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  • Total Blam Blam's picture
    Posted by           
    March 27, 2013

     

    “Some cats from Japan”

     

    We have just received a whole bunch of delightful comments from various Japanese celebrity tastemakers regarding David Bowie and his latest album, The Next Day.

    There are five contributors in total and each of them have been good friends in Bowie’s orbit to a lesser or greater degree over the years.

    The accompanying picture here is of David Bowie at a press conference at the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo in April 1973, when he first started to fall under Japanese influence.

     

    Mr. Ryuichi Sakamoto

    (Famous Japanese musician, activist, composer, record producer, writer,

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  • Total Blam Blam's picture
    Posted by           
    March 27, 2013

     

    “Secret secrets never seen” 

     

    The headline says it and here‘s the blurb from the V&A site:

    Jonathan Barnbrook: David Bowie is On Tuesday 8 January 2013, the world awoke to the news that David Bowie was releasing a new album following a decade-long hiatus. Graphic designer Jonathan Barnbrook talks to 'David Bowie is' exhibition co-curator Victoria Broackes about his work on the album cover and the secrecy that surrounded it. The film also includes Barnbrook's thoughts on his design for the cover of Bowie's 2002 album, Heathen.

    Watch the full thing here

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  • Total Blam Blam's picture
    Posted by           
    March 26, 2013

     

    “The stars are out tonight”

     

    The V&A has posted a very cool little film, wherein they interview the arriving guests at last week’s gala dinner and private view for the David Bowie is Exhibition at the world-famous museum.

    In attendance were well-known names in music, film, fashion, art and the media and among those interviewed on the orange carpet were Tilda Swinton, Tracey Emin, Gary Kemp, Simon Le Bon & Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran, Paul Morley, Bill Nighy, Dylan Jones, Sir David Frost and many others.

    Guests were asked to complete the sentence ‘David Bowie is...’ and they were probed for

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  • Total Blam Blam's picture
    Posted by           
    March 23, 2013

     

     

     

    Speak Chinese, French and Dutch?

     

    Great piece in French Libération newspaper’s magazine today (Saturday 23rd) by Eric Dahan.

    The four-page cover feature in celebration of David Bowie is at the V&A is reproduced here, but it’s published in French, naturally.

    However, if you’re desperate to get the gist of the piece but don’t read French, then have fun with an online translator, like we did with the concluding paragraph:

    “Secluded in his penthouse overlooking Manhattan, the multimedia prophet of an already happened apocalypse and of a mutant future, the pop Zarathoustra who reaffirmed,

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  • Total Blam Blam's picture
    Posted by           
    March 23, 2013

     

    “Just playing that latest record”

     

    Just to keep you in the picture and so you don’t think it‘s some kind of cheap April Fool’s Day prank on the day, The Next Day vinyl set will now be released worldwide on April 1st.

    Though the delay may disappoint some of you, hopefully the news that the 180 gram, 17-track double vinyl set will include the 17-track CD too will cheer you.  

    It's another beautiful Barnbrook-designed package that is a pleasure to behold. Speaking of Jonathan B, here’s an interview with him on the V&A channel that you may not have spotted yet.

    One of the zillions of items of

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  • Total Blam Blam's picture
    Posted by           
    March 22, 2013

     

    “Listen”

     

    If for one reason or another you’ve not yet heard The Next Day, you can go check it out on Spotify right now

    Once it has its hooks in you’re probably not going to want to listen to anything else, but pretty much the whole of the Bowie back catalogue is there if the fancy takes you.

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  • Total Blam Blam's picture
    Posted by           
    March 22, 2013

     

    ”As long as we’re together”

     

    EMI is repackaging the existing versions of the Low (1977), “Heroes” (1977), Stage (1978) and Lodger (1979) CDs together in a cardboard slipcase, under the box set name of DAVID BOWIE – ZEIT! 77-79.

    You may be familiar with this kind of repackage that seems to be a popular method of grouping ’related’ albums together. Check out the superb IDBD for examples. 

    The three studio albums here were released between 1977 and 1979 and are generally referred to as the somewhat misleading Berlin Trilogy.

    A more unifying theme throughout the three recordings is the

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  • Total Blam Blam's picture
    Posted by           
    March 21, 2013

     

    “We have a nice life”

     

    As you’ve no doubt seen or heard, Tilda Swinton was a speaker (along with Sir Paul Ruddock) at a dinner in celebration of David Bowie is at the V&A on Tuesday evening.

    The V&A has now posted her speech online, and rather good it is too.

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  • Total Blam Blam's picture
    Posted by           
    March 20, 2013

     

    (Note: scroll across for full landscape version of this gorgeous new Jimmy King portrait of Bowie)

     

    David Bowie’s 'The Next Day' Debuts #1 on Charts in 12 Countries and Tops iTunes Chart in Over 60 Countries

     

    First Album in Decade Sparks Passionate Global Response

     

    New York, NY – March 20, 2013 – David Bowie’s new album 'The Next Day' (ISO/Columbia Records) has debuted at #1 in the U.K., Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland a week after its release, and has topped the iTunes chart in over 60 countries

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  • Total Blam Blam's picture
    Posted by           
    March 19, 2013

     

    “He’s in the best-selling show”

     

    On Sunday the Observer newspaper in the UK reported the excitement surrounding the launch of the David Bowie is Exhibition at the V&A this coming Saturday thusly: “Bowie mania as V&A exhibition smashes records”.

    The item went on to declare that the exhibition is breaking all previous records at the museum adding that “More than 42,000 advance tickets for the in-depth retrospective have been sold, more than double the advance sales of previous exhibitions.”

    All this in the week that The Next Day became the nation’s favourite long player when it hit the #1

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