First Play Of Live Space Oddity On Mint Tonight

Commencing countdown…

BBC 6 Music DJ Marc Riley has been rewarded for his general Bowie-friendly broadcasting, with a world-wide exclusive first play of the previously unreleased live version of Space Oddity from the forthcoming reissue of David Live. (See Tony Visconti interview in yesterday’s news)

As you probably know by now, MINT, the popular show for record collectors and similarly keen music lovers, airs from 10:00pm UK time every Sunday night on the BBC digital music station, 6 Music.

Marc, undoubtedly a serious Bowie collector himself, talks about his passion in the current issue (December 2004) of Record Collector magazine, above. Here’s a couple of excerpts from his chat with Ian Shirley:

Are you an avid collector?

My CD collection is a beast out of control really. I would end up in a house full of shelves if I weren’t careful. The David Bowie stuff is where the ‘saddo’ bit comes into it. I’ve got a lot of Bowie albums that seem to be – generally speaking – collectable things. I’ve got three copies of the ‘dress’ cover. I’ve got a Japanese promo of Aladdin Sane, which is really rare. I’ve got the original Phillips Space Oddity, but I’ve backed off a bit recently because with Bowie it’s a never-ending road – and I got very far down it!*

What was your most memorable session?

We did David Bowie in ’99 and he came to Maida Vale. Mark and I were just going out to get a sandwich and Bowie came through the door. Me and Mark had matching suits and shirts and ties, and Bowie came over and started taking the mickey out of us. Then he said, “I don’t know what to do today ? has one of you asked for Drive In Saturday?” That was me. He said, “Well, we’ll do that”. And I go, “What!” Then he said, “I’ve got a list here…” and he had a hand-written list of all these songs he was doing live! Mark didn’t get a look in edgeways. I grabbed it and said, “You Can’t Help Thinking About Me (sic) – can we have that? That’ll be great!” Having Bowie in was just us both having died and gone to heaven really.

Elsewhere in the piece Marc talks about Marc Bolan, being a member of The Fall, how he fluked his way into radio, working with Mark Radcliffe, throwing away U2 promos and owning Lou Reed‘s Metal Machine Music on eight-track cartridge!

Marc also gave this very site a plug during a short Q&A with Katie Shimmon for the regular My Media column in the Guardian earlier in the week: New media: I go on davidbowie.com a lot because I’m a fan. And I go on eBay more than I should. Have a bottle of wine and go on eBay and it’s lethal.

So there you have it…you can tune in to the live online broadcast from the aforementioned kick-off time by clicking on the image above.

* Footnote: Despite Mr Riley’s claims of having got very far down the Bowie collecting road, he doesn’t even own the Ryko Sound + Vision wooden box. What serious Bowie collection is complete without that cornerstone?