Any of those among you likely to celebrate St. Patrick's Day will probably be far too drunk to read this by the time it goes up. But, nevertheless, if you want a little bit of Bowie with your black stuff, then I suggest you look no further than recent releases by Irish musical geniuses The Divine Comedy and Irish singer Joe Dolan.
The former have released a limited edition of their 'best of' this week, 'a secret history'. As if a greatest hits type compilation by The Divine Comedy wasn't good enough, record company SETANTA have issued a limited 2 CD set encased within a stylish hardback biography of Neil Hannon and The Divine Comedy. Aside from the 17-track 'a secret history' the package also contains a second CD, the 18-track 'Rarities' compilation that boasts a charming live performance of 'Life On Mars?'.
The Joe Dolan CD was sent to me by Irish BowieNet member, Chris 'off with his head' Gaffney. Or should that be Chris 'out of his head' Gaffney, as that is definitely what he will be right now! ...Joe, who has been a name in Ireland since the sixties, is by all accounts, Ireland's answer to Tom Jones. And in a similar vein to Tom's 'Reload' CD, Joe has released his own album of his favourite contemporary songs with a modern twist on EMI, called '21st Century Joe'.
This 10-track beauty covers songs from artists as diverse as The Eurythmics, T-Rex, Talking Heads, REM, Oasis, U2, The Clash, Bruce Springsteen, Alannis Morrisette and newcomer David Bowie. The song Joe has selected from the Bowie back-catalogue is 'Starman' and the track is hotly tipped as Joe's next single. Magnificent!
Have one on me Chris!
Total Blam Blam - (European Correspondent)