★ enters UK chart at #1 with 19 Bowie albums and 13 singles in UK Top 100

 

“I never thought I’d need so many people”

 

David Bowie is the Starman of the Official Chart as the nation pays tribute to a music icon

Over half a million Bowie records sold in the UK this week

Bowie commands one quarter of the Official Albums Chart Top 40

19 Bowie albums and 13 singles enter the Top 100

 

As the nation mourns the sad passing of David Bowie this week, the star’s continued impact on music shows as he dominates this week’s Official Chart.

 

Bowie’s new album Blackstar debuts at Number 1 with combined sales of almost 150,000, giving him his tenth chart-topping record and the fastest selling album of the year so far.

 

Importantly, Blackstar was already headed for Number 1 before news of Bowie’s death broke; early sales flashes last weekend revealed the record was head and shoulders above the competition.

 

Including Blackstar, over half a million Bowie records were picked up this week in the UK – totalling 623,000 combined sales and streams. The figure includes 241,000 album sales, 167,000 singles purchased, and Bowie tracks were streamed over 19 million times on audio streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play, Deezer and more.

 

Ten of the late icon’s albums command one quarter of this week’s Official Albums Chart Top 40, and 19 entries in the albums Top 100.

 

His 2014 retrospective Nothing Has Changed – The Very Best Of is the highest re-entry at Number 5, followed by The Best Of 1969/1974 at Number 11.

 

The full list of his 19 albums in this week’s Official Albums Chart appears below:

 

01 – BLACKSTAR – RCA

05 – NOTHING HAS CHANGED – THE VERY BEST OF DAVID BOWIE – PARLOPHONE

11 – THE BEST OF 1969/1974 – PARLOPHONE

14 – HUNKY DORY – PARLOPHONE

17 – THE RISE AND FALL OF ZIGGY STARDUST – PARLOPHONE

18 – BEST OF BOWIE – PARLOPHONE

23 – ALADDIN SANE – PARLOPHONE

25 – THE NEXT DAY – RCA

31 – LOW – PARLOPHONE

37 – DIAMOND DOGS – PARLOPHONE

42 – LET’S DANCE – PARLOPHONE

45 – “HEROES” – PARLOPHONE

55 – STATION TO STATION – PARLOPHONE

59 – THE BEST OF – 1980/1987 PARLOPHONE

60 – YOUNG AMERICANS – PARLOPHONE

61 – SCARY MONSTERS – PARLOPHONE

89 – THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD – PARLOPHONE

95 – SPACE ODDITY – PARLOPHONE

97 – FIVE YEARS – 1969-1973 – PARLOPHONE

 

View the full Albums Top 100 here

 

Bowie’s entries on this week’s Official Singles Chart:

 

12 – HEROES – PARLOPHONE

16 – LIFE ON MARS – PARLOPHONE

18 – STARMAN – PARLOPHONE

23 – LET’S DANCE – PARLOPHONE

24 – SPACE ODDITY – PARLOPHONE

43 – UNDER PRESSURE – QUEEN & DAVID BOWIE – VIRGIN

45 – LAZARUS – RCA

49 – CHANGES – PARLOPHONE

61 – BLACKSTAR – RCA

62 – ASHES TO ASHES – PARLOPHONE

65 – REBEL REBEL – PARLOPHONE

76 – ZIGGY STARDUST – PARLOPHONE

97 – CHINA GIRL – PARLOPHONE

 

View the full Singles Top 100 here

 

#Blackstar  #imablackstar  #BlackstarAlbum  #BowieOCC

Thank you

 

The family of David Bowie is currently making arrangements for a private ceremony celebrating the memory of their beloved husband, father and friend.

 

They ask once again that their privacy be respected at this most sensitive of times.

 

We are overwhelmed by and grateful for the love and support shown throughout the world. 

 

However, it is important to note that while the concerts and tributes planned for the coming weeks are all welcome, none are official memorials organized or endorsed by the family.

 

Just as each and every one of us found something unique in David’s music, we welcome everyone’s celebration of his life as they see fit.

January 10 2016

David Bowie died peacefully today surrounded by his family after a courageous 18 month battle with cancer. While many of you will share in this loss, we ask that you respect the family’s privacy during their time of grief.

More praise for ★ album in US press

 

“I catch the paper boy”

 

There’s been a whole raft of great reviews for the ★ album over the last few days.

We’ll be selecting a few from around the globe over the next week or so.

Here are edited excerpts from three reviews in the American press.

 

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The Wall Street Journal: Ziggy Stardust Plays Jazz – By JIM FUSILLI

 

With “Blackstar,” the delicious conceit of David Bowie conspiring with modern jazz artists is fulfilled beautifully. What began merely as a “boundary-pushing experiment,” according to Mr. Visconti, the album confirms that Mr. Bowie has long found inspiration in jazz. With its powerful, erudite performances by Mr. McCaslin and crew, “Blackstar” emerges as an album to savor as well as admire.

 

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Chicago Sun-Times: Bowie obliterates boundaries on his blazing ‘Blackstar’ 

 

Has there ever been a pop star cooler than David Bowie? Through a career spanning nearly 50 years and a wide assortment of styles and genres— including a few he helped pioneer— this multifaceted artist and personality has continued to pique our curiosity without compromising or embarrassing himself.

 

Not all of Bowie’s projects have been mind-blowing, of course; but his latest album, Blackstar— out Friday, his 69th birthday— is an unqualified triumph. Texturally adventurous, sonically stunning and full of both ambivalence and yearning, it reveals a musician who has seldom acknowledged boundaries or courted accessibility in top form, with most accessible results.

 

Blackstar reaffirms both his gift for flash and the soulfulness that sustains it — the fire under his chilly exterior, which by all indications is burning as brightly as ever.

 

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Los Angeles Times: David Bowie looks far beyond pop on jazz-inspired ‘Blackstar’ – By Mikael Wood 

 

As fierce and unsettling — and sometimes as beautiful — as anything in Bowie’s one-of-a-kind catalog, “Blackstar” looks to jazz not for tunes or signifiers but for a proud sense of sonic freedom. If anything, it views taste and maturity with suspicion — and thus shares about as much with your typical rocker-doing-jazz record as the singer’s trippy new off-Broadway musical, “Lazarus,” does with “Les Miz.”

 

The album’s intensity shouldn’t come as a surprise. In early 2013, after 10 years of quiet, Bowie suddenly reemerged with “The Next Day,” a jolt of vivid guitar rock that openly recalled his classic work from the 1970s. But where “The Next Day” showed he could still do pop economy, “Blackstar” emphasizes a different Bowie attribute: His willingness to pursue an idea well beyond the constraints of verse-chorus-verse.

 

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While we’re with the LA Times, the paper ran another recent piece by Sasha Frere-Jones, titled: An insider’s look behind the making of David Bowie’s secretive ‘Blackstar’ album, with contributions from both Tony Visconti and Donny McCaslin.

 

 

#Blackstar  #imablackstar  #BlackstarAlbum

 

iTunes: smarturl.it/blackstar_itunes

Amazon: smarturl.it/blackstar_amazon

Spotify: smarturl.it/blackstar_spotify

Vinyl: smarturl.it/blackstar_vinyl

★ album is #1 UK and #2 USA

 

“Just go with me”

 

Congratulations are due to David Bowie with the news that his ★ album is the best-selling album on iTunes and Amazon in the UK and it’s the second best-selling album on iTunes and Amazon in the USA.

Thanks so much folks, you put it there!

 

#Blackstar  #imablackstar  #BlackstarAlbum

 

iTunes: smarturl.it/blackstar_itunes

Amazon: smarturl.it/blackstar_amazon

Spotify: smarturl.it/blackstar_spotify

Vinyl: smarturl.it/blackstar_vinyl

Paul Smith for David Bowie ★ T-shirt

 

“I like the T-shirts”

 

Paul Smith is delighted to announce a new collaboration with David Bowie and graphic designer Jonathan Barnbrook to mark the release of Bowie’s 28th studio album, ★ (Blackstar).

The limited edition Paul Smith for David Bowie T-shirt design is available in black and white versions, blending Jonathan Barnbrook’s ★ album artwork with handwritten text from Paul.

Go here for more.

 

#Blackstar  #imablackstar  #BlackstarAlbum  #PaulSmithBowie

Bowie feature in Le Parisien mag on Friday

 

“When your mask came off”

 

Eric Dahan has authored a seven page feature for the new edition of Le Parisien Magazine.

Sordid details following…

 

David Bowie feature in Le Parisien Magazine this Friday

 

The best-selling French national newspaper (500,000 copies sold daily and 2.5 million circulation) has devoted seven pages of its first weekend supplement edition of the year to David Bowie, to be released this Friday in order to coincide with his birthday and the release of ★.

 

After having declared in French Vanity Fair that contrary to the « long dead idea of Progress » symbolised by « the skeleton of Major Tom » in Blackstar’s video clip, « David Bowie’s art is far from going to die », and after having qualified David Bowie’s new album in French magazine Rock and Folk as a « spring-like and sensual » record « that makes you wanna dance », Eric Dahan in this Le Parisien Magazine story, expresses his admiration for the « God of modern rock », the «adventurous » and « prophetic » artist, « one of the very last survivors of a time when artists used to question the world and interpreted it for the majority by inventing new poetic equations ». He raves again about Blackstar : A « playful and striking » album with which David Bowie « has chosen to reaffirm his status of doomed poet and herald of strangeness »

 

#Blackstar  #imablackstar  #BlackstarAlbum  #BowieLeParisien

Happy Birthday David Bowie and ★

 

“That’s the message that I sent”

 

Why is this man so happy? Is it because it‘s his 69th birthday or that he has released his 28th studio album today and it’s a corker?

Who knows, but we’re sure you’ll want to join us in congratulating him on both.

Many happy returns of the day to David Bowie and ★

(Fashion fans may like to note that our man is wearing Thom Browne)

 

#Blackstar  #imablackstar  #BlackstarAlbum  #BowieBirthday  #BowieBrowne

Bowie’s "Thank You Notes" in Lazarus video

 

“Ain’t that just like me”

 

If you’ve not already seen last night’s broadcast of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, then you may find this particularly amusing.

There’s not much point in talking about it, you just have to watch it.

However, we should warn you that you may never be able to view the Lazarus video in quite the same light again.

 

#Blackstar  #imablackstar  #BlackstarAlbum  #LazarusVideo  #BowieFallon