Everything will be alright tonight...
That fave combo of the most influential artist of all time, the heavenly Grandaddy, play Shepherds Bush Empire in London tonight. If you can get along, do, you will not be disappointed. Unless of course you bump into me! The band continue a European Tour throughout December and are back in the UK for more dates in January/February of 2001.
Total Blam Blam (European Correspondent)
Today is Thursday, and that means it's time for Thursday's Child on the Top of the Pops website!
Check it out! And in case you haven't seen it yet, here's a link to the BowieNet exlusive TOTP video, Hallo Spaceboy!
Enjoy!
The november issue of "The Voyeur" is out now!
In this issue :
It's a girl, Welcome to Holland part 3, The European canon is here, The Beeb complete, Book review, CD review, adverts and more. For more information, go to http://go.to/bowiefanclub
Thanks, Moebius!
I could do with the money...
The 'Information Station' section, (a guide to recent promotional items) in the current issue of Record Collector, (December 2000) has at the top of its monthly list of twenty, one of three Bowie items. That item, which the magazine reckons you can acquire for a mere £200 ($280 US), is the extremely rare Bowie at the Beeb promotional radio microphone in a box. This price reflects recent eBay sales of this much sought after promotional item.
The other items, at #7 and #16 respectively, are the eight-track (not 18-track as the magazine suggests) Bowie at the Beeb reel-to-reel type promo CD in a box, listed at £50 ($70 US), which a few of you won right here, and the single-track Ziggy Stardust replacement CD, (produced for buyers of the mis-pressed Bowie at the Beeb) already priced at an astonishing £20 ($28 US), more expensive than the three CD Bowie at the Beeb set retailed for in the first place! This latter item came in a transparent plastic sleeve, not a card sleeve as reported in the list.
Elsewhere, Record Collector are advertising the 2002 (sic) edition of their 1,536 page rare record price guide, which contains the UK in-house picture sleeve pressing of the Space Oddity single, a snip at £3,000+ ($4,200 US). The magazine informs us that the single is "finally confirmed as real", suggesting that they were perhaps unsure of its validity when they first priced it! I'm still not convinced that the item isn't a fake, and if the publication could send me a copy, I would like to challenge them to a rigorous testing of the record, which unfortunately may end up with the record's destruction making it impossible to return. :-)
I intend to do a feature on the recent Bowie at the Beeb promotional items very soon, including the T-shirt, the signed print and the Zippo lighter that most seem to have missed. I'll leave you with the advice that Record Collector printed at the start of their piece: "As you all know by now, promo prices are notoriously unstable, so shop around." Never a truer word spoken, as I am currently offering up my Bowie at the Beeb promotional radio microphone in a box for a princely £2,000 ($5,000 US)! };-)
Total Blam Blam (European Correspondent)
Midem is an annual music industry conference. It has become one of the most prestigious events for the industry. Plus it's in Cannes. MidemNet is a one day event at Midem focusing on music and the internet.
BowieNet has been nominated as Best Artist site. It's up against Madonna, Depeche Mode, and Snapcase. The award is voted on by the general public (yes, you and I). Make sure you go and vote and have your friends and family vote, too! It is not a butterfly ballot and Katherine Harris is not in charge of certification, so there should be no problems with having our votes count.
Here is the review that Midem includes of BowieNet:
Should they so wish, fans could live completely immersed in David Bowie thanks to this visually stunning website. Registered members have chosen which tracks to include on albums, indicated their favourite cover art and designed merchandising.
"BowieNetters" get perks like exclusive concerts, competitions, private webcasts from Bowie's studio, access to otherwise unavailable multimedia, and Beatnik-powered technology to do their own remixes of selected tracks. They also get instant messaging, personal web space, chat rooms and other genuine on-line community activities. There's even a legitimate BowieBanc, complete with savings accounts and a choice of which Bowie picture is on their credit card.
We had a friend, a talking man, Who spoke of many powers that he had...
As one might imagine, the announcement that David Bowie has been named 'Most Influential Artist Of All Time' in NME (Issue dated 2nd December) has captured the imaginations of music lovers everywhere. This type of award always triggers debate, as witnessed in the UK press today, (pieces appear in The Sun, The Star, The Mirror, The Guardian (2 pieces, including a lovely mono Ziggy pic in the news pages), The Independent, International Herald And Tribune, London Metro and the Evening Standard.) but most of the people I have spoken to, including non-Bowie fans, (yes, they do exist, in isolated pockets of dribbling fools) seem to understand perfectly well why Bowie is deserving of the accolade.
NME hits the shelves today in a lovely silver bag that contains a free CD (see last week's story of 11/22/00 for a full track-listing that includes Suffragette City) as well as the publication itself which has a magnificent Ziggy live shot for its front cover. In another BowieNet exclusive we have the interview that David did for the issue, in which he takes the opportunity to highlight his regret that he didn't do more to champion the cause of those little men "in scarlet and grey": "...I really think I should have done more for gnomes..." and the five influential Bowie LPs that have been chosen with David's comments on each. Enjoy.
Total Blam Blam (European Correspondent)
A diary note for fans of Reeves Gabrels.
Reeves is to chat on Launch.com tomorrow!That's Wednesday Nov 29th @ 8.00pm EST. This is how they introduce him :-
"Bowie's axman hacks through the fluff to give you the lowdown on the rock star life!"
Thanks, Spaceface!
To put it mildly, the press has picked up on the news story we brought you on Wednesday about David Bowie being crowned the most influential musician of all time. You can find the story at iwon.com, The Times, Yahoo! or directly from nme.com, to name a few.
Tomorrow NME.COM plans to unveil a "minisite" dedicated to the list, where readers can log on and comment about the winners. Here's our chance to log on and thank them for giving our man the recognition he deserves!
As Spaceface mentioned on Saturday, this week the Top of the Pops website features historical performances by David Bowie from the Top of the Pops TV show from the last 30 years.
In addition to the daily video clips, we are delighted to announce that BowieNet will feature an additional clip from TOTP! Click HERE or on the image above to watch the exclusive video performance of Hallo Spaceboy!
Today you can also watch a clip of Dean Man Walking on the Top of the Pops website. Other performances broadcast this week include:
Tuesday - Heroes
Wednesday - Fashion
Thursday - Thursday's Child
Friday - Starman
Saturday - Fashion (Legs & Co)
Sunday - Space Oddity (Pan's People)
TOTP will also have an online Bowie fan quiz and those who successfullycomplete it will be eligible for a draw to win a complete CD set of hisalbums released on RCA between 1969 and 1980 plus a T-shirt and poster.Runners up can win one of five signed Bowie At The Beeb CDs.
I found the secrets, I found gold...
Following the post provided by Pozie, (...try saying that ten times quickly with your thumb up your...) buses have started to appear on the streets of London with our man's face plastered large on the side. This is all part of radio station Capital Gold's new promotion for the station. The artists featured in the campaign include some of the most successful popular music acts ever, including Bowie, The Beatles, Freddie Mercury, Hendrix, Blondie, ABBA, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Sting and Tina Turner - reflecting the station?s unique and wide ranging playlist, it says here.
Click on the logo below to take you to the online site for Capital Gold.
Total Blam Blam (European Correspondent)
Born in slumber less than peace, Struggle with a child whose screaming dreaming
The Daily Mail this morning has a quiz with pictures of twelve celebrities and the houses in which they grew up. We have lifted four of those houses in the animation above for your amusement. When you think you know, or you give up, click on the animation for the solution. Oh what fun!
Total Blam Blam - (European Correspondent)
I see from the message boards that some of you had the same exciting email as me in your inbox yesterday. Here it is!
"In the spirit of the Bowie At The Beeb album, the Top Of The Popswebsite (www.beeb.com/totp) will be posting exclusive Quicktime footage ofDavid Bowie's performances on the TOTP TV show from over the past 30 years.
There will also be TOTP video posted right here, on BowieNet! Check back right here in the news for direct links to the videos!
Starting on Monday November 27th, each day of the week will see a differentBowie performance being posted up on the site:
Monday - Dead Man Walking
Tuesday - Heroes
Wednesday - Fashion
Thursday - Thursday's Child
Friday - Starman
Saturday - Fashion (Legs & Co)
Sunday - Space Oddity (Pan's People)
TOTP will also have an online Bowie fan quiz and those who successfullycomplete it will be eligible for a draw to win a complete CD set of hisalbums released on RCA between 1969 and 1980 plus a T-shirt and poster.Runners up can win one of five signed Bowie At The Beeb CDs.
Of particular note for Bowie fans is the Heroes footage which features agreat live vocal, along with Starman which features Bowie dressed as ZiggyStardust with Mick Ronson on guitar."
Can't wait!!!
Thanks, Spaceface!!
This week's newsletter from real.com includes a link to David's Oct 99 TFI Friday interview. If you haven't already seen it, you can watch the whole 12 minutes or so.
They say :-
"At 52, Bowie is more wired than many musicians half his age...."
This show was the same weekend as David played at Netaid, and we had a Bowienet party in London. For more about this Bowie filled weekend, you can go here.
Thanks, Spaceface!
The latest issue of Rolling Stone features "The Pop 100," a list of the top 100 pop songs from The Beatles to the Backstreet Boys. Rolling Stone teams up with MTV to bring us this, er....enlightening list.....
David Bowie weighs in with one track, Changes, which is listed as number 38. The blurb reads:
Mick Rock, who first began his decades-long friendship with Bowie when he interviewed the singer for that 1972 ROLLING STONE feature, says lyrics like "I watched the rippleschange their size" reflected Bowie's interest in Buddhism. Because it was the song so perfectly described his mutable artistic persona ("I've never caught a glimps/Of how the others must see the faker") that gives its name to Bowie's 1976 greatest-hits collection.
Rick Wakeman, who played piano on the Hunky Dory sessions, remembers Bowie as precise and professional. He knew the sound he wanted, and he would scold the band for being under-rehearsed. "That piece was very much something he had envisioned from start to finish," Wakeman says, "which is probably why it was so sucessful. It didn't need mucking around with."
In this chart Bowie is ranked above other artists such as N'sync, Goo Goo Dolls, Whitney Houston, Bob Dylan, and Eric Clapton.
Thanks, Bsctrumpet!!
Hmmmm....looks familiar.... Interview Magazine has provided an interesting gift for its subscribers; actually, the gift is from MAC, and is a "supplement" to Interview. WhatEVER... The gift is a calendar entitled "Art is Everywhere," and what image do you think graces the month of January 2001 other than the above picture? The caption reads, "David Bowie, Renaissance Man - Self-Portrait." Also on the calendar is a quote from David, which is: The worst joke God can play it to make you an artist, but only a mediocre artist." Ain't it the truth?
...okay, that was a stretch. But in the perpetual search for clever segues, it's gonna have to do!
ROSE pedal sauce....get it? Rose? Pedal sauce? Like Water for Chocolate? Red red rose? Roses are red, violets are....er.....nevermind. Let us give thanks!
(disclaimer....the TURKEY did it!)
Eel pie, anyone?
Close your eyes for a moment and drift with us back to, oh, say...fourth grade...
In case you brits (or yanks, for that matter) forgot what Thanksgiving's all about, here's the 30-or-so-word BowieNet synopsis (when's the last time you saw a 300 word 30-word synopsis?):
Sometime about, oh, 400 years ago (1620, to be precise), some Pilgrims (i.e. Puritans who were labeled as blasphemous freaks back in the old country) hopped on a dingy old boat and headed for the New World. Upon arrival in Massachusetts (they were aiming for Virginia), they got more than they bargained for with a fistful of bad weather. Many froze their tucuses off that first winter.
While they were sitting around shivering, trying to figure out how to get themselves out of this frozen wasteland, a couple of Indians came by (okay, they were from the Wampanoag tribe, ye historians) and introduced them to the teepee, or presumably a warmer version thereof. They also showed them how to plant crops which had somehow eluded these clever Puritans.
The following year, lo and behold the crops proved to be fruitful. To celebrate the coming of the corn, as it were, the pilgrims organized a big party and were thoughtful enough to invite the Indians. The indians brought way more people than they planned for, so the indians also wound up providing most of the food. It turned out to be quite a successful shabang, so they decided to make it an annual thing.
* Editor's note: apparently the gratitude towards the Indians soon faded, as they were promptly slaughtered on a mass scale with the few survivors confined to increasingly miniscule reservations.
Funny you should ask! Well, it was twenty years ago today....or twenty-five, actually, that David appeared on the 'Cher Show' in the U.S. On November 23, 1975, David sang Fame, Can You Hear Me and Young Americans with Cher, then a medley of songs with Cher including Song Sung Vlue, Wedding Bells, Da Doo Ron Ron, Daytripper, Blue Moon, only You and Young Blood. Do you believe in life after, er...Cher?
Badly Drawn Bowie or Secret, Secret never seen...Part One
How well it's drawn is academic of course, because the picture above could just be your route to riches, presuming that you would want to sell this beautiful thing once it was in your possession. What am I talking about? The Royal College of Art's Secret postcard exhibition and sale of course. This annual event, (this year sponsored by www.bowieart.com) gives you the chance to buy the work of an internationally renowned artist for just £35. And who am I to say that the likes of David Hockney, Tracey Emin, Eduardo Paolozzi, Chris Ofili, Paula Rego and Peter Doig don't consider themselves our David's 'Biggest Fan'. For, this list, along with David Bowie, is of artists who have all anonymously participated in previous years.
But if the journey to London's RCA is just a little bit too far for you to travel, why not pop over to bowieart instead, and try and win the original they have up for offer by simply guessing the artist correctly. As if that wasn't enough, yesterday's London Evening Standard is giving you the chance to win an original David Bowie postcard by guessing which one is his...
Secret, Secret never seen...Part Two
That's right, to win a David Bowie original all you have to do is guess correctly, out of five possibles, which postcard was produced by David Bowie from the choices here. I'm afraid the image is quite large, but waiting for a download is surely quicker than a New York to London flight!
PS - Many thanks to SusanS for driving a round trip of 100 miles, just to deliver yesterday's Evening Standard for me to scan.
Total Blam Blam - (European Correspondent)
NME Under The Influence
Those of you that study the small print, may already have noticed some clues to the above headline in this week's NME (Issue dated 25th November). In their advert for next week's publication (2nd December) there is mention of "The most influential bands in the world ever!", which "The most influential music paper in the world" are celebrating with a free cover-mounted CD. Closer inspection reveals the name DAVID BOWIE as one of the artists with a track on said disc.
In yet another BowieNet coup, we can reveal the complete track-listing for the CD, but more importantly, we can also tell you the name of the artist that NME have an exclusive interview with next week. They have announced the interview rather teasingly with the words: "EXCLUSIVE! The Most Influential Artist Of All Time speaks!", with no further clue as to who that person might be. Well, of course you wouldn't be reading it here if that artist wasn't David Bowie.
Over the last year or so, NME have asked all of their celebrity guests who they consider to be the most influential artist of all time, and the clear favourite of all the finest rock stars of today is the former Ziggy Stardust, Halloween Jack, Thin White Duke, etc...David Bowie! Click on the names below to take you to quotes from just three of the artists who have felt the influence of David Bowie:
We will post more quotes from Bowie-influenced stars next week, along with the aforementioned NME interview. Congratulations to David yet again for recognition of his importance by the people still making the vital music of our times. Meanwhile, go here for a world-exclusive listing of that NME Under The Influence Top Ten.
Total Blam Blam - (European Correspondent)