Month: January 2007

Get a long-Low life…

As promised last week (01.25.2007 NEWS: TV IN THE TIMES TOMORROW…LONDON SIGNING NEXT MONTH) we have five copies to give away of Tony Visconti‘s autobiography: Bowie, Bolan and the Brooklyn Boy, which is published by HarperCollins Entertainment, next Monday February 5th.

But before that, in the month that we celebrate thirty years since Low was released, (01.14.2007 NEWS: LOW RELEASED THIRTY YEARS AGO TODAY) here’s the first of two edited extracts from the book regarding the recording of the album…

———————————————————————————————————————–

An edited excerpt about the making of Low from Tony Visconti, The Autobiography. Part 1 of 2

?during the long hot summer of 1976, David called me from his home in Switzerland; he had been silent for quite a while. David had befriended and was working with the wonderfully named Brian Peter St John Le Baptiste de la Salle Eno. Brian was listening on the extension.

?We?ve been experimenting with some ideas. We?re thinking of going into a studio in September for a month. We don?t have any actual songs yet but we?re trying to combine Brian?s ambient music techniques into writing rock songs. What do you think you would bring to the table?? It was the first time I?d heard the expression. I quickly thought and said, ?I have a new piece of equipment, only the second unit in Britain; it?s called a Harmonizer. I?ve been experimenting with it everyday, I?m coming up with sounds that I?ve never heard before.?

?Yeah, but what kind of sounds?? asked David.

?Well, it fucks with the fabric of time.?

If ever I pulled one out of the hat that was it. They ?oo-ed? and ?ah-ed? and said that they loved that description.

?Tony, before we start recording I have to say this is strictly experimental, and nothing might come of it in the end. Are you prepared to maybe waste a month of your time??

?Wasting a month of my time with David Bowie and Brian Eno is NOT wasting a month of my time.?

David has been known to change guitarists frequently and he had long since parted with Mick Ronson. He wanted me to recommend one. I had been working with Ricky Gardiner with whom I made a single for my Good Earth label. He was one of the most original and evocative guitarists I?d ever worked with. He had all the right guitar effects pedals and he knew how to combine them to produce amazing sounds; his playing had a touch of Hendrix about it. By now David had settled with Carlos Alomar, George Murray and Dennis Davis as his reliable rhythm section, all Americans of colour. To augment the band we now had Ricky Gardiner, every inch a tall, lanky Glaswegian, and Roy Young, a London rock ?n? roll pianist who had been living in Hamburg since before the Beatles arrived there. Added to which there was the very cerebral Brian Eno with his briefcase EMS Synthi synthesizer.

The sessions began with a bang. Instead of starting with the ambient experiment we jumped into a rock band situation and great backing tracks started to emerge on the very first day. True to form there were no melodies or lyrics, just grooves and chord changes. David called them ?demos? but I recorded them carefully, knowing full well that these could end up as masters, and they did.

Before we recorded the first piece, I had to get sounds from each instrument, and in the case of the drums, one for each drum. I immediately set up my Harmonizer and decided to use one of the coolest tricks I?d discovered before I?d left London. I sent a feed from the snare drum mic to the Harmonizer, I dropped the pitch by a semi-tone, and then I added feedback of this sound to itself. In simple terms it means a very deep snare sound that keeps cascading downwards in pitch; the initial impact had the ?crack? but then the ?thud? never seemed to stop, and, not only did it go on at length, but it got deeper and deeper in pitch, kind of like the sound a man makes when he gets punched in the stomach ? ?ugh?. Everyone was amazed.

David scratched his head and said, ?I agree it?s an amazing effect, but I?m dubious whether we?ll use it.? But as we grew more familiar with it ? we eventually loved it. Of course, it made the final cut and it has since been regarded as one of the most revolutionary drum sounds ever created.

The album was made in a relaxed atmosphere and the company made for interesting and stimulating conversation over meals. Dennis Davis amazed us with a story about when he was in the US Air Force. He accidentally walked through a restricted hangar and saw a crashed-up alien spacecraft.

———————————————————————————————————————–

Great stuff. Thanx Tony. I should point out that these are Tony’s recollections of events as far as he remembers them, and that there was absolutely no corroboration with DB while Tony wrote the book. And while I’m not suggesting for one minute they’re inaccurate, well, David’s may be different at times. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see on that one.

Tony also kindly donated the above photograph from the Low sessions, and this is what he had to say about it: “Okay, this an exclusive for Bowienetters, it’s not even in the book. From left to right, David, Roy Young, Carlos Alomar and the top of Dennis Davis’s drum kit. I took it from the control room window. This is in the main studio at Chateau D’Hérouville. The lighting was pretty Low, so I apologise for the fuzzy quality of the photo.”

Well, despite Tony’s apology, I think it’s a beautiful shot. BowieNetters can view a larger detail of it here on the MBs.

OK, on to the contest. As you know, the title of Tony’s book is: Bowie, Bolan and the Brooklyn Boy…But, just who is the Brooklyn Boy? Yes, it’s as easy as that.

When you think you’ve identified said Boy, send your answer to me here.

Usual BowieNet rules apply: Only one entry per BowieNet account, and please remember you must enter using your BowieNet e-mail or at least supply your BowieNet user name.

The contest will be open until midnight UK time on February 4th, so that the winners can be announced on the morning the book goes on sale on the 5th.

Tony informs me he will now be doing another book signing session at Harrods in London on February 7th as well as the Covent Garden signing on the 11th. See aforementioned news story for details of the Covent Garden signing and read on for details of the Harrods’ signing…

———————————————————————————————————————–

Harrods Rocks department, 2nd Floor, Harrods. Wednesday, 7 February 2007, 5:30PM

As part of the Harrods Rocks exhibition Tony Visconti, a name synonymous with ground-breaking music, will be signing copies of his compelling life story. Further details: 0207 730 1234

———————————————————————————————————————–

So there you have it. Get e-mailing your answer now.

Can you feel it in the way, That a man is not a man…

The region 2 double disc DVD of The Man Who Fell To Earth that we told you about recently (01.20.2007 NEWS: PRESTIGE DVD AND BLU-RAY PLUS TMWFTE REGION 2 DVD) is released through Optimum Home Entertainment today. Here’s the official PR stuff…

————————————————————————————————————-

THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH: SPECIAL EDITION

Digitally Restored Special Edition DVD – Out On January 29TH 2007

Directed by Nicholas Roeg – Starring David Bowie, Rip Torn and Candy Clark

The Man Who Fell To Earth is Nic Roeg?s science-fiction cult classic starring David Bowie. Crash landing on Earth from his dying planet, an alien humanoid travelling by the name of Thomas Jerome Newton uses his superior intelligence to build a vast business empire. As he takes on, and beats, every US corporation people can only guess his true purpose ? to save his dying world from agonising death by drought. Newton?s ageless fall from grace, as he becomes prey to lust, alcohol, business rivals, and the US Government makes The Man Who Fell To Earth not only a bitingly caustic indictment of the modern world but also a poignant commentary on the loneliness of the outsider.

Extras: Exclusive new interview with Nic Roeg / Watching the Alien documentary feature / Theatrical Trailer

Tech Specs: Cert 18 / Feature Running Time: 133 mins approx / Aspect Ratio: 16:9 / Colour / Pal / Region 2 / English Language / Stereo 5.1 / Cat No: OPTD0732

————————————————————————————————————-

We will still be running a contest to win copies of the DVD in the not too distant future… which, I agree, is hopelessly vague. So, I’ll commit myself to sometime next month then.

Five years, what a surprise…

After what I think is close on five years, appropriately enough, Mike Harvey‘s brilliant The Ziggy Stardust Companion returns this month with another fine exclusive, an interview with the sound man for the 1972/1973 Ziggy Stardust/Aladdin Sane shows, Robin Mayhew.

Here’s a couple of lines from the interview…

———————————————————————————————————————–

What was the first main Ziggy Stardust gig you did?

Bristol University, Main Hall (1 March 1972) is the one that I remember – probably 200 people tops were there. I know that we did a Bowie gig at Aylesbury Friars Club (25 September 1971) and Tucky Buzzard did the warm up with our sound system and that David and what would become the Spiders went on using a Tasco system. I think David’s hair was still long like on the Hunky Dory cover. In these early gigs Cream’s ‘I Feel Free’ was used in preference to Width of a Circle.

Did you have any other duties?

On the very early gigs from the mixer position at the back of the hall and from the sides, myself and Peter Hunsley (the stage manager) would throw out handfuls of A4 pictures of David and the Spiders during the ‘Wham Bam Thank you Ma’am line in “Suffragette City” to finish the show.

One day when we were still in the Gem offices in Regent Street, I was asked to proof-read all the lyrics to The Rise and Fall Of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars to make sure that they matched the sung words. They were all typed out and after listening over and over to the Ziggy Stardust track, I swear that David sung ‘like a leper messiah’ – whereas the typed lyric sheet words were ‘like a leather messiah’ – so I changed them. Again in “Rock and Roll Suicide”, I heard David singing ‘wall to wall (as in carpet) is calling’ not the ‘waterwall is calling’ as in the draft lyrics – so I changed them. If you look at any lyric sheet for the album you will see my words there. I never talked to David about it!! Maybe I’m responsible in some way for weird lyrics!!

———————————————————————————————————————–

Wonderful stuff, Mike. Great to have you back.

You can read the whole interview here, where you can also listen to an historically important contribution from another Mike that Robin recorded on July 3rd 1973 at Hammersmith Odeon.

Such is the stuff, from where dreams are woven…

The current edition of NME includes an insightful tribute to Station To Station. Hamish MacBain‘s Classic Albums feature analyses the songs in the context of the rest of DB’s output

Here are a couple of extracts…

————————————————————————————————————-

Ushered in by two minutes of swirling, treated keyboards, unsettling guitar and a repetitive harpsichord motif, the opening Station To Station is an incredible statement of intent.

This personal touch continues – through the third song, the equally staggering Word On A Wing.

That it all ends with a beautiful, show-stopping version of the standard Wild Is the Wind speaks volumes. It is stripped down, unlike much of this album, but also very tender…

————————————————————————————————————-

Also in last weekend’s Sunday Times Culture section, the latest mini-vinyl issue of The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars was chosen as their ‘Must-have reissue’, which you should be able to read in the scan above.

:))

We can show you a good time…

Last weekend’s Observer Music Monthly had a few bits in praise of David Bowie. First up, in their The Best 25 Gigs Of All Time feature, the magazine got staff writer Paul Morley to rewind almost 35 years to an early Ziggy show at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester. Here’s the piece in full…

———————————————————————————————————————–

David Bowie at the Free Trade Hall, Manchester, 1972 by Paul Morley

This was one of those times when everything seemed to change. Bowie was pretty much a one hit wonder for ‘Space Oddity’, a cult album artist, just beginning to play around with his image by appearing to come out in a notorious Melody Maker interview. He began the year releasing ‘Changes’, off the back of the arty-fairy December 1971 release Hunky Dory, and spent the rest of the year changing by the day as if profoundly offended that it wasn’t a hit, that he wasn’t yet a superstar, forcing everyone around him to change with him, to keep up.

Bowie willed it to happen that year, he was a force of tarted-up nature, and on 21 April 1972, in Manchester, he was at the absolute theatrical peak of his hyper-ambitious powers of persuasion. I was 15 – fresh innocent fan putty in Bowie’s hot, shameless 25-year-old hands – and it was only something like my fifth live gig, and there’s nothing quite like seeing a fully made up codpiece-sporting man-thing inspired by Clockwork Orange, Andy Warhol, the Velvet Underground, William Burroughs, Jean Cocteau, Marc Bolan and Iggy Pop suddenly burst into dead, drab Manchester and set your life on fire.

Even better, he pretended, or actually believed, that he was a skinny alien pop star called Ziggy Stardust keen on mock-fellating his silver-suited guitar player in strobe-induced slow motion. This was what you wanted a pop concert to be – sort of a dream of sex turned into loud, fierce rock and roll theatre, every song a desperately sensational story about feeling weirdly alive and possibly immortal. He was already trashing his way through the life story of Ziggy Stardust. There were only a few hundred denim-clad earthlings in a theatre that could hold a couple of thousand, early fanatics inspired by fishy sightings of Bowie in orange hair and red plastic boots smooching with Mick Ronson on The Old Grey Whistle Test while playing music that seemed to fuse Led Zep with Liza with a Z, the Who with Dali. Acoustic Hunky Dory songs were the dippy-trippy soft centre for some impossibly exotic hard core Ziggy fantasy.

I was in the eighth row of the stalls – a 60p ticket nabbed the morning the box office opened – a couple of rows behind an adoring Angie Bowie. Bowie, as single minded as any performer I’ve ever seen, was some kind of demon acting like some kind of superstar ignoring the empty spaces in the hall, committing himself to turning us on, so he could turn himself on. By the time he returned to a sold-out Manchester Hard Rock in September later that year he had become the dramatic superstar he promised he would be. Fans were already dressing like Ziggy. The Free Trade Hall show was the spectacular sighting of something strange, wonderful and slightly sinister speeding towards its fantastic entertainment destiny.

———————————————————————————————————————–

Long term BowieNet members may remember a review of the same show, (that we posted almost five years ago) from another of the few eye-witnesses, Tony Husband. If you didn’t see it back then, go check it out now, it’s a great read. (04.21.2002 NEWS: MEMORIES OF ZIGGY LIVE, 30 YEARS AGO TODAY!)

In the same issue of OMM, Brett Anderson attempts to play down the Bowie comparisons in a regular feature called Soundtrack Of My Life. However, he still chooses Low as one of his five all-time-favourite albums. Here’s what he had to say…

———————————————————————————————————————–

The whole Bowie comparison was overplayed, but if I had to choose one album that sums it all up for me it would be Low. I love the bleak, cold, machine-like nature, and the fact that it was such a brave move: at the height of punk he disappeared to Berlin and did something equally groundbreaking, but in a totally different way. The second side has strange instrumentals and the first has hook-laden classics like ‘Sound and Vision’, and both are as powerful as each other. Bowie is rare in being a huge influence who doesn’t disappoint in person. He’s very funny, extremely charming and slightly silly.

———————————————————————————————————————–

Finally, in the review section, the Optimum release of The Man Who Fell To Earth gets a five star review from film critic Mark Kermode, who reckons “Only one man could have played the other-worldly lead in this timeless space oddity…”

Here’s the review.

———————————————————————————————————————–

The Man Who Fell to Earth (Optimum)

‘David Bowie isn’t a great actor,’ says screenwriter Paul Mayersberg, ‘but he is a brilliant amateur.’ In fact, Bowie had effectively been rehearsing the title role of The Man Who Fell to Earth for years, his androgynous alien pop persona dovetailing perfectly with this tale of a stranger in a strange land.

Adapted from a novel by Walter Tevis, Mayersberg’s script (which he penned to the strains of ‘Space Oddity’ and ‘Life on Mars’) posited a starman who comes to earth in search of water and winds up succumbing to the evils of drink. Peter O’Toole was briefly considered for the lead role, but director Nic Roeg saw Bowie as the natural choice after witnessing him in the documentary Cracked Actor

The combination of frailty, charisma, and exotic other-worldliness seemed a perfect fit for the enigmatic Thomas Newton, with Bowie’s mismatched eyes merely adding to the mystery. Bowie immersed himself in the role, allowing Newton’s extraterrestrial reflection to filter back into his pop career, with images of him featuring on the cover artwork of both Station to Station and Low – the latter featuring music inspired by the film. As co-star Candy Clark observed: ‘David really was the man who fell to earth.’ Thirty years after its first release, and in the month in which Bowie turns 60, this remains a heady, adventurous oddity. His fan base may have been young, but, like Roeg’s Performance and Bad Timing, this was X-rated fare, sold to the public as ‘a shocking, mind-stretching experience in sight, in space … in sex!’

This DVD includes the succinct 2003 doc Watching the Alien in which the significant players (but, sadly, not David) recall the creation of an off-kilter Seventies sci-fi classic.

———————————————————————————————————————–

The Man Who Fell To Earth is released on region 2 DVD via Optimum on Monday 29th. As I mentioned previously, (01.20.2007 NEWS: PRESTIGE DVD AND BLU-RAY PLUS TMWFTE REGION 2 DVD ) we are hoping to run a contest, but I’ve not yet received the DVDs…fingernail-less fingers crossed.

Yes, I’ve read the morning papers…

Tomorrow’s edition (Friday) of The Times newspaper in the UK has the rather eye-catching blurb above, filling the top of the front page under the masthead.

Inside is a double-page spread, (see below) that includes an interview with Tony Visconti and exclusive excerpts from his book: Tony Visconti: the Autobiography: Bowie, Bolan and the Brooklyn Boy, which is to be published by HarperCollins Entertainment on February 5th.

There’s also a few of the previously unpublished shots of DB, of which there are many in the book.

We’ll be running a contest to win copies of the book at the weekend, when we’ll be posting more exclusive excerpts and even an unpublished shot that didn’t make it into the book.

You’ve no doubt already heard about Tony’s book signing session in London next month. But in case you haven’t here are the details…

Sunday 11th February
Corner Store (basement bar)
33-35 Wellington Street
Covent Garden
London
WC2E 7BN
0207 836 2944

1:00pm ’til 4.30pm (and then onwards in the upstairs bar, tables and sofas reserved.)

I’ll leave you with an excerpt from the Times piece…

———————————————————————————————————————–

VISCONTI ON: Recording Heroes

While I was in Toronto I had a call from David?s PA, Coco Schwab, saying that he needed me in Berlin to begin work on his next album. Brian Eno was also in Berlin and rather than working in the smaller studio at Hansa we were in their flagship studio, located close to the Berlin Wall.

The backing tracks were a dream to record. One didn?t have a title; it would become Heroes. David played keyboards live on the track that was more than seven minutes long; little was left off the album cut. After Brian left Berlin we added some percussion to some tracks; all this was typical of how David worked. His ideas were spontaneous and he liked them executed quickly to see how the notion played out.

David would arrive at the studio with a partial lyric and we?d start recording his vocal with what little he had. I would record the first two lines, then he would hold up his hand for me to stop, listen to the playback, and write another scribbled couplet on his pad.

Heroes was just about the only lyric recorded in the traditional manner. But the writing of the song was difficult. I had met a Berlin jazz singer, Antonia Maass, a few nights earlier in a nightclub; I was very impressed with her singing, especially her vocal agility and extended high range, and we had a brief affair.

She was visiting the studio that day and we went for a walk after David asked us to leave him for a couple of hours so that he could finish the lyrics. As we walked in front of the Berlin Wall we stopped and kissed.

At that moment, a lyrically frustrated Bowie was looking out of the studio?s control room studio. I can?t tell you where he pulled the other images in his song, but we were the couple that inspired: ?I can remember/ Standing/ By the wall/ And the guns/ Shot above our heads/ And we kissed/ As though nothing could fall.?

———————————————————————————————————————–

You can read the full article by clicking on either of the above images,

And I’m gone gone gone…

If you’re one of the few Bowie fans that never got around to buying the special packaging version of the excellent Best of Bowie DVD, now may be the time to grab a copy.

The digi pack with pvc slipcase will no longer be produced from now on, but the DVD will be made available in standardised packaging (amaray box) with exactly the same content from February 19th.

Who knows? Not me…

Director Stephen Kijak has been in touch with details of upcoming festivals that will be screening Scott Walker – 30 Century Man. (09.18.2006 NEWS: SCOTT WALKER FILM PREMIERE ANNOUNCED FOR LONDON & 11.01.2006 NEWS: SCOTT WALKER: 30 CENTURY MAN NEWS AND REVIEW & 11.04.2006 SNIPPET: EXCLUSIVE STILL OF DB FROM SCOTT WALKER FILM)

Over to you Stephen…

———————————————————————————————————————–

We’ll be taking “Scott Walker – 30 Century Man” to some festivals around the UK in the run up to our theatrical release on April 27 at the Curzon Soho:

Glasgow Film Festival, February 15-25. SW30 screens on Feb 24 & 25. Tickets on sale NOW!

Jameson’s Dublin International Film Festival which runs Feb 16-25, 2007

Bradford Film Festival, March 9-24, 2007

Screening dates and times have also been announced for the 57th Berlin International Film Festival screenings of “Scott Walker – 30 Century Man” – they are as follows:

13.02.07 CineStar 7 17:00
14.02.07 CineStar 7 12:00
16.02.07 Colosseum 1 15:30
17.02.07 CineStar 7 22:30

For info on how to purchase tickets, and all sorts of helpful information on the festival, visit the website.

With any luck, I may stop into Glasgow & Dublin on my way back from Berlin.

———————————————————————————————————————–

Thanx for that Stephen.

You can view the UK trailer, which includes a brief snippet from DB’s contribution, here.

Drive-In Saturday… (I know I will)

Those of you in the London area this coming weekend that simply can’t wait for the general UK release of Arthur And The Invisibles on February 2nd, (01.12.2007 NEWS: ARTHUR AND THE INVISIBLES NOW PLAYING) will be pleased to learn that there is a preview at the NFT on The South Bank on Saturday morning.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Luc Besson, but hurry as tickets are expected to sell out very quickly for this one.

Click on the evil Maltazard above (voiced by David Bowie in case you didn’t know) to get to the NFT ticket page.

Speaking of films that premiered in the UK at the NFT…

Due to ongoing work on a new project, David Bowie has announced that it will not be possible for him to perform at the Highline Festival in May. He will however continue to curate the event alongside Highline producers David Binder and Josh Wood.

Further announcements relating to the festival line up will be made shortly.