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And I think MySpace ship knows which way to go…
Had a few e-mails from people asking if so called official David Bowie
Well, even if they do appear to be endorsed by DB or myself, as you suspect…not!
In the unlikely event that there is ever an official David Bowie MySpace page, we’ll let you know of it’s existence here first.
We had a friend, a talking man…
As you know, Iman, along with Alicia Keys, was the co-host of the
Iman’s husband (left in the picture above) went along to give his support to both her and fellow rock/pop singing sensation, Bono, who the event was honouring.
By all accounts, a few of the songs performed on the evening were understandably Bono-centric, with Gwen Stefani duetting with Alicia Keys on a version of U2‘s Sunday, Bloody Sunday and Metropolitan Opera singer Kathleen Battle joining Keys for a version of the U2/Pavarotti collaboration Miss Sarajevo, which was originally released under the name of Passengers.
Bono himself performed a duet with Keys on their 2005 collaboration Don?t Give Up (Africa), a cover of the song originally recorded by Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush.David is pictured above with Iman and Gail Ann Dorsey‘s aforementioned current employer, Gwen Stefani.
You can view a list of the myriad celebrities that attended the do on the
Thanx as ever to Kevin Mazur and
Grown inside a card box…
Had a couple of e-mails regarding the above 10-track promo that is starting to surface. It’s described on the reverse as: “Highlights from the forthcoming limited edition boxset – David Bowie 88697169032. Five original albums all with bonus discs, including previously unreleased tracks and rarities packaged in unique vinyl replica sleeves – released November 2007”. All good, except that date has now moved to December 3rd
We first hinted at this release after we published details of the Japanese version many moons ago, (
With the knowledge that “shortly thereafter” is relative, you’ll be pleased to know that we’ll be finally publishing the winners of that contest during the first weekend of December.
I’m sure we’ll have a contest in the very near/distant future to win copies of this new European/American version, but in the meantime, here’s the tracklisting for the above promo…
Finally, I’ll leave you with a reminder of the 121 tracks that make up the ten discs in the box.
Disc 1 – Outside
     01. Leon Takes Us Outside
     02. Outside
     03. The Heart’s Filthy Lesson
     04. A Small Plot Of Land
     05. Segue – Baby Grace (A Horrid Cassette)
     06. Hallo Spaceboy
     07. The Motel
     08. I Have Not Been To Oxford Town
     09. No Control
     10. Segue – Algeria Touchshriek
     11. The Voyeur of Utter Destruction (As Beauty)
     12. Segue – Romana A. Stone / I Am With Name
     13. Wishful Beginnings
     14. We Prick You
     15. Segue – Nathan Adler
     16. I’m Deranged
     17. Thru’ These Architect’s Eyes
     18. Segue – Nathan Adler (Version #2)
     19. Strangers When We Meet
Disc 2 – Bonus Disc
     01. The Heart’s Filthy Lesson (Trent Reznor Alternative Mix)
     02. The Heart’s Filthy Lesson (Rubber Mix)
     03. The Heart’s Filthy Lesson (Simple Test Mix)
     04. The Heart’s Filthy Lesson (Filthy Mix)
     05. The Heart’s Filthy Lesson (Good Karma Mix by Tim Simenon)
     06. A Small Plot Of Land (Basquiat OST Version)
     07. Hallo Spaceboy (12″ Mix)
     08. Hallo Spaceboy (Double Click Mix)
     09. Hallo Spaceboy (Instrumental)
     10. Hallo Spaceboy (Lost In Space Mix)
     11. I Am With Name
     12. I’m Deranged (Jungle Mix)
     13. Get Real
     14. Nothing To Be Desired
Disc 3 – Earthling
     01. Little Wonder
     02. Looking For Satellites
     03. Battle For Britain (The Letter)
     04. Seven Years In Tibet
     05. Dead Man Walking
     06. Telling Lies
     07. The Last Thing You Should Do
     08. I’m Afraid Of Americans
     09. Law (Earthling’s On Fire)
Disc 4 – Bonus Disc
     01. Little Wonder (Censored Video Edit)
     02. Little Wonder (Junior Vasquez Club Mix)
     03. Little Wonder (Danny Saber Dance Mix)
     04. Seven Years In Tibet (Mandarin Version)
     05. Dead Man Walking (Moby 1 Mix)
     06. Dead Man Walking (Moby Mix 2 US Promo 12″)
     07. Telling Lies (Feelgood Mix)
     08. Telling Lies (Paradox Mix)
     09. I’m Afraid Of Americans (Show Girls OST Version)
     10. I’m Afraid Of Americans (Nine Inch Nails V1 Mix)
     11. I’m Afraid Of Americans (Nine Inch Nails V1 Clean Edit)
     12. V-2 Schneider (Tao Jones Index)
     13. Pallas Athena (Tao Jones Index)
Disc 5 – ‘hours…’
     01. Thursday’s Child
     02. Something In The Air
     03. Survive
     04. If I’m Dreaming My Life
     05. Seven
     06. What’s Really Happening
     07. The Pretty Things Are Going To Hell
     08. New Angels Of Promise
     09. Brilliant Adventure
     10. The Dreamers
Disc 6 – bonus Disc
     01. Thursday’s Child (Rock Mix)
     02. Thursday’s Child (Omikron: The Nomad Soul slower version)
     03. Something In The Air (American Psycho Remix)
     04. Survive (Marius De Vries UK CD Single)
     05. Seven (Demo)
     06. Seven (Marius De Vries Mix)
     07. Seven (Beck Mix #1)
     08. Seven (Beck Mix #2)
     09. The Pretty Things Are Going To Hell (Edit)
     10. The Pretty Things Are Going To Hell (Stigmata Film Version)
     11. The Pretty Things Are Going To Hell (Stigmata Film Only Version)
     12. New Angels Of Promise (Omikron: The Nomad Soul version)
     13. The Dreamers (Omikron: The Nomad Soul – longer version)
     14. We Shall Go To Town
     15. We All Go Through
     16. No One Calls
Disc 7 – Heathen
     01. Sunday
     02. Cactus
     03. Slip Away
     04. Slow Burn
     05. Afraid
     06. I’ve Been Waiting For You
     07. I Would Be Your Slave
     08. I Took A Trip On A Gemini Spaceship
     09. 5:15 The Angels Have Gone
     10. Everyone Says Hi
     11. A Better Future
     12. Heathen (The Rays)
Disc 8 – Bonus Disc
     01. Sunday (Moby Mix)
     02. A Better Future (Remix by Air)
     03. Conversation Piece (Re-recorded 2002)
     04. Panic In Detroit (Outtake from a 1979 Recording)
     05. Wood Jackson
     06. When The Boys Come Marching Home
     07. Baby Loves That Way
     08. You’ve Got A Habit Of Leaving
     09. Safe
     10. Shadow Man
Disc 9 – Reality
     01. New Killer Star
     02. Pablo Picasso
     03. Never Get Old
     04. The Loneliest Guy
     05. Looking For Water
     06. She’ll Drive The Big Car
     07. Days
     08. Fall Dog Bombs The Moon
     09. Try Some, Buy Some
     10. Reality
Disc 10 – Bonus Disc
     01. Waterloo Sunset
     02. Fly
     03. Queen Of All The Tarts (Overture)
     04. Rebel Rebel (Charlie’s Angels 2: Full Throttle soundtrack)
     05. Love Missile F1-11
     06. Rebel Never Gets Old (Radio Mix)
     07. Rebel Never Gets Old (7th Heaven Edit)
     08. Rebel Never Gets Old (7th Heaven Mix)
She finds the slinky vagabond…
We set a contest to win the above very recently (10.12.2007 NEWS: TEN BOWIE/DUFFTY/TARGET CDs AND LOOK BOOKS TO BE WON) wherein we asked the name of Keanan Duffty‘s band and where he got that name from?
The ten members below correctly answered that the band is called Slinky Vagabond and that David Bowie’s Young Americans (see today’s lyric quotation) was the inspiration for it…
apalumbo
crazedad
emily
fredthegnome
jefk
jgcoakley
mhammond
paul
stardust.cowgirl
suikkanen
Keanan also named his own clothing label Slinky Vagabond and you can read more about this and the band on
If the ten winners would like to get in touch with their postal details, we’ll get their well-earned booty to them pronto.
I guess we could cruise down one more time…
Hot on the heels of their annual fan meeting, those Dutch types have unleashed the October 2007 issue of
As much as this is jolly good news for those that have been with The Voyeur and its previous incarnations over the years, I’m sad to have to report that this October issue is the penultimate.
The organisers do intend to continue with an online presence at
This will be without the regular contributions from Ton van der Horst, who has decided to call it a day.
Anyway, here’s what to expect from the current issue…
Watch out for “The Voyeur”
Welcome to “The Voyeur”
The Autograph – Every picture tells a story
Woodmansey caught “Red Handed” – An exclusive interview “The Voyeur” had with Woody Woodmansey.
Catch a Falling Star – A Book review by Peter Haywood.
Four page full colour David Bowie centrefold
Announcement of the 2007 fan(club)meeting (oops)
‘Snap em’ he said – Paparazi at the Highline Festival
The 1980 Floor Show – The six DVD bootleg set reviewed
Further details regarding the content of this new edition and information about back issues can be found on The Voyeur homepage at
Until tomorrow but that’s just another time…
Shindig #7 has a 3-page feature regarding David Bowie’s brief daliance with The Riot Squad in the spring of 1967. But, despite a teaser on the front cover proclaiming: “DAVID BOWIE & THE RIOT SQUAD New Unseen photos!”, there certainly aren’t any new unseen photos of David Bowie.
In fact, they’ve used a low quality version of the same pic (see Bowie-hiighlighted version above) that seems to be the only shot of Bowie with The Riot Squad in existence.
However, it’s still an engaging read that does a good job of untangling the Riot Squad’s confusing history…little of which had anything to do with David Bowie. Nevertheless, they’ve made a good fist of the Bowie-related section, from which these excerpts…
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On 13th April 1967, Bowie played a live show, at the trendy London club Tiles on Oxford Street, backed by east London group The Riot Squad. The 12 weeks that Bowie spent as a member of The Riot Squad are not well documented but provide a fascinating insight into the ’67 period Bowie and the musical directions he subsequently took.
While it’s common knowledge among Bowie fans that he featured The Velvet Underground’s ‘Waiting For My Man’ (sic) in his early ’70s live shows and tirelessly championed them as a major influence on his work, it’s much less well known that he had recorded the track with The Riot Squad as early as 1967.
———————————————————————————————————————–
“…it’s much less well known” unless you read the BowieNet news pages that is. (12.09.2006 NEWS: VELVETS ACETATE MOST EXPENSIVE RECORD OF ALL TIME) And the song title is: I’m Waiting For The Man, actually, though Bowie dropped the I’m. Anyway, back to the article, with a bit of pre-Bowie Riot Squad history…
———————————————————————————————————————–
The Riot Squad then effectively split into two different bands, the first as The Stewart James Inspiration; while Derek Roll, Butch Davis and Bob Evans continued with The Riot Squad as a straight ahead rock/pop act. Bob Evans began the search for a new vocalist and chanced upon David Bowie in London’s West End, who accepted his offer. The new line-up was completed by Croke Prebble on bass and Rod Davies on guitar. Keyboard player George Butcher remembers that neither Bowie nor The Riot Squad cared for the popular soul-orientated club acts like Geno Washington, so moving towards a more progressive sound was agreeable to both. Bowie at this time was still living in Beckenham, just south of London, but immediately moved in with Bob Evans in Leytonstone, east London.
Their first rehearsal took place at The Swan pub in Tottenham. Riot Squad organist George Butcher recalls Bowie arriving wearing flares and with his hair longer than the mod cut he’d sported with The Buzz. Bowie insisted that if he were to become the vocalist, the choice of tracks would be his. His choice was a mixture of original compositions, such as ‘Little Toy Soldier’, ‘Silly Boy Blu’e and ‘Silver Tree Top School For Boys’, and covers, including Frank Zappa’s ‘It Can’t Happen Here’ as well as tracks by The Velvet Underground and The Fugs.
Bowie’s engagement happened to coincide with his brief dalliance with mime and make-up and this experimentation evidently manifested itself in The Riot Squad’s stage act as local rag The Walthamstow Independent reported in a review of a Bowie/Riot Squad live show:
“The crack of a whip breaks through the sound of loud, erratic music. Teenagers, dancing in a frenzy, gaze towards the music makers to see a lean, coconut-haired youth being whipped. A bizarre orgy? No, just a scene from Waltham Forest’s Riot Squad’s stage performance.”
The Independent continues:
“And flowers play more than a large part in the act. For, as the new leader in the group Bob Evans explained, not only is most of their clothing floral, but they also dress up as flowers and their instruments have been converted into flowers. It is only compara-tively recently that the group has adopted this way-out, psychedelic approach to pop music and, as a result of the conversion, offers from all over the world have come flooding in. So much so that the group has had to turn down an offer of a tour in Venezuela.”
Bowie’s tenure as front man for The Riot Squad lasted only from April to June 1967, during which time Bowie’s star was temporarily in the ascent. Both his solo single The Laughing Gnome’ and his eponymous debut album were released while he was a member of the band.
Maybe it’s because the attention of writers and archivists has always been focused on these formative Deram releases that Bowie’s tentative venture into the recording studio with The Riot Squad has gone largely unnoticed.
This lone session took place late one evening in April 1967 at Decca’s West Hampstead studio with staff engineer Gus Dudgeon on production duties. Gus had the keys to the studios and recorded many bands without Decca’s knowledge, usually working late into the night when he was less likely to be disturbed or caught. George Butcher remembers a number of tracks being recorded that night but only two have ever surfaced; a cover of the The Velvet Undergound’s ‘Waiting For My Man’ and the Bowie original ‘Little Toy Soldier’.
———————————————————————————————————————–
The article goes on to describe Waiting For The Man and Little Toy Soldier in some detail and then continues thus…
———————————————————————————————————————–
There was also one further track on the tape, an instrumental version of ‘Silly Boy Blue’ which one can only assume was also recorded with The Riot Squad at the same session. It has also been reported that a version of ‘Silver Tree Top School For Boys’ was recorded at that session, although it’s existence has still to be confirmed. Bowie’s own demo of the song, dating from around the time of his Riot Squad membership, has appeared on several bootlegs but The Riot Squad’s involvement seems very unlikely.
Bowie left The Riot Squad some time in June 1967, no doubt empowered by the release of his debut album earlier that month. The rest, as they say, is history.
———————————————————————————————————————–
Inded it is. It’s still worth picking up a copy of Shindig #7, as much of what I have edited out still deserves to be read. You can
I can see it now…
Here are the ten winners of our recent Heathen contest (10.03.2007 NEWS: BARNBROOK BIBLE FULL DETAILS PLUS WIN LTD HEATHEN CD) in which you were asked to identify the wrong anagram…
brendaj
granddiva
kennyhay
mascrivo
MeetingVenus
mkenny
redhayes
svp
thebewleybro
tonight88
Ha! He say: “rent hat” was the anagram that the clever sausages above selected from the list of ten possibilities.
Your groovy collectable will be sent to you all on receipt of your real world postal address.
Friends come to see me, To see the show…*
For those of you planning to attend Sunday’s
If you’re not aware of Hutch’s Bowie involvement, you’ll find the best online potted history at the wonderfully informative
But, if you can’t be bothered to click that far, in a nutshell, Hutch, along with David Bowie, was a member of both The Buzz (1966) and Feathers (1968). In April 1973 David and Hutch were reunited one last time, when DB asked Hutch to join his touring band as 12-string guitarist for the remaining Aladdin Sane shows in Japan and the UK.
John, who is apparently touring Holland at the moment, has agreed to play a couple of acoustic songs somewhere between 1:00pm and 3:00pm.
Thanx again to Peter Smit for details of this performance and to Bert Slappendel for supplying the above picture of Hutch during a performance in Edam last summer…the place in Holland, not a load of the cheese…that would be plain daft!
*NB: In case you’re unfamiliar with the words, today’s lyrical quotation comes from a composition entitled Life Is A Circus which was part of David and Hutch’s repertoire in December 1968. The song was originally released by American outfit, Djin.
Scary monsters, super creeps, keep me running, running scared…
Sorry Arthur fans, despite reports elsewhere, David Bowie does not make any contribution to Luc Besson‘s Arthur And The Vengeance Of Maltazard (2009).
He declined the offer to voice further appearances as the very nasty and generally disagreeable Maltazard…and who can blame him? Don’t want to start getting typecast!
He’s down on the street…
As the new
Click on the images above to check out some animated versions of the Bowie-inspired clothing range over at the Target site, and while you’re there you can hear snippets from the promotional Target Strangers When We Meet Bowie CD.
Also, don’t forget our contest to win copies of that CD and the possibly just as scarce look book. (10.12.2007 NEWS: TEN BOWIE/DUFFTY/TARGET CDs AND LOOK BOOKS TO BE WON) It seems the CD is already going on eBay for $30…six times the instore price!