloud… Is thinking allowed? };-)