David Bowie

 

“We could steal time, just for one day”

 

As if you didn’t already know, the “Heroes” limited edition 40th-anniversary 7″ picture disc is issued today via Parlophone.

 

 

DAVID BOWIE “HEROES” LIMITED EDITION 40th ANNIVERSARY 7″ PICTURE DISC

 

A-Side “HEROES” (Single version 2017 Remaster)

(Lyrics by David Bowie, Music by David Bowie and Brian Eno)

Produced by David Bowie & Tony Visconti

Recorded at Hansa by the Wall, Berlin and Mountain Studios, Montreux

 

AA-Side “HEROES” (‘Marc’ show version)

(Lyrics by David Bowie, Music by David Bowie and Brian Eno)

Recorded for the television show ‘Marc’ on 7th September 1977

 

 

The previously unreleased live version of “Heroes” from ‘Marc’ is a performance that remains dear to fans who heard it at the time, as it was the first televised performance of the song. Recorded on the 7th of September 1977 but not broadcast until September 28th, by which time Bolan had passed away in a tragic accident.

 

Watch Bowie’s performance here.

 

 

#DBHERO40  #BowieHeroes  #BowieBolan  #BowieVinyl  

 

“And it won’t be forgotten”

 

The November 2017 issue of MOJO has a generous 15 pages (plus cover), dedicated to “The Berlin Trilogy”. Here’s their blurb from the MOJO site…

 

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DAVID BOWIE ALWAYS HAD a problem with Lodger. “We both felt the mix sounded thin and muddy,” producer Tony Visconti tells MOJO’s Mark Paytress in the new MOJO magazine, in UK stores from Tuesday, September 26. “David and I always said we’d remix it one day. But like a thousand other projects, it never manifested.”

 

But during the spring of 2015, between work on Bowie’s final album, Blackstar, Visconti revived a long-cherished project to revitalise the oft-underestimated last instalment of “The Berlin Trilogy” (actually recorded in what Visconti describes as the “very unsexy” Montreux, Switzerland). The producer’s efforts have been rewarded with star billing in the new multi-disc box set David Bowie: A New Career In A New Town [1977-1982] and, more importantly his late employer’s own delight and approval.

 

“As soon as David heard the tom fills at the start of Fantastic Voyage,” says Visconti, “a big smile broke out on his face. Then the special effects that were never there before. The reverb on his vocal. The guitar sound. He was so happy.”

 

The full story of Lodger – its construction in exile, experimental excursions and crazy cover photo session – can be enjoyed in MOJO 288, along with new perspectives on Bowie’s Berlin period from Visconti, guitarist Carlos Alomar and Hansa Studios engineer Eduard Meyer. But among the tall tales of sleazy fun in the divided city’s bohemian demi-monde, there are more sobering insights.

 

“It was a very sad period for David,” says Carlos Alomar. “I don’t want to put it in some glamorous place. He was fighting for his marriage, his son; his business was horrible, the touring exhausting and taking every bit of money that he had… Nobody looks at the loneliness.”

 

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Also, free with the new issue is a 15-track covermounted CD, Neu Decade, celebrating the music that fed into Bowie’s Euro-exile – including Can, Cluster, Popol Vuh and Michael Rother.

 

Go here for more detail regarding the November issue of MOJO, which is out on September 26th.

 

 

#ANCIANTbox  #BowieMOJO  #BowieBerlin

 

“We can be Heroes, for ever and ever, What d’you say?”

 

In addition to tomorrow’s “Heroes” 7″ picture disc release, Friday 22nd also sees the digital release of two new mixes of the song by Klax and Filburt especially commissioned for the 40th anniversary of the original single release.

 

These new 40th anniversary mixes see Leipzig’s Filburt and Brighton trio KLAX take the track into uncharted territory…

 

KLAX: “Bowie has been in our collective consciousness since birth and has undoubtedly been a huge influence on our musical development. The Berlin Trilogy is our favourite of Bowie’s many ‘eras’, and the track ‘Heroes’ sticks out as one of the greatest songs of this period. To be given the opportunity to add our own touch to such an iconic track was both daunting and astonishing. We wanted to maintain the emotion of the original track while placing it firmly in the ‘here and now’, staying true to Bowie’s forward thinking and boundary-pushing legacy. It was easily the highest pressure remix we’ve ever done but we are really happy with the results and hope others feel that too.”

 

Filburt: “It was a very great honour to work with the original material. When I first heard the single stems, I got goose bumps. For me, David Bowie has always been an exceptional talent, and the song reflects the urge for freedom and change. When working on the remix, it was important to transport the feeling of the original to the modern age, but also to generate a classic disco feeling in the groove.”

 

Listen to the tracks at NME and BEAT now.

 

 

#ANCIANTbox  #ANewCareerInANewTownBox  #DBHERO40  #BowieHeroes  #BowieVinyl  

 

“Listen to tracks by Sam Therapy and King Dice”

 

The November 2017 issue of Uncut magazine has a 9/10 review of David Bowie: A New Career In A New Town (1977–1982) by John Robinson. Here’s his concluding paragraph to give you a flavour of the thing…

 

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Much as the idea of ‘the 1960s’ meant more than the strict confinement of a decade, Bowie’s Berlin is more about a state of mind, a population and it’s thinking than actual place. Brian Eno and his intellectual playfulness; Robert Fripp’s alien guitar; Tony Visconti’s embrace of meaningful technology. Between them they gave Bowie the materials to build a city larger and more magnificent than anywhere you could hope to find on a map.

 

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Elsewhere in the mag there’s a full page advert for DAVID BOWIE: A LIFE IN PICTURES (due on September 28th), which we’ll tell you more about next week.

 

Go here for more detail regarding the November issue of Uncut, which is on shelves tomorrow.

 

 

#ANCIANTbox  #BowieUNCUT  

 

“He opened strange doors that we’d never close again”

 

(ANCIANT = A New Career In A New Town)

 

With just ten day to go till the September 29th release of the David Bowie: A New Career In A New Town (1977–1982) box set, the subject of our album focus this week is 1980’s Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps).

 

Watch a clever little animation over on DBFB.

 

Listen to the album on the official ANCIANT playlist now.

 

Pre-order ANCIANT here.

 

 

 

#ANCIANTbox  #ANewCareerInANewTownBox  #BowieScaryMonsters

 

“Questioning saint-like and fantastic “Heroes””

 

The upcoming release of the David Bowie ‘A New Career In A New Town (1977-1982)’ box set will be celebrated with an event at the world-famous Hansa Studios, Berlin, on Tuesday 26th September which will be live-streamed via www.facebook.com/davidbowie.

 

The live event will feature a Q&A session with guests including Carlos Alomar (Bowie’s guitarist from 1974 to 1987), Eduard Meyer (the former sound engineer at Hansa Studios) and Chris Duffy (son of photographer Brian Duffy, and director of the Duffy Archive) who will be discussing Bowie’s work from 1977-1982. The official Bowie Facebook page will also be featuring previously unheard audio streams on the day of the event.

 

Hansa Tonstudio or ‘Hansa By The Wall’ as it came to be known was where Bowie recorded parts of his ground-breaking LOW album along with “HEROES” which celebrates its 40th anniversary this month.

 

YOUR CHANCE TO GET INVOLVED

 

Do you have a burning question that you’ve always wanted to ask Carlos Alomar, Eduard Meyer or Chris Duffy? Well, now you can. Post your question in the comments section here and the most suitable will be asked on the night.

 

The official Bowie Facebook page will feature a stream of the audio for the playback from 19:00 (CET) and a live-stream of the Q&A at 20:00 (CET).

 

 

#ANCIANTbox  #ANewCareerInANewTownBox  #BowieHansa

 

“What can I do? Standing next to you”

 

Marc Bolan died forty years ago today on September 16th, 1977, two weeks before his 30th birthday.

 

He was a close friend of Bowie’s right up until the last. The pair are pictured here when they appeared together on an episode of ‘Marc’, Bolan’s 1977 TV show.

 

‘Marc’ was recorded in Manchester on September 7th, 1977, and broadcast on September 28th, 1977.

 

Today’s lyric quotation is from the song they wrote and attempted to perform together, Standing Next To You. However, the recording was truncated when Marc fell off the stage.

 

Bowie also performed “Heroes” on the show, a performance that remains dear to fans who heard it at the time, as it was the first televised performance of the song.

 

If the music of Marc Bolan and T Rex has somehow escaped you thus far, you really must treat yourself. And there’s no finer place to start than the Tony Visconti produced Electric Warrior.

 

 

FOOTWEARNOTE: Swipe picture for a Polaroid of David Bowie at Andy Warhol’s Factory on September 14th, 1971, ten days before the release of Electric Warrior. Bowie is sporting a pair of shoes given to him by Bolan, a footwear choice which impressed Warhol. The picture is taken from TASCHEN’s superb, Andy Warhol: Polaroids 1958-1987

 

 

#BowieBolan  #MarcBolan  

 

“I’ll give you eyes of blue”

 

Following the success of Sukita’s ‘Blows Up’ Bowie and Iggy exhibition in Japan back in January, the photographer is taking his ‘DAVID BOWIE 1977 IGGY POP’ show to Snap Galleries in London, the venue of many previous Bowie photo exhibitions.

 

Over to SNAP for the lowdown…

 

 

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DAVID BOWIE 1977 IGGY POP – Photographs by Masayoshi Sukita

 

Masayoshi Sukita’s photographs need no introduction to fans of David Bowie. We celebrated Sukita-san’s photographs of Bowie-san with a broad retrospective in 2013. Now we turn the spotlight on 1977 when Sukita-san photographed David Bowie and Iggy Pop – a pivotal year in the career of both musicians.

 

In April 1977, David Bowie and Iggy Pop visited Japan to promote The Idiot, Iggy Pop’s debut album, which David Bowie had produced. At short notice, Masayoshi Sukita photographed David Bowie and Iggy Pop at Harajuku studio in Tokyo during the visit. He sat them at a small table and photographed them separately. David Bowie tried on a number of leather jackets during the session, while Iggy wore a white shirt and a jacket.

 

Photographs from that session would be used on the front cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes” album, released in October of that year, and on the front cover of Iggy Pop’s Party album, released a few years later.

 

 

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Sukita also photographed the pair at the dual press conference to promote both Low and The Idiot, where our boys did a fair bit of larking around.

 

The main picture in our montage is of Bowie with fan and birthday boy Iggy in Tokyo on April 21, 1977, Pop’s 30th Birthday.

 

The two page RCA Japanese advert at the top was to promote both Low and The Idiot. Note that both utilise images from the session described above, and this was probably the first use of them.

 

The Bowie shoot would surface later in the year for the “Heroes” campaign, as would shots from the Iggy session for the Lust For Life tour programme. Four years later one of the Iggy portraits eventually graced the sleeve of 1981’s Party LP and the German Lust For Life 12″ single in 1982.

 

The snap top left of our montage is Sukita’s signed print of the photographer with his subjects.

 

We’ll announce full details of dates, location and content of the exhibition shortly.

 

 

#BowieSukita  #BowieLow  #BowieIggy  #LFL40  #LustForLife40  #BowieSnap  

 

“Ohhh, Wham Bam Thank You Ma’am!”

 

With just two weeks to go until the release of ANCIANT, we thought you might like to hear this previously unreleased live version of Suffragette City.

 

The track was omitted from the original Stage album in 1978 and from the 2005 reissue. However, a tape containing this recording from 29th April, 1978, at the Spectrum Arena in Philadelphia, was uncovered during research for the ‘A New Career In A New Town’ box set. 

 

Listen to it here now and pre-order the box set here,

 

 

#ANCIANTbox  #ANewCareerInANewTownBox  #BowieStage

 

“Heaven loves ya, The clouds part for ya…”

 

(ANCIANT = A New Career In A New Town)

 

This is the second instalment of our album focus on David Bowie’s Lodger.

 

Here follows an excerpt from an old UNCUT interview with David about the confusingly named Berlin Trilogy. This snippet is from the part regarding Lodger. UNCUT never published the full interview, but you can read the unedited version of it here.

 

 

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LODGER

 

UNCUT: An album which really divides Bowie fans – it is either devout love or total indifference. Can you understand both reactions?

 

Bowie:  I think Tony and I would both agree that we didn’t take enough care mixing. This had a lot to do with my being distracted by personal events in my life and I think Tony lost heart a little because it never came together as easily as both Low and Heroes had. I would still maintain though that there are a number of really important ideas on Lodger. If I had more time I would explore them for you…but…you can probably pick them out as easily.

 

UNCUT: Moving away from pure electronic sounds – was this a deliberate strategy to stay ahead of the synthesizercopycat bands who were busy aping ‘Low’ and “Heroes”?

 

Bowie:  I think it’s the lack of instrumentals that give you the impression that our process was different. It really wasn’t. It was a lot more mischievous though. Brian and I did play a number of ‘art pranks’ on the band. They really didn’t go down too well though. Especially with Carlos who tends to be quite ‘grand’.

 

UNCUT: Was the backwards tape of ‘All The Young Dudes’ for ‘Move On’ originally an accident? And does this song have any connection to the unfinished Iggy collaboration ‘Moving On’?

 

Bowie:  Not really an accident but I did stumble upon it. I had put one of my reel to reel tapes on backwards by mistake and really quite liked the melody it created. So I played quite a few more in this fashion and chose five or six that were really quite compelling. Dudes was the only one to make the album, as I didn’t want to abandon the ‘normal’ writing I was doing completely. But it was a worthwhile exercise in my mind. It has the same title as the song I wrote for Iggy. But as the one for Jim was a working title, I passed it onto the Lodger song.

 

UNCUT: The final refrain in ‘Red Money’ – “project cancelled”. Is this significant? A curtain being drawn on the Eno triptych?

 

Bowie:  Not at all. Mere whimsy.

 

UNCUT: What is ‘cricket menace’?

 

Bowie:  Little crickety sounds that Brian produced from a combination of my drum machine (I would, and still do, use one to write with when I’m on my own) and his ‘briefcase’ synth. You can hear them on African Nightflight.

 

UNCUT: Moving to New York – had Berlin served its purpose? Was New York chosen for musical reasons?

 

Bowie:  It was an irreplaceable, unmissable experience and probably the happiest time in my life up until that point. Coco, Jim and I had so many great times. But I just can’t express the feeling of freedom I felt there. Some days the three of us would jump into the car and drive like crazy through East Germany and head down to the Black Forest, stopping off at any small village that caught our eye. Just go for days at a time. Or we’d take long all afternoon lunches at the Wannsee on winter days. The place had a glass roof and was surrounded by trees and still exuded an atmosphere of the long gone Berlin of the twenties. At night we’d hang with the intellectuals and beats at the Exile restaurant in Kreutzberg. In the back they had this smoky room with a billiard table and it was sort of like another living room except the company was always changing.

 

Sometimes we’d go shopping at KaDeWe, the giant department store in the Centre of West Berlin, which had the hugest food counters anyone could imagine with displays that are only imaginable in a country which either must have been seriously deprived of food at one time or where the populace just plain likes to eat a lot. We’d stock up occasionally on what felt like luxuries at the time like chocolates or a small tin of caviar. One day, while we were out, Jim had come in and ate everything in the fridge we had spent all morning shopping for. It was one of the few times that Co and I were truly mad at him. I could write a lot more on all this…but.

 

I had not intended to leave Berlin, I just drifted away. Maybe I was getting better. Jim decided to stay on a while longer as he had pretty much hitched up with a girl he’d met there and had by now gotten his own apartment, next door to ours. Then Elephant Man came up, which caused me to be in the US for a considerable spell. Then Berlin was …over.

 

 

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LODGER FACT FILE:

 

Working Titles: Planned Accidents and Despite Straight Lines

Released in the UK as RCA PL 13254 on 18th May, 1979.

Peak UK chart position: #4

Peak US chart position: #20

 

Original Tracklisting

 

SIDE 1

1. FANTASTIC VOYAGE

2. AFRICAN NIGHT FLIGHT

3. MOVE ON

4. YASSASSIN (TURKISH FOR: LONG LIVE)

5. RED SAILS

 

SIDE 2

1. D.J.

2. LOOK BACK IN ANGER

3. BOYS KEEP SWINGING

4. REPETITION

5. RED MONEY

 

Bonus tracks on 1991 RykoDisc reissue:

 

I Pray, Olé (Previously unreleased track recorded 1979)

Look Back In Anger (New version recorded 1988)

 

 

Original UK Singles:

Boys Keep Swinging/Fantastic Voyage – released April 1979 – (Peak UK chart position: #7)

D.J./Repetition released – June 1979 – (Including limited edition green vinyl) (Peak UK chart position: #29)

 

Significant non UK Singles:

Boys Keep Swinging/Fantastic Voyage – released April 1979 – (Spain only promo picture disc – First official Bowie 7″ picture disc)

Yassassin/Repetition – released July 1979 – (Netherlands)

Yassassin/Red Money – released July 1979 – (Turkey)

Look Back In Anger/Repetition – released August 1979 – (North America)

 

Pictured in our montage clockwise from top left: UK Lodger front cover, UK limited edition D.J. green vinyl single, Yassassin Turkish picture sleeve, Yassassin Netherlands picture sleeve, Boys Keep Swinging, Spanish promo picture disc.

 

Videos were made for Boys Keep Swinging, D.J. and Look Back In Anger.

 

 

 

All lyrics written by DAVID BOWIE.

All music written by DAVID BOWIE and BRIAN ENO except:

‘MOVE ON’, ‘YASSASSIN’ and ‘REPETITION’ written by DAVID BOWIE

‘D.J.’ written by DAVID BOWIE, BRIAN ENO and CARLOS ALOMAR

‘RED MONEY’ written by DAVID BOWIE and CARLOS ALOMAR

 

Produced by DAVID BOWIE and TONY VISCONTI.

Recorded at MOUNTAIN STUDIOS, MONTREUX, SWITZERLAND, September, 1978 and March, 1979.

Engineers – TONY VISCONTI and DAVID RICHARDS.

Assistant engineer – EUGENE CHAPLIN.

Mixed at RECORD PLANT STUDIOS, NEW YORK CITY.

Engineers – TONY VISCONTI and ROD O’BRIEN.

Assistant engineer – GREG CARUSO.

 

Listen to the original Lodger on the official David Bowie: A New Career In A New Town playlist.

 

Pre-order ANCIANT here: https://lnk.to/ANCIANTMP

 

 

#ANCIANTbox  #ANewCareerInANewTownBox  #BowieLodger