Month: October 2009

The boy in the bright blue suit, Jumped up on the stage…

Spurred on by the above leaflet no doubt, parents all over the UK were rushing out to their local record emporium to buy their teenage children copies of David Live, thirty five years ago todsy, while they could still take advantage of the more than generous discount.

It seems this discount was only aimed at UK buyers and it’s identifiable on earlier UK pressings by the PRICE CODE: FF Until Jan 1st 1975 on the reverse of the sleeve.

The promotion seemed to work as David Live went straight into the UK album chart at #2.

£3.78 ain’t half bad for one of the very best live albums of all time…and, incredibly, it’s almost five years since the release of the expanded 5.1 version that Tony Visconti did such a good job on. You can remind yourself of that release via the following stories…

08.25.2004 NEWS: DAVID LIVE AND STAGE REISSUE DETAILS
11.27.2004 NEWS: TV TALKS DAVID LIVE
02.14.2005 NEWS: ABBEY ROAD PLAYBACK…BOWIENETTERS REPORT
02.21.2005 REMINDER: DAVID LIVE AND STAGE OUT TODAY

Halloween Jack is a real cool cat…

Just in time for the seasonal ghosties and ghoulies and long-legged beasties and things that go bump in the night, the latest episode of gripping new TV series, FlashForward, has Scary Monsters and Super Creeps as its title.

The show leans heavily on the rock genre for its soundtrack music, albeit using cover versions. Hopefully they’ll have something appropriate for this episode.

Tune in to Scary Monsters and Super Creeps when FlashForward airs tomorrow evening in the US, (October 29th) at 20:00 ET on ABC and on November 2nd on Five in the UK at 21:00 GMT.

And me I’m on a radio show…

I don’t think you need any more information regarding this than that in the above BBC advert. However, if you don’t remember the original event, check out this BowieNet story: 09.18.2002 NEWS: BOWIE RADIO TWO SESSION PICTURES AND REVIEWS

Many thanx to those of you that e-mailed in pointers to this Radio 2 repeat of Bowie in top form during a very memorable London show.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m only dancing…

You’re possibly unaware of the work of early music quartet, Red Priest, so here’s an introduction from their website…

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Red Priest is the only early music group in the world to have been compared in the press to the Rolling Stones, Jackson Pollock, the Marx Brothers, Spike Jones and the Cirque du Soleil. This extraordinary acoustic foursome has been described by music critics as ?visionary and heretical?, ?outrageous yet compulsive?, ?wholly irreverent and highly enlightened?, ?completely wild and deeply imaginative?, with a ?red-hot wicked sense of humour? and a ? break-all-rules, rock-chamber concert approach to early music.?

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Their latest release is a collection of works composed by J. S. Bach with the cleverly punning title: Johann, I’m Only Dancing.

I asked ‘the greatest recorder player of our time’, Red Priest’s Piers Adams, how they chose a title so far removed from the usual baroque circles. This was his reply…

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“Although Red Priest is basically a classical group we have always used pop or filmic titles for our albums and shows – this one follows on from Priest on the Run, Nightmare in Venice and Pirates of the Baroque.

A good concept for our all-Bach project eluded us for weeks (we had been through every bad Bach pun you can think of) until one day I had a copy of ChangesBowie in my hand and this jumped out and bit me.

It’s perfect as it reflects the dance spirit we wanted to bring out of the music of a composer most people think of as a bit serious and humourless. And as a lifelong Bowie fan I thought this seemed like a great passing tribute to a modern-day musical genius too.”

Piers Adams, Red Priest

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Modern-day musical genius – Couldn’t have put it better myself!

Go here for all things Red Priest.

This is Major Tom to Ground Control, I’m stepping through the door…

In the last instalment of The Continuing Story Of Major Tom, (10.09.2009 NEWS: THE FIRST BOWIE TOTPs BROADCAST IS FORTY) we reminded you that after David’s first TOTPs on October 9th 1969, his appearance on the show was rebroadcast on October 16th, helping the single climb further up the chart to #8 in the UK and #9 in Holland.

A week later the charts published for the weekend of October 25th recorded a rise in Space Oddity‘s position to #6 in the UK and #8 in Holland, as celebrated in the above Billboard advert published in November in an attempt to help boost US sales of the single.

Coincidentally, the 1975 reissue of Space Oddity six years later was climbing to the top of the UK charts in the very same weeks. By October 25th, 1975, the reissue had reached #4 in the UK. However, both the 1969 and 1975 releases still had further to go…more of which next week.

They can’t dance, they don’t talk much, they just ball and play…

Not sure if we’ve featured these chaps on BowieNet before now, but Scottish BowieNetter Dukebox recommends them and the band are keen to push this particular date at which they will be playing the Ziggy Stardust album in its entirety…so there it is.

Plus, it’s all for a good cause, the Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy in Scotland to be precise.

Check out the Tigers On Vaseline My Space page for more regarding this show and the handful of gigs they have before it.

Goodbye Mr S…

Sad to report the passing of the custard pie king, comedian Soupy Sales, who died on Thursday night at Calvary Hospice in the Bronx, New York. He had many health problems and entered the hospice last week.

Sales was 83 and is survived by his wife, Trudy, and two sons, Hunt and Tony, who will be familiar to you as the rhythm section of Tin Machine and Iggy Pop‘s 1977 band.

You can view the AP report of Soupy’s death here and while you’re on YouTube take a look at this low quality video of Tony and The Tigers being introduced by their father for their first TV appearance.

Our thoughts are with Hunt and Tony and their mother, and, along with David, we would like to pass on our condolences to them.

He flows through your life…

There’s a two-page spread in the current NewStatesman (26 October 2009) with the wonderfully punning headline Hallowed spaceboy and that is summed up thus in the standfirst: “Over 40 years, David Bowie has repeatedly reinvented himself, pursuing the idea that all pop is artifice. Graeme Thomson surveys the career of a revered innovator.”

It’s a well balanced piece that concludes with the following…

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Above all, I love how Bowie has never succumbed to peddling “sincerity”, the dread, dishonest concept that creeps into the body of pop and calcifies its bones. All great pop is artifice, and Bowie stands as the Platonic ideal: a glorious, fluid, preposterous, inspired, contrived fabrication that changed the outline of our cultural terrain permanently.

?In art you can crash your plane and walk away from it. If you have that chance, you should take it.” Coming from anyone else – Madonna, or, more likely, Bono – this would be laughably delusional. From Bowie’s lips, amid the carefully calibrated doses of pretension and preciousness, it has the sharp tang of truth. If he has destroyed more conceptual jumbo jets than he or we may care to recall, that is simply the price of flying so high, so far, for so long.

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Sorry, I know that’s a bit like giving the punchline away first, but the whole thing really is worth a read…and you can do just that, here.

Sailor can’t dance like you…

There’s a new Michael Clark interview in the free London newspaper METRO ahead of his stint at The Barbican next week.

We’ve been telling you about Clark’s new work for a while now, originally entitled Thank U Ma’am and now called come, been and gone, I wouldn’t be surprised if it had a new name before The Barbican shows with the way Michael is talking about changing the piece.

This restlessness is reflected in the Keith Watson-conducted METRO interview: “Some of the songs I felt I just couldn’t do anything good enough to. I keep wanting to change it all. I want to do three versions of Heroes now. If the dance comes anywhere close to the way the music has made me feel, then I’ve achieved something.”

Clark also explained how the music of David Bowie spurred him on to try something new: “After three years of Stravinsky, I wanted a serious change. Songs like Jean Genie are so energetic you’ve got a lot of freedom to do all sorts of things. I wanted to do something that felt different.”

You can read the full interview here and you may want to check out these previous news items if you haven’t been following this story…

03.10.2009 NEWS: NEW MICHAEL CLARK WORK CELEBRATES, BOWIE, IGGY & LOU
04.23.2009 NEWS: SCHEDULE FOR MICHAEL CLARK’S NEW WORK ANNOUNCED
07.09.2009 NEWS: MICHAEL CLARK’S NEW WORK DETAILS
08.02.2009 NEWS: MORE MICHAEL CLARK THANK U MA’AM DETAILS
08.26.2009 NEWS: MICHAEL CLARK NEW WORK NAME CHANGE AND EIF PREVIEW

Michael Clark Company new work
Barbican Theatre, London, UK
Dance Umbrella and bite09
28 October 2009 – 7 November 2009 / 19:45
(no performance 1 – 2 November)
Tickets: £10 – £35 – subject to availability

I’ll hopefully have some kind of review for you following the first night, what with me being a dance expert ‘n all.

The return of the fin white duke…

Apparently this one slipped out back in July…the 20th to be precise. However, BowieNetter Jesus John Allison (sic) has only just told us about it so it’s pretty much his fault really. Thanx anyway, John.

Yellowbeard has been available on Region 1 DVD for some time but it hadn’t been looking too good for a Region 2 release….it’s here now, packed with exciting extras…well, the trailer at least.

Anyway, those who know the film will recognise The Shark from the still above, though I have to point out that the DVD doesn’t actually come flying through the door in the film as it does in our picture.

However, it could come flying through your door as Optimum Home Entertainment have generously promised us five copies of the Region 2 DVD to give to you.

All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is identify the six films associated with the shots of Bowie in the above montage and the name of each character portrayed.

You can use any version of the film title. For example, if you think the little grey fellow in the background is from Everybody Loves Sunshine, you could answer thus…

Film title = B.U.S.T.E.D. Name of character played by Bowie = Bernie (The film was originally known as Everybody Loves Sunshine, however, that “little grey fellow” definitely wasn’t in it!)

When you think you have all six answers, email me here with them. We’ll run this one until midnight New York time on Saturday October 31st, with the five winners being announced shortly thereafter.

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. If you do neither of these things you won’t be eligible to enter.

Simples innit kidz!

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REMINDER: Don’t forget the two other BowieNet contests that end shortly:

10.07.2009 NEWS: ‘hours…’ IS TEN – WIN SIGNED PRESS FOLDER AND PROMO CDs
Ends midnight New York time on Friday October 23rd

10.12.2009 NEWS: SPACE ODDITY 40TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION CDs TO BE WON
Ends midnight New York time on Sunday October 25th