Month: June 2011

Hooked to the silver screens…

Film director Barney Clay premiered his latest work, Life On Mars Revisited, at a presentation by The Creators Projectat la Gaîté lyrique in Paris.yesterday.

Barney has been working closely with the director of the film, photographer Mick Rock, and post-production house, The Mill NY.

The work utilises previously unseen footage from the original Life On Mars? shoot to create a modern reworking of the video.

Life On Mars Revisited is presented across four screens simultaneously and though it starts and ends with the classic footage we all know and love, it goes on a rather different journey for the rest of the film.

I spoke to Mick yesterday and first reports back from Paris suggest that the film received the best reception of the installations during The Creators Project event in the French capital.

However, it’s unlikely that many of us will get to see the work anytime soon as David Bowie has apparently requested that the piece only be shown in galleries and museums.

The Creators Project were honoured to premiere the final film and sound installation during the Paris event (which runs from June 9-11), with showings each day.

There are plans to show the work outside of Europe and we’ll give you details of further screenings as we get them.

Meanwhile, check out this page over at The Creators Project to find out more about the working process behind Life On Mars Revisited and watch a video interview with the impossibly cool Barney Clay while you’re there.

Like some cat from Minneapolis…

The annual Rock For Pussy Bowie tribute event is upon us. Here’s the blurb…

89.3 THE CURRENT presents REBEL, REBEL – ROCK FOR PUSSY VIII A Tribute to David Bowie on Friday 10th June at First Avenue’s Mainroom in Minneapolis, USA.

Proceeds benefit Feline Rescue

Featuring John Eller, Ciaran Daly, Liám Pádraig Watkins, Chris Perricelli, Chris Pavlich, Reed Wilkerson, Jim Walsh, Venus DeMars, Sam Keenan, Lori Barbero, Laurie Lindeen, Matt Coffee, David Campbell, David J Russ, Janey Winterbauer, Christian Erickson, Orion Treon, Michelle Massey, Chris Koza, Dan Israel, Adam Levy and more

Venue: First Avenue
Location: 701 First Avenue North, Minneapolis, MN 55403-1327, USA.
Phone: 612-332-1775.

More details and information can be found by clicking on the CHANGESONEPUSSY poster above.

Like some cat from Japan…

Those of you that subscribe to Genesis Publications’ newsletter (and why wouldn’t you), will be aware of a recent communication within which it was stated that the forthcoming SPEED OF LIFE: BOWIE BY SUKITA book by David Bowie and Masayoshi Sukita, was “coming along very nicely”.

Now those lovely chaps at Genesis have been in touch with us here at BowieNet with the above visual evidence of progress and a few encouraging words too…

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Masayoshi Sukita recently visited the Genesis publishing house to develop work on the forthcoming limited edition ‘Speed of Life’ – a new publishing collaboration with Sukita and David Bowie. Mr. Sukita reviewed the photo sequence that he and David Bowie have created so far. Small changes were made to the running order and various anecdotes and details added to the book’s captions.

‘Speed of Life’ by David Bowie & Masayoshi Sukita is a forthcoming book by Genesis Publications and readers interested in registering their interest in this co-signed limited edition should please visit www.genesis-publications.com for further details and updates.

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If you haven’t already seen it (03.05.2011 NEWS: GENESIS PUBLICATIONS PRESENTS SUKITA’S BOWIE PHOTOGRAPHS), check out our previous news story for a couple of other content teasers from this fine volume.

I’m happy, hope you’re happy too…

While we’re all still in Thin White Duke mode with the current S2S/Golden Years/TMWFTE thirty five year celebrations (of which, more to come), I think you’ll appreciate a gallery of ten photographs and accompanying text by Andrew Kent over at RockPaperPhoto.

I’m sure you’re all aware that Mr Kent was responsible for many of the very best Bowie shots from the period, not least of all the live images contained within the S2S deluxe package.

But he also spent a short time travelling in Europe with DB, Iggy and Coco as reflected in these words related to the above picture…

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David Bowie, Moscow 1976

David shows his pleasure at finally having arrived in Moscow after a long train trip from Switzerland in the spring of ?76.

En route, David and fellow travellers Jimmy Osterberg (aka Iggy Pop) and photographer Andrew Kent were stopped at the Polish-Russian border, pulled off the train and interrogated by an albino GGB border guard, Andrew recalls. ?We were not expecting you,? the man announced ominously. Apparently, embassy contacts had failed to put their names on a transit list. The only harm done, says Andrew: ?They confiscated a copy I had of Playboy.?

Arriving in Moscow days later, the group again failed to meet up with an assigned contact. While Andrew fretted, David remained calm. ?He was a confident, experienced traveller. We were on our own but David knew how to make his way around. When he gave me the thumbs up, I knew that everything was going to be fine.?

After a quick stop at the Aeroflot head office for assistance, the group arrived at their hotel. ?We got into two separate taxis, they had all the passports in one taxi and I was in another with the baggage. It was the most alone I ever felt in my life. But eventually we got to our hotel, and then spent the rest of the day seeing Moscow.?

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Andrew considers his ?76 European road trip with David, culminating with the shots in Paris, as a highlight of his career. ?This was the best work I?ve ever done for anybody, before or after.?

Well, despite photographing many different performers, Andrew’s comment doesn’t surprise me…after all, Bowie was the best subject he was ever going to photograph. And I bet there are a lot of photographers that agree with that statement. I know I do!

Last night I loved you, opening apps and playing 12-string…

Been up all night engrossed in the EMI/iKlax Golden Years iPhone application that went live at midnight here in the UK.

It’s great to be able to deconstruct a Bowie classic such as Golden Years via the eight stems (bounced down from the original 16 tracks), to create something quite different to the original.

If you already have the Space Oddity remix app, you’ll know just how much fun and how addictive these things are…and all for just £1.19.

Anyway, rather than waffle on about just how good this is, why not find out for yourself via the EMI Bowie catalogue page here.

Also, check out our news item and the press release from the beginning of April (04.02.2011 NEWS: GOLDEN YEARS KCRW EP AND REMIX APP DUE IN JUNE + 04.02.2011 PRESS RELEASE: DAVID BOWIE ?GOLDEN YEARS? APP & E.P. RELEASES) to find out more about the App, and the Golden Years David Bowie Vs KCRW EP 12″, CD and download…all of which are available now.

Stay tuned for your chance to win copies of both the 12″ and CD shortly.

And she was awful nice, Really quite paradise…

Thirty nine years ago today David Bowie released the album that changed his life forever: The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars.

Exactly twenty years later to the day, on June 6th 1992, his life changed again when he married his very own Lady Stardust.**

Today is the nineteenth anniversary of David and Iman‘s official church wedding at Saint James Episcopal Church, in Florence, Italy.

The couple are pictured above at their most recent public appearance together on May 28th at the DKMS 5th Annual Gala at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City. (04.28.2011 NEWS: DAVID AND IMAN ATTEND DKMS FIFTH ANNUAL GALA)

Congratulations and our very best wishes to David and Iman from everybody here at BowieNet.

And so, a year from today? Well, they do say things come in threes.***

** Obviously I was just trying to be clever here. The Iman/Lady Stardust comparison doesn’t bear scrutiny!

*** Another attempt at being a smart arse. Please do not read anything in to this, I know of nothing planned for that date aside from a couple of big celebrations for Ziggy and the couple above.

Man I need TV when I’ve got tall tales…

Following the publication of a piece on the Kaiser Chiefs‘ new album in the News Of The World, (clipping above) Tony Visconti has decided to set the record straight on claims made by the band’s songwriting drummer, Nick Hodgson, regarding the song Man On Mars.

I’ll leave you with TV’s response…

“I have never asked David Bowie to write lyrics for the Kaiser Chiefs. I was hired for the production job because of Nick’s obsession with Bowie and T. Rex, and I freely shared some of my production “secrets” with them. But, that did not include getting Bowie to write lyrics for them. That is absurd.”