Month: February 2003

Last night they loved you…

Tonight is the last night of the current run of Darkness and Disgrace, at the Pentameters Theatre in Hampstead. Last night was the completely sold out BowieNet performance, and what a marvellous evening it was. The tiny venue audibly creaked as a last minute scramble for extra chairs proved how BowieNetters really do seem to rise to the occasion for this kind of thing.

I had seen this show a couple of weeks previously at this venue, and even though Des de Moor and Russell Churney’s performance was just as good that evening, last night’s turn out made the evening a whole lot more enjoyable, for performers and audience alike. Thanx to everyone who came along and helped make it such a special evening… and an extra big thank you to Des, Russell, Barb, Mike and anyone else involved with the production.

If you’ve not yet seen the show and you can get along to this last performance (which I think starts at 5:00pm) then contact the box office on +44 (0)20 7435 3648 to reserve your ticket immediately… you really will not be disappointed.

It’s a very special knowledge that you’ve got, my friend…

David Bowie was in the audience Friday night to honour the 2003 MusiCares Person Of the Year, U2’s Bono. The Grammy’s webpage about the event tells us:-

The MusiCares Person Of The Year dinner is one of the most prestigious events held during GRAMMY Fest, a month-long cultural celebration that culminates with the 45th Annual GRAMMY Awards on Sunday at Madison Square Garden.

Former President Bill Clinton introduced Bono, who lost no opportunity to publicise his views on the many causes he so ably supports. The speeches were followed by what sounds to have been a fantastic and star-studded concert. You can read more about the event at the official website for the Grammy awards, here. Also, there are lots more photographs of David and all the rest of the stars, online at Wire Image, here.

The Grammy Awards themselves take place today. As you all know, (01/07/03 NEWS: DB NOMINATED FOR GRAMMY AWARD), David is nominated for ‘Best Male Rock Vocal Performance’ for Slow Burn, and I’m sure you’ll all join me in wishing him the very best of luck. You can watch this evening’s events in a live telecast on CBS, at 8.00pm (ET), and delayed (PT). This broadcast covers only some of the categories, and David’s category will probably be announced during the afternoon ceremony which is unlikely to be televised. We are not yet sure if David is likely to attend.

:))

Just a few of the many images we posted back in June 2000. All photographs taken by Total Blam Blam.

My, my, the time do fly…

Our official archivist of that great steaming pot of BowieNet news content, Susans, has now reached the halfway point in her epic task of reminding us all of the glorious Bowie-crazy year that was 2000. That’s right, the sixth month is now live, and you can reach it by clicking on the image above.

You can also read Susans’ brief breakdown of some of the highlights of the year 2000 here.

So you scream out of line “I want you! I need you!”…

A copy of the withdrawn version of the original RCA Diamond Dogs album has sold for an astonishing $3,550.00 on ebaY. (Thanks to BowieNetter DEmerson for the original pointer.) The controversial sleeve is very rarely seen at auction, most likely because the few copies out there are already in the heavily guarded collections of those in a position to afford one.

Here’s a bit from the seller’s description of this particular copy:

I am selling this super scarce LP cover for a gentleman who worked for RCA in the 1970’s. He (along with a handful of co-workers) had the foresight to save an early version of this cover with the original artwork before RCA got nervous and had the Bowie-dog’s genitals airbrushed off for the final version of the cover that was released to the public. This cover accompanied the U.S. pressing of this LP, released in 1974. He told me that he thought probably fewer than ten of these gatefold covers were saved. Apparently only four or five have found their way into the marketplace before this one.

I’ve never seen one of these in the real world before, but I do know that versions exist as flat printer’s proofs as opposed to finished sleeves. I don’t know about the one that just sold on ebaY, but the flat proof I am aware of came complete with the Guy Peellaert jumping dog painting as the inside gatefold, which was later replaced with the Leee Black Childers cityscape photo-montage.

The Peellaert jumping dog painting, above, (sorry about the quality, didn’t have time to scan my copy of the poster as it’s too big) was later made into a promotional poster by MainMan and was sold as fan club merchandise for a short time. This item is rare enough in itself, though certainly more common than the withdrawn sleeve.

The cover caused confusion among some new collectors when it was re-issued in its full original glory by Ryko in the ’90s. But it’s the RCA version that collectors hanker after… including this collector.

If you think RCA were overreacting with this infamous piece of censorship, perhaps you should bear in mind a South American version of the original RCA sleeve that I have in my possession, where the complete bottom half of the dog is blacked out! Anyway, I do intend to resurrect Blam’s Little Spot one of these days, when I will attempt to clarify the cloudy history of this beautiful sleeve.

Four final seats with clearest views…No, really!

BowieNet members should have received an e-mail today regarding VIP tickets for the Tibet House Benefit Concert. In an update to yesterday’s news piece, we have now learnt that a spoof bidder has let us down twice in fact… Grrrrr

For this reason, we have cancelled the original auction that I mentioned yesterday, and we now have two new auctions that are both running for two days. Each pair of tickets are located in the centre of Row A and include passes to a complimentary post-show VIP buffet. Click on the image above to take you to the new auctions.

One more, weekend, of lights and evening faces…

A final reminder about the BowieNet night performance of Darkness and Disgrace, this coming Saturday February 22nd. This is the penultimate show, and the run will close after Sunday’s performance. A few of you have caught Darkness and Disgrace for the first time during the current run, and to save me carping on about how good it is yet again, BowieNetter LizSK2 has kindly sent in this short review:

Having seen Barb Jungr?s one woman show in London last year I was aware she was the UK?s foremost cabaret artist and her interpretations of Dylan songs have to be heard to be believed. So when I found out she was the director of Russell Churney and Des De Moor?s Darkness and Disgrace I was expecting great things.

And what a show it was! I felt like I was hearing all these songs for the first time; quite a feeling considering I, like you, have heard them hundreds of times.

The range of songs used was wonderful. There was a smattering of 60s tunes (Please Mr Gravedigger is much more sinister than I thought!); the least obvious 70s ones (save for Life On Mars?) and even a stab at I Have Not Been to Oxford Town. I thought it was an inspired choice to use songs that weren?t “hits” which recognised the hardcore element of the attendees.

So no Changes et al but instead they delivered emotionally wrought versions of We Are The Dead (my highlight) and The Bewlay Brothers. There was even room for a clever segue of All The Madmen and the Buddha of Suburbia (time to do this one again live surely?) via “Ouvre Le Chien”. Churney?s accomplished piano furnished a wonderful version of Time, a song built for chanson-style performance if ever I heard one!

Both Churney and De Moor obviously have a great love for the material and that comes across wonderfully well in the performances despite a cheeky swipe at the late, lamented Tin Machine! So brimming with confidence and vigour was the evening they even attempted, and pulled off, Helden. Now how about a CD release of the show?

Thanx a lot Liz, another satisfied competition winner. BowieNetter Martyn has posted a far wordier review on the MBs. Check it out here. He ends his piece thus: In conclusion, make the effort and see this show. It is well worth catching before it?s all too short a run comes to an end.

If you’re interested in attending on Saturday you will need to get your tickets now. The Pentameters Theatre in Hampstead is not huge, and most of the BowieNet winners of our recent competition have already reserved seats for this date. BowieNetters will be able to see the show on Saturday for the concessionary rate of £8. This discount is available for this Saturday only, and then only to those that give a valid BowieNet user name.

So if you want to be among friendly faces on the BowieNet night, contact the box office on +44 (0)20 7435 3648 and give your BowieNet user name to qualify for your discount. If you reach an answer machine, do leave your name and number, somebody will get back to you.

Two final seats with clearest views…

Thanks to a deadbeat bidder (Can you believe some people? This is for charity for goodness sake!), a pair of the previously auctioned VIP tickets to the Tibet House Benefit Concert in New York City have now been re-listed on ebaY. There are two full days left for this auction, and here’s a reminder of what the auction package includes:

Two adjacent tickets within rows A-101 thru A-110
Access to an exclusive buffet dinner the night of the show for both ticket holders

All proceeds from these ticket auctions will benefit the Tibet House. You can reach this very final auction (we hope) by clicking on the image above. Please only place a bid if you really do intend to pay… This is aimed at the clown who is attempting to sabotage many Bowie-related ebaY auctions right now.

I saw you watching from the stairs…

In his latest journal, David admits to not really knowing too much about his own ‘stuff’… Particularly with regard to the BBC’s opinion of the above video. He also recounts a recent meeting with a certain actor/director who left David nonplussed with a proposed “script” for 2003: A Space Oddity. Click on the image above before I give it all away.

He opened strange doors that we’d never close again…

The wonderfully Punk-heavy March issue of MOJO magazine has a few Bowie bits worth a mention here. In the regular Last Night A Record Changed My Life feature, a full page is given over to Roddy Frame (Aztec Camera) to explain why Scary Monsters is an album so important to him. Here’s the opening paragraph:

If there’s ever a Bowie stalker I’ll be the prime suspect. I’m always obsessing over his records, and the couple of hundred quid I’ve spent on them has been a great investment. This one bridged the gap between punk and what was coming next. I’d already had my life changed by the Sex Pistols, and now I was ready to have it changed again.

It’s an enthusiastic appraisal of the album, and it’s a pleasant surprise to learn that Roddy is such a big fan. Not that his own music ever really betrayed a particular fondness for Bowie’s music… But that’s not to say that it wasn’t any good. I can remember being jealous as hell when I first saw him perform Oblivious on TOTPs… How could a 17-year-old be so naturally gifted?

The feature is illustrated with the above Scary Monsters era still of David as Elephant Man John Merrick, captioned hilariously thus: “That’ll make a nice hat.” Scary Monsters Bowie in Dadaist steeple gesture.

Elsewhere in the magazine David gets two places in the MOJO Readers Poll: #7 in Artist/Band Of The Year and #2 in Reissues Of The Year with Ziggy Stardust. Well done yet again sir.

There’s also a bit about a Bonhams auction of “mostly unseen” Terry O’Neil shots of David and Angela at the Chateau in ’73, most of which I’ve seen. And as if all this wasn’t enough, there’s tons of Punk stuff and a great 26-track cover-mounted CD. “Neat, Neat, Neat… You can’t afford a cannon…” };-)

Became the special man…

The iconic image of Ziggy Stardust* is now recognisable enough to warrant a place on the front of the new Reader’s Digest volume, The Eventful 20th Century – The Way We Lived. The 160-page large format pictorial tome looks back at some of the more memorable events of the 20th Century, and over on page 61 the picture used on the front of the book (above) is reproduced as a half-page picture under the heading: Taking Fashion To Extremes.

David shares the page with other “style leaders” such as Elvis and The Beatles, and after a list of the various visual images David has employed, the piece describes some of the garments thus: Clothes were often worn in layers and ultra-loose to speed rapid costume changes and to conceal pads for absorbing sweat.

“…pads for absorbing sweat”!? Ziggy didn’t sweat. Horses sweat, gentlemen perspire, ladies glow but Ziggy sparkled. };-)

* OK OK, I know the purists among you will be mumbling something about the Ziggy character having mutated into Aladdin Sane by the time of the Rebel Rebel video, but I say, “Whatever, it’s still Ziggy to the peoploid on the street.” …though in fact the Rebel Rebel video was pretty much Ziggy’s last public appearance, that’s if you don’t include the Diamond Dogs cover of course.