Month: June 2007

It’s a real mean team…

Lou Reed has been giving some rare interviews in advance of forthcoming UK performances of his classic 1973 album Berlin. In his interview with Radio 2?s Mark Radcliffe Lou was asked about his relationship with David Bowie after the release of Transformer:

MR: You?d been working with David Bowie, and you moved from working with him to Bob Ezrin. Was that a deliberate shift in gear? Or did David Bowie go off and do something else and leave you in the lurch like the heartless beast he is?

LR: David Bowie is a truly great guy and I really love him dearly. I never thought he was in charge of my recording career. There was (that) one time and one time only. A great experience for both of us. I?ve always thought of David as a really stand-up guy. He?s always there if you need him. Really, incredibly talented. I?m sure Wild Side and Perfect Day wouldn?t have been a hit without David or Ronson. You know Ronson?s arrangements?

MR: Absolutely

LR: And David?s incredible background vocals. He was a great producer I thought.

You can listen to the whole interview on this link. The Lou Reed interview starts at around 1hr 19mins in to the show.

Lou also gave exclusive interviews to Mark Riley for BBC 6 Music (forward to 1hr 38mins to listen) and Terry Christian for BBC Manchester (not archived at the moment).

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Also in the news this week, seminal artrockers Devo have been giving interviews in conjunction with their imminent Meltdown appearance and short UK tour. Devo were also early recipients of David?s unique brand of enthusiasm and encouragement and they touched on this briefly in an interview for The Event Guide.

Q: Having people like Bowie, Eno, Iggy Pop and Robert Fripp championing you very early on must have helped enormously.

A: That was great, having people that we respected, people who inspired us, it was very gratifying to have them offering to help us, trying to nurture us.

:))

You made me forget myself…

We posted a picture from a dinner in honour of Lou Reed at the W New York – Union Square, (04.27.2007 NEWS: DB ATTENDS DINNER IN HONOUR OF LOU REED) for the first of our random picture contests last month. (05.30.2007 NEWS: WIN SIGNED ITEM IN FIRST RANDOM PICTURE CONTEST)

For the contest we asked you to identify the four people around the table in the picture we posted and to tell us what recording unites all four of them.

Well, 99% of you identified them as Bono, Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson and David Bowie and you went on to correctly state that they all appeared on the BBC’s 1997 Perfect Day recording in aid of the Children in Need fund.

The winner gets a copy of the above CD (without the flashing red boxes) personalised by David Bowie himself.

If the winner would like to contact me with details of how they want their CD personalised, (i.e., real name or BowieNet user name) we’ll get the wheels in motion ASAP.

I suppose you want to know you are, dear winner? Well, you go by the BowieNet user name of skyline.

For those not familiar with the track, click on the cover above and follow the breakdown below of exactly who performed which bits on this magnificent version of Perfect Day…

Stay tuned for another random picture contest shortly.

Just about the best you can hear…

The recognition of Life On Mars? by the world at large as the best song ever written, continues in this week’s NME, issue dated June 9. You can read what they had to say about the song, above. Good to see their enthusiasm for the possibility of future Bowie live dates is as keen as yours…But, as NME says, if only it were true.

There has been fair appreciation of the song so far this year, as reflected in these stories: 01.17.2007 NEWS: BOWIE SONG ON FACTORY GIRL SOUNDTRACK & 04.07.2007 NEWS: LIFE ON MARS ENDS ON TUESDAY WITH TWO BOWIE CLASSICS & 04.15.2007 NEWS: LIFE ON MARS BACK IN THE UK SINGLES CHART & 05.18.2007 NEWS: LIFE ON MARS? ‘GREATEST SONG EVER WRITTEN’

I also stumbled upon this review of the Life On Mars TV show soundtrack in a local newspaper…

Obviously somebody else who appreciates the classic Hunky Dory opus…Hang on a minute, though. Karen Dawson? Hallo Spaceface!

Never look back, walk tall, act fine…

Earlier in the week we said we’d hopefully have more for you of David Bowie’s attendance at the 11th Annual Webby Awards at Cipriani Wall Street in New York on June 5th. (06.06.2007 NEWS: BOWIE ACCEPTS WEBBY LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD)

Well, you can’t get much more than this, another exclusive shot, above, plus footage from the event, below, including David’s introduction and THAT acceptance speech in full…all in far greater quality than you’ve seen elsewhere.

Great stuff…many thanx to the folx at the Webby Awards for the use of all the above.

Check out some of the video and press relating to the 11th Annual Webby Awards via the links earlier in this sentence.

You and I will rise up all the way…

EMI plans to release a 17-track compilation CD on July 30th that will be available in the UK and Eire only.

Entitled The Producers – Tony Visconti, the compilation will include three Bowie tracks that TV has had a hand in, including the French vocal version of “Heroes”: “Héros”, the original Mercury single version of The Prettiest Star and Black Country Rock.

Here’s the full tracklisting…

The Producers – Tony Visconti

01 Héros – David Bowie
02 China Girl – Iggy Pop
03 Metal Guru – T. Rex
04 You Have Killed Me – Morrissey
05 Looks Looks Looks – Sparks
06 Will You – Hazel O?Connor
07 Chains – Mercury Rev
08 Oh Baby – Dib Cochran & The Earwigs
09 The Prettiest Star – David Bowie (original single version)
10 Flowers In The Rain ? The Move
11 Sarah – Thin Lizzy
12 Love Is The Law – Seahorses
13 Band On The Run – Wings
14 This Town Ain?t Big Enough For Both Of Us – Sparks (Plagiarism Album Version)
15 Got To Get You Into My Life – Surprise Sisters
16 Black Country Rock – David Bowie
17 Telegram Sam – T. Rex

There are possibly some reading this that think we should also have made special mention of track number eight, a recording that over the years was widely rumoured to have some Bowie involvement.

Dib Cochran & The Earwigs was a pseudonym for an outfit fronted by Marc Bolan which supposedly had among its ranks David Bowie on saxophone. Tony Visconti has been at pains to point out that the only released official recording that features the combined talents of Bowie and Bolan in the studio is the aforementioned Mercury version of The Prettiest Star, which famously features Marc on lead guitar.

Stay tuned for the cover of The Producers – Tony Visconti and a contest to win copies of the CD in the very near future.

Good God, was it really yesterday…

Last week, when we announced the winner of the Ziggy Stardust album cover print artist’s proof signed by both David Bowie and Terry Pastor, (05.29.2007 NEWS: ZIGGY STARDUST SIGNED PROOF CONTEST WINNER) we suggested you should: “Stay tuned for details of part three which has now mutated into a separate contest…”.

Well, that part three has indeed mutated into the Ziggy Stardust 35th Anniversary Cover Contest. For it was thirty five years ago yesterday that the world-famous classic Bowie album was released, and we thought it would be appropriate for this contest to run now.

To reiterate, this was the original brief:

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We all know the Ziggy Stardust cover is about as perfect as an album sleeve can be, but there’s no harm in having a little fun with it from time to time.

What we want you to do is re-create the back or the front of the original sleeve in any fashion or medium you desire.

Above is one I made earlier…a version I created back in 2002 for a news item about the K WEST hotel in West London. (11.15.2002 SNIPPET: THE QUEST FOR K WEST)

So a bit of photo manipulation, a painting, a drawing, an embroidery, a life-size sculpture…anything you like in the spirit of the original sleeve, as long as you can e-mail the final result to me as a jpeg.

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Well, twenty eight of you responded and we’ve collected your very impressive efforts together for everybody to see. The hugely-talented BowieNetter Zardoz has created a special Ziggy Cover Contest Page, where you can view the entries to date.

The idea is that in a couple of weeks you’ll be able to vote for your favourite contribution, and the winner will have their original artwork signed by David Bowie. That’s a pretty cool prize, eh?

In the meantime, if you feel you’d like to now give it a go, or you think I may not have received your original contribution, send your entry to me here in the jpeg format about the size of the image above.

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.

We’ll be accepting any new entries up until midnight of July 17th UK time, when any further contributions will be added to the Ziggy Cover Contest Page.

You’ll notice that we’ve kept your contributions anonymous so that when it comes to voting in a couple of weeks you can vote on the quality of the work alone and not for your best friend, or whatever. 😉

Finally, Zardoz himself had entered the contest originally with this fine little piece of fun, but he nobly withdrew once we got him involved with setting up the Ziggy Cover Contest Page to avoid any accusations of improprieties. What a top fella!

I heard George Crumb, Harry Partch, favourite melodies…

I’m sure you’ve already checked out the second part of David Bowie’s Sounds Of My Universe over at Music Recommenders that we told you would be published in Early June, last month. (05.09.2007 NEWS: FIRST PART OF 25 DB FAVES UP ON MUSIC RECOMMENDERS)

As mentioned in that previous news item, the feature has David talking about twenty five of his most treasured pieces of vinyl, and he finishes up with these ten:

Four Last Songs (Strauss) – Gundula Janowitz – 1973 DG
The Ascension – Glen Branca – 1981 99
The Madcap Laughs – Syd Barrett – 1970 Harvest
Black Angels – George Crumb – 1972 CRI
Funky Kingston – Toots and the Maytals – 1973 Dragon
Delusion Of Fury – Harry Partch – 1971 Columbia
Oh Yeah – Charlie Mingus – 1961 Atlantic
Le Sacre Du Printemps – Stravinsky – 1960 MFP (EMI)
The Fugs – The Fugs – 1966 ESP
The Glory of the Human Voice – Florence Foster Jenkins – 1962 RCA

There’s a link on the site to listen to various tracks from this most eclectic of selections.

We don’t talk much, we just ball and play…

David Bowie attended the 11th Annual Webby Awards at Cipriani Wall Street in New York last night, to accept the Webby Lifetime Achievement Award.

David’s appearance on stage was preceded by a fifteen second animated film and this verbal introduction…

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We are honored to present our final Lifetime Achievement Award of the evening to a rock icon and Internet pioneer.

One needs to look no further than Ziggy Stardust or the digital paintings he began creating on his Macintosh back in 1993 to see that David Bowie’s legendary career has long explored the relationship between art and technology.

The real milestone of his online contributions was the 1998 launch of BowieNet, the seminal Internet service provider which to this day sets the standard of how artists interact with their fans online.

Beyond offering basic services such as email and Internet connection, Bowienet allows fans to do everything from contribute to song lyrics, download exclusive singles, and remix music.

Since the 1998 launch, Bowie has founded his digital media company UltraStar, creating cutting-edge online content for artists such as The Rolling Stones and The Police, and BowieArt, an innovative Website that connects up-and-coming visual artists with art collectors worldwide.

In so many ways, everyone’s always trying to catch up to where David Bowie has already been.

In recognition of his efforts to push the boundaries of art and technology for the last three decades, and for amazing all of us with his constant innovation, exploration, and genius, we are honored to present The Webby Lifetime Achievement Award to David Bowie.

Ladies and Gentleman, Webby Lifetime Achievement Winner, David Bowie.

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And then, to everybody’s surprise, there he was. This was his acceptance speech in its entirety…

“So, only got five words…Shit, that was five…Four right there…Three there…Two…”

And then he left the stage!

A lucky eyewitness that happened to be there reported back to me thus:

“He looked great in a dark green silk suit and black shirt and black bowtie and was wearing a diamond elephant man pin in his lapel. He got a standing ovation all the way through from the minute he appeared on stage.

People in the room did not seem to quite believe he was actually there..it was short but sweet..and they thought the speech was very funny which it was..(all in the timing)!”

We’ll hopefully have more for you from this event shortly.

Meanwhile, I’m sure you’ll all want to join me in congratulating DB on yet another much-deserved award.

It happens today…

The two EMI CD & DVD releases of the Young Americans Special Edition and The Best Of David Bowie 1980/1987 are finally released in North America and Canada today.

As previously reported, they had both been put back from March 19th to May 8th, and then finally to June 5th. (02.23.2007 NEWS: BEST OF 1980/1987 AND YA DELAYED IN NORTH AMERICA & 03.19.2007 NEWS: BEST OF 1980/1987 AND YA OUT IN THE UK…BUT NOT THE USA)

For the tracklistings of both Young Americans and The Best Of David Bowie 1980/1987 see the following two news stories respectively: 12.30.2006 NEWS: JOHN, YA SPECIAL EDITION DUE IN MARCH (AGAIN) & 01.23.2007 NEWS: BOWIE THE BEST OF 1980/1987 CD AND DVD DUE IN MARCH.

While we’re on the subject of new releases in exotic countries…