I feel you driving…
Speaking of
There are five nominees, Tim McGraw, Gwen Stefani, David Bowie, Pharrell Williams and Alicia Keys…go
Win Butler On Bowie In The Observer
One magical moment…
Speaking of Arcade Fire, (11.19.2005 REMINDER: BOWIE/ARCADE FIRE FASHION ROCKS LIVE EP DUE MONDAY) front man, Win Butler, is the subject of today’s
When asked by impossibly cool film-maker Don Letts how it was to play live with David Bowie recently, Win replied thus:
“When he came out to do ‘Queen Bitch’ with us at our show in New York, he totally owned the stage. … he looked so comfortable even walking into the chaos of our band, which is saying something at this stage of the game.
Hearing him sing the first notes of ‘Wake Up’ was pretty special.”
Well, it was pretty special for us too, Win… You can read the whole Observer Q&A on line
If you have somehow managed to avoid hearing this version of Wake Up from Fashion Rocks, don’t forget that tomorrow is your chance to own it as part of the three-track Arcade Fire & David Bowie Live EP download via
Bowie/arcade Fire Fashion Rocks Live Ep Due Monday
Children, wake up…
I’m sure most of you are aware of the situation regarding the Arcade Fire & David Bowie Live EP download since we posted our original story. (11.08.2005 NEWS: BOWIE/ARCADE FIRE LIVE EP DIGITAL DOWNLOAD)
After the stop/start
Shame…“Somethin? filled up my heart with nothin?, someone told me not to cry.” would have been a wonderfully appropriate lyric quotation. Anyway, the fault was fixed and the track became successfully downloadable.
However, of more interest to Bowie, and indeed Arcade Fire fans is the three track Arcade Fire & David Bowie Live EP (above right) which contains the same Wake Up track anyway, and is available world-wide thorugh
As mentioned in my previous news piece, it will include all three tracks from Fashion Rocks. I’ll leave you with this excerpt from the press release to further explain…
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On November 21st, Arcade Fire and David Bowie will release the Live EP, featuring all three songs performed at Fashion Rocks, New York in September. The EP leads off with a superb version of Life On Mars? where Bowie is accompanied by long-term collaborator Mike Garson on piano.
Bowie is then joined by Arcade Fire for a stellar performance of their coming of age anthem, Wake Up, before the two collaborate on a passionate version of the Ziggy Stardust classic, Five Years. The Live EP will be available exclusively from iTunes worldwide, and all proceeds will be going to Hurricane Relief charities.
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Bowie Charity Wristbands Huge Success
While tens of thousands found me in demand…
The David Bowie Peace Thru Art wristband that we’ve told you about a few times over the past few months (11.01.2005 NEWS: BOWIE WRISTBANDS AND E-CARD AVAILABLE NOW) has now completely sold out.
According to the organisers at
Due to the unprecedented popularity of this item and because of seasonal manufacturing demands, it’s unlikely that new stock will be available again before January/February 2006. Obviously we’ll let you know as soon as we have more information.
Another children’s charity that received a boost from the sale of a Bowie item was the
Along with a portrait of Mick Jagger, the signed
The David Bowie Nyc Gig Guide
New York’s a go-go…
As ever, DB has been keeping at least one ear on the new talent and he has some tips for you. So I’ll shut up and leave you in his more than capables…
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Arctic Machines and Secret Collective and Animal Monkeys
Popped in to see the
The great news this week is that
Last band call of the night is for the
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Thanx for that, guv. Feel free to pop in anytime with stuff like this.
He’s pretty well always right, eh kidz? OK, The Screaming Blue Messiahs may not be your favourite band, but surely he’s allowed one wrong’un in thirty five years of recommendations!
Btw, another of David’s favourites,
Young Americans Collectors Edition
David Bowie Young Americans Collectors Edition
CD & DVD
Release date: March 2006
The zenith of David Bowie’s flat-pack soul period, 1975’s Young Americans is an incredible and frequently overlooked record. No other Bowie album had spelled out its market so cleanly and crisply in its title. This was an album to be bought at a time when young Americans, after years of mobilising, now had a little disposable income and were ready to party. It was all, supposedly, about “emotional drive.” But the album came to represent so much more than that. It is an indirect product of many factors; soul music; politics, both personal and public; sex, drugs and dancing; of downtown New York and uptown Philadelphia.
CD:
1. Young Americans
2. Win
3. Fascination
4. Right
5. Somebody Up There Likes Me
6. Across The Universe
7. Can You Hear Me
8. Fame
Bonus tracks:
9. John, I?m Only Dancing (Again)
10. Who Can I Be Now?
11. It?s Gonna Be Me (with strings) (previously unreleased)
DVD:
NB Tracks 1 to 11 on the DVD are audio only.
New mixes by legendary Bowie producer Tony Visconti available in 5.1 surround sound (DTS 96/24 and Dolby Digital) and stereo (PCM 48kHz/24 bit).
1. Young Americans
2. Win
3. Fascination
4. Right
5. Somebody Up There Likes Me
6. Across The Universe
7. Can You Hear Me
8. Fame
Bonus tracks:
9. John, I?m Only Dancing (Again)
10. Who Can I Be Now?
11. It?s Gonna Be Me (with strings) (previously unreleased)
Video:
Young Americans (from Dick Cavett TV show)
1984 (from Dick Cavett TV show)
Young Americans spent almost a year in the US charts, reaching Number 9 in the process. It was not the album that broke Bowie in America ? that award must go to Diamond Dogs, which had actually made the US Top 5 the previous year – but it was certainly the one that consolidated his American success and allowed him, unlike Bolan and Roxy Music, to join Rod and Elton in the ranks of the Stateside superstars. With Young Americans, Bowie had succeeded in breaking black music into the white mainstream. In the UK, Young Americans’ commercial impact, compared to the creative, was less marked . A Number 2 placing meant that it was Bowie‘s first studio album for three years not to reach the top spot, Yet, the album’s legacy would be profound. For the next decade, white soul boys up and down the land would look to Bowie?s cool version of Americana and revolutionise British pop in the process. Bowie?s soul boy look and haircut, later to be known as ?the wedge?, became the hallmarks of classic clubland cool, not just for the soul boys themselves but also in the New Romantic era.
It is not often that an album has both a musical, cultural and subcultural impact. Young Americans was one of those era-defining records that changed the history of popular music.
Young Americans Collectors Edition Due In March
Young Americans, Young Americans, I want Young Americans…
It is with great pleasure that we can finally give you exclusive details regarding what was the 30th anniversary edition of Young Americans.
We first told you about the release back in February, (02.21.2005 NEWS: YOUNG AMERICANS 30TH ANNIVERSARY CD DUE) but due to the fact that the album will now be released in March 2006 (31 years since it’s original release) it will now be refereed to as the Young Americans Collectors Edition.
The Young Americans Collectors Edition will include a previously unreleased version of It?s Gonna Be Me with strings and a 5.1 surround sound mix of the whole album by Tony Visconti and will comprise a CD and DVD.
Here’s how it breaks down:
Newly-remastered CD:
01 Young Americans
02 Win
03 Fascination
04 Right
05 Somebody Up There Likes Me
06 Across The Universe
07 Can You Hear Me
08 Fame
Bonus tracks:
09 John, I?m Only Dancing (Again)
10 Who Can I Be Now?
11 It?s Gonna Be Me (with strings) (previously unreleased)
The DVD will contain the same tracklisting as above, but will be made up of new 5.1 surround sound mixes by Tony Visconti, (DTS 96/24 and Dolby Digital) and again in stereo as the CD but in higher resolution (PCM 48kHz/24 bit).
The DVD will also contain footage of Young Americans and 1984 from the Dick Cavett TV show.
Those of you that have heard Tony’s previous 5.1 surround sound mixes know what a treat you are in for.
You can read more details in this
Space Oddity #1 Thirty Years Ago
This is Ground Control to Major Tom, You’ve really made the grade…
Thirty years ago today, David Bowie’s re-issued Space Oddity single had just finished its first week at #1 at the top of the official British singles chart, and was about to enjoy a consecutive week there.
The release had given David his very first UK #1, hot on the heels of his first US #1 the previous month with Fame.
Of course, Space Oddity had already provided the 22-year-old Bowie with a top five hit in the UK when it was originally issued on Philips in 1969. A 1972 re-issue of the song in the US also gave David his first taste of American top twenty chart success when it reached #15 there.
As you can see from the original magazine advert above, the 1975 release was a bargain for old and new fans alike. Released in a stunning picture sleeve, (only the third UK commercial Bowie picture sleeve issued up to that point, the others being Starman and Life On Mars?) the two classics alone, Space Oddity and Changes, were incredible value at just 59p.
But, for fans who wanted something extra, the previously unreleased Velvet Goldmine (albeit a mix DB wasn’t happy with, or consulted about) was a very welcome new addition to the Bowie catalogue, and one which quickly became a favourite among fans and people who enjoy deciphering lyrics alike…has anybody ever actually worked them out accurately yet? I think not.
The success of Space Oddity also meant that Top Of The Pops had to do something more than get a bunch of soppy dancers to wriggle about. Instead, if memory serves, they screened the version filmed for Love You Till Tuesday… A TV exclusive in the UK that provided another fascinating glimpse of the young man floating around with some soppy dancers. };-)
Though shot just three years earlier, the Mick Rock promo of Space Oddity would have seemed just as inappropriate, seeing as DB was now well on the way to his next incarnation, the altogether more sinister Thin White Duke…but that’s another chapter.
Major Tom would resurface to help DB with his next #1 UK single five years later. (08.01.05 NEWS: ASHES TO ASHES RELEASED 25 YEARS AGO TODAY)
David Bowie – Serious Moonlight Dvd
DAVID BOWIE
SERIOUS MOONLIGHT DVD
Catalogue number: 341 5399
Release date: 13.03.06
For David Bowie, 1983’s Serious Moonlight tour provoked a worldwide outbreak of Bowiemania, with fan scenes that harked back to the levels of hysteria that had greeted his Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane personas a decade earlier
.
This DVD – recorded at the Pacific National Exhibition Coliseum in Vancouver, Canada – captures David Bowie and his early Eighties touring band at their best, touching on material from the superstar’s then recent Let’s Dance and Scary Monsters albums but also encompassing songs, such as Rebel Rebel, Cracked Actor and Space Oddity, from much earlier in his illustrious career.
- Introduction
- Look Back in Anger
- ?Heroes?
- What In The World
- Golden Years
- Fashion
- Let?s Dance
- Breaking Glass
- Life On Mars?
- Sorrow
- Cat People (Putting Out Fire)
- China Girl
- Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)
- Rebel Rebel
- White Light/ White Heat
- Station To Station
- Cracked Actor
- Ashes To Ashes
- Space Oddity
- Young Americans
- Fame/End Credits
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Having been one of the few members of the old musical aristocracy to survive the onslaught of punk and disco – thanks to his ground-breaking Low and ?Heroes? albums – Bowie was edging back towards the pop mainstream by 1983. The Let’s Dance album, produced by Chic’s Nile Rodgers, had seen him update the blue-eyed soul styles originally explored on 1975’s Young Americans and, by the time he took his show on the road once more, the singer had re-immersed himself in modern dance.
The sold out Serious Moonlight tour saw Bowie backed by his funkiest band to date with guitarist Earl Slick and Chic drummer Tony Thompson aided by the soulful Borneo Horns. Wearing a baggy suit, Bowie used the live platform to remind fans of his pedigree, both vocally and visually. On one hand, he was singing as well as ever. On the other, as one of the first performers to grasp the potential of the pop video, he also cut a colourful, striking figure. At one point during this show, he kicked a giant inflatable globe around the stage.
Inspired by a new nightclub scene that was sweeping all before it in London and New York, Bowie aired a number of songs from the Let’s Dance album. The title track had been a chart topping single on both sides of the Atlantic while China Girl, also included, only narrowly missed out on the No.1 spot in Britain. Another high point, and another relatively recent UK No. 1, was Ashes To Ashes.
And while Bowie played just one track, a suitably theatrical Cracked Actor from the Ziggy-Aladdin zenith of his glam rock period, fans of his older material were rewarded with Life On Mars?, Sorrow, a cover of The Velvet Underground’s White Light/White Heat and a smattering of tracks – Fame, Young Americans, Golden Years and Station To Station – from his first incarnation as a white soul man in the Seventies.
Directed by David Mallett – and with the added bonus of the Ricochet documentary (filmed during Serious Moonlight dates in Hong Kong, Bangkok and Singapore) – this DVD frames one of pop’s greatest artists in his prime.
Having been, at various points in his career, a folk troubadour, a futuristic alien and a messed up rock star, a soulful and charismatic David Bowie was now back to have some fun.
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Extras: Ricochet ? documentary featuring the Far East segment of the Serious Moonlight tour. Running time 78 minutes.
Technical info: DVD: running time 165 minutes, 4:3 screen, all regions, disc type dvd-9.
Audio: Dolby Digital and DTS surround sound and Dolby Digital stereo.
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To preface the release of the Serious Moonlight DVD EMI will be releasing the following audio E.P. and video clip available for digital download only on February 13th, 2006.
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SERIOUS MOONLIGHT LIVE E.P. (DIGITAL DOWNLOAD ONLY AUDIO ONLY)
Cat no.: 00946 3 49734 5 8
Tracklisting:
1/ Space Oddity
2/ China Girl
3/ Breaking Glass
4/ Young Americans
SPACE ODDITY (LIVE FROM SERIOUS MOONLIGHT) (DIGITAL DOWNLOAD 1 TRACK VIDEO)
Cat no.: 00946 3 49736 5 6
Sm Download Artworks And Press Release
Let’s dance, To the song they’re playing on the internet…
Just a quickie to give you an exclusive first peek at the Serious Moonlight download artworks (above) for the upcoming releases that we told you about a week or so ago. (11.05.2005 NEWS: SERIOUS MOONLIGHT DVD DETAILS AND DOWNLOADS)
As I said in that news item, they are both scheduled to be available from February 13th 2006, a month ahead of the DVD, and you can read more details in that news piece or in this Serious Moonlight DVD