Month: November 2010

Such is the stuff, From where dreams are woven…

Well the headline says it all and I think this means congratulations are due to everybody involved with the production of the Station To Station deluxe box set and to David Bowie for making the masterpiece in the first place.

This brilliant reissue beat other contenders that made the UNCUT top thirty with box sets including the likes of The Rolling Stones, Iggy & The Stooges, Bob Dylan, NEU!, Miles Davis, The Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon and many more.

BBC’s 6 Music digital radio station also voted the release box set of the year and the station is celebrating by making Station To Station Album Of The Day.

Meanwhile, we will be celebrating the good news ourselves this coming weekend with a contest to win the deluxe boxset signed by DB along with other related goodies and more signed stuff.

The Factor X that proved the fact…

With the news last week that the 2010 X Factor version of David Bowie’s “Heroes” had topped the iTunes chart on the day of release, (11.21.2010 NEWS: X FACTOR SINGLE TOPS iTUNES CHART ON DAY OF RELEASE) it’s no surprise that the release is now at the top of the official UK singles chart.

You can watch the accompanying video here.

While we’re on the subject of “Heroes”…

We can hear “Heroes”, just for two nights…

Bumpershine.com has posted details of the 2011 Wordless Music Series in New York which includes two performances in May of Philip Glass‘s Symphony No. 4, “Heroes”.

I’m sure you’re all familiar with the recorded version which was released in 1997, that’s the original press advert above. Anyway, here are the details from Bumpershine.com as I don’t seem able to get a connection to wordlessmusic.org right now…

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2011 Wordless Music Series

May 20-21, 2011
JONNY GREENWOOD?S ?DOGHOUSE? (U.S. PREMIERE) + MUSIC OF GYORGY LIGETI + PHILIP GLASS “Heroes” – MUSIC OF BOWIE AND ENO (NY PREMIERE)
ENSEMBLE SIGNAL – THE WORDLESS MUSIC ORCHESTRA – CONDUCTED BY BRAD LUBMAN

Performing Gyorgy Ligeti?s Chamber Concerto for 13 instrumentalists; the New York City premiere of Philip Glass / David Bowie / Brian Eno?s Symphony No. 4 (?Heroes? based on the music of Bowie and Eno), and the U.S. premiere of Jonny Greenwood?s Doghouse for large orchestra and string trio, the Radiohead guitarist?s longest orchestral work to date.

Doors open at 7pm, show at 8pm. All ages. General admission tickets $25-35 with $5 Ticketmaster service charge (sorry) on sale now for May 20 and May 21 concerts.

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See the original Bumpershine.com story and check out wordlessmusic.org if it’s working by the time you read this.

Now he is a puppet dancer…

Here’s a couple of events which, sadly, slipped under our radar.

Did you attend the Band Of Puppets festival at The Bushwick Starr in Brooklyn, NY, a couple of weeks back?

The only clues as to what went on are these details still up on the Bushwick Starr website: “The Bushwick Starr premiers our annual new works puppetry festival! Selected artists will create live music videos in the style of the golden age of MTV rock epics such as “Thriller”. This year’s theme is David Bowie.”

It looks like this wasn’t the first puppet-based Bowie tribute we missed…anybody out there attend this one last year by Puppet Playlist, also staged in New York?

Please send in your impressions of either of these productions and any photographs you took if you were there. There could be a Bowie puppet-based reward in it for you.

FOOTNOTE: As you probably noticed, the above puppet piece is a back-dated story to fill a gap that would normally have been filled by a Thanksgiving item.

Unfortunately, on the actual day, a power outage meant that I couldn’t post anything…though it’s likely that those of you that celebrate would have been too stuffed to bother logging on to BowieNet anyway!

Well, she’s come, been and gone…and she’s back again…

Following on from successful stints in Australia and Luxembourg in recent weeks, the Michael Clark Company will perform the critically acclaimed come, been and gone at The Lowry, Salford in the UK on Friday 28 January 2011.

You can find out more about the performance and book tickets for it here right now.

Elvis is English…

Aside from acknowledging U2‘s debt of gratitude to David Bowie in his usual charming style, Bono has selected his favourite Bowie recordings for week #1 of a five-part Rolling Stone Playlist Special.

Here’s his introduction: “What I’ve chosen from David Bowie is very strict. It’s my teenage life as a Bowie fan. I am still a Bowie fan. But this was when my heart and mind were very vulnerable to music. And these songs had a real impact. U2 owe him a lot. He introduced us to Berlin and Hansa Studios, to collaborating with Brian Eno. It’s the high singing, beyond your ‘man’ voice into the feminine. And there’s the staging, the attempt to be innovative. It has been pointed out that the Claw [the 360¢ª stage] looks like the Glass Spider. Bowie wasn’t afraid to use scale, to dramatize things. His set list was not just a jukebox he could run through. It was drama.”

You can check out all of Bono’s selections here, but I’ll leave you with this neat observation that he wrote to accompany #3 on the list, Changes…

“It’s not exaggerating to say, what Elvis meant to America, David Bowie meant to the U.K. and Ireland. It was that radical a shift in consciousness.”

Presents, tree, decorations…agents sliding down the chimney…

Those of you trying to declutter, or just trying to be generally more modern than us dull old collector types, may eschew the delights and tangible beauty that the red vinyl Bowie & Bing 7″ 45 offers, for the space-saving, eco-friendly, and far more sensible Bing Crosby – The Digital Christmas EP.

The EP, which is out now, contains the Bowie/Bing audio version of Little Drummer Boy/Peace On Earth, sans dialogue, and it also includes the video with the dialogue intact at the beginning but trimmed from the end.

Here’s the full tracklisting…

The Bing Crosby Digital Christmas EP

01 – The Little Drummer Boy / Peace On Earth (feat. David Bowie) 2:38
02 – White Christmas 3:23
03 – White Christmas (feat. Ella Fitzgerald) 3:23
04 – The Little Drummer Boy / Peace On Earth (feat. David Bowie) video 4:21
05 – White Christmas video 1:13

I guess this works out a lot cheaper than the previously reported 3-disc set, ( (11.10.2010 NEWS: BOWIE AND BING UPDATE…THREE DISC SET HAS ALL YOU NEED) but obviously you don’t get “Heroes” with this.

Having said all that about the digital EP being the sensible option, boy am I going to feel smug sat on my mountain of vinyl next time that great ball of fire in the sky spews out an Earth-reaching solar flare, that knocks out all the electrical equipment and the national grid with a massive EMP…erm, hang on…where did I put that hand-crank gramophone?

The Factor X that proved the fact…

As reported previously, (11.16.2010 NEWS: X FACTOR FINALISTS TO PERFORM HEROES ON TV ON SUNDAY) all sixteen 2010 X Factor acts, including those who have already been eliminated from the competition, performed their version of David Bowie’s “Heroes” in public for the first time this evening. You can view that performance here.

The two mixes of the song were also made available to purchase digitally today and, inevitably, the single immediately shot to the top of the iTunes singles chart.

The physical format (CD) is released tomorrow (Monday) and it looks like the recording is already well on it’s way to its objective of raising large amounts of cash for the HelpForHeroes organisation.

Station To Station To Station To Station…

Diamond geezer, Unklerupert, from over at manmademovies, has been in touch with details and links to trailers, etc., for Duncan Jones’ second time in the big chair, this time directing Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga and Jeffrey Wright in Source Code for his second major film doo dah.

Here’s some background…

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Source Code Synopsis

When decorated soldier Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) wakes up in the body of an unknown man, he discovers he?s part of a mission to find the bomber of a Chicago commuter train.

In an assignment unlike any he?s ever known, he learns he?s part of a government experiment called the ?Source Code,? a program that enables him to cross over into another man?s identity in the last 8 minutes of his life.

With a second, much larger target threatening to kill millions in downtown Chicago, Colter re-lives the incident over and over again, gathering clues each time, until he can solve the mystery of who is behind the bombs and prevent the next attack.

Filled with mind-boggling twists and heart-pounding suspense, Source Code is a smart action-thriller directed by Duncan Jones (Moon) also starring Michelle Monaghan (Eagle Eye, Due Date), Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air, The Departed), and Jeffrey Wright (Quantum of Solace, Syriana).

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Sounds jolly exciting, don’t it?

As stated above, April 15th 2011 is the US theatrical release date. But, as mentioned in September, (09.05.2010 NEWS: MOON BEATS STIFF COMPETITION TO WIN HUGO AWARD) it seems the UK may enjoy the film a whole month earlier on March 11th, 2011.

Get a hint of the overall edge-of-seatness of Source Code over at the official site .

Smile for the camera…

Expect a few of Terry O’Neill‘s wonderful portraits of David Bowie at a major retrospective of his photography in Norwich in the UK next month.

Bardot to Bond to Sinatra and The Stones – The iconic photographs of Terry O?Neill, runs from December 1st 2010 at The St Giles Street Gallery, through to January 29th 2011.

Here’s a bit from the official blurb…

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World famous photographer Terry O?Neill brings his award winning photography to Norfolk for the very first time with an exclusive presentation at The Saint Giles Street Gallery.

Many of the images on show are from O?Neill?s extensive portfolio, some of which have never been exhibited before and others that have become ?classics? of the contemporary ?celebrity age? of the modern era of photojournalism.

O?Neill is the celebrity photographer?s celebrity photographer, having built up a career from the humblest beginnings on Fleet Street?s Daily Sketch.

Going freelance at the tail end of the 60?s he found himself in huge demand working on assignment for Vogue, Look, Life, Rolling Stone and many others before his marriage to Faye Dunaway opened the door to Hollywood and he became Frank Sinatra?s personal photographer through an introduction from Ava Gardner.

Throughout his 40-year domination of British and American portrait photography, O?Neill has become the celebrity?s photographer of choice.

All works will be for sale and are strictly limited to an edition of 50.

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Not sure if any of the Bowie shots will be among those which have never been exhibited before, but if you’re thinking of heading along to the show, please do let us know if there are any you’re not familiar with.

The St Giles Street Gallery is at 51 St Giles Street, Norwich NR2 1JR – Tel: 01603 663333 – Opening hours Monday – Saturday, 10:00 – 17:00.