Month: May 2017

 

“Sound of thunder, sound of gold”

 

Next month‪ sees the release of two very strictly limited edition gold vinyl retail exclusive albums, The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars and Hunky Dory.

 

The albums are being released via Parlophone on 16th June 2017, the 45th anniversary of the original release of Bowie’s classic 1972 Ziggy Stardust album.

 

They will only be available as a strictly limited edition one-off run in ‘bricks and mortar’ stores and their online storefronts, but will not be available from online only retailers.

 

 

#ZiggyStardust45  #HunkyZiggyGold  #BowieVinyl  

 

“For you’re dancing where the dogs decay”

 

Along with aforementioned gold vinyl releases, 16th June 2017‪ also sees the release on CD and download of the best-selling vinyl album of last month’s Record Store Day (RSD) 2017, David Bowie Cracked Actor – Live Los Angeles ’74. This follows public demand for formats of the album alongside the triple vinyl.

 

‪Cracked Actor will now be made available as a limited edition 2CD digipak, with a twelve page booklet featuring notes from the original LA Amphitheatre show programme and a piece about the LA ‘Philly Dogs’ shows by Rolling Stone’s Richard Cromelin, from 10th October, 1974. Neither of these were featured in the vinyl package.

 

‪Cracked Actor will also be available as a hi-res 96/24 download, a standard download and Mastered For iTunes (MFiT). A standard jewel case 2CD with twelve page booklet will then replace the limited digipak. The vinyl edition will not be re-pressed or re-released.

 

‪David Bowie Cracked Actor – Live Los Angeles ’74 will be released via Parlophone on 16th June, 2017.

 

 

#CrackedActor  #DBCA74 

 

“I’d like to blow on your horn”

 

A wonderful picture of Davy Jones playing his white Grafton saxophone with the first line-up of The Kon-rads has surfaced.

 

The young Jones (later to become a solo singer in his own right under the name of David Bowie), is pictured next to George Underwood (later to become a solo singer in his own right under the name of Calvin James), who took vocal duties on this occasion.

 

In his early teens Bowie became keen on the jazz of John Coltrane. For Christmas 1961 his father bought him this white acrylic Grafton alto sax. It used new plastics technology, and cost £55, about half the cost of a brass instrument.

 

Bowie later told the BBC that he asked his father to lend him money to buy himself a saxophone. His father bought him the saxophone but made David agree to pay him back with the money he made from his part time job.

 

The picture is up for auction over at The Saleroom (LOT 61) where you can view a larger version.

 

 

#TheKonrads  #BowieSax  

 

“Me, I’m fresh on your pages”

 

Many of you will have already been enjoying Issue #1 of Andy Jones and Nick Smart’s David Bowie: Glamour fanzine*, with its striking Helen Green cover based on one of Sukita’s delicious 1973 Bowie portraits.

 

The fanzine is beautifully designed by Milky Cereal and the equally delightful Issue #2, is due any day now.

 

The publication boasts exclusive and original content contributed by Bowie fans and collaborators…

 

ISSUE 1:  Contributors include:

Carlos Alomar, Sophia Anne Caruso, Mike Garson, Mark Paytress, Suzi Ronson, Martin Samuel, James Stevenson, George Underwood, Alex Walton and Woody Woodmansey.

 

ISSUE 2: Contributors include:

Carlos Alomar, Philippe Auliac, Dylan Jones, Liz Kershaw, Jessica Lee Morgan, Terry O’Neill, Nicholas Pegg and Tony Visconti.

 

Each edition includes an A3 poster of Helen Green’s cover art and features contributions from Bowie fans, and this is where you come in.

 

Visit the David Bowie: Glamour fanzine site to submit contributions for Issue #3 and much more.

 

 

*We are duty-bound to point out that David Bowie: Glamour is not an official publication.

 

 

#DavidBowieGlamourFanzine

 

“Johnny looks up at the stars”

 

To celebrate the next leg of the record-breaking David Bowie Is exhibition at Museu Del Disseny De Barcelona, a limited edition red vinyl of I’m Afraid Of Americans will be making its 7” debut exclusively at the venue only, on May 25th.

 

The Trent Reznor remixed V1 edit of the track is the A-side, while the AA-side is an acoustic version of “Heroes”, recorded live at The Bridge School Benefit in 1996, where DB was backed by Reeves Gabrels and Gail Ann Dorsey.

 

The artwork for the single features two photographs by renowned Mexican photographer, Fernando Aceves, who took a series of beautiful shots of David while he was in Mexico City during the Earthling tour in October 1997.

 

20 years on from their first release, both tracks and the sleeve imagery have a renewed resonance in 2017.

 

 

I’M AFRAID OF AMERICANS 7″ RED VINYL DAVID BOWIE IS – BARCELONA EXHIBITION EXCLUSIVE

 

A-Side I’M AFRAID OF AMERICANS (V1 edit)

(Bowie/Eno)

Originally produced by David Bowie.

Reproduced by Nine Inch Nails.

Production & additional performances by Nine Inch Nails: Trent Reznor, Charlie Clouser, Keith Hillebrandt, Dave “Rave” Ogilvie, Danny Lohner.

Mixed by Dave “Rave” Ogilvie. Engineered by Brian Pollack at Nothing Studios, New Orleans.

 

AA- Side “HEROES” (live at The Bridge School ’96)

(Bowie/Eno)

Produced by John Hanlon

Mixed by John Hanlon at Redwood Digital, Woodside, California

This acoustic version of “Heroes” was recorded at the Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, California on 20th October 1996.

 

 

Bet you were expecting, Al Alba, the title of the Spanish language version of Day In, Day Out.

 

 

#DavidBowieIs  #DavidBowieIsBCN  #BowieIAOA  #BowieVinyl  

 

“Sometimes you get so lonely”

 

For those that follow these releases, it will be no surprise that Be My Wife is the latest in Parlophone’s series of 40th-anniversary Bowie 7″ picture discs.

 

Originally released in the UK on June 17th 1977, Be My Wife was the 2nd and final single from the ground-breaking album Low, the first of the so-called Berlin Trilogy. Despite a promotional video, the single didn’t chart, not helped by the fact that it was almost impossible to view it anywhere in the UK back in 1977.

 

With echoes of Life On Mars?, the Stanley Dorfman-directed promo was shot in an empty white room, with Bowie using a red Fender Stratocaster as a prop, while half-heartedly miming the guitar part. He somehow manages to appear nonchalant and anguished at the same time, in this bizarre plea for marital union.

 

The image used on the A Side is from the Be My Wife video shoot, while the AA side was taken during a visit to the studio of Victor Vasarely. Both photos are by Christian Simonpietri and were taken in Paris in June 1977.

 

Be My Wife is backed with a previously unreleased live version of the Low instrumental, Art Decade, recorded in Perth, Australia in 1978 during the ISOLAR II tour.

 

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BE MY WIFE LIMITED EDITION 40th ANNIVERSARY 7″ PICTURE DISC

 

A-Side BE MY WIFE (2017 remaster)

(David Bowie)

Produced by David Bowie and Tony Visconti

Mixed by Tony Visconti at Hansa by the Wall

 

AA-Side ART DECADE (Live Perth ‘78)

(David Bowie)

Produced by David Bowie

Recorded live at Perth Entertainment Centre, Perth, Australia 15th November 1978

 

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Be My Wife will be released via Parlophone on June 16th 2017.

 

FOOTNOTE: Victor Vasarely is the artist responsible for the 1968 artwork: CTA 25 NÉGATIF. The image was used as the background for the front cover of the 1969 Philips album, David Bowie, aka Space Oddity.

 

 

#DBBMW40  #BowieVinyl  #BowieVasarely