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I asked for an autograph… (Well, a signature at least)
The piece also highlights David Bowie’s concerns via his
As expected, protest is growing at a tremendous rate with the
If you think this is a worthwhile cause, please join in the protest via the above methods and show your support by listening in to
Popular musics and aftershocks…
David Bowie has released a brief
Here’s what he had to say: “6music keeps the spirit of broadcasters like John Peel alive and for new artists to lose this station would be a great shame.”.
His comments follow a
Regular readers of BowieNet news will be aware of the mutual admiration which exists between 6music and David Bowie.
A couple of weeks ago the station made A Reality Tour live it’s Album Of The Day (02.12.2010 NEWS: A REALITY TOUR LIVE IS ALBUM OF THE DAY ON 6MUSIC) and just last night (Thursday 25th) Marc Riley kicked off his show with the title track of Station To Station in its entirety…you can listen to the full show
But perhaps even more important than the station’s continued patronage of David Bowie’s music is the point that DB suggests in his statement: the exposure for new bands by the line-up of informed and intelligent DJs, unsurpassed by any other radio station.
And though Marc Riley would never suggest he could personally fill John Peel‘s shoes, to my mind he is the closest thing we have to him broadcasting today.
It seems there is already a groundswell of protest against the proposals following DB’s comments, a protest that I’m sure is bound to get louder over the next few days as more concerned music lovers learn of the plans.
Hang him on my wall…
No, that’s not a scene from a kind of rock ‘n roll Land Of The Giants above, it’s artist Morgan Howell and his sons, Isaac and Aidan, holding up bloody great big 45s by The Who, The Beatles and David Bowie.
Morgan has hit upon the idea of reproducing old 45s and annuals as artworks in their own right, continuing the idea that Andy Warhol first suggested almost fifty years ago with his Campbell’s Soup Cans paintings.
The artworks are twice the size of an album cover, plus a couple of inches, and the Bowie 45 that Morgan singled out for special treatment is Ziggy Stardust. Here’s the online description from
?Ziggy Stardust? by David Bowie
Print construction of original painted model.
Printed canvas sleeve, fixed inner disc with printed label
Complete with chrome wall mount fitting
Signed and numbered by Morgan Howell
Size: 680mm square
It’s a great idea and the records look very impressive mounted on walls on a spindle to give the effect of sitting on a turntable.
The only problem for a pedant such as myself is the fact that Ziggy Stardust was never an RCA A-side.
As I’m sure you know, the studio version of Ziggy Stardust only ever appeared on 45 as the B-side of The Jean Genie, and even then it was issued in the RCA green/orange and white sleeve in the UK, (as illustrated above) and not in the later black sleeve as used by Morgan.
As I say, I’m probably being too picky for the casual fan that just wants something a bit different decorating their walls…But conversely, I’m sure if you’re the sort of person willing to spend £375 on one of these, then you probably want it to be as accurate as possible too.
I spoke with Morgan about this and he was grateful for my input though he did know that Ziggy Stardust was the B-side…despite all the other examples in his store being A-sides.
Anyway, after seeing the green and orange RCA sleeve he thought it looked better and suggested that future versions would have that sleeve instead. He was also keen to see the result of our poll, whatever information that might bring. (See below)
Either way, you should check out
Win a spare signed 35th anniversary Rebel Rebel card and 45…
I have thought for a while that it would be cool to have a Bowie 45 label on a T-shirt, not a new idea, I know, but I’ve not seen an actual Bowie one yet.
So, if you had to choose a label that you would have preferred to Ziggy Stardust as one of Morgan’s artworks, and that you think would work on a T-shirt too, what would it be?
Let’s stick to UK and US 45 labels for official releases from Liza Jane to Cat People, the earliest and most recent Bowie 45s.
If you’re a current BowieNet subscriber, send your choice to me here and you could win the spare signed card and Rebel Rebel 45 pictured above…though the spare won’t be numbered 001 for obvious reasons.
Entries in by midnight NY time Sunday, March 7th, please.
Non-members can send in their suggestions too, but they won’t be eligible for the contest.
And it was stalking time for the MOON boys…
Exactly one month ago (01.21.2010 NEWS: DUNCAN JONES AND MOON NOMINATED FOR TWO BAFTAS) we posted congratulations to Duncan Jones and the rest of the MOON team for their nominations in two categories for the
Those awards take place tonight at London’s Royal Opera House in Covent Garden and here’s a reminder of Duncan’s nominations…
Good luck to everybody involved with MOON and if you didn’t get a personal invite, the BAFTA Film Awards starts at 7.30 on BBC3 for all the red carpet action, then switch over to BBC1 at 9.00 for the awards proper.
Do you remember?
Cripes! It’s five years today since we celebrated the 30th anniversary of the UK Young Americans 45 release. (
So, how old does that make it? You do the math.
Cos we believe in you…
Despite today’s lyric quotation, I have to be honest and admit that with the coverage the likes of Fish Tank was getting in the run up to this evening’s
My concern didn’t last long when the first award of the evening went to
During a short but emotional and touching acceptance speech in which Duncan battled to stop himself from being overcome, he had this to say about his journey to this point…
“Wow, thank you so much. I didn’t actually realise how much this meant to me. It’s taken me an awful long time to know what I wanted to do with my life. Finally, I think I’ve found what I love doing and I just want to thank everyone who helped me get there.”
You can view the full speech at
Having heard the news live himself, a very proud DB sent this message for this BowieNet news item: “What a wonderful start to his year. I’m thrilled. Dad”.
Duncan also expressed his gratitude to his father in an interview distributed by The Press Association. You can read the full thing
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Backstage, he credited his singer father with getting him “interested in the canon of sci-fi” at a young age.He said: “He is watching it live..in New York.. I turned my phone off, like I was told to, so I’m sure when I turn it back on, he will be trying to get through.”
Jones, christened Zowie Bowie before he changed his name, said: “As far as sci-fi goes, one of the things my dad did an awful lot of was show me quite a few films when I was growing up, just getting me interested in the literature and in the sort of canon of sci-fi.
“It’s an area I have always loved, so I probably saw most of Stanley Kubrick’s films when I was eight or nine years old, with my dad sitting there next to me, making sure that I didn’t get terrified. I think my interest in sci-fi really comes from my dad being a dad, as opposed to the work that he did,” he said.
Asked whether he would give his father a role or ask him to make music in a future film, he said: “It would be foolhardy to have such a good relationship with someone so talented and not ask him to work on a film”. He added: “I would love to have the chance to establish my career, although this is a good start, do a couple of films on my own before I ever did that. But I love him very much and I think he is very talented.”
He added: “I have always steered away from music. That was my big rebellion, having no interest in music.”
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I know you’ll want to
As I’ve suggested before, keep an eye on
I’ll stick with you baby…
OK, it’s in the headline, but if you can’t make sense of that, see our previous item: 02.16.2010 NEWS: REALITY CD, PROMO MAGNET, SIGNED PROMO CARD WINNERS
Here’s the second pair of winners with their tiebreakers, starting with a mischevious and Frankly typical contribution from Zardoz…
UK CD = zardoz
I’d stick it… on the Large Hadron Collider thereby altering the course of history.
US CD = steeoui
I’d stick it… on the board next to my office desk ? when I turn left I would see that magnet and if I turn right I see the poster of the 2002 Cologne E-Werk concert?so wherever I turn it will make my day.
Well done to you both, send us your postal details and we’ll have your prizes out to you as soon as Postperson Pat returns from half-term holiday.
If you’ve already entered, no need to enter again as you are still in the potential winners’ hat. But do feel free to join in if you haven’t yet.
Also, if you don’t want your tiebreaker posted on these pages, please let me know. Either way, it won’t affect your chances of winning, the tiebreaker is just for fun.
It’s the angel-man…
Hundreds of years ago, we posted a bit about an album by
You may remember that the Bowie cover Thomas recorded for the Lynch album was I’m Deranged, a Bowie track which Lynch originally used for the soundtrack of Lost Highway.
At the time of that news item I said we’d return with an interview with Thomas regarding the influence of David Bowie’s music on his own work. Well Thomas kindly answered my questions…and then I ungraciously didn’t use the interview as, by the time I found a slot for it, the moment had passed.
However, Mr Truax is back on the road in the UK again and so what better opportunity than this to use this fascinating interview with a very cool guy.
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What was your first experience of David Bowie and his music?
My older sisters were listening to ChangesOneBowie, and it was the one thing in their collection that immediately grabbed the attention of my radar and out shined most else they were listening to, to my ears. Oddly enough, and this is coincidental because it relates to the Lynch thing in a way, I’ve just remembered he was doing his part in the theatrical version of the Elephant Man at the time (my sister saw it, I didn’t, damn!). I remember it being a comforting revelation that they regarded this skinny strange British man playing John Merrik as very attractive. I was pretty young and insecure at the time and in suburban America if you weren’t a jock you were a freak, it still seemed pretty clear that if you weren’t the muscle-bound footballer you were doomed. The revelation that you could be a ‘freak’ and attractive at the same time, that gave me a bit of hope.
I bought Scary Monsters, that along with some other great records became the soundtrack to my life at the time and helped me survive through school. “Teenage Wildlife”, what a classic. Scary Monsters would still definitely be one of my desert island disks, nothing quite like it before or since. I’ve still got my original vinyl which is so full of dust and crackles. I gradually delved into the back catalogue as fast as my slim finances allowed. A lot of records or songs can become important to you and define a period of your life, good or bad, but often you don’t want to revisit those records later because it’s reminiscent of a time or place or person that’s passed, and maybe better forgotten. The classic Bowie stuff is an exception to that for me. I still put on Low when I’m feeling low and it’s positive medicine, it’s somewhat timeless in that sense.
You chose to cover I’m Deranged for your latest album: Songs From The Films Of David Lynch. Was it a track you were familiar with before you embarked upon this project?
Oh yeah, both from the Outside album, where it fits into a certain context within the conceptual frame of that album, and from it’s use in Lost Highway, where it lives nicely in a different context. That said, it was the last track I chose for the Lynch album. I knew I needed to choose one more, but I’d shied away from that one initially, both because I didn’t envisage it working as a song I could pull off in my live performances which are solo (as it’s quite dense in Bowie’s version), and because I was just a bit wary of tackling a Bowie song.
In learning the song, was there anything that surprised you about it’s form?
It’s basic structure is simpler than you’d guess it would be. It’s built upon a progression pretty much of four basic chords that repeat themselves in a loop throughout the duration, both ‘verses’ and ‘choruses’. It keeps rolling forward over itself and you feel you’re travelling, which you are because different things happen especially with the variety of vocal melodies laid on top, but you’re also going around in circles. Because the Eno production is fairly dense and a lot is going on sonically, one’s initial impression would be that the structure would also be more multi-faceted.
Compared to the frenetic energy of the original, you’ve stripped the song back to produce an uncharacteristically but relatively laid back and traditional version of the track. How did you arrive at the decision to do that?
With most of the recording of this album things unfolded in a kind of serendipitous way, it has seemed all through the process a blessed project. I didn’t really plan, or have a preconceived notion of how it would work out in advance, I just knew that to warrant doing a Bowie track, at least for myself, I would have to do something distinctly different with it. The obvious approach – because the DB version is very percussion-driven and, as you say, frenetic – and since I often work with self-made mechanical drum machines, would have been to get my machines rolling at full speed and build on that. But before I’d even made a decision like that, and before I even decided whether it was right for the album, I was looking at the melody and the chords the piece was built on, and it became apparent right away that underneath all the busy instrumentation, in fact almost buried in it, is another one of those beautiful chord progressions that Bowie has such a talent for.
So I decided to take the less-is-more approach. There’s a loneliness and alienation and a kind of sad resignation that is kind of screaming to get out of the frenetic, cluttered space, which is part of what I’d describe as an almost trapped, claustrophobic feeling the Bowie/Eno version conveys, so what I’ve done, you could say, is to kind of take the shell off and hang the naked center up to glow in the dark of an empty space. It’s a really simple, strong song that can also shine on it’s own without much dressing. I had to really hold myself back from trying to embellish or produce it any more once I saw that, my natural inclination that I have to fight so often in the studio is: more more more!
You’ve been performing I’m Deranged on your current tour, how has it fared with your typical audience, if such a thing exists?
Yes my audience is typically atypical, I’m proud to say! I’ve been pleasantly surprised by it being received really, really positively for the most part. I haven’t always been introducing it first like I do many of the songs from the album, and I think there’s a lot of people who know they’ve heard it, they recognize it, they know it… but what is it? And maybe it dawns on them halfway through, or even after, because it’s such a different version, but when two and two come together the reaction has usually been, as far as I can tell, one of surprise and delight. I don’t think it’s obvious from most of my music that I’m a Bowie fan, or that he’s had such a significant influence on me. It may have been apparent in my early days of doing music before I really found my own voice, but I also have always had such a wide range of musical tastes and influences, and Bowie’s influence might be less stylistic and have more to do with encouraging me to pursue my individuality. (“Nobody cares what you do, so please be yourself to death”)
That said there’s another track on the new album, Wicked Game, which is also one that I was going to steer clear of because, well, you might say it’s Chris Isaak’s signature song and his version, in my opinion, is just so beautiful. But, as with the Bowie track and most of the songs on this album, it wasn’t about out-doing or even trying to stand up to the originals, it was about exploring them and celebrating them from a different angle, so I just had a go at it, trying some different ideas just to see what would happen. At some point between playing around with an Ebow and a mechanical beat from Mother Superior I came across something happening in it sonically, maybe a hint of a “Heroes” vibe, and rather than try to fight or disguise that I went with it because I felt it worked. I even tried to emphasize it almost as a nod to “Heroes” so I’m surprised no one has called me on that so far in reviews and such. Those are two of the greatest love songs of all time in my humble opinion. It felt like a dash of “Heroes” in my Wicked Game was a complimentary ingredient, I’m quite happy with how that turned out.
You’re known for inventing and building your own instruments, such as the ‘Hornicator’ and ‘Mother Superior’ and for taping the sonar click of bats for the rhythm track on your cover of In Heaven (The Lady In The Radiator Song) on the new album. If you had to do another cover of a Bowie track for an imagined Bowie covers album, what song would you choose and what instrument would you invent for the purpose? Finally, what live creature sound would you incorporate?
Wow that’s a tough one. Maybe Chant of the Ever-Circling Skeletal Family, played on a large looping percussive device made out of whale bones, and embellished by a tank full of live rattling snakes!
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You can catch Thomas Truax live on his current tour at the following UK locations…
21 Feb, Sun: Stockport
23 Feb, Tues: Glasgow
25 Feb, Thurs: Edinburgh
28 Feb, Sun: London
2nd March, Tues: Leeds
3rd March, Wed: Sheffield
5th March, Sat: Oxford
6th March, Sat: Oxford
19th March, Fri: Brighton
27th March, Sat: London
Check out the official site for
I’ll stick with you baby…
We launched this one just over a week ago (02.07.2010 NEWS: WIN REALITY CD, PROMO MAGNET AND SIGNED PROMO CARD) and as I said at the time, there’s no closing date as such, we’ll just randomly post winners in the news until we’ve exhausted our supply.
So, aside from choosing whether you wanted the UK or US version, you also had to complete this tiebreaker in no more than 200 words: “If I had an ultra-rare postcard-sized Reality live promotional magnet, I’d stick it…”
Here are the first two winners with their tiebreakers…
UK CD = vincentprice
I’d stick it… on eBay…as if!
I would first purchase myself a new fridge (as befitting such an item), before sticking the magnet as the central piece to many bad Bowie-based puns constructed from obligatory fridge alphabets, such as ‘you remind me of the babe magnet’, ‘there’s a special place in the rhubarb magnetic fields’, ‘we can magnetic force you to be free, we can magnetic force you to believe’ and ‘blue, blue, electr-o-magnetic’ blue, that’s the colour of my room’.
Okay, it’s a work in progress, but I hope you and the Mygnet Committee agree that such a magnet would provide me with endless hours of pun-tastic joy, as I have not won anything since Technic Lego in 1984 (okay, in truth it was closer to 1987), and multicoloured bricks are not so good for kitchen-based wordplay.
US CD = lruiz
I’d stick it… on top of the Empire state building in NYC for all to see it.
Well done to you both, send us your postal details and we’ll have your prizes out to you as soon as Postperson Pat returns from half-term holiday.
If you’ve already entered, no need to enter again as you are still in the potential winners’ hat. But do feel free to join in if you haven’t entered yet.
Also, if you don’t want your tiebreaker posted on these pages, please let me know…I guess it’s already too late for vincentprice and lruiz though!
Hey brother you guessed, I’m a dude…
It must seem like we’ve been running this contest for an age to some of you.
It all began on DB’s last birthday (01.08.2010 NEWS: WIN ROYAL MAIL ZIGGY STARDUST FDC SIGNED BY BOWIE) and then there was the diversion of the first ‘early bird’ contest (01.15.2010 NEWS: ROYAL MAIL SIGNED ZIGGY FDC EARLY BIRD CONTEST) and then the second one (01.22.10 NEWS: ROYAL MAIL SIGNED ZIGGY FDC SLIGHTLY LATER BIRD CONTEST) and finally we’re here.
OK, I won’t prolong the agony, the answer to the anagram part of the contest is: CHANT OF THE EVER-CIRCLING SKELETAL FAMILY…only joking, no more messin’, it’s ALL THE YOUNG DUDES. Honestly.
I know there will be many of you disappointed to read that, as that wipes out all of the people that entered the early bird contests with GOLDEN YEARS or UNWASHED AND SOMEWHAT SLIGHTLY DAZED as the answer.
There’s no shame in guessing either of those answers, as it could have been those…or indeed a few other songs earlier on.
In fact, I’m sure there are some of you who feel you were steered towards GOLDEN YEARS as an answer for both the ‘early bird’ contests.
Anyway, on to the second part of the contest for those of you that went the whole way and didn’t stumble at an ‘early bird’ stage.
Thanx to BowieNetter Zig for the useful key below…though I’m afraid I feel I’ve used you Zig, as you aren’t one of the winners.
We’ve decided (I always use “we” when I’m about to say something that may irritate some of you) to announce the ‘early bird’ contest winners only today…and they are:
flux
haywoodstenton
stickyp
zglamfan512
So, only four members guessed correctly during the earleir stages…and all four of them did so in the second part.
Send us your postal details and we’ll have your prize to you via Royal Mail quicker than the former Tony Day could sort a sack of letters. (Sorry, message board private joke there.)
Stay tuned for the rest of the winners before the end of the week…though you know now if you’re in with a chance or if you already blew it.