Memory of an in-line-with-inflation festival
In its round-up of the best of 2000, Uncut magazine this month (issue dated Jan 2001) acknowledges what has been a good year for David Bowie: "With a rapturously received greatest hits set, Bowie clawed back some of the mainstream credibility that he has been carefully eluding for years." I guess this is recognition of the fact that artistic concerns are often more satisfying for Bowie than commercial considerations, and it is this approach to his work that ensures his "enduring influence" continues to be felt in music today, as referred to elsewhere in the article.
Round and round goes Arthur's head...
Uncut also mentions the possibility of Pulp's Jarvis Cocker directing the screen version of Harland Miller's 'Slow Down Arthur, Stick To Thirty' that we told you about much earlier in the year. The novel follows the fortunes of a Bowie impersonator in an early Eighties London and Sheffield, and it so impressed Cocker that he tried to buy the film rights, but was beaten to the punch by the Disney-owned Miramax.
Apparently the wonderfully foppish frontman is more qualified for the task than one might first imagine, having directed videos for Aphex Twin and Tindersticks after studying film in the late Eighties. Jarvis was also co-creator of the fascinating Pulp documentary, 'Do You Remember The First Time?" In another part of the movie gossip section, Uncut has attempted to revive the rumour that David has expressed an interest in appearing in the proposed Radio 4 Doctor Who series...I thought this story had breathed its last after a short flap around in the dirt long ago, but if it has any substance you know you will be the first to be told.
Total Blam Blam (European Correspondent)