Bowie on cover of Esquire magazine

“Is it any wonder, You’re far too cool”

David Bowie graces the cover of the December 2015/January 2016 issue of Esquire magazine. Or he’s one of five variations of the cover at least.

The publication celebrates five “Style Heroes”, each with their own cover and a double-page spread inside, with texts by five different writers.

The subjects are as follows:

David Bowie by Peter Doggett

Kurt Cobain by Jon Savage

Mick Jagger by Mark Ellen

Bryan Ferry by Simon Mills

John Lydon by Andrew Harrison

We’ll leave you with the concluding paragraph of Peter Doggett’s Bowie piece...

“He still faces the lens with the utter assurance of a man who knows his own mind; whose slightly ironic gaze seems to offer incalculable secrets, dangled tantalisingly out of reach. His cool no longer exists only in the eye of his beholder: it’s become who he is, the token of his flawless wizard’s spell.”

Esquire is available now.

#EsquireUK  #EsquireUKBowie  #BowieCool

The Daily Beast Lazarus review

“My my, Someone fetch a priest”

TIM TEEMAN has posted a review for THE DAILY BEAST, headlined: “Inside David Bowie’s Weirdly Brilliant Off-Broadway Masterpiece”.

Here are some quotations from it...

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Not for David Bowie a Broadway spectacular, but Lazarus, an extension of a vintage Bowie role and filled with songs old and new, and some as familiar as Lazarus is strange. When rock gods land on the New York stage, they tend to do so loudly and on Broadway, as with Sting’s stirring opus, The Last Ship. But David Bowie: Well, obviously, he’s going to go for something smaller and cooler than the clotted, touristy streets around Times Square.

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The staging and lighting of these pieces are works of art themselves: Your eye becomes fixed on details like the little rocket painted on the see-through screen separating stage and band, a circle labeled Mars beside it, and the smeared handprints of the actors who have thrown themselves at the screen at different points.

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If David Bowie has set out to confound downtown theater-goers, he and his collaborators have made that confusion so visually rich it may not matter to you that the piece’s sense is far from conventional. By the end, my eyes were dancing.

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Go here for the full thing.

(Pictures by Jan Versweyveld)

#Lazarus  #LazarusNYTW  #TJNewton  #TMWFTE  #TheDailyBeast

New ★ billboard in London

“He cried aloud into the crowd...”

Two weeks ago we told you about a huge billboard in London at the corner of Hammersmith Road / North End Road (next to Olympia exhibition centre).

As you can see from our snap, a second Jonathan Barnbrook ★ design has gone up overnight at the same location.

We’ve also included the actual artwork for a little more clarity. In case you can’t quite make it out, the design includes lyrics from the ★ title track.

For those that missed it, Barnbrook spoke to Mark Sinclair for a great piece in Creative Review recently, which you can read here.

#Blackstar  #imablackstar  #BlackstarSingle  #BlackstarAlbum  #BarnbrookBowie

Lazarus review quotations

“By the time I got to New York”

David Bowie took a bow on stage at the New York Theatre Workshop last night, following a triumphant first night’s performance of Lazarus.

Pictured here are (left to right) Sophia Anne Caruso, Michael C. Hall, Ivo van Hove, David Bowie and Cristin Milloti.

We’ll leave you with a few quotations pulled from various reviews published in the last 24 hours...

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Newsday

Let’s start instead by calling Bowie’s first musical a riveting multimedia meditation — a visceral, disturbing, hallucinatory experience that’s as nonlinear and chameleonic as the rock star himself.

Some songs and avant-garde techniques may seem like throwbacks. But this is urgent, stirring, genuine rock art — musical theater like nothing that has fallen to Earth before.

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Theater Mania

Lazarus doesn't look or feel like any other musical currently playing New York. Even when it is not entirely lucid, it is still thrilling to behold.

At a time when the conventions of the American book musical are feeling decidedly stale, we can be thankful that there are shows like this to push the boundaries.

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Shock Till You Drop

The New York Theater Workshop is a great space for a show like LAZARUS.

Directly across the street from famed LaMaMa, the performance-art home of the late Tom Murrin, Dancenoise’s Lucy Sexton and Anne Iobst, and Steve Buscemi, the music-video/performance art/video art choreography of Lazarus, with nods to so many of Bowie’s previous persona, all of which influenced many an East Villager, are perfectly at home in this space. And much like Newton, a creation of Bowie at his most drug-addled (he states he remembers nothing of the film’s production), the geishas and black balloons and milky secretions (a distinct reference to more oddities in the film) of Lazarus are manifestations of the loneliness, solitude, and distance that the icy tendrils of alienation forces onto an individual. Pained, unable to connect, and with a masking-tape spaceship as the getaway vehicle from one’s self, and highlighted by eighteen songs both classic and new, Lazarus is a choice extension in the grand ouevre for the perpetually enigmatic and highly individual artistry of David Bowie.

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The Wrap

It’s the best jukebox musical ever. That may not sound like much of a compliment, but when you put David Bowie‘s musical catalogue at the service of book writers Bowie and Enda Walsh and director Ivo van Hove, the result is more than unique. It’s terrific must-see theater.

I haven’t experienced something this equal parts baffling and mesmerizing since David Lynch‘s “Muholland Drive.”

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amNY

It's baffling as hell and unapologetically avant-garde. But if you're up for something like this, its arresting visuals, dreamlike atmosphere and introspective Bowie songs have the potential to keep you entranced for two straight hours without intermission.

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#Lazarus  #LazarusNYTW  #TJNewton  #TMWFTE 

Bowie on cover of US UNCUT magazine

“I’ve gone to look for America...”

A little over two weeks ago, we told you about the January 2016 edition of UNCUT magazine’s nine-page ★ special.

Well now the popular music monthly has unveiled the US version of the cover, complete with one of Jimmy King’s new Bowie portraits.

In the UK, Paul Weller had the cover, not the first time he’s nicked something from Bowie. (Bowie Asks Weller For His Haircut Back Via E-mail)

Either way, both versions are available now.

#Blackstar  #imablackstar  #BlackstarSingle  #BlackstarAlbum

Rolling Stone Lazarus review

As mentioned earlier, we’ll be posting a few Lazarus reviews throughout the day.

Here are more quotations from another thumbs up by KORY GROW at ROLLING STONE...

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Lazarus, a beautifully nuanced production that will be staged at the 200-seat New York Theatre Workshop through January 17th, continually emphasizes the surreal over the explicit at nearly every turn. People splash through milk. Others pop dozens of balloons. Strange women sniff others' lingerie (frequently). Impromptu kabuki actors invade the stage. And through it all, Newton — played by golden-throated Michael C. Hall, who is best known for his roles on Dexter and Six Feet Under but whose theatrical credits include big roles in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Cabaret and Chicago — mostly remains stoic, lonely, yearning. At its core, Lazarus is a two-hour meditation on grief and lost hope (with no intermission), but it takes so many wild, fantastical, eye-popping turns that it never drags.

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What makes Lazarus more than your run-of-the-mill drunk-alien-can't-die-so-he-teams-with-an-invisible-friend-to-build-a-rocket story is van Hove's (and likely also Bowie's) imaginative eye. The set is sparse: an open fridge filled with gin bottles, a record player and stacks of LPs (by the show's creator), a ruffled bed and windows that offer scenic views of the band. A giant TV screen mirrors the onstage action and, in a strange turn, offers an odd glimpse of a repentant Alan Cumming, and the set itself is often bathed in projections. But everything becomes so much more than ordinary, especially when the actors come alive.

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Lazarus may bear all the earmarks of a bad idea — a continuation of another story, a single-artist soundtrack, a television serial killer singing — but the plot is coherent, the songs are great and the performances are kinetic. Newton's unflappable loneliness is depressing, but it's also compelling. Maybe all the drinking was worth it after all.

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Go here for the full thing.

(Picture by Jan Versweyveld)

#Lazarus  #LazarusNYTW  #TJNewton  #TMWFTE  #RollingStone

New York Times Lazarus review

“Last night they loved you”

David Bowie took a bow on stage at the New York Theatre Workshop last night, following a triumphant first night’s performance of Lazarus.

We’ll be posting a few reviews throughout the day, kicking off with this one By BEN BRANTLEY from THE NEW YORK TIMES.

Here are a few quotations pulled from the piece...

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Ice-cold bolts of ecstasy shoot like novas through the glamorous muddle and murk of “Lazarus”, the great-sounding, great-looking and mind-numbing new musical built around songs by David Bowie. These transfixing moments occur when Mr. Bowie feels most palpably present — that is, when one of the show’s carefully stylized performers delivers a distinctly Bowie number in a distinctly Bowie style.

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More than any of his peers or imitators, Mr. Bowie, an international star since the early 1970s, has always come across as his own spectral avatar, in a series of beguilingly designed alter egos who are both there and not there. Even in the midst of white-hot stage spectacle, his affect has been one of cool disassociation, matched by songs that are rhapsodies of alienation; cries of solitary pain turn into our collective pleasure, and we citizens of an anomic world swoon and think, “We are David Bowie.”

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Whether the song is vintage Bowie (“Changes,” “Absolute Beginners,” “The Man Who Sold the World”) or one of the new pieces (loved the self-lacerating “Killing a Little Time”), you usually feel you’ve ascended to a special tier of heaven, one produced by MTV.

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Go here for the full thing.

(Picture by Sara Krulwich/The New York Times)

#Lazarus  #LazarusNYTW  #TJNewton  #TMWFTE  #NewYorkTimes

John I'm Only Dancing (again) released 36 years ago

“Boogie down with Daddy now”

Perhaps it’s not easy to imagine in these days of deluxe box sets with extra tracks and previously unreleased versions, etc., just how big a deal the release of John I’m Only Dancing (Again) was to the Bowie faithful, in December 1979.

Aside from the fact that the record was Bowie’s very first UK 12" 45, John I’m Only Dancing (Again) was legendary among fans aware of the song’s existence, but who hadn’t actually heard it until this single was issued.

The track seemed to have evaded bootleggers and this release provided the full length version, (along with an edited version for the 7") not to mention a new mix of the original Ziggy Stardust sessions version of John I’m Only Dancing. This 1979 remix of the original 1972 Ziggy version of John I’m Only Dancing created a third version of the track.

The first version was released by RCA as a UK 45 on September 1st 1972, there was no US release at this time. This version was superseded by a second version recorded during the Aladdin Sane sessions which eventually came to be known as the Sax Version.

It seems this second version was issued without fanfare sometime close to the release of Aladdin Sane in 1973. Though Bowie's RCA singles remained on catalogue for many years after their release, for a time John I’m Only Dancing was unavailable.

It would appear that once John I’m Only Dancing was once again made available as a back catalogue single, it was the Sax Version, and not the Ziggy version, that unsuspecting buyers got. Either way, the same RCA 2263 catalogue number was used for both pressings.

In fact, it wasn’t until one or two thousand (depends where you read it) 'mispressed' copies of the 1976 CHANGESONEBOWIE album were released with the Sax Version included that the different versions became known to fans. Indeed, it’s hard to find a mention, anywhere, of the Sax Version before the CHANGESONEBOWIE mispress.

Therefore, the 1979 remix created a third version, albeit a very slight variation of the original Ziggy version.

To confuse matters further, when RCA pressed black label variations of their 45s in the UK (including the Lifetimes series) they inadvertently created a fourth version by swapping the stereo channels!

Coincidentally, both the 1972 and 1979 45s reached #12 on the UK single chart.

Listen to John I’m Only Dancing (Again) here.

#JIOD  #JIODagain  #BowieJohn

Schneider and McCaslin are GRAMMY Awards Nominees

“We are the best jazz you've ever heard”

It is with much pleasure that we can report Maria Schneider and Donny McCaslin are both 58th Annual GRAMMY Awards Nominees.

Donny is up for BEST IMPROVISED JAZZ SOLO for his performance on Arbiters Of Evolution from the Maria Schneider Orchestra’s The Thompson Fields.

Maria herself is up for BEST LARGE JAZZ ENSEMBLE ALBUM, again for The Thompson Fields. She is also singled out for BEST ARRANGEMENT, INSTRUMENTS AND VOCALS for her contribution to the Sue (Or In A Season Of Crime) recording.

View the full list here.

All this in the week that Sue (Or In A Season Of Crime) has re-entered the Official Vinyl Singles Chart Top 30 in the UK, where you will also find four other Bowie singles right now.

(Both Maria and Donny are pictured last year with Bowie in our montage. Pictures by Jimmy King)

#58thGrammyAwards  #MariaSchneider  #SchneiderMcCaslinBowie

Three extra performances for Lazarus on sale now

“You want more and you want it fast”

Tickets are on sale now (http://smarturl.it/NYTWorg) for a final run of three extra dates for Lazarus on Monday, January 18 at 8PM, Tuesday, January 19 at 8PM, and Wednesday January 20 at 8PM.

Keep reading for the press release.

#Lazarus  #LazarusNYTW  #TJNewton  #TMWFTE

LAZARUS ADDS THREE MORE PERFORMANCES FOR FINAL EXTENSION AT NYTW

LIMITED RUN MUST CONCLUDE JANUARY 20, 2016

TICKETS ON SALE NOW AT NYTW.ORG

(December 7, 2015 – New York, NY) Due to unprecedented demand, New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) (Artistic Director James C. Nicola and Managing Director Jeremy Blocker) has announced a final extension of three additional performances for LAZARUS by David Bowie and Enda Walsh (Once, Tony Award). The fastest selling show in NYTW history, LAZARUS is inspired by the novel The Man Who Fell to Earth by Walter Tevis and directed by Ivo van Hove (Hedda Gabler, More Stately Mansions,Obie Awards). LAZARUS began previews on November 18 and officially opens tonight, December 7, 2015 at New York Theatre Workshop (79 E. 4th Street New York, NY 10003). The additional performances will be: Monday, January 18 at 8PM, Tuesday, January 19 at 8PM, and Wednesday January 20 at 8PM.

The final performance of LAZARUS on January 20, 2016 will benefit NYTW’s artistic development and education programming. Tickets are $1,000 (includes one ticket to the final performance plus a VIP invitation for two to NYTW’s upcoming production of Red Speedo) and $2,500 (includes one ticket to the final performance plus access to an after-party celebrating the run and a VIP invitation for two to NYTW’s upcoming productions of Red Speedo and Hadestown). Funds raised at this one-night only event support NYTW’s Artist Workshop activities through which nearly 2,000 artists develop more than 80 projects each year and their Education Initiatives including Learning Workshop, Mind the Gap, and Public Programs that serve over 1,600 students of all ages. All tickets to the benefit performance include a tax-deductible contribution.

Tickets for the additional performances are on sale now at www.nytw.org or by calling 212-460-5475 (Monday noon-6pm; Tuesday-Sunday noon-curtain time).

The cast of LAZARUS includes Golden Globe winner and six-time Emmy nominee Michael C. Hall (Hedwig and the Angry Inch, “Dexter”) as Thomas Newton, Tony Award nominee Cristin Milioti (Once) as Elly, and Michael Esper (The Last Ship) as Valentine, as well as Krystina Alabado (American Idiot), Sophia Anne Caruso (The Nether), Nicholas Christopher (Whorl Inside A Loop), Lynn Craig (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson), Bobby Moreno (Year of the Rooster), Krista Pioppi (Spring Awakening Nat’l Tour), Charlie Pollock (The Wild Party), and Brynn Williams (Bye Bye Birdie).

Following his revelatory production of Ingmar Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage, the internationally acclaimed director Ivo van Hove returns to New York Theatre Workshop with LAZARUS. Mr. Walsh makes his return to NYTW after the successful run of Once. LAZARUS features songs specially composed by Mr. Bowie for this production as well as new arrangements of previously recorded songs.

The production features scenic and lighting design by Jan Versweyveld; costume design by An D'Huys; video design by Tal Yarden; sound design by Brian Ronan; choreography by Annie-B Parson; music direction by Henry Hey; dramaturgy by Jan Peter Gerrits; stage management by James Latus; and casting by Telsey + Company/Bernard Kelsey, CSA & Andrew Femenella, CSA.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT NYTW: www.nytw.org 

Lazarus opens tonight

“I will see you in the sky tonight”

Here’s a traditional 'Break a leg' to the cast and crew on the opening night of Lazarus.

Public performances begin this evening at the New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) and the play will continue through to January 17th.

A limited number of last-minute tickets for select performances are being released by the theatre. Check for availability by following NYTW on Twitter @NYTW79 and by keeping an eye on the NYTW website.

#Lazarus  #LazarusNYTW  #TJNewton  #TMWFTE

Taschen Bowie book 2016 price increase

“I was quick on the ball”

If you’ve been deliberating over Taschen’s superb Mick Rock book: The Rise of David Bowie, 1972–1973, you may want to consider purchasing it before the new year.

As is normal with these limited editions, the price increases as stock is depleted and this one is no exception. On January 1st, the cost of the book will rise by approximately 43%, from $700 to $1,000.

Limited to a total of 1,972 numbered copies signed by David Bowie and Mick Rock, the book is available as Collector’s Edition (No. 201-1,972), and also in two Art Editions of 100 copies each, with a pigment print signed by Mick Rock.

The live shot here is from the book and was taken at Aberdeen Music Hall in Scotland on 16th May, 1973.

Go here to get your copy.

Meanwhile, Danny Eccleston has interviewed Rock about the book and working with Bowie during the Ziggy years for this online MOJO piece.

#BowieTASCHEN  #MickRockBowie

Dick Cavett Show broadcast on this day in 1974

“Gee my life’s a funny thing”

Taped in New York for ABC TV, David Bowie’s appearance on The Dick Cavett Show was first broadcast on December 5th 1974.

Following Cavett’s introduction to a very appreciative audience, Bowie performed 1984 and Young Americans. This was followed by the interview, which, if you’ve never seen it, is not going to be done justice by trying to describe it here. The show ended with a performance of Footstompin'. Can You Hear Me was also taped but not broadcast.

It’s a wonderful bit of TV and a much-loved snapshot of a transitional period for Bowie (wasn't every period transitional for Bowie?), and you can view the full thing here on YouTube.

Read the transcript of the interview (one of the more bizarre Bowie has ever given) over on the superb The Young American website.  

#BowieCavett

Lazarus photo spread in New York magazine

“New York’s a go-go”

The current issue of New York magazine (November 30th - December 13) has a double-page spread of pictures from Lazarus rehearsals taken by Jan Versweyveld.

The photos accompany a brief piece by Rebecca Milzoff, in which she talks to director Ivo van Hove. Here’s an excerpt...

Lazarus picks up the story of alien visitor Thomas Newton (played by Michael C. Hall) 30 years after the events of the 1976 sci-fi film The Man Who Fell to Earth (which starred Bowie). Of the 20 Bowie songs used, four are new compositions. “The songs are always there to drive the story,” van Hove explains. “There are more violent songs about the world outside, and then very romantic songs, about the longing for something more poetic and tender in life.”

See the full piece online with a gallery of all the pictures from the spread here. Lazarus opens at New York Theatre Workshop on December 7th. 

#Lazarus  #LazarusNYTW  #TJNewton  #TMWFTE

Exclusive December Duffy offer for BowieNetters

“When I looked in his eyes they were blue but nobody home”

The Duffy Archive has been in touch with another generous offer of two exclusive prints for BowieNetters.

Swipe/scroll (or click on the little dots) for the other print on offer and to see the two Duffy/Bowie cards offered free to the first twenty customers.

Remember if you’re ordering for Christmas, international orders would need to be dispatched by December 10th to arrive in time.

Here are the details followed by the link.

The Duffy Archive are proud to announce two new prints exclusively offered to fans for Christmas. Our prints are all printed and handmade in the archive. They come mounted with a choice of a black or white mount with each print embossed with the archive stamp. The print is labelled on the rear with information (and a QR code to our website video page where Duffy talks about the making of the Aladdin Sane album cover) and are bagged in a high quality clear sleeve. Each print is designed to neatly fit into an 12” album sized frame. The perfect gift!

Our first image is a reworking of the Ziggy Stardust Contact Sheet, this was the first shoot David worked with Duffy. Together they had a collaboration spanning 5 shoots over an 8 year period, the most famous of which was Aladdin Sane. The original Aladdin Sane dye transfer print is part of the ‘David Bowie is’ world tour which is shortly to land back in Europe at Groningen Museum Holland. The second print shows previously unseen images from the Scary Monsters shoot taken by Chris Duffy after Duffy had shot the main album images. Some of these images were used as publicity photographs to promote the album but the Contact Sheet has never been released and is a real scoop for the ardent fan!

This is our best offer to fans yet – why not team up with a fellow fan to take full advantage of our discounts?

Go here to order yours.

#DuffyBowie

"Heroes" on Bing Crosby's 1977 Christmas special

“Just for one day”

On this day in 1977, Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas TV Special was broadcast in the US.

The show was recorded in Elstree just outside London in the UK on September 11th, 1977.

Notable for the wonderfully bizarre, but nevertheless beautiful David Bowie and Bing Crosby duet of Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy, the broadcast also contained an oft overlooked performance of "Heroes".

In the promo film, Bowie sings an emotional live vocal over a backing track, with some not so subtle phasing and echo effects on his voice that may well have been added after the event.

Looking amazing, he sings close up straight to camera while several set mime pieces performed by Bowie are superimposed. On paper, it shouldn't work as well as it does.

The UK had to wait another month to see exactly what the fuss was being reported in the music weeklies, when the show was finally aired there on Christmas Eve 1977.

If you’ve not seen "Heroes" on Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas TV special, you’re in for a treat.

FOOTNOTE: The shot of a shirtless Bowie was one of several stills taken during the "Heroes" filming session.

#BowieBing  #BowieHeroes

Fascination, the one that got away?

“Your soul is calling”

Rumoured to be slated as a possible follow up to Fame before the release of Golden Years in the US in 1975, Fascination was a track from the Young Americans LP.

Aside from being a superb song, the composition is also notable for being the first published credit (shared with Bowie), for one Luther Vandross, who also sang backing vocals on the album.

Last week we mentioned Bowie’s appearance on the Cher show 40 years ago, the broadcast of which is listed in the advert in our montage.

Also pictured is the sheet music for Fascination, giving even more credence to the single release theory. Either way, it's a great excuse to use another Steve Schapiro shot.

Top right is the David Bowie logo used on the Young Americans album sleeve, a logo reproduced for the very rare promotional Young Americans brass buckle, pictured bottom left. Tasty.

Listen to Fascination now and judge for yourself how good a single you think it might have been.

#BowieCher  #BowieFascination  #YoungAmericans

A dozen days till DAVID BOWIE is at Groninger

“In the port of Amsterdam, there’s a Sailor who sings”

It seems so long ago that the V&A’s DAVID BOWIE is at the Groninger Museum, Groningen in the Netherlands, was first announced.

But now the exhibition is almost upon us with just a dozen days to go till the opening on December 11th.

Antoine Loogman (who’s pretty handy with a camera), has kindly been capturing the build-up over the last couple of months in Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

Swipe/scroll (or click on the little dots) for more of Antoine’s superb images.

#BOWIEisNL  #DavidBowieIs  #BowieGroninger

★ album review in Classic Rock magazine

“We were born upside down”

The new issue of Classic Rock magazine (#218, Jan 2016) has a review of ★ by Stephen Dalton. Here’s his conclusion...

“With Blackstar, he has gone deeper, making his most adventurous and uncompromising album since his classic run of Brian Eno collaborations. Even more than The Next Day, these seven tracks suggest the sounds inside his head are in sync with his long-time soul brother Scott Walker, though thankfully he remains on warmer terms with old-fashioned melody and emotion. It seems lightning can strike more than twice, because Bowie’s autumnal comeback keeps getting richer and stranger.”

Read the full review online here.

#Blackstar  #imablackstar  #BlackstarAlbum  #ClassicRockMagazine

Golden Years remains at #1 plus new Schapiro book

“Nothing's gonna touch you in these golden years”

As if to consolidate his position as the most popular vinyl singles artist of the year in the UK (see earlier story today), the Golden Years 40th anniversary 7" picture disc (released worldwide on November the 13th), is at #1 for the second week on the official UK chart.

Bowie currently has four singles on the chart, three of which are in the top 10.

Official Vinyl Singles Chart Top 40

27 November 2015 - 03 December 2015

#01 Golden Years

#06 Space Oddity

#10 Fame

#25 Young Americans

We’re celebrating the fact with another beautiful Steve Schapiro shot from the same session as used on the Golden Years picture disc.

Schapiro is due to publish a 76-page, hardback book of his Bowie photographs on May 17th 2016, via powerHouse Books, simply called David Bowie.

We'll leave you with a bit about the book and a hint of the fun that Bowie and Schapiro had together during some of those sessions.

David Bowie by Steve Schapiro

At the very apex of David Bowie's spectacular rise to rock n' roll fame and glory, photographer Steve Schapiro seized a rare invitation from Bowie's manager for a private photo session with the pop star in Los Angeles in 1974.

Bowie, by 1974, was a man of many faces and as many albums, had already lived the life of Ziggy Stardust and launched Alladin Sane with albums Pin Ups and Diamond Dogs soon to come. A musical force to be reckoned with, Bowie was also widely regarded as a fashion icon, pushing the envelope of sexuality and style and having created an internationally renowned persona.

The mostly never-before-published images in Schapiro's rare collection represent Bowie at his most creative and inspired self and present a glimpse into the intimacy that Schapiro and Bowie shared during their time together. As Schapiro tells it: "From the moment Bowie arrived, we seemed to hit it off. Incredibly intelligent, calm, and filled with ideas, he talked a lot about Alistair Crowley whose esoteric writings he was heavily into at the time. When David heard that I had photographed Buster Keaton, one of his greatest heroes, we instantly became friends."

The first photo session started at four in the afternoon and went through the night till dawn. Bowie went through countless costume changes, each more incredible than the last and each seemed to turn him into a totally different person. Bowie relentlessly created these unique characters, each seemingly alive in their own charismatic space for Schapiro to create visual images to complement their very existence and turn them into iconic images for all time.

Bowie and Schapiro kidded and laughed about shooting a series of close-up portraits on a putrid green background because they felt it was the worst possible background colour for a magazine, and so they did on this lark - with the image eventually becoming a People magazine cover. (Swipe/scroll (or click on little dots) to see People cover)

The last image they made was at four in the morning to wrap up the marathon session when they went outside to shoot Bowie on his motorcycle - the sun hadn't yet risen and the shot was lit dramatically by only the headlights of a car. This image remains one of Schapiro's favourites of all time and is certain to live on in posterity.

#DavidBowie  #GoldenYears40  #OCCvinyl45s  #BowieSchapiro