Month: November 2009

Fantastic Voyage…

Ben Graham has written a very well-considered critique of Lodger over on The Quietus, entitled: 30-Years On: David Bowie’s Lodger Comes In From The Cold.

Here’s a couple of paragraphs from it…

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And responsibility, in the end, is the real theme of Lodger: taking us back to the opening track?s worries over the fate of the entire planet resting in the hands of one flawed, capricious human being, through to ?Repetition?s? description of how we pass on our pain to those closest to us, full of self-pitying victimhood yet unaware we?ve become the aggressor. From the crippling banality of ?DJ?- a man with the ears of millions of believers, yet nothing to say- to the cocooned self-absorption of ?Boys Keep Swinging,? and the damp squib of a judgement day portrayed in ?Look Back in Anger.? The last words on the album are ?Such responsibility- it?s up to you and me.?

It?s this sense of responsibility – both individual and collective – that finally separates Lodger from the so-called Berlin albums. Low was, in Bowie?s own words, ?Isn?t it great to be on your own, let?s just pull down the blinds and fuck em all?, a celebration of self-pity. ?Heroes? saw the individual begin to fight back, but still from a passive-aggressive, me-against-the-world standpoint. It?s only with Lodger that Bowie realises that to survive in any meaningful sense, he has to engage with society, and with the rest of the human race.

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It’s a great read that echoes many of my own sentiments regarding this fine recording and if you’ve not read it yet you should check it out now.

Why not have a listen to Lodger while you’re about it…just as I suggested back in May. (05.18.2009 NEWS: LODGER IS THIRTY)

FOOTNOTE: For those of you that need to know such things, the montage above is of press adverts for Lodger, the first being from the US, followed by two Japanese and a French.

Screaming above Central London…

Similarly to the above story, if you don’t subscribe to The Bowie Experience newsletter then you might not know that the band’s upcoming London date has moved from November to February next year.

Here’s a bit from the newsletter from front man Laurence…

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You’ll know that we had a date at The Camden Barfly, Camden, London in the diary for November, due to management change at the venue we have been rescheduled, the new date is February 25th 2010.

If you have bought a ticket don`t worry it`s still valid for the new date.

All the best, Laurence.

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So February it is…see you there London boys and girls.

Check out The Bowie Experience MySpace page for more UK gigs in your area.

New York’s a Go Ghost…

Awoken by Halloween’s kindred spirits, Spooky Ghost returns to haunt a couple of New York City nights in November.

Here’s the lowdown from the head spook himself, for those that don’t subscribe to his newsletter…

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It seems the time of year is upon us to tread the boards again, or at least stumble up a small step to knock over instruments …

The elusive Spooky Ghost shall appear in two forms

Monday Nov 16th @ 8pm as a solo show

Monday Nov 30 @ 8pm as part of a “Spooky Host” evening from 7 till 10 pm

This “Spooky Host” will feature the fabulous Pamela Sue Mann @ 7pm and the amazing Donna Lewis @ 9 pm.

But more on “SpookyHost” closer to the date…all shows will be at The Living Room, 161 Ludlow Street NYC.

Love it if you could make it…Your Humble Ghost.

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Welcome back Gerry, I was beginning to think you’d given up the ghost!

Last night they loved you…

Jonathan Ross coughed up £20,000 GBP at a charity auction last night for a lithograph self-portrait of his hero, David Bowie.

The 48-year-old DJ/TV presenter rounded off the evening nicely by treating himself to the print after he was awarded with the Music Industry Trusts (MITs) award for the exposure he has given to new artists.

Bryan Ferry, Four Poofs and a Piano, who provide musical accompaniment on the BBC’s Friday Night With Jonathan Ross, and Stereophonics frontman Kelly Jones all performed at the event, which was attended by more than 1,000 people from the UK music and entertainment industry. Among those there were Noel Gallagher, the band Sparks and Russell Brand.

A host of Ross’s celebrity friends also left video messages congratulating him, including Bjork, Cheryl Cole, Brandon Flowers, Harry Hill, Sir Tom Jones, Will Smith, U2, Rufus Wainwright and Dame Vivienne Westwood.

Singer George Michael presented Ross with the gong during the evening of tributes at a ceremony at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel in London, which included a message of congratulations sent from DB earlier in the evening that was read out by host Paul Gambaccini.

We are glad to be able to exclusively reveal the full content of that message here…

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My dear Jonathan,

Huge congratulations on your award and so well deserved. Your guitar work is extravagantly revered in this house.

I have both your albums and play them continuously. Did you know that if you play them both at the same time your w’s turn to r’s?

I’ll pop over to London at some point and we can pick up on that sonata we started writing last time. I think it needs some funk though. Get Ricky involved.

Now eat, drink and make merry for it will all end in a lustrum.

David Bowie

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The lithograph was The Dhead – Outside (see background above) of which David said this on BowieArt.com: “The Dhead – Outside was my final selection from a series of five self portraits that I made in 1995, to be used as the cover for the 1995 album Outside. The original is in my private collection.”

The 25.5 x 20cm print was originally available through BowieArt.com printed on Fabriano paper and signed by David…all for a mere ninety quid.

It has long since been unavailable and the fact that Jonathan shelled out an extraordinary £20,000 (approx. $33, 000 USD at current rates) just goes to show what a generous chap he is…but then again, it was all in aid of Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy and the Brit School.

This morning I asked Jonathan what he made of the evening, this was his reply…

“It was a weird night. A bit like a cheese-inspired dream. But fun. The words from the big man were the icing on the cake.”

Jonathan has a long history of Bowie appreciation, and, aside from having DB on his TV show a couple of times, he has also been the compere at a couple of special Bowie events, the 2002 Maida Vale Radio 2 gig which was re-broadcast last week (10.27.2009 REMINDER: BOWIE’S MAIDA VALE 2002 BBC SHOW REPEATED THURSDAY) and the BowieNet member’s only Reality cinema recording at Riverside in 2003 to name but two.

To this day, Ross still plays a Bowie tune every week on his Saturday morning show…a privilege no other artist enjoys.

Congratulations Jonathan, and as David says…so well deserved.

Oh man I need RC when I got DB…

Firstly, congratulations to Record Collector on reaching their 30th year with the publication of the December 2009 issue. Who remembers those first little A5 versions they launched with that included The Beatles Monthly magazine thingy? Well I do, and I’ve bought every issue since.

To celebrate this issue the magazine has listed who it considers to be the thirty most collectable artists of all time, “based solidly in current values and collecting trends”. Here follows the Top 10…

01 – The Beatles
02 – The Rolling Stones
03 – David Bowie
04 – Queen
05 – Led Zeppelin
06 – Pink Floyd
07 – Sex Pistols
08 – The Smiths
09 – Iron Maiden
10 – Joy Diviision

As with all these lists, this one’s sure to start some heated debate…Personal taste aside though, I’m surprised to see both Iron Maiden and Joy Division in the Top 10 and I didn’t think I’d find Elvis as low as #24 and Dylan at #28.

Anyway, it’s supposedly a scientific method they’ve used and it’s great to have Bowie at #3, considering what a relative newcomer he is compared to the two artists above him.

Generally I appreciate Record Collector for the informative and in-depth articles regarding many bands I love, not to mention the regular Bowie features they have published over the years.

However, if I have one gripe it’s the magazine’s bizarre valuations. I’ve ranted about this in the past so I’ll keep it brief here, but we probably need no better example than the one above from the current issue in the 1980 section of the magazine’s look back at the past thirty years.

Most collectors know the story behind the purple vinyl pressing of Scary Monsters, but whether you consider it legit or not, (I don’t) I think it’s absurd that RC values the album at £600 when, by their own admission in the same article, collectors have shelled out double that, and, indeed, up to seven times that amount.

I think a more accurate guide would suggest a figure between £2,000 and £4,000, depending on current trends. Particularly when the most recent sale of the record fetched £4,2200 on eBay (04.19.2007 NEWS: BOWIE ALBUM SELLS ON EBAY FOR £4,220 GBP) and even a shoddy counterfeit of this pressing (if that’s not just a counterfeit of a counterfeit) went for over a grand on eBay in 2005.

When I’m Five…

As we reported in our last instalment of The Continuing Story Of Major Tom, (10.25.2009 NEWS: DB’s 40-YEAR-OLD CONTINUED ASCENT OF UK AND DUTCH TOP 10) forty years ago last week the Philips Space Oddity 45 had reached #6 in the UK singles chart and #8 in Holland.

Then for the week ending November 1st 1969, the single rose to #5 in the UK, (as recorded in the Record Mirror Charts Page, above) giving David Bowie his biggest hit to date. I’m not sure if it fared any better in Holland, but if you have a reliable source for this information please let us know.

The song also gave David Bowie his first American Top 20 hit when a January 1973 issue of Space Oddity on RCA peaked at #15 in The Billboard Hot 100, even making The Billboard Hot 100 Songs of the Year Chart in 1973 too.

As we pointed out last week, the 1975 RCA reissue of Space Oddity in the UK (see press advert above) was climbing to the top of the UK charts in the very same weeks as the 1969 single. By November 1st, 1975, this reissue had reached #2 in the UK and the following week it gave Bowie his first UK #1, staying at the top spot for two weeks.

The previous month, Fame became David Bowie’s first ever #1 when it topped The Billboard Hot 100.