Penguin Modern Classics Version Of Tmwfte Due
Did you see his eyes, did you see his crazy eyes?
Due on August 27th through Penguin Classics is yet another paperback printing of Walter Tevis‘s brilliant The Man Who Fell To Earth.
Not that I’m complaining, as it’s another one with Bowie as TJ Newton…and that’s yet another Bowie thing I collect!
Below are the versions I have to date, if you know of any other printings with Bowie front covers, please let me know…or better, let me have it!
1976 UK Pan printing with beautiful George Underwood painting…the first version I bought and still my favourite TMWFTE cover.
1976 US Avon version with very nice back cover too.
1979 UK Alpha/Oxford copy with a great Tony Wright illustration on the front and with the added bonus of Bowie stills from the film on the inside covers.
1999 UK Bloomsbury edition with badly cropped reproduction of original UK film poster on front cover and enlarged section on the back cover.
And lastly, 2000 UK version published by Bloomsbury again and given away with Sight and Sound magazine plus German printing from 1986.
Obviously there are even more paperbacks and hard covers without Bowie on the front, (I have most of those too) but is anybody out there aware of any Bowie covers I may have missed? There must be some more non-English language versions with Bowie on them somewhere on the planet.
Finally, I always felt it was kind of appropriate that the first chapter of the book is entitled: 1972: Icarus Descending… The very year that Ziggy came among us from above.
Life On Mars – The Greatest Song Of All Time
Oh man! Wonder if he’ll ever know…
Neil McCormick, the UK Telegraph’s rock critic, has chosen his 100 greatest songs of all time.
In the year of its 40th anniversary, he starts with Space Oddity at #100 and kind of reveals the fact that Bowie is also #1 in the list with his accompanying text for Space Oddity: “I shall start as I intend to finish, with sci-fi strangeness from pop?s resident alien.”.
And indeed he does finish with David Bowie at #1 with Life On Mars?, as you no doubt worked out from the headline and scan from today’s Culture section of the Telegraph, above.
Whether Life On Mars? can be accurately described as “sci-fi strangeness” is debatable…in fact, no it’s not debatable…it isn’t a sci-fi song.
Either way, McCormick’s conclusion is accurate…Life On Mars?, probably is the greatest song of all time…That or Teenage Wildlife, or The Bewlay Brothers….or, or, or…
You can view the full top 100
New Michael Clark Work Celebrates, Bowie, Iggy & Lou
There’s a brand new dance but I don’t know its name…
Clark and his company of lovely little movers, will present the new creation in Venice for the Biennale. This latest work is “…inspired by the living legends of rock ?David Bowie, Iggy Pop and Lou Reed? and the Seventies, when the three artists worked closely together and produced some of their masterpieces.”.
After its world premiere on June 25 and 26 at the Teatro alle Tese in the Venice Arsenale as part of the Dance Biennale, the piece is scheduled for Edinburgh from August 28 to 31 at the Edinburgh International Festival; in Stockholm October 1 and 2 for Dansens Hus; in Paris from October 15 to 17 at the Maison des Arts de Créteil; and in London from October 28 to November 7 at the Barbican Theatre.
See this item over at
Benassi Vs Bowie Dj Remix Due Plus Exclusive First Look
I am a DJ and I’ve got believers…
I’m sure some of you will be aware of a bootleg remix of David Bowie’s DJ created by Benny Benassi that first surfaced as a two track white label in July of last year.
Benassi himself had been performing the track live since at least March 2008 and DJ quickly became a big favourite on the club circuit.
Now the track will enjoy an official release through Positiva in June, just in time for the 30th anniversary of the single’s original release in June 1979.
But in the meantime you can watch an exclusive officially sanctioned version of the video here.
Ahead of the June release on CD and 12″, there is a very limited 4-track DJ only version doing the rounds, from which the following information…
———————————————————————————————————————–
BENASSI vs BOWIE ~ ?D.J.?
Extended Version / Planet Funk Remix
Mobbing Remix / Alex Gopher Remix
Benny rocketed to international stardom in 2003 with ‘Satisfaction’, and has since built a formidable reputation as a DJ and producer around the globe – especially in France, the USA ,South America and of course his native Italy.
His album sold a million copies worldwide and he picked up a Grammy for his remix of Public Enemy‘s “Bring The Noise” last year, whilst also opening for Madonna on the Italian leg of her world tour.
His latest creation sees him taking a track from Bowie‘s 1979 album “Lodger”, and turning it into an anthem for DJ’s everywhere.
Already huge for David Guetta and Bob Sinclar amongst others, the sample is now officially cleared and “D.J.” is ready to roll.
With remixes by Planet Funk, Mobbing and Alex Gopher this really is one essential package for your DJ Sets.
———————————————————————————————————————–
We’ll give you more definite release details as we get them.
Bowie In Today's Sunday Times Photo Supplement
British Music Experience Exhibition Opens Monday
It’s happening now…
Don’t forget that the
One of the cooler features that I didn’t mention in that news item is the Smarticket function which lets you relive parts of your experience when you get home.
Also, if you’re a BowieNet member, check out a bigger version of the rather groovy Bowie flyer
The
Bks For Bbc Iplayer Ad, Cover Version And Mor
Heaven loves ya…
UK members may have seen the latest TV advert for
The song, taken from the Lodger album, was a Top Ten hit in the UK, almost 30 years ago in May 1979.
While we’re on the subject of Boys Keep Swinging, Nina Persson, (vocalist for Swedish group The Cardigans) has covered the song with her other band, A Camp.
There is a video of A Camp performing the song on Swedish TV on
While working on the second A Camp album, Colonia, Nina said the recordings were inspired by “…girl-pop from the 60’s, 80’s punk and David Bowie.”.
Having not heard the album, I can’t comment on how apparent the Bowie influence is, but the band has made a good enough fist of Boys Keep Swinging.
While we’re still on the subject of Boys Keep Swinging, I think it’s fair to say that the song was a pretty good blueprint for Britpop more than ten years before the movement took hold in the UK via the likes of Suede, Blur, Pulp, etc.
Indeed, you may not know that David Bowie and Brian Eno were given a co-writing credit for the Blur song M.O.R. (and you thought I’d left off an E in today’s headline!) after the band acknowledged the song?s similar melody to Boys Keep Swinging.
Report From Preview Night Of The Bme Exhibition
Perhaps the strange ones in The Dome can lend us a book…
I was lucky enough to receive an invite for the preview of the
Visitors were teased on the walk from North Greenwich tube exit to the O2 itself with a series of huge displays such as the one above.
If you’re familiar with the former Millennium Dome you’ll know it’s a big beast and the trek to the site of the exhibition itself (The O2 Bubble) is as far from the dome entrance as North Greenwich tube exit is.
After a quick livener in the green room, I was ushered with a gaggle of other guests into a darkened space for a short explanatory film hosted by the very lovely Lauren Laverne.
Four minutes later the doors were opened and we swarmed in our different directions to the areas of greatest interest…needless to say, I made a beeline straight for Space #9, 1970-1976.
At the top of this piece is a good clear shot of the Bowie display, which I will now attempt to describe for you.
As I said in aforementioned news piece, and as you can see from the evidence above, there are three Bowie outfits in this space: the 1973 Ziggy numbers jump suit with red lace-up wrestling boots, the David Live suit from the 1974 Diamond Dogs Tour and The Thin White Duke‘s 1976 World Tour outfit.
As I mentioned in our earlier piece, the Natasha Korniloff designed Ashes To Ashes pierrot outfit is part of the display in the New Romantic’s section, sharing space with Adam Ant‘s Kings Of The Wild Frontier costume, and just to remind us what a big Bowie fan he is, Boy George‘s Culture Club stage outfit which is covered with large colourful numbers! Sound familiar?
Here’s a close-up of the pierrot outfit just to show you what a fine job Natasha made of this garment…
No doubt these Bowie costumes are what will appeal most to BowieNet members as they are always fascinating to see in the flesh…or more accurately, without the flesh.
Other equally interesting items for even the most seasoned Bowie observer include hand-written lyric sheets for both Five Years and Fame and a 1972 Ziggy set list, all illustrated above.
Also on display are two extremely rare and valuable posters, the first for the Diamond Dogs show at Madison Square Garden on July 20th 1974, the other a 1976 UK promo RCA poster for the withdrawn colour Station To Station.
There was also David’s own hand made mock up for the Young Americans album sleeve, original 1974 concert tickets and a Diamond Dogs ID Tag.
To be honest, the remainder of the items in the display won’t be of that much interest to hardcore fans and to my mind were a bit of a wasted opportunity.
There’s an unofficial Ziggy Lives comic that I think was actually published in the 90s or even the 00s…kind of irrelevant and not very good anyway. A 1973 tour programme, except it’s one of those flimsy unofficial ones that were on sale outside the venues instead of the official 1973 UK Tour Programme.
To remind people of the original setting for the 1974 suit there’s a battered Lifetimes reissue of the David Live cover and above that sits the iconic 1976 Bowie Rolling Stone cover. And just to prove I haven’t let my pedantry patheticness slip, the Gitanes packet in The Duke’s waistcoat pocket is the wrong design.
Sadly there were some teething troubles with some of the hi-tech stuff too. In front of each display cabinet is a fret board which lights up different areas of the display as you touch it and which gives extra information via a headphone set regarding the spotlit item…The spotlight’s weren’t working in either the Bowie or New Romantic displays.
Another grumble is the lack of information regarding the mock up for the Young Americans album sleeve…There is no audio information and it’s too small in the display case to get a good look at. It’s about the size of a gatefold CD sleeve with several pages inside, the content of which I will endeavour to find out.
Here’s a final photograph for now, it’s a close-up of the Diamond Dogs jumper, the exact fabric design of which has been debated by many Bowie fans across the years…I’m not sure this picture helps with a conclusion though…
Overall it’s a great exhibition if you have a few hours to spare and you can view it on a quiet day. I’m sure super fans will find fault with practically every display, but it’s a brave and serious attempt to celebrate the uniqueness and durability of British music from the fifties to the present day.
It would be wonderful to have a similar space dedicated to Bowie alone…lord knows he has enough of an exciting and colourful history to easily fill such a thing.
The
Bowie/sukita Spread In Style Deficit Disorder Book
Just pictures of Jap girls in synthesis…
Though originally released some time ago, Tiffany Godoy‘s
As you can see above, there’s a two page spread on the influence David Bowie’s look and Sukita‘s photography has had on the street fashion scene in Tokyo…A connection I alluded to back in 2001 (12.25.2001 NEWS: MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!) with this bit of PhotoShop fun…
Anyway, here’s some guff regarding the book…
———————————————————————————————————————–
The Harajuku neighborhood of Tokyo has become an international style mecca, a street-level fashion scene prowled by major designers looking for inspiration, and whose local, cutting-edge labels enjoy global cache. Style Deficit Disorder is the first book to explore this remixed, fast-forward fashion hotbed, profiling its most daring and influential designers, labels, stylists, and shops (including Hysteric Glamour, Super Lovers, A Bathing Ape, Sonia Park, and Laforet). Featuring nearly 200 photos, essays, by key Japanese fashion editors, and commentary by David Byrne, Patricia Field, Shawn Stussy, John Galliano and many others, this is a must-have, insider?s look at an international fashion and pop culture epicenter, past, present, and future.
Tiffany Godoy has lived in Japan since 1997, when she began working as a fashion editor for the Japanese culture magazine Composite and then subsequently for Studio Voice. She is a contributing editor and writer for Vogue Nippon, V Magazine, the New York Times Magazine, WWD, and Interview. She has served as creative consultant for fashion and advertising companies in Japan.
———————————————————————————————————————–
You can find out more about the book at: