Month: January 2010

We could be safer…

Peter Gabriel has donated his recording of David Bowie’s “Heroes” to the Music For Relief disaster fund to aid earthquake victims in Haiti.

The track, which is taken from the Scratch My Back album that we told you about recently, (11.12.2009 NEWS: PETER GABRIEL CONFIRMS HEROES COVER & 01.05.2010 NEWS: PETER GABRIEL ON HEROES COVER…LISTEN TO EXTRACT NOW) has now replaced Peter’s original donation, Make Tomorrow Today, as a download on the album.

The ten track compilation contains tracks by Linkin Park, Dave Matthews Band, Peter Gabriel, Alanis Morissette, Slash, The All-American Rejects, Hoobastank, Kenna, Enrique Iglesias and Lupe Fiasco.

You can download and donate by going here or clicking on the album cover above.

You may also have seen that there is a two-disc special edition that will be made available of Scratch My Back. The package contains a second disc with these four extra tracks…

1 – The Book of Love (Remix)
2 – My Body is a Cage (Oxford London Temple Version)
3 – Waterloo Sunset (Oxford London Temple Version)
4 – “Heroes” (Wildbeest Mix)

Finally, check out this item on tonic.com to view a video of “Heroes” comprised of harrowing stills from the scene of the earthquakes in Haiti.

In red-eyed pain I’m knocking on your door again…

It gives us much pleasure to announce that the iTunes version of David Bowie – A Reality Tour will have an additional two tracks on top of the three bonus tracks already on the CD version.

The extra tracks are Days and 5.15 The Angels Have Gone and this means that a version of all the songs performed over the two nights of recording in Dublin will now be available in digital download format at least.

The iTunes version will contain thirty five tracks for a nominal fee which is a bargain at half the price.

Battle For Britain (The Letter) Day 8…

Today’s letter, above, is a little different to usual in that we’ve used it in negative. On the record sleeve it came from it appears white. However, white text doesn’t show up so well on these white pages.

So, that’s eight letters down so far, that leaves just…not telling.

If you’ve not looked at BowieNet since David’s birthday, then this will all be a lot of old gobbledegook to you…if so, you still have time to enter for your chance to win one of the above Royal Mail Classic Album Covers, First Day Cover (FDC), signed by David Bowie.

Start here: 01.08.2010 NEWS: WIN ROYAL MAIL ZIGGY STARDUST FDC SIGNED BY BOWIE.

Welcome to Reality…

I know a few of you have already stumbled upon this as I’ve had a couple of complimentary e-mails regarding my photographs…the fact that they were from my mother and my wife is neither here nor there.

The grab above is of the newly-launched A Reality Tour page in celebration of the upcoming Sony Music release: David Bowie – A Reality Tour Live 2-CD set.

Anyway, there’s no point wasting time by talking about it here, click on the image above and check it out for yourself.

Battle For Britain (The Letter) Day 7…

You must be getting the hang of this by now. If not, follow the trail from here: 01.08.2010 NEWS: WIN ROYAL MAIL ZIGGY STARDUST FDC SIGNED BY BOWIE.

Friday on my mind…

You may have already seen this one via a Google news alert, but it’s certainly worth repeating here for those that haven’t.

Hot on the heels of their generally* brilliant recreation of Arcade Fire‘s Funeral last November, The Seattle Rock Orchestra plan to pay tribute to the glam rock years of David Bowie at the Moore Theatre in Seattle on March 26th.

We wouldn’t normally highlight these things so far in advance as people tend to forget about them if given too much notice. However, tickets go on sale on Friday and I think they will go very quickly.

Here’s the blurb…

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Seattle Theatre Group (STG) presents the Seattle Rock Orchestra performing a tribute to David Bowie on Friday, March 26, 2010 at 8:00 pm at the Moore Theatre.

The Seattle Rock Orchestra (SRO) will pay tribute to the glam rock years of David Bowie, featuring a 70 piece orchestra, backing band, the Kindness Kind, and guest vocalists John Roderick (the Long Winters), Jon Auer (the Posies), David Terry (Aqueduct), Nouela Johnston (People Eating People), Alessandra Rose (the Kindness Kind) and many more. The Kindness Kind will open the show, as well. SRO is directed by bassist and orchestrator Scott Teske.

Comprised of some of Seattle’s best freelance classical and pop musicians, the Seattle Rock Orchestra collaborates with bands and artists to produce one-of-a-kind symphonic shows. Formed in December of 2008, SRO has since accompanied favorite local artists such as Jeremy Enigk, Jesse Sykes, Damien Jurado and Rosie Thomas, and bands Black Swedes, Exohxo and Grand Hallway. Most recently SRO performed a tribute to the Arcade Fire, performing their iconic album Funeral in it’s entirety with help of guest vocalists from the likes of The Purrs, Hey Marseilles, with Friends Like These, The Kindness Kind, Shenandoah Davis and others.

Tickets: $15.00 in advance, $18.00 day of show, not including applicable fees. Tickets are on sale Friday, January 22nd at 10am at Tickets.com, in person at the Paramount Theatre box offices (M-F 10am-6pm), 24-hour kiosks located outside The Paramount & Moore Theatres, charge by phone at 877-784-4849, or online at STGPresents.org.

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I truly wish I could be there for this one. Grown men will cry.

Check out SRO’s MySpace page for more information and watch videos of their performance of Funeral.

I’m hoping that the use of David Brighton on the poster was intentional as it’s a clever little touch…if it wasn’t, I’d pretend it was if I was the designer!

* I say generally brilliant because it does occasionally get a little bit Portsmouth Sinfonia. However, when they get it right it’s highly emotional stuff…and that’s most of the time.

Battle For Britain (The Letter) Day 6…

OK, after the diversion of the ‘early bird’ contest we’re back to normal. If you’re not sure what normal means then you’re probably best to start at the beginning: 01.08.2010 NEWS: WIN ROYAL MAIL ZIGGY STARDUST FDC SIGNED BY BOWIE.

However, to briefly recap, we’ve taken letters from several different Bowie album covers and your job will be to identify the album each of the letters came from over the next couple of weeks or so.

You don’t have to do anything just yet. But eventually you’ll not only have to identify the album the letter came from, but also the letters will become an anagram of a Bowie song title that you’ll need to work out.

Please note: Obviously I can’t announce the winners of the ‘early bird’ contest just yet, or indeed if there were any winners at all. Otherwise if I did, the winners might tell their mates the correct answer and anarchy would ensue!

Every magazine on eveery shelf…

The upcoming release of the deluxe version of David Bowie’s debut album seems to have captured the imagination of the UK press.

Most of the music monthlies have given up fair space to generally favourable reviews in the February editions, including full pages in The Word and UNCUT. There are also pieces in MOJO, Record Collector and Shindig!, the latter reviewing both this and the 40th anniversary release of Space Oddity.

There were also full page pieces in The Guardian and The Independent, as well as an initial piece in The Times, all of which can still be read online.

I’ll leave you with a couple of bits from the monthlies, first up is this short Q&A with producer Mike Vernon…

Finally, this equally brief Q&A with Ken Pitt from the review in Record Collector.

David Bowie (Deluxe Edition) is released through Universal on January 25th. (12.02.2009 NEWS: DAVID BOWIE 2CD DERAM DELUXE EDITION DUE NEXT YEAR)

Halloween Jack is a real cool cat…

I was pretty sure we had already featured this bunch on BowieNet about a year ago when my good friend Will recommended them after doing their sound when they played at Supergrass drummer Danny Goffey‘s wedding.

I spoke with the singer, Halloween Jack (above), at the time, but for some reason I can no longer find the feature on them that I was sure I had done. Spilt milk.

If I haven’t plugged them previously, then our patronage is long overdue as they are, by all accounts, a terrific bunch of guys who have the Bowie sound down pat.

But don’t take our word for it, if you want to see the band in action or fancy any of the shows below, check out www.absolutebowie.net for both sound and vision…after you’ve watched the video, check out the audio below it for a pretty convincing stab at the Moonage Daydream solo.

January 22nd (Friday)
The12 Bar
179 Westcott Place, Swindon

January 23rd (Saturday)
Otford Memorial Hall
Sevenoaks, Kent

January 30th (Saturday)
Riga Music Bar
Westcliff-on-sea, Southend

Febuary 6th (Saturday)
The Half Moon Club
93 Lower Richmond Road – SW15 1EU

Febuary 12th (Friday)
The Standard Music Venue
1 Blackhorse Lane
London, E17 6DS

Febuary 25th (Thursday)
Joe?s Bar
260 Banbury Road, Oxford.

New York’s In Love…(with David Bowie)

If you’re a David Bowie fan in NYC on Sunday, then you really shouldn’t miss this.

Click on Bowie’s hat to read the impressive line-up and buy tickets, etc.