Month: September 2005

He just sat in the back seat swearing he’d seek revenge…

Don’t forget that David Bowie’s hilarious, yet very stylish, 1998 performance as Jack Sikora in the Italian film, Il Mio West, finally gets an official Region 1 format DVD release today, albeit with a new title, Gunslinger’s Revenge.

See the original BowieNet news story for further information. (07.08.2005 NEWS: BOWIE’S SPAGHETTI WESTERN ON REGION 1 DVD)

Got to keep searching and searching…

I know the collectors among you like to be kept informed of any new Bowie items that you simply must own, and I imagine the six-track sampler above is the latest item to fit the description.

We first told you about The Platinum Collection back in June, (06.10.05 NEWS: TRIPLE CD PLATINUM COLLECTION TRACKLISTING) and we can now confirm that the low-priced triple CD set will be released on November 7th.

Here’s the tracklising for the sampler CD:

01 The Jean Genie
02 Space Oddity
03 Fame
04 “Heroes”
05 Let’s Dance
06 Ashes To Ashes

Good luck in your hunt for one of these, fellow collectors, I’ve yet to see a copy on eBay.

Who will love Aladdin Sane?

Aladdin Sane portrayed as a classic bust has been used for an advertising campaign by Dutch radio station, CITY FM. Locals have been enjoying the image all over Holland where it has been utilised for posters and billboards, etc.

Thanks to BowieNetter Bert Dijkstra for sending in the snap below of one of the advertising hoardings in situ.

BowieNetter Samadhi has also posted his own snaps on the BowieNet MBs, with the question: “I wonder why did they choose David Bowie to promote this radio-station?”. Well, I’m sure the question doesn’t really need an answer, but what other single artist could possibly be chosen to represent the notion of ‘Classic Rock’?

The jazz of life…

Don’t forget that David Bowie is the very special guest on Courtney Pine‘s show, Jazz Crusade, on Monday evening.

As we told you a couple of weeks back, (08.17.05 NEWS: DB TALKS JAZZ ON RADIO 2 NEXT MONTH) David chats with Courtney about jazz in general and his first encounters with it.

Courtney has quit a scoop, as this is David’s first radio interview since that last one he did absolutely yonks ago!

The show is broadcast from 21:00 to 22:00 (UK time) on BBC Radio 2 and you can listen online by clicking on the image above. If you miss this particular broadcast, you will still get another chance to hear it via the listen again link.

Oh man I need TV…

I’m sure many of you have read on Tony Visconti‘s site that he has been working on Danish band Kashmir‘s next album, No Balance Palace, due on October 10th. You may also have already heard that the band had the enormous good fortune to bag a couple of very special guest contributors to the album with a little help from TV.

Here’s TV himself to tell you how the whole thing came about:

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“I had a week of introductory and pre-production meetings with Kashmir in July 2004. I was so impressed with the depth of writing of this band and I was resolved to have them be more representative of Denmark than their compatriots, The Raveonettes. When Kasper Eistrup later came to New York for what turned out to be a guitar shopping spree, I casually invited him to The Killers concert at Irving Plaza as my ‘plus one’, I was already invited as a guest of David’s. When I introduced David to Kasper in the balcony VIP section and told him he was the lead singer of Kashmir, David enthusiastically shook his hand saying that he had already heard their last CD and like it. After the concert we hitched a lift with David. “The Cynic” had not yet been written.

In March 2005 I went to Copenhagen to co-produce Kashmir’s album and had already heard a batch of their new song demos. I was immediately struck with “The Cynic”. It had the vibe of a Kurt Cobain song as influenced by Bowie. When we recorded the song I kept imitating David singing the second verse (I can do a decent “Heroes”) and we were all sitting around saying, “As if!” But the fantasy kept getting stronger and stronger, so I finally e-mailed David and sent him an MP3 …he could only say yes or no (I wasn’t expecting, “Don’t ever darken my e-mail again, you vagabond!”)

David got it instantly and wrote back saying he’d have no problem singing that. I had to blink several times when I got the reply. Then I broke the news to the band. The atmosphere was like it was everyone’s birthday and Christmas morning at the same time.

After the Copenhagen sessions were finished I flew back to New York in April and Kasper and Mads followed about a week later. David arrived in the studio late in the morning one day, fresh as a daisy, and enthusiastically sang the be-Dickens out of “The Cynic” as if he had written it himself. Not only did David sing to perfection, but he also treated us to selections from his iPod. It was a fabulous day! The Danes seem to be cool, even tempered people, but there was an explosion in the control room as soon as David left …something akin to the Mardi Gras.

Lou Reed was another story. As some of you may know Lou and I are tai chi ‘brothers’ and see each other weekly in class. We had this great piece of music, a great ambient jam after one song that was crying out for a spoken voice part. I said, this sounds real crazy but I can hear Lou Reed speaking there. So Kasper wrote a little story based on an experience with his friend, Ricco, who owns the best coffee shop in Copenhagen and I auditioned as Lou (he’s actually easier to do an impression of) speaking the story called “Black Building”. It worked.

All it took was another e-mail and Lou said he would do it. It took a long time to actually get him into the studio, but when he came he was well-rehearsed and even prepared a special character for the part. He said he’s got about seven voice characters he uses when he does readings of his poetry. Lou was fabulous, he did about 3 or 4 takes for us to choose from and even took a phone call from a Tibetan lama in-between takes. Then, like a New York ninja, he disappeared into the chaos of Broadway as soon as he was finished.

I’m very proud of this album and honoured that my musical friends David and Lou have graced us with their contributions and validation of such a great band as Kashmir.”

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Thanx so much for that Tony, very generous of you to take the time. Kashmir‘s first single from No Balance Palace is The Curse Of Being A Girl, which is out now.

Why didn’t I say, why didn’t I say?…

I have a nasty feeling that I may have neglected to mention a small detail regarding the current BowieNet competition to win one of five 40cm x 40cm exclusive holograms of David Bowie…Each of the five holograms will be signed by David.

If you were unaware of this particular contest, check out the news for August 22nd, 24th and 26th, and the preceding news stories regarding Martin Richardson‘s Time, Space and Movement exhibition. (See pic above)

The competition ends at midnight UK time on Friday September 9th, so you still have a whole week to get your answers in for the chance to win an exclusive signed Bowie hologram.