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40 years on Boys Keep Swinging and new Nacho vid

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“They’ll never clone ya“

Released forty years ago today (27th April 1979), it’s an actual fact that Boys Keep Swinging (the first single from 1979’s Lodger) is one of the very best 45s of all time, not to mention another Top Ten hit for David Bowie in the UK.

The Bowie/Visconti produced tongue in cheek ode to the joys of gender stability, was a breath of fresh air in a musical landscape dominated by folk taking themselves a little too seriously.

Both the humour and the role reversal of the recording (that’s musicians swapping instruments), transferred perfectly to the David Mallet-directed video (Mallet’s first in a string of classic Bowie promos), with Bowie taking on the guise of his own female backing singers.

As you know, 17th May sees the release of the 40th anniversary Boys Keep Swinging (2017 Tony Visconti mix) picture disc, pre-order here.

To mark the event, the absurdly talented @TheNachoVideos has married the original video to the 2017 Tony Visconti mix, enjoy that here.

#DBBKS40 #BowieBKS #NachosVideos #BowieVinyl

tags: 2019 April
Saturday 04.27.19
Posted by Mark Adams
 

The ‘Mercury’ Demos LP box due in June

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“I recall how we lived on the corner of a bed”

DAVID BOWIE (WITH JOHN ‘HUTCH’ HUTCHINSON)

THE 'MERCURY’ DEMOS 1 LP BOX SET FEATURING PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED DAVID BOWIE RECORDINGS

RELEASED ON PARLOPHONE 28th JUNE 2019

As part of the ongoing celebrations marking 50 years since David Bowie’s first hit, Space Oddity, and following the recent Spying Through A Keyhole and Clareville Grove Demos collections, Parlophone is releasing a further set of recordings known as The ‘Mercury’ Demos.

The ‘Mercury’ Demos are 10 early Bowie recordings captured live in one take to a Revox reel to reel tape machine in David’s flat in spring 1969, with accompaniment from John ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson on guitar and vocals.

The version of ‘Space Oddity’ from the Demos, originally released with edits on the Sound & Vision boxset, is presented here in its true context for the first time. The other nine recordings on the album are all previously unreleased. In addition to  Bowie originals, the session also includes the Roger Bunn composition Life Is A Circus (which features as an earlier demo version on the Clareville Grove Demos set) and the Lesley Duncan composition, Love Song, later recorded by Elton John for his Tumbleweed Connection album. David’s own Conversation Piece is announced as ‘a new song’ and Janine features a short nineteen second section sung to the melody of The Beatles’ Hey Jude.

The session was a basic recording of the ‘Bowie & Hutch’ duo’s set list at the time and was committed to tape at the request of Mercury Records A&R man Calvin Mark Lee who wanted the tracks to send them to his boss Bob Reno. Both Calvin and Bob are referenced during the 41-minute recording, and the demos were key in securing David his recording deal with Mercury Records.

The ‘Mercury’ Demos set will come in a replica of the original tape box and will feature 1 vinyl LP, a print, two photo contact sheets and sleeve notes by Mark Adams. The labels of the LP feature the same EMIDISC acetate styling as Spying Through A Keyhole and Clareville Grove Demos with the song titles in David’s own handwriting.

LP Tracklisting

Side 1

Space Oddity

Janine

An Occasional Dream

Conversation Piece

Ching-a-Ling

I’m Not Quite (aka Letter To Hermione)

Side 2

Lover To The Dawn

Love Song

When I’m Five

Life Is A Circus

Musicians

David Bowie – vocals, guitar and Stylophone

John ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson – vocals and guitar

The ‘Mercury’ Demos LP is mono and plays at 33 1/3 rpm. It is released on Parlophone on 28th June 2019.

#BowieTheMercuryDemos

tags: 2019 April
Thursday 04.25.19
Posted by Mark Adams
 

The world is wearing David Bowie

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“And so the story goes they wore the clothes...”

There’s a great piece by Susannah Cohen over on okwhatever.org titled: The Enduring Appeal of David Bowie Merch. The article also makes the observation that “Someone you know owns a Bowie T-shirt. It's (kind of) a fact.”

Here are a few edited excerpts from the feature:

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Everything looks better with David Bowie’s face on it. And a lot of people know this. Lady Gaga knew it when she rejoiced over A Star Is Born’s BAFTA win, posting a video to Twitter dressed in nothing but an oversized T-shirt that said “Bowie.” Man Booker Prize-winning author Marlon James knows it, too. He’s been rocking a Bowie tee — a black, long-sleeved one celebrating his Let’s Dance era — in publicity shots for his latest novel, Black Leopard, Red Wolf. And sneaker brand Vans knew it when they launched a limited edition collection based on four different Bowie albums in April.

David Bowie merch is having a moment — but then again, hasn’t it always? Whatever else is going on in the world of fashion, it seems that paying tribute to the Dame on a piece of white cotton is always sartorially acceptable. Celebrities have long known this. There was Sid Vicious in a red Bowie tee at the age of 15, en route to a concert in the 1970s. Kate Moss paid tribute to her dead friend in 2016, pairing a graphic tee of the artist with a black faux fur coat. Cate Blanchett was spotted in a lightning bolt shirt at the airport last year. Janelle Monae teamed hers with sequins for a performance on The Today Show a few months later.

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Norman Perry is the president of Perryscope Productions, a licensing and merchandising company that represents David Bowie (among many other icons) in partnership with Epic Rights. He believes that Bowie’s personal style has a lot to do with his impact on fashion.

“I have four clients [Bowie, Janis Joplin, Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix] that were fashion forward, and they each looked different on every album cover, every tour,” he told OK Whatever in a phone interview. “There's a handful of people where clothes were a really significant part of their persona and their aura, and in the case of David Bowie, he was not a predictable man.”

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Of course, there’s also a simpler explanation for the musician’s enduring fashion appeal. Wearing a piece of clothing emblazoned with Bowie’s face might be cool, but it could also just be an homage to a beloved artist. The reason why we see Bowie’s face so often in fashion might have less to do with style than it does fandom. The truth is, maybe we all just really loved the guy.

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Read the full article here.

FOOTNOTE: Our montage shows David Bowie in 2002 sporting a 1973 live T-shirt. The picture was taken by director/photographer duo Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin. The pair were also responsible for filming the Louis Vuitton L’Invitation Au Voyage Part 1 short in 2013, which starred Bowie singing “I’d Rather Be High”.

The T-shirt on the left is the latest addition to the Official Bowie Store: BOWIE light bulb logo T-shirts which glow in the dark! Pre-order here.

 #BowieMerch  #BowieStore 

tags: 2019 April
Wednesday 04.24.19
Posted by Mark Adams
 

Good luck for RSD 2019

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“Try and wake up tomorrow”

Good luck to all of you that are choosing to queue for Record Store Day 2019 tomorrow. (Saturday, 13th April.)

Knowing how enthusiastic many of the BOWIE KOOKS are, some fans will already be queuing...Hello Charlie.

Our montage shows Parlophone’s Pin Ups picture disc and the blue vinyl The World Of David Bowie released by Universal. More details here.

Check out the BOWIE KOOKS FB Group here.

#BowieRSD  #RSD2019  #BowieVinyl  #BowiePinUps  #TWODB

tags: 2019 April
Friday 04.12.19
Posted by Mark Adams
 

Vote for DB is app in 23rd Annual Webby Awards

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“Five, four, three, two, one”

In June 2007, David Bowie was honoured at the 11th Annual Webby Awards (known as the “Oscars of the Internet”) with the Webby Lifetime Achievement Award for pushing the boundaries between art and technology.

So it's appropriate now that the David Bowie is AR app by Planeta has been nominated in two categories in the 23rd Annual Webby Awards. Click on the links below to vote in each category:

• David Bowie is is a Webby Nominee in Apps, Mobile, and Voice: Best Use of Augmented Reality

• David Bowie is is a Webby Nominee in Apps, Mobile, and Voice: Art & Experimental

23rd ANNUAL WEBBY AWARDS

PEOPLE'S VOICE

You decide the best of the Internet

START VOTING HERE - Search Bowie for vote links

Voting is open until Thursday, April 18th

On a related note, NYTimes - Magicleap: David Bowie in Three Dimensions has also been nominated.

FOOTNOTE: Today's main pic and lyric quotation are related to the 2007 Annual Webby Awards. The picture is from Bowie’s hilarious acceptance speech that went something like this...

“So, only got five words...Shit, that was five...Four right there...Three there...Two...”

#WebbyBowie

tags: 2019 April
Wednesday 04.03.19
Posted by Mark Adams