Month: November 2010

Takes me right back, when we were young…

Earlier today, The Quietus published an interview with Bryan Ferry who is promoting his latest album, Olympia.

BF was interviewed by Chris Roberts and following a list of guest players on the album, which included David Gilmour and Nile Rodgers, the subject turned to collaborations…Over to Bryan and Chris…

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BF: ?I was shy of collaboration in the past. When you start off your career, it?s always me me me. ‘Oh no, I?ve got plenty of ideas, I don?t need anybody else to interfere.’ If, say, David Bowie had said in ?73, ‘Oh can we write together?’ I?d have said no, I?m not interested.?

CR: What if Bowie said that tomorrow? (This flies out of my mouth with an unpremeditated excess of zeal).

BF: ?Ah…that could be…ah, maybe, yeah. I?d be interested in anybody that I liked.? .

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Well, for obvious reasons I wouldn’t get too excited about the possibility of this ever happening, but what a lovely thought it is.

You can read the full thing here.

Did you see his eyes? Did you see his crazy eyes?

Germany’s premiere music magazine, musikexpress, has four different Bowie front covers and a cover-mount CD with five Bowie cover versions on it.

The cover versions are all taken from the European only release version of We Were So Turned On released via Naïve.

Here’s the tracklisting with the Bowie covers highlighted in bold…

01 – Aloe Blacc – I Need A Dollar (M. Arfmann & Chassy Wezar RMX)
02 – Fritz Kalkbrenner – Sideways & Avenues
03 – The Ape – You’re An Ape
04 – Beat! Beat! Beat! – Hard To Cherish
05 – Frankie Rose And The Outs – Must Be Nice
06 – VoicesVoices – “Heroes”
07 – We Have Band – Let’s Dance
08 – Megapuss feat Devendra Banhart – Sound And Vision
09 – Keren Ann – Life On Mars?
10 – Arno – All The Young Dudes

Did you notice the eyes at the bottom of the CD cover?

Not sure what the content of the magazine is exactly, but reading between the lines I’m guessing it’s in celebration of WWSTO and includes a retrospective of Bowie’s career, with contributions from celebrity fans of his music.

Please email me if you have access to these magazines and would be able to provide us with a couple of sets. Obviously we’ll cough up the cash.

Many thanx to BowieNetter jungtheforeman for a pointer to both the items in today’s news.

Last night they loved you…

Those of you interested in the band may have already seen a review on Spinner Music of Mumford and Sons final date of their US tour at Terminal 5 in NYC on Tuesday night.

Published online earlier today, the review describes what was apparently an even better show than the previous evening at the same venue with frontman, Marcus Mumford, whipping up the adrenaline levels ever higher with the instruction: “This is the last stop on our tour, and it’s been a lot of fun. Let’s go fucking mental!”

The review also mentioned that the audience was rumoured to include David Bowie among its ranks.

Well, we can now confirm the accuracy of that rumour. David did indeed turn up to watch the show, though it’s not known whether he joined in the going mental bit.

You can read the full review here and while you’re there you can enjoy an audience member’s camera phone recording of the last song of the set, The Cave.

Though nothing, nothing could keep us together…

All sixteen 2010 X Factor acts, including those who have already been eliminated from the competition, will join forces again for this Sunday’s results show (November 21) to perform their version of David Bowie’s “Heroes” in public for the first time.

The single is available in shops next Monday and for download on Sunday. Two mixes will be available for purchase including the regular version of the track and the Stripped Mix.

If you’re so inclined, you can read who sings which lines over at this online piece from The Sun.

We know Major Tom’s a junkie…

This one was a sweet surprise seemingly out of nowhere and it pulled me in right from the off with the cool funk of It Ain’t Easy, which put me in mind of the good old days of Wild Cherry’s Play That Funky Music.

Anyway, before I embarrass myself with further age-showing comparisons here’s a bit from the Black Einstein B.E. GOES IN SEARCH OF MAJOR TOM press release regarding there debut Bowie inspired EP, Whatever Happened To Major Tom…

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Black Einstein is both the musical pseudonym of London based producer Colin Emmanuel and the name of his new collective project. “Whatever Happened To Major Tom” is it?s Bowie inspired debut offering.

From the Black Einstein Collective It features the talented soulful singers Miss Baby Sol and Xavier Barnet and the MC skills of Mystro and Maseo from De La Soul.

Built through friendships formed within the global musicians community, the collective centers around Colin Emmanuel (formerly known as C Swing) and builds on his previous solo release, Emmanuel – D?llusions of Grandeur.

Produced entirely by Colin (who has worked with a variety of internationally respected artists including Eric Roberson, Estelle, Jamelia, The Beta Band, Nate James, Sly & Robbie, KRS1 and Beverly Knight to name a few), the 5 song project takes Bowie songs and musical breaks and puts them into Black Einstein?s arena where Hip Hop, Soul, Latin, Drum & Bass and other genres are mixed together to an incredible effect.

?It Aint Easy? and ?Fascination? are the Bowie covers reinterpreted by the soulful vocals of Xavier Barnet (Luther Vandross, Mariah Carey, Ashford & Simpson, Percy Sledge).

Breaks from ?Breaking Glass? and ?The Secret Life of Arabia? become ?Glass Ceiling? and ?Arabia? which respectively see UK MC Mystro?s (Junior Reid, Skinny Man, Mark de Clive Lowe, Jehst, Daniel Merriweather (Mark Ronson), The Nextmen, Dawn Penn, Blak Twang, P-Money, Rodney P, Braintax, Hilltop Hoods, Masta Ace) impeccable rap flow take charge. ?Arabia? also sees Mystro teaming up with Maseo, Plug 3 OF De La Soul.

The classic ?Space Oddity? is sampled and flipped for Miss Baby Sol (Paloma Faith, ROX, Tinchy Strider, Lazy Habits, Nutty P, Ty, DJ Ironk) who delivers a heartfelt vocal performance oozing with raw emotion, the end result being the anthemic ?Common Ground?.

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So there you have it. Whatever Happened To Major Tom is out now and you can get it here using the name your price system. You really should check it out, there are some very cool moments on it.

They think that we’re holding a glam glitterball….

BowieNetter Vernard has been in touch with details of his annual Bowie bash in Vancouver…

“So here we are again a year later and I have my next Bowie-Glam Event on November 23 here in Vancouver. Would love it if some of the Bowienet fans from Vancouver or surroundings could attend. It’s going to be over the top amazing!”

For a schedule of the evening and ticketing details, etc., visit Vernard’s LUVNGRACE page and check out the Facebook events page too.

I forgot what my Father said, I forgot what he said…

Due on December 6th is Noël, the latest opus from The Priests …three real Irish Priests who enjoy humming a popular tune or two alongside their ecclesiastical duties.

The album contains their rendition of Little Drummer Boy/Peace On Earth with the lead vocal being supplied by one Shane MacGowan, no stranger to Christmas hits himself.

The track will be released in its own right as a single on December 12th to compete for the top spot with a few other strong contenders…not least of all, The 2010 X Factor Finalists version of David Bowie’s “Heroes”, due on November 19th.

You can view the video for The Priests featuring Shane MacGowan over on the CLASH magazine website, from where these quotations…

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Speaking about the collaboration, Shane MacGowan said ?The Priests are very talented singers and the track sounds good and hopefully people like it. We changed some of the lyrics from the original and we like it the way it is?.

The Priests’ Father Eugene added ?Our sharing the song with Shane MacGowan will come as a big surprise for many fans, both ours and his. Neither of us is about to change our respective styles of music or performance but it goes to show how music builds bridges and brings us into creative contact with unlikely partnerships. Bing and Bowie did it?now so have we ? thank you Shane?.

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Our man in Dublin, BowieNetter Chris (Creature From The Deep) Gaffney, is one of those surprised fans. He’s been right behind The Priests for sometime now and admits that, though he was initially shocked by the pairing, this version is growing on him and he doesn’t doubt MacGowan’s sincerity.

Speaking directly from a telephonic confession box this morning, he said: “I’ve been behind The Priests all the way for sometime now and though I was initially shocked by the idea of the boys getting together with hellraiser MacGowan, I must confess this version is growing on me and I don’t doubt MacGowan’s sincerity. I think the collaboration will go some way to restoring MacGowan’s credibility.”

Meanwhile, despite the release date confusion for the above red vinyl 45 (11.10.2010 NEWS: BOWIE AND BING UPDATE…THREE DISC SET HAS ALL YOU NEED) it seems the disc was released on November 9th after all. My copy arrived this morning and very nice it is too.

War made him a soldier…

We’ve mentioned The Criterion Collection DVD and Blu-ray release of Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence on these pages a couple of times (06.16.2010 NEWS: CRITERION MERRY CHRISTMAS BLU-RAY DUE IN SEPTEMBER & 09.28.2010 NEWS: CRITERION MERRY CHRISTMAS BLU-RAY OUT IN THE USA TODAY) and you may well have seen the Alt Film Guide MCML review that dropped via Google alerts yesterday.

The AFG review reminded me that there was a well-considered appraisal of the release written by Terrence Butcher over on PopMatters at the end of last month, (I meant to post it at the time) which is still worth a read. Here’s an excerpt…

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“As Jack Celliers, Bowie is reasonably effective in a modest, though crucial role, as a canny prisoner who sizes up his situation, then manipulates it to his advantage. He?s always been a modestly capable actor, who, in the ?80s, was able to leverage his ascending pop stardom to score a few significant parts, but his thespian career never caught fire, and I wonder if his slightly off-kilter looks may have hampered his efforts. Eyes of disparate color and curvaceous English dentifrice are not the makings of a matinee idol.

Of course, it may just be that he?s never sought the Hollywood limelight, preferring to concentrate on his often adventurous music. He famously rejected an offer to play Max Zorin, the murderous tycoon in A View To A Kill, and parts became smaller and smaller after that. I suspect that roles in challenging indie fare are more to his taste. Perhaps it?s no coincidence that Paul Mayersberg, who wrote The Man Who Fell To Earth, also penned Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence.”

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And if you’ve not viewed the bonus disc yet, this review will probably make you want to.

Photograph king, watches you go…

It’s hard to understand how Mick Rock could have surfaced in the land of the living today, or anywhere else for that matter…however, he apparently did for a book signing at today’s opening to the public of the exhibition, Mick Rock: Rock Music – in association with Zippo – at Idea Generation Gallery.

Aside from a late-night launch party last night for the book, Mick Rock Exposed: The Faces of Rock ‘N’ Roll, he’s been exposing himself all over the UK media for the last couple of days to promote both the book and aforementioned attendant exhibition.

Whatever he is doing, he still looks good on it, that’s a recent shot of Mick from the NY launch of the book last month, above, inset on last night’s invite for the launch party VIP aftershow at The Owl And The Pussycat in east London.

As mentioned last week, (11.03.2010 NEWS: MICK ROCK POSTER SPECIAL IN NEXT WEEK’S NME) there’s also a Mick Rock poster special and interview in the current issue (13 November) of NME (see below) along with an interview in yesterday’s Telegraph, which you can read online here.

As I say, Mick has been pimping himself all over the place, particularly the BBC. Anybody see his appearance on BBC One’s Breakfast on the sofa with Bill and Sian on Tuesday morning?

You can listen again to a very funny interview on BBC 6 Music’s Shaun Keaveny show, also on Tuesday morning, where Mr Rock was in a particularly feisty mood and said some very nice things about David Bowie.

The mood was a little more reverential for the BBC World Service’s, The Strand, in an interview with Anna McNamee on Tuesday and the BBC launched an audio slideshow with Mick talking over his pictures earlier today.

If you’ve not actually had a chance to see the book yet, you can enjoy a page-by-page run through with Mick over on YouTube. It’s really worth a look, and the one thing that strikes even somebody like me, who would claim to know Mick’s work, is just how many iconic images of many, many artists other than Bowie that Mick is responsible for.

Mick has generously suggested that it’s his association with Bowie that made him the success he is today, and in all of these interviews he never forgets to mention how special a human he thinks David Bowie is.

Mick Rock: Rock Music – in association with Zippo – – can be seen at the Idea Generation Gallery in east London until January 16th, 2011.

Mick Rock Exposed: The Faces of Rock ‘N’ Roll is available now through Chronicle Books.

Finally, I’ll leave you with a link to another YouTube film which shows Mick in action in his natural environment. Fucking mental!

Funny how they look so good together…

Following on from the recent X Factor upset, (11.07.2010 NEWS: X FACTOR HEROES COVER RELEASE DATE MOVED) It now seems there has been a change of schedule to the Bowie and Bing releases we told you about last month. (10.06.2010 NEWS: BOWIE & BING OUT AGAIN ON DVD, CD AND RED VINYL 45)

Originally all formats were scheduled for a November 9th release. However, although Amazon.com has the double disc DVD and the CD with the original date, it now also lists the above triple disc set as having a November 16th release date and the red vinyl 45 as November 23rd.

The mad thing is that the double DVD is listed at $17.99 and the CD at $11.99, that’s $29.98 for them both. The above newly-listed limited edition double DVD with CD (three disc set) is listed for just $17.99…only $12.99 when I ordered it.

I should point out that all of the DVD formats are Region 1 in case that affects your ability to view them.

As I’m sure you’re aware, aside from David Bowie and Bing Crosby’s wonderful 1977 performance of Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy, the DVD also has the exclusive rendition of “Heroes” recorded specially for the 1977 Bing Crosby?s Merrie Olde Christmas TV special.

For those of you that don’t remember that particular version, it’s the one I’ve grabbed the stills from below, wherein David performs several of his set piece mimes along to a remixed version of “Heroes”.

I say remixed, but it sounds to these ears as if it’s just the complete backing track through a phaser with a new vocal over the top and a heavy finger on the echo effect.

Though it’s long been available on VHS, I’m pretty sure this is the first official appearance of this version of “Heroes” on DVD. Please let me know if you think otherwise.