Month: July 2004

Come And Buy My Paintings…

We told you all about Jamilla Naji‘s Musical Storyland presents David Bowie?s music in a sing-a-long children?s book and CD back in March. (03/03/04 NEWS: BOWIE FAN PUBLISHES CHILDREN’S BOOK AND DB CD)

Well, Jamilla has been in touch with the news that her enchanting original paintings are now going under the hammer in the name of children’s charity. Keep reading for all the info you need in the official press release below.

Total Blam Blam – (BowieNet News Editor)

————————————————————————————————————-OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Artwork rendering David Bowie’s 1960’s era music will raise money for children’s charities

The original artwork from children’s book Musical Storyland: A sing-along book with Musical Disc will be for sale to the public beginning August 3, 2004. Renderings from this illustrated children’s book based on lyrics and music by David Bowie consist of ten 24″ x 30″ framed, acrylic on canvas paintings.

The paintings portray illustrator Jamilla Naji’s interpretation of 1960’s era David Bowie recordings including; Uncle Arthur, Rubber Band, There Is A Happy Land, Did You Ever Have A Dream, Sell Me A Coat, Come And Buy My Toys, Maid Of Bond Street, Love You Till Tuesday, When I Live My Dream and Ching-A-Ling.

Each of the ten paintings will retail for $5,000.00. Buyers must agree to donate fifty per cent ($2,500.00) of their purchase price to a children’s charity or fund of their choice. Buyers will receive the tax deduction for the donation if applicable. Illustrator Jamilla Naji states, “Being able to donate proceeds to causes that help children makes my work truly rewarding. There is no greater venture than one that helps improve the lives of others. That was the intent behind this project from the beginning and what inspired me to complete the book even when things became difficult and overwhelming.”

Jamilla commented that book sales are going well. Baker and Taylor Books and Worlds In Ink Publishing, Inc. are the primary distributors. Musical Storyland is most popular among David Bowie fans, parents and libraries. Book and music collectors are also making purchases due to the limited print run of this single edition. Jamilla’s life long admiration for the 1960’s era music compelled her to work full time on this book for almost three years. She is happy to be introducing some of what she considers to be David Bowie’s greatest work to a new, younger audience. David Bowie’s ingenious, captivating lyrics and irresistibly catchy tunes make reading fun.

“The book is absolutely beautiful. Jamilla Naji’s charming illustrations are in tune with the quirky wit of David Bowie’s often ignored 1960’s songs, which she treats with a love, warmth and sensitivity that are genuinely touching.” – Nicholas Pegg – Author of The Complete David Bowie.

To inquire regarding the purchase of original artwork from Musical Storyland, contact:

or phone (619) 994-0041.

To purchase books signed by Jamilla Naji, go to the www.MusicalStoryland.com web site.

CONTACT:
Jamilla Naji
Phone: (619) 994-0041
Email:

Here today, gone tomorrow…

Saturday is the last day for an auction of Bowie-related items by recording engineer Eddie Kramer via backstageauctions.com. The main items of interest to the collector with a few shillings to spare are tapes and acetates of the double album David Live that have been in Eddie’s possession for thirty years and from when the album was apparently called: Wham Bam! Thank You Mam! This title was news to collectors until details of this auction emerged a couple of weeks ago, so I asked Tony Visconti if he could shed any light:

This is the very same original David Live album, the mixes are the same, unmastered on the tape and mastered on the acetate. David goes through several titles of a new album before one sticks and this title probably lasted for 3 days. I don’t even remember it. For instance Young Americans was called The Gouster and that was written all over my tape boxes when I left Philly.

So there you have it. Probably one of the more expensive versions of David Live doing the rounds and it doesn’t even have any bonus tracks! Click on the image above if you’re interested in placing a bid or just keen to peruse the lots. Speaking of auctions…

And the papers want to know…

The press here in the UK have picked up on David’s New York walkabout that I first mentioned in the early hours of this morning. This evening’s Standard has the above screamer on the front page (that’s the headline, not David!) and it looks like tomorrow’s press will be printing more pictures too.

For those of you that can’t quite make out the text in the above scan, the article, which takes up most of page 3 in the Standard, can be reached online by clicking on David’s hat or by looking at BowieNetter Regina‘s MB post here.

As promised in the piece below, Bowienetters can view some larger format versions of a few of these pictures by going here.

Welcome to Reality…

I think this is perhaps the first mention we’ve made of this much-anticipated release, but I know the rumourmongers have kept you all amused with tales of double DVD versions with all sorts of extras and such… Well, for those of you that prefer them, here are the facts.

Above is an exclusive first look at the Rex Ray designed front cover for David Bowie – A Reality Tour, a 30-track single DVD scheduled for a world-wide release in late September. Despite what you may have heard elsewhere, there really is no definite release date yet, but as soon as we have it we’ll tell you.

As you know, the DVD was filmed over two nights in Dublin last November 22nd and 23rd and those of you that attended those shows will know just how magical they were. The package comes complete with a wonderful ten page booklet illustrated with relevant and quite stunning shots of DB and the band in action.

Here’s that 30-song tracklisting:

01 Rebel Rebel
02 New Killer Star
03 Reality
04 Fame
05 Cactus
06 Sister Midnight
07 Afraid
08 All The Young Dudes
09 Be My Wife
10 The Loneliest Guy
11 The Man Who Sold The World
12 Fantastic Voyage
13 Hallo Spaceboy
14 Sunday
15 Under Pressure
16 Life On Mars?
17 Battle For Britain (The Letter)
18 Ashes To Ashes
19 The Motel
20 Loving The Alien
21 Never Get Old
22 Changes
23 I’m Afraid Of Americans
24 “Heroes”
25 Bring Me The Disco King
26 Slip Away
27 Heathen
28 Five Years
29 Hang On To Yourself
30 Ziggy Stardust

The DVD is produced by Blink TV and the Creative Director is Marcus Viner.

Oh you, you walk on past, Your lips cut a smile on your face…

Thought you may be interested in seeing a few pix that have just been posted on wireimage.com of David wandering around New York City’s Chinatown yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon.

In the shots David is pictured watching the Mah Jong players, chatting with fans and with NYP Officers and shopping in Chinatown.

Great to see you looking so good and having fun David. I think a lot of people will have a better day today after seeing these shots.

I’ll hopefully post a few more different and larger versions on the MBs for BowieNet members later today.

Satellite’s gone way up the charts…

As predicted a couple of weeks back, (07.07.2004 NEWS: S.O.L. 2004, BBC R1 S.O.T.W., RELEASED MONDAY WEEK) Lou Reed has entered the UK singles chart at #10 with the release of Satellite Of Love 2004 on NuLife. As we said in aforementioned news piece, David’s voice features heavily on this recording and it’s a pleasure to have them both back in the UK top 10.

I believe Lou’s last foray into the UK singles chart was another track from Transformer, (also featuring a vocal contribution from DB) the hugely successful remake of Perfect Day (In the top ten for nine weeks including three at #1) produced in aid of the BBC’s Children In Need campaign and featuring a cast of several.

Anyway, a more economical way of purchasing Satellite Of Love 2004 (not that I want to discourage further sales of the single) is a new single disc version of the NYC Man best of CD released today, which, apart from containing Lou’s current top ten hit, also boasts Walk On The Wild Side (The Italian Mix) and sixteen other brilliant Lou Reed recordings… all this, and still change from a tenner!

We wish you well…

I’m sure you’ll all want to join me in wishing Mrs B a very happy birthday today. The lovely lady is pictured above with her hubby at The 2nd Annual Audi and Condé Nast Publications Never Follow Campaign in NYC back in May. (05.04.2004 NEWS: LAST NIGHT IN NYC, SET LIST AND PICTURES)

Best wishes for a wonderful day from everybody here at BowieNet, Iman, and please send all our love to your fellah too.

Where the sailors all meet… (Part 386)

Those of you that listen to his show religiously, will have just heard the results of the competition I set on Marc Riley’s Rocket Science for the BBC’s 6 Music Bowie Day a couple of weeks ago. (07.16.2004 NEWS: BNET / 6 MUSIC COMPETITION ENDS MIDDAY SATURDAY )

Here follows the three prize winners who managed to name at least three David Bowie performances that mention “sailor” or “sailors”. Of course there were more than three options, but I won’t condescend to list them here. Cries of: “You mean you can’t be arsed, Blammo!” Oh, all right then:

Amsterdam
Here Today, Gone Tomorrow
Life On Mars?
Miracle Goodnight
Red Sails
Run
Some Are

Did I miss one? You tell me… Anyway, those winners are:

1st Prize goes to Jo Rodwell of London

Runners up are John Murray of Deeside and Steve Williams of Aberystwyth

See last week’s story for the prize breakdown… no idea if any of these winners are already BowieNetters, but well done to you all anyway. Your details are safely stored at the BBC (“safely stored at the BBC”? …no comment) and you should receive your booty soon.

The detail above is from one of the prizes mentioned in a previous related BowieNet news story… in other words, see last week’s news item if you don’t have a clue what it is.

On a final note, Marc has asked me to pass on his gratitude to all of those who wished him well after last week’s “accident”.

Come to the show tonight…

On the very day that David Bowie was originally scheduled to end his A Reality Tour in France, tribute outfit, The Bowie Experience, continues its trek around England with the dates below:

July Dates

Friday 23rd – Bowie Band – The Cauliflower – 553 High Road, Seven Kings, Ilford, Essex, IG1 1TZ. Tel: 0208 478 0627
Saturday 24th – Bowie Band – The Bristol Hotel, 131 Bristol Road , Gloucester
Sunday 25th – Bowie Band – Paradise Island, 18-22 Bull Street, Burnley, Lancashire. 01282 411899 [4pm start]
Thursday 29th – Laurence – The Pheonix Hotel, 15 Fore Street, Chard, Somerset. 01460 66444
Friday 30th – Bowie Solo – The Rainbow Club, Belgrave Road, Torquay, Devon.
Saturday 31st – Laurence – The Ship Inn, 68 High Street, Fordingbridge, Hants. 01425 651820

Here’s a general note from head main man Laurence, (Pictured above in the advertising campaign for which British Telecom used him as Ziggy Stardust at The National Space Centre in Leicester to launch their `Mars communication` system.) explaining the format of the shows and stuff:

Starting time for gigs, unless otherwise stated, is normally around 9:00pm through to approx. 11:00pm.

`The Bowie Experience`, is the catch-all title of my show when I am doing the tribute, ie attempting to look and act as much like David as I can, taking in his image changes through the years, as well as sounding like him, this applies to the show whether I`m doing it on my own (solo), with my guitarist (duo), or with the band.

When I perform under my own name, I look and act as much like myself as I can, so strictly speaking it is not a `Tribute show` but I still sing Davids songs along with material by other artists, (usually with some kind of link to David however tenuous) and as I began this tribute thing because audiences told me I sounded just like him, some people prefer it because the focus is more on the music, It`s more intimate, less `showy`.

So catch ’em in Illford tonight if you can. The Bowie Experience will be performing many more shows around the UK in the next couple of months, for which we’ll post details nearer the time.

…tracks are on TV…

German TV station, arte, will tonight show a few songs from David’s June 25th performance at the Hurricane Festival in Scheeßel, Germany. Sadly this was to become the last show of David’s massively successful A Reality Tour, though this wasn’t known at the time of filming.

Among the songs to be broadcast tonight is I’m Afraid Of Americans, a small clip of which you can watch by clicking on the picture above, a shot from Hurricane, kindly supplied by BowieNetter piper_germany.

The 95 minute broadcast begins at 22:40 CET (9:40pm UK time).

Apparently Viva TV is scheduled to show footage from the Hurricane Festival on the 24th (20:00 CET), 25th (17:00 CET) and 29th (23:00 CET) of July, but whether this is the same broadcast or additional footage, or indeed if there is even any more Bowie to be screened other than tonight’s broadcast, I’m afraid I do not know.