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Ricochet : David Bowie 1983 by Denis O’Regan due May 2018

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"And who can bear to be forgotten”

Moonlight Books are due to publish Ricochet : David Bowie 1983 by Denis O’Regan in May 2018.

Ricochet is a limited edition fine art book with hundreds of personal and intimate images of David Bowie from Denis & David’s archives, many shared for the first time ever.

In Autumn 2018, Denis O’Regan and Penguin Random House are also producing a medium format version (without extras) for retail distribution.

Every image in ‘Ricochet : David Bowie 1983’ is personally approved by David Bowie. (A small sample here)

Stay tuned to the pages below for updates of exclusive content and continue reading for the full press release.

www.bowie1983book.com

Facebook: Bowie1983book

Instagram & Twitter: @Bowie1983book

#DavidBowieRicochet

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Moonlight Books
PRESS RELEASE
1st November 2017
Ricochet : David Bowie 1983
Denis O’Regan

David Bowie official tour photographer and long-time collaborator Denis O’Regan launches limited edition book ‘Ricochet : David Bowie 1983’. A limited edition fine art book of rare intimate photographs.

Hundreds of personal and intimate images from Denis & David’s archives, many shared for the first time ever.

A very special, museum quality, collector’s edition, which has taken years of painstaking work to produce with David’s approval, ‘Ricochet : David Bowie 1983’ is a mainly unseen collection of exceptional, intimate images of David Bowie taken by iconic British photographer Denis O’Regan and published by Moonlight Books in May 2018, in a limited edition of just 2000 copies.

‘Ricochet : David Bowie 1983’ is the definitive collectible, presented in a multi-layered, luxurious white cloth presentation box, inside a clear acrylic slip case.

Layer 1
Contains 4 beautifully bound books featuring tickets, anecdotes, newsletters, set lists, blueprints, lyrics, including those handwritten by David. Each hardback cloth cover features a graphic representation of one of David’s Serious Moonlight stage costumes.

Layer 2
Holds three 20x16 inch fine art signed limited edition prints and matching hologrammed certificates; a 12 inch red vinyl disc of Ricochet and Let’s Dance re-mastered by Nile Rodgers; a certificate signed by the photographer, featuring the individual book number, and the official David Bowie Estate Stamp.

Layer 3
Contains an extra-large format 320 page thread sewn, case bound, coffee table book, featuring hundreds of exceptional personal and intimate images of David.

In Autumn 2018, Denis O’Regan and Penguin Random House are also producing a medium format version of the coffee table book (without extras enclosed) for retail distribution.

Every image in ‘Ricochet : David Bowie 1983’ is personally approved by David Bowie.

Denis O’Regan says of his Ricochet project with the late David Bowie:

“I published a book with David through Doubleday in 1984, for which he wrote the introduction. We then discussed projects on and off over the next thirty years, culminating in discussions about a pair of substantial books looking back at the two world tours that I covered with him.

 

I feel that this book documenting 1983 will fulfil my dream of sharing these intimate photographs with collectors and fans, whilst revealing an insight into the real David – as much as anyone can. I’m proud and honoured that this book was made with David’s support, and hope that it will do him justice.”

How to buy
The limited edition is available for purchase at £3,000 per numbered copy, exclusively on www.bowie1983book.com. Moonlight Books are releasing 250 books out of the edition of 2000 for advance purchase in early November 2017. Purchasers of these first 250 books will receive exclusive extras including an additional 20x16 inch limited edition print and an invitation to the launch party in May 2018, with an opportunity to meet and greet the photographer.

Denis’s photographs of Bowie span nearly two decades, but those taken in 1983, when he accompanied David for nine months on his most successful ever tour, are from the period when Denis and David became firm friends. Denis was given unprecedented access, and his photographs capture not only David’s unique stage performances but candid, unguarded offstage moments, or as Denis puts it: “Catching another side of the enigma”.

It’s a never seen before glimpse into 9 months of life on the road with David.

In one shot, taken in their Hong Kong hotel close to the final date of the Serious Moonlight tour, Bowie is sitting on a sofa giggling. Denis says: “I think it’s sweet and very David – partly because there’s a full ashtray next to him! He’s boyish and unguarded and it’s the sort of picture that you would never capture unless you were close to David for a period of time”.

1983 was a remarkably happy year for David and this shines through in so many of Denis’s photographs. The tour began in May 1983 with indoor crowds of 10,000 but within weeks he was playing to stadium audiences of 60,000, and by the penultimate month, November in Auckland, he played to the biggest crowd ever assembled in New Zealand.

“I think he was very happy; he really enjoyed himself,” recalls Denis.

Remarkably, every single image featured in ‘Ricochet : Bowie 1983’, was personally approved by David.

“I delivered the rolls of film for processing in one city, and they were delivered back to me a few cities later. I selected my favourites and loaded the chosen edit into a projector carousel. David then came to my room and we’d have an informal slideshow. David would say ‘yes’, ‘no’, ‘I hate it’, ‘love it’, ‘keep it for a book’ or simply ‘nah’ ...”

It wasn’t until 1990, prior to the Sound & Vision tour, that Denis finally confided to David that it was the Ziggy Stardust concert at the Hammersmith Odeon on 3rd July 1973 that inspired him to take up rock photography. “Being David, he wasn’t very good at taking compliments. I said, ‘it’s because of you that I became a rock photographer.’ He said, ‘Yeah, you’ll probably tell Bono the same thing tomorrow night.’”

Notes For Editors

Denis O’Regan first witnessed Bowie in 1973 at the Hammersmith Odeon. By 1983 he was tour photographer for the Serious Moonlight world tour and in 1987 for the Glass Spider world tour. In 2011 Denis published Duran Duran’s limited edition ‘Careless Memories’.

Denis O’Regan has toured the world as official photographer to David Bowie, Queen, the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd and Duran Duran. He was the official photographer at Live Aid, and continued that tradition as official photographer at the Concert For Diana, MTV European Music Awards, and more recently Download, Coachella and Glastonbury festivals. In an eventful career – and purely in the line of duty – Denis has enjoyed dinner for two in Japan with Joni Mitchell, picnicked with David Bowie in Australia, partied with Prince at Paisley Park, and argued with Bob Marley in his native Jamaica. They made up. He was known as ‘Doris’ by Freddie Mercury, ‘Reg’ by Duran Duran, ‘Scoop’ by Bob Geldof and, on one occasion, ‘Yob’ by Keith Richards.

Technical Information

Denis highlights below some technical insight and details of the camera which he used to capture these images of David in 1983.

“For the entire tour I used my favourite ever film camera, the Olympus OM-3, two or three camera bodies and 135mm & 24mm f2.8 lenses. All live photography was taken without flash, and most offstage images were shot using natural light or occasionally bounced flash. Film was Ilford HP5 or Kodak Tri-X for black & white, push processed to 800 or 1600 ASA. For colour it was predominantly Kodak Ektachrome 200 transparency film pushed to 800 ASA. Of course I had to use numerous labs around the world to process huge batches of film, which were then delivered to me a few cities later. After processing and editing, I loaded the colour transparencies into a projector, and regularly put on a slide show in my room for David where he approved images for use.”

www.bowie1983book.com

Facebook: Bowie1983book

Instagram & Twitter: @Bowie1983book

Hashtags:
#Bowie1983book
#DavidBowieRicochet
#Moonlightbooks
#DavidBowie
#DenisORegan
#SeriousMoonlight

Author’s Website: www.denis.uk

Twitter: @TheDenisORegan
Facebook: Denis O’Regan

tags: 2017 October
Tuesday 10.31.17
Posted by Joey Porterfield
 

TASCHEN’s TMWFTE book out next week

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“It will tumble from the sky”

TASCHEN’s The Man Who Fell To Earth book presents a wealth of stills and behind-the-scenes images by unit photographer David James, including numerous shots of Bowie at work, rest and play, peppered with quotations from all involved, including Bowie himself.

Published next week, this weighty 480 page tome (albeit a compact 14 x 19.5 cm), includes a superb new essay by Paul Duncan which explores the shooting of the film and its lasting impact, drawing upon an exclusive interview with David James, who brings first-hand insights into the making of this sci-fi masterwork.

Here’s a particularly funny excerpt from it in which Bowie remembers the alien 'train'...

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There are visual and textual references to trains throughout the film, since, for Newton, it represents the last time he saw his family, when he departed on the alien train. To visualize this scene in the film, Brian Eatwell laid a monorail track on the desert floor, and built the alien train around an old tractor.

The train had an organic surface and was fitted with solar sails. Bowie: “When the train turned up, it was nothing like what Nic had envisaged. He went blue in the face, then he went red, then white and he said, ‘What is that?’ ‘It’s your train, sir.’ ‘That’s not a train, it’s a fucking dog kennel!’ But we lived with it.”

The shoot was further complicated when the tractor broke down. Unable to replace the parts, they attached ropes to the train and had horses pull it out of shot. James: “Such problems are normal on a film.”

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Well, whatever the on-set problems, we here at DBFBHQ thought the train was quite convincing, possibly because it was so different to any Earth train, or dog kennel for that matter.

Stay tuned for your chance to win copies of the book along with other TMWFTE goodies.

See the dedicated TASCHEN page here.

#TheManWhoFellToEarth  #TMWFTE  #TJNewton  #BowieTASCHEN

tags: 2017 October
Saturday 10.21.17
Posted by Joey Porterfield
 

Nine-page Bowie cover feature in Rock&Folk

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“When you Rock&Folk with me”

Le Petit Prince, Jérôme Soligny, has very kindly been in touch with details of the November edition of Rock&Folk magazine. (R&F603)

Over to Jérôme...

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I had a telephone conversation with Vincent Tannières, new editor at Rock&Folk, and we discussed what we could do about ANCIANT and the possibility of having David Bowie on the cover of the magazine. Again.

First, having already written at length about these crucial years in articles and books, I thought it would be great to have other writers’ points of view rather than only mine. Also, from 1977 to 1982, except for a few gigs with Iggy Pop, the Isolar II tour and some (great) acting work, David was more low key than ever, hoping his « new music » was what really mattered and what people would focus on.

So we decided to create an introduction and four long, new reviews of the four studio albums inside the box, written by four different writers. Vincent came up with the great title « Au pied du mur » and Rock&Folk went for a Duffy cover shot that really expresses, I think, these years when David, artistically and even physically, continued to re-invent himself.

Also, in the same issue on top of the Bowie feature, Mick Rock gave us a great interview - his Transformer book on Lou Reed is re(edited) by Genesis - and he only has cool things to say about the man who fell in front of his camera 45 odd years ago: “Actually, David Bowie talked to people of my generation. It’s his music we considered exciting. Hunky Dory was and still is a major album. David looked like a glam musician but he belonged to the singer-songwriters’ league, the ones we listened to without doing anything else.”

 

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Thanks for the heads up, Jérôme.

Rock&Folk is available from Wednesday, October 18th.

#RocknFolkBowie  #ANCIANTbox  #ANewCareerInANewTownBox

tags: 2017 October
Tuesday 10.17.17
Posted by Joey Porterfield
 

"Heroes" released on this day in 1977

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“In the world of today, for tomorrow’s man”

The advertising strapline ran with the legend: “Tomorrow Belongs To Those Who Can Hear It Coming”, appropriate considering how much more appreciated "Heroes" seems to be by a wider audience now than it was forty years ago.

Having said that, the Bowie/Visconti-produced LP peaked at #3 in the UK album chart in November 1977, a year in which it was also named Album Of The Year in both NME and Melody Maker. No mean feat considering the other great music that was released that year, not least of all, both of Iggy Pop’s first solo releases, The Idiot and Lust For Life, two records which Bowie also had a very big hand in.

The main image in our montage shows Robert Fripp, David Bowie and Brian Eno during the recording of "Heroes" at Hansa studios in Berlin, taken from the superb book accompanying the David Bowie: A New Career In A New Town (1977–1982) box set.

Bottom right are two initial designs for "Heroes", also to be found in the book along with other unpublished artwork and related memorabilia.

#BowieHeroes #ANCIANTbox  #ANewCareerInANewTownBox  

tags: 2017 October
Saturday 10.14.17
Posted by Joey Porterfield
 

My Bowie Story - fans remember their Bowie

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“FANtastic Voyage

My Bowie Story - Memories of David Bowie By Dale K. Perry (ISBN: 9781532030116), is a remarkable selection of stories told by sixty Bowie fans and collected together by Dale K. Perry.

The 316-page book is available now via the publisher, iUniverse and other online book emporiums. Here’s the blurb from the back cover...

 

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Dale K. Perry can still picture herself at a shopping center at age twelve, pooling her money with her best friend so they could buy the album with that “Space Oddity” song.

A few years later, she went to her first Bowie concert, and even though she arrived to discover her seat was behind the stage, it didn’t matter: She was in the same building as David Bowie.

In My Bowie Story, she teams up with sixty other storytellers to look back on more than four decades of memories featuring Bowie. Filled with heartfelt stories and photographs, the fans describe how Bowie’s music, personas, and creativity changed their lives.

The eighty-five stories also offer a glimpse of Bowie’s kindness as he interacted with his admirers while relating the impact his message had on the sexuality, education, and the lifelong achievements of multiple generations.

From Space Oddity to Blackstar, the tales include personal encounters with Bowie and offer deep insights that long-time fans and those just discovering his brilliance will cherish.

 

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The snaps along the bottom of our montage are of Jasmine and Bowie (J. Storm), David and Zane, 1997 (M. Kanevsky) and David and Sandra (Spidey), 2002 (S. Atkins). Just a small sample taken from the many in the book.

Dale has said that any royalties she receives from the book will be donated in David's memory to charity, most likely to Save the Children.

Stay tuned for more pictures and some excerpts from My Bowie Story - Memories of David Bowie.

#MyBowieStory  #BowieKooks  #BowieFreaks

tags: 2017 October
Saturday 10.07.17
Posted by Joey Porterfield
 

ANCIANT debut chart positions

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(ANCIANT = A New Career In A New Town)

The ANCIANT box set issued via Parlophone last Friday (29th) has entered various charts around the globe. Here are a few where it charted in the top 30.

UK: #2 (vinyl chart) / #19 (album chart)
Denmark: #13 (vinyl chart) / #24 (album chart)
France: #4 (catalogue album chart)
Germany: #24
Italy: #10 (vinyl chart)

ANCIANT charted the highest of the Bowie box sets so far. Here are the three titles’ comparable debut weeks:

Five Years - #45 - (Oct 15)
Who Can I Be Now? - #21 - (Sept 16)
A New Career In A New Town - #19 - (Oct 17)

Thanks to all of you for making this set such a success.

Get ANCIANT here.

#BowieOCC  #ANCIANTbox  #ANewCareerInANewTownBox

tags: 2017 October
Friday 10.06.17
Posted by Joey Porterfield
 

BBC radio celebrates "Heroes" 40th anniversary

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“It's a twenty-four hour world service”

The BBC is marking the 40th anniversary of the release of the "Heroes" LP with a 53-minute documentary presented by Florence Welch of Florence + The Machine. Florence is a big Bowie fan and she doesn't mind who knows how much she loves Tin Machine either. (See inset picture proof)

With contributions from Iggy Pop, Brian Eno and Tony Visconti, the show airs three times on the BBC World Service on Saturday, Oct 7, with the first broadcast at 14:06 and it’s repeated on BBC Radio 2 on Tuesday, Oct 10, at 22:00.

We’ll leave you with the BEEB’s blurb...

 

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David Bowie’s "Heroes" 40th Anniversary
Music Extra

Florence Welch, from the British band Florence + The Machine, marks the 40th anniversary of the release of David Bowie’s seminal "Heroes" LP by exploring the personal and musical factors that influenced the album’s writing and recording in Berlin in 1977.

Florence will feature archive of the late David Bowie explaining why he chose to live and work in Berlin and the impact the city’s history had on the masterpiece he created. She’ll also meet the album’s producer Tony Visconti to get an insight to the unique recording techniques he employed to interpret Bowie’s creative vision and how the characteristics of the famous Hansa Studios, which are situated in a huge former chamber music concert hall, contributed to the album’s influential sounds. Iggy Pop, who was living with Bowie in Berlin during the recording of the album, recalls how a battle with drug addition, bankruptcy and a legal dispute with his ex-wife for access to his son all provided inspiration for the album’s lyrics and Brian Eno, who collaborated with David throughout the LP’s recording, explains the unique musical structures he and David employed to compose the innovative songs.

Berlin’s radical cultural diversity had always fascinated Bowie and Florence will explain how the opportunity to live and work in the city during the turbulent political period prior to the fall of 'the Wall' provided the perfect austere environment for David and his collaborators to experiment with music inspired by several German techno bands of the 70’s, including Neu!, Kraftwerk and Can.

 

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#BowieAtTheBEEB  #BowieBBC  #BowieHeroes  

tags: 2017 October
Friday 10.06.17
Posted by Joey Porterfield
 

David Bowie is… landing in Brooklyn

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New York’s a go-go”

We’re proud to announce that the critically acclaimed David Bowie is exhibition will make the final stop of its world tour at the Brooklyn Museum next year, from March 2nd to Jul 15th.

This will be a timed ticketed exhibition. Lightning Bolt tickets, which give attendees priority access to the exhibition, are available now, along with various other special ticket deals.

Member tickets will be available on Nov 8th before standard tickets go on sale to the public on Nov 15th.

Go here for more details and tickets now.

Album cover shoot for Aladdin Sane, 1973. Photograph by Brian Duffy. © Duffy Archive & The David Bowie Archive.

#DavidBowieIs  #davidbowieisbkm

tags: 2017 October
Wednesday 10.04.17
Posted by Joey Porterfield
 

Congratulations to Duncan and Rodene Jones

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“Untitled No. 2”

Congratulations are due to Duncan and Rodene Jones with the posting of their happy news on Twitter.

Duncan made the announcement and quickly followed it up with an impressive brag...

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Duncan Jones ‏@ManMadeMoon - 11:05 PM - 1 Oct 2017

Incredibly excited to be able to announce that the Jones gang is growing again!  @rodeneronquillo cooking up a little... girl!

 

Duncan Jones ‏@ManMadeMoon - 11:31 PM - 1 Oct 2017

So for all the cynics out there... YES! I have had sex with a lady at least TWO TIMES!!

 

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Well done to all involved.

#DuncanAndRodeneJones  #BabyJones  #BabyJones2  #GranddadJones

tags: 2017 October
Sunday 10.01.17
Posted by Joey Porterfield