ANCIANT Album Focus: Stage

“One man in his time plays many parts” *

(ANCIANT = A New Career In A New Town)

Just over three weeks till the September 29th release of the David Bowie: A New Career In A New Town (1977–1982) box set (ANCIANT).

This week our album focus is on the second of Bowie’s official live album releases, 1978’s Stage. Check out a cool little animation here.

Pop over to the official David Bowie: A New Career In A New Town playlist and have a listen to the 2005 version ahead of the 2012 release, which contains two extra tracks.

*Some of you may be wondering why we have quoted Shakespeare today, instead of using a Bowie lyric quotation. The line from The Bard’s As You Like It was used in the award winning advertising campaign for Stage and we think you’ll agree it’s wholly appropriate for Bowie.

#ANCIANTbox #ANewCareerInANewTownBox #BowieStage

ANCIANT Album Focus: "Heroes"

“You can't say no to the Beauty and the Beast”

(ANCIANT = A New Career In A New Town)

Ahead of the release of ANCIANT later this month, here’s the next part of our album focus on "Heroes".

As mentioned previously, there were just two singles taken from the "Heroes" album in the UK.

"Heroes"/V-2 Schneider released September 1977 - (Peak UK chart position: #24)
Beauty And The Beast/Sense of Doubt released January 1978 - (Peak UK chart position: #39)

Pretty well everyone with a full set of working ears is familiar with the title track, but those not acquainted with the Bowie back catalogue might not know Beauty And The Beast. As with many Bowie single releases, the track sounded like nothing else on the radio at the time.

As with its predecessor, perhaps the public en masse just wasn’t ready for the latest Bowie sound, with Fripp’s guitar again taking centre stage and that ahead of the curve Bowie/Visconti production...“TOMORROW BELONGS TO THOSE WHO CAN HEAR IT COMING”.

However, the song was certainly strong enough to be the "Heroes" album opener, and though it may have been considered an unusual choice for a single, it was just as viable as any of the other tracks on the album.

Tony Visconti confirms that the line: “Someone fetch a priest”, was originally recorded with a different F-word to fetch. A wise decision to change it perhaps, or it may not have received quite the airplay that it did.

Though there had only been four previous Bowie picture sleeve singles released commercially in the UK (Starman 1972, Life On Mars? 1973, Space Oddity 1975, Suffragette City 1976), Beauty And The Beast was issued in one (basically the album cover), but the single still only just scraped into the Top 40 on the official UK singles chart. Nevertheless, Bowie picture sleeves would become de rigueur from Beauty And The Beast onwards.

An extended version was released as a promo only 12” single in the US and commercially as a 12” single in Spain. Listen to it now on Spotify.

The track can also be found on the official David Bowie: A New Career In A New Town playlist.

FOOTNOTE: Check out our video featuring David Bowie’s handwritten lyrics for Beauty And The Beast, here.

#ANCIANTbox #ANewCareerInANewTownBox #BowieHeroes

Charles Shaar Murray on THAT Low review

“It’s about to be writ again”

As we mentioned in our focus on Low last week, it seems everybody was caught on the hop by the release of the album, not least of all RCA. All of the advertising and reviews appeared AFTER Low had been released. There wasn’t even a lead single preceding its release, which was practically unheard of. (Hunky Dory was the only other RCA Bowie album that didn’t have one.)

Going by the lateness of the published reviews for Low, it almost seems that preview copies weren’t sent out. In fact, for many (in the UK at least), the first time they would have heard the recording was when John Peel played it in its entirety upon release, on his Radio 1 show.

Once reviews started appearing, it was clear that this was an album that was going to spilt people.

Among the great reviews there were some equally negative ones, not least of all, Charles Shaar Murray’s (CSM) in the NME. The magazine considered the release important enough to reserve a page and a half for two reviews, the other being by Ian MacDonald.

CSM was well known to Bowie fans for always getting the scoop and authoring several fascinating and beautifully written Bowie features within the pages of NME. That’s Charles pictured with DB in happier times in Paris in 1973.

It was possibly because Murray’s writing always seemed to be in praise of Bowie, that this particular review for Low was singled out. Indeed, he’s never been allowed to forget it, getting a national nose-rubbing for Francis Whately’s Five Years screening on the BBC, when he was asked to read out an excerpt.

But rather than dwell upon that, forty years later (while not expecting a U-turn), we thought we’d give CSM the chance to at least explain what his mind-set was back then. Over to you Charles...

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Homage To Catatonia - Charles Shaar Murray
Last night I dreamed about Bowie. He had his late-‘70s look (as per “Heroes”), and we were in a bar with a bunch of other people. During a gap in his conversation with someone else, I asked him a question. He laughed and teased me for a while, and then he answered it.
Unfortunately, when I awoke I couldn’t remember his answer. Or even my question.
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Every working critic makes mistakes, which is one of the reasons I called my ‘collected works’ anthology Shots From The Hip: you have to make your mind up fast, and then articulate your perception crisply, clearly and hopefully logically. Two of my three worst ‘70s mistakes were to be inappropriately harsh assessments of both Blondie and The Clash at very early gigs, and not realising how rapidly they’d go from faltering to wonderful and how fast their baby steps would become giant strides.
The third was my reaction to Low. That review became mildly notorious: in fact, I was asked to read extracts from it aloud when appearing on the recent Bowiedoc Five Years. Worse! My proposed headline – Homage To Catatonia – was ‘corrected’ by an over-enthusiastic proofreader to Homage To Catalonia (the title of George Orwell’s scarifying memoir of the Spanish Civil War), and therefore made no fucking sense whatsoever.
So: there were two major ingredients to my misreading of Low, one cultural, once personal. In order, then: we had become accustomed to the notion of Bowie as singer/songwriter/performer: someone whose voice, words and sensibility (not to mention visual persona) were always centre-stage. Now here was an album where Bowie – as we understood him – had virtually disappeared into the musical backdrop. Those tracks which were not instrumentals offered telegrammatic lyrics bereft of the artful allusions and decodable references which had adorned even his most challenging previous album, Station To Station.
Low was therefore as much of a shock to many Bowie geeks as Nashville Skyline had been a few years earlier to Dylanoids (the term ‘Bobcats’ had not yet been invented), even those who had previously had no trouble negotiating the transition from denim-clad protesty folk troubadour to sharp-suited, slickly beshaded deafeningly-amplified rock and roll mystic. The notion that Dylan might wish to express himself through lyrically simple country songs was a little too much for many fans and critics to wrap their heads around. I was one of them.
Similarly – if you’ll pardon another seriously Olde Skoole rock reference – John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band solo album was another, similar mind-fuck. No hallucinatory sound-collages, no allusive Lewis Carrollesque lyrics, no Walrus or Day In The Life: just crunchy punk-blues guitar over bedrock rhythms and barely-processed howls of pain. POB was Lennon’s blues album and, in its way, Low was Bowie’s.
Of course, a Bowie blues album was unlike anyone else’s, just as Lennon’s was. Certainly, it didn’t sound like John Lee Hooker or BB King. And, thanks to the team-up between Bowie, Brian Eno and Tony Visconti, it didn’t sound quite like anything anybody else had ever done: the gap between ‘real’ instruments (guitar, bass, drums, horns, piano) and ‘imaginary’ ones (various synths) was artfully blurred by Visconti and Eno’s use of sound-processing gadgets (Eventide Harmoniser, EMS and Chamberlain synths et al) into a new kind of soundscape against which Bowie stated in the simplest and most direct language what was going on with him. And ain’t that the blues?
Low was hugely influential. The drum sound Visconti created with the Harmoniser from Dennis Davis’s original performance became well-nigh ubiquitous throughout the 1980s; without Low, Gary Numan would never have had a career. The album – and the rest of the ‘Berlin Trilogy’ (“Heroes” and Lodger) – has been adapted into other forms by some serious peeps: check Philip Glass’s Low and “Heroes” Symphonies and Dylan Howe’s jazz odyssey Subterrananean: New Designs On Bowie’s Berlin.
Low is unquestionably one of Bowie’s most influential albums in terms of changing the world around it. It’s also the one of Bowie’s major masterpieces (by contrast with minor masterpieces like The Buddha Of Suburbia, Outside and the first Tin Machine album) which I like the least.
Which is where the ‘personal’ element comes in. Around the time the album arrived, I had just about managed to haul myself and my then-wife out of the pit of severe amphetamine addiction. We did indeed have ‘pale blinds drawn all day; she was the ‘little girl with grey eyes [who would] never leave her room’ … the album seemed to glamourise everything we’d just fought against, and remember: at that time Bowie’s intergalactic charisma was capable of glamourizing everything short of hemorrhoids and hairy shoulders, let alone a state of post-speed (or post-coke) psychotic withdrawal. At a time when speed abuse was reaching epidemic proportions on what was about to become the punk scene, I felt that this album was seriously not helping. And, despite – or perhaps BECAUSE of – its brilliance, I hated it.
Later on, I loved “Heroes” because it seemed to be z triumph over the mindset in which Low was wallowing. And, checking in with DB via a “Heroes”-era interview, I realized that I’d (sort-of) got it right: except that DB had gone through much of the same stuff that I had, only in more luxurious surroundings and with far better drugs.
Now? Low is an album I can admire, for any number of reasons, and freely and happily acknowledge for its innovation and influence. Unfortunately, it’s one which I can never enjoy.
© Charles Shaar Murray, 2017
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Thanks Charles, much appreciated. If you’ve not checked out Charles’ collected works, Shots From the Hip: Notes from the counterculture, you really should. It’s a joy to read.

We’ll leave you with evidence of some of those more appreciative reviews of Low...

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Remarkably, alluringly beautiful...one of the finest discs of his career.

John Rockwell - The New York Times (US), January 1977

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So. This album is not...
Ordinary.
Immediate.
Commercial.
Or compromising.
(A lot of Bowie fans are going to hate 'Low')
So. This album is...
Remarkable.
Unique.
Odd.
Arguably triumphant.
And inarguably innovatory.
So. This album might be...
Bowie's best ever.
Eno's best ever.
A mechanical classic.
So. Whatever. Prepare for shock treatment.

Tim Lott - Sounds (UK), January 1977

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It is by far his most bizarre and adventurous LP and although at times synthesised to death, it is firmly Bowie's album, with side one being a direct musical extension of "Young Americans" and "Station To Station".

But apart from some African awareness, side two is a new area of exploration. Have a lot of fun checking it out.

David Hancock - National RockStar (UK), January 1977

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It's good to see Bowie aimed at the future and not recycling past glories. Low is a gamble which succeeds. Dunno what his fans will think but, whatever, Bowie has once again shaken up the scene in his own inimitable way – and more power to him.

Kris Needs - ZigZag (UK), February 1977

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Low seems to be the inner document of someone either on the edge of psychosis or obsessed right down to the bone. Nothing fits or holds firm, nothing makes rational sense, nothing follows the formal or practical rules of the game. But for Bowie, who never follows the rules, none of this disorientation is negative; on the contrary, Low is the most intimate and free recording this extraordinary artist has yet made. This haunting, oddly beautiful music, strewn with recesses to be delved into gradually and a few at a time, is affecting in a strikingly subtle and powerful way.

Bowie’s instincts are uncanny: he seems to stay on course by continually veering off-course and he has a knack for making music that (as a friend says) “feels exactly the way I feel right now.” There’s something about Low’s textures, moods, and energies that gets under the skin and keeps working deeper, but I couldn’t begin to explain how or why it works. I don’t want to try – there are times when it’s better to acknowledge than attempt to analyze, and this music is governed by a mystery that exists not to be penetrated but to be accepted as mystery.

Bud Scoppa - Phonograph Record (US), February 1977

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Bowie is a superior creative force. Here he takes his eclectic disco music to the brink of the avant-garde. His particular magic is that his audience will follow him to a place they would never get to without him. Ingenious.

Walrus Special Mention Album

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You can read the majority of these reviews in their entirety over at Rock’s Back Pages.

#ANCIANTbox #ANewCareerInANewTownBox #BowieLow

German Rolling Stone exclusive Bowie vinyl

“Und wir sind dann Helden, Für einen Tag...”

As we’re focusing on "Heroes" this week, we thought it pertinent to mention that the October 2017 issue of Rolling Stone magazine in Germany, has an exclusive Bowie feature and cover-mounted 7" vinyl single of "Helden"/"Heroes".

The magazine/vinyl package is available to pre-order now, but it’s only available to addresses in Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

Here’s the tracklisting of this future 33 1/3rd collectable.

Side 1: "Helden" (’89 remix version)
Side 2: "Heroes" (live version from Stage)

Stay tuned for more information regarding this issue, shortly.

#BowieHelden #BowieHeroes #RSDEBowie #ANCIANTbox #ANewCareerInANewTownBox #BowieVinyl

ANCIANT Album Focus: "Heroes"

“They don't walk, they just glide in and out of life”

(ANCIANT = A New Career In A New Town)

Here’s another instalment of our album focus on "Heroes".

This is Tony Visconti’s introduction from another set of very informative notes (from the ANCIANT book), regarding the recording of "Heroes"...

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‘"Heroes"’ began in Hansa Studios, West Berlin, by the Berlin Wall. The intense and diverse reaction to the experimental album ‘Low’ proved that the best path for
David, at this point in his career, was to continue to break all the rules. This continued to be the course of action with more or less the same team. Alomar, Murray and Davis returned, Eno and Bowie shared keyboard duties. The tracking sessions were recorded without a lead guitarist. Robert Fripp would arrive two weeks later.
True to form, we all congregated in Berlin with nothing more than chord changes and rhythm ideas, not yet songs. Carlos, George and Dennis instinctively knew what to do from the start but played harder than the previous album. ‘Low’ was like learning a new alphabet. ‘"Heroes"’ was the subsequent pulp fiction novel! Like
‘Low’, it didn’t take very long to record the seven band tracks. They took less than a week. Carlos stayed behind to add more guitar but the parts were more supportive than fiery. We were expecting Robert Fripp to start the fire.
It’s hard to believe that ‘Beauty And The Beast’ to ‘The Secret Life Of Arabia’ were just backing tracks arranged on the spot with no knowledge of titles, vocal melodies or lyrics. Once a riff was established, as in ‘Beauty And The Beast’, a lick, an interjection, a countermelody, a quirky drum fill all fell into place naturally. Somehow it was mutually sensed where singing would and wouldn’t be. Emotional music textures, not songs, were being recorded.

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"HEROES" FACT FILE:

Released in the UK as RCA PL 12522 on 14th October, 1977.
Peak UK chart position: #3
Peak US chart position: #35

Original Tracklisting

SIDE 1
1. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
2. JOE THE LION
3. “HEROES”
4. SONS OF THE SILENT AGE
5. BLACKOUT

SIDE 2
1. V-2 SCHNEIDER
2. SENSE OF DOUBT
3. MOSS GARDEN
4. NEUKÖLN
5. THE SECRET LIFE OF ARABIA

Bonus tracks on 1991 RykoDisc reissue:
Abdulmajid Previously unreleased track recorded 1976-79
Joe The Lion Remixed version, 1991

Original UK Singles:
"Heroes"/V-2 Schneider released September 1977 - (Peak UK chart position: #24)
Beauty And The Beast/Sense of Doubt released January 1978 - (Peak UK chart position: #39)

“TOMORROW BELONGS TO THOSE WHO CAN HEAR IT COMING” was the rather ironic tagline for "Heroes". Ironic in that the single only reached #24 in the UK upon release, but as time goes on the song has become more and more popular. This fact was highlighted when streams of Bowie’s music on Spotify reached one billion last week, with "Heroes" topping that list. Forty years later it seems tomorrow has finally arrived.

All songs written by DAVID BOWIE except ‘“HEROES”’ lyrics written by DAVID BOWIE, music written by DAVID BOWIE and BRIAN ENO, ‘MOSS GARDEN’ and ‘NEUKÖLN’ written by

DAVID BOWIE and BRIAN ENO and ‘THE SECRET LIFE OF ARABIA’ lyrics written by DAVID BOWIE, music written by DAVID BOWIE, CARLOS ALOMAR and BRIAN ENO.

Produced by DAVID BOWIE and TONY VISCONTI.
Recorded at HANSA BY THE WALL, BERLIN between 11th July and 8th August, 1977.
Engineers – TONY VISCONTI and COLIN THURSTON and MOUNTAIN STUDIOS, MONTREUX.
Assistant engineers – DAVID RICHARDS and EUGENE CHAPLIN.
Mixed at MOUNTAIN STUDIOS, MONTREUX.
HANSA BY THE WALL in-house engineer: EDUARD MEYER.

Don’t forget you can listen to the official David Bowie: A New Career In A New Town playlist here.

Pre-order ANCIANT here.

#ANCIANTbox #ANewCareerInANewTownBox #BowieHeroes

ANCIANT Album Focus: "Heroes"

“For ever and ever”

In the run up to the September 29th release of the David Bowie: A New Career In A New Town (1977–1982) box set (ANCIANT), the next release in our album focus is "Heroes".

If you’ve not listened to this classic from 1977 in a while, pop over to the official David Bowie: A New Career In A New Town playlist and reacquaint yourself.

Pre-order ANCIANT here.

#ANCIANTbox #ANewCareerInANewTownBox #BowieHeroes

Bowie reaches a billion streams on Spotify

“A billion dreams, A billion streams”

“The absolute transformation of everything that we ever thought about music will take place within 10 years, and nothing is going to be able to stop it. Music itself is going to become like running water or electricity” - David Bowie, June 2002.

Last week (Thursday, August 24), the music of David Bowie reached a major milestone with the one billionth stream on Spotify. The #1 streamed song, "Heroes", originally recorded in English, French & German, is this year celebrating its 40th anniversary and, as previously mentioned here, will be released as a special limited edition picture disc next month.

Bowie’s top ten most streamed solo tracks of all time on Spotify are:

"Heroes"
Let’s Dance
Space Oddity
Life On Mars
Starman
Rebel Rebel
Moonage Daydream
Changes
Ziggy Stardust
Modern Love

Bubbling under those are Fame, The Man Who Sold The World, China Girl, Oh! You Pretty Things, Sound & Vision, Where Are We Now? This Is Not America, Ashes To Ashes and Young Americans.

Thanks so much for making it happen, Kooks!

Play Bowie on Spotify here.

#BowieSpotify #BowieKooks

Iman talks about David to Vogue

“I want you most of all”

Just in case you missed this one, it’s well worth a read/view.

Iman has helped Vogue celebrate their 125th Anniversary with a look back at pictures of her and David that have appeared in their pages.

In a moving interview, Iman explained how the public’s outpouring of love has meant that David’s presence is always felt: “My husband's passing to me, his absence is ever present. You know, so it's not like he has left. From the public love and the public grieving and all that, he is constantly around.”

Of the main picture in our montage, taken by Irving Penn in 1994, Iman said this: “A perfect match. Penn did this photo, it was the first time, wasn't the first time I met Penn, but it was the first and the only picture actually he did of me and David.”

Iman also said this about the other photograph we’ve used: “And this is David and I dancing, that's my daughter's favourite.”

Read the full interview and watch the video here.

#DavidAndIman #‎ForeverLove

ANCIANT Album Focus: Low

“Don’t you wonder sometimes...”

Ahead of the release of the David Bowie: A New Career In A New Town (1977–1982) box set (ANCIANT) next month, here’s the second instalment of our album focus on Low.

This is Tony Visconti’s introduction from his superbly informative notes (from the ANCIANT book), regarding the recording of Low. As Tony says, it’s a story you may have heard before, but it bears repeating...

I was playing around with my new signal processing ‘toys’ in my home studio in Hammersmith when I got a phone call from David Bowie. I'd had a good business year and my accountant said, “Buy things for the studio. They are tax deductible”. My favourite new toy was the Harmonizer made by a new company called Eventide. David already mixed the ‘Diamond Dogs’ album with me in my home studio and we used an earlier Eventide gizmo, The Eventide Digital Delay, to great effect, very noticeably with the “Bro-bro-bro…” repetition at the end of ‘Big Brother’.
David was calling from his home in Switzerland and Brian Eno was on an extension. They told me they’d been writing songs for a couple of weeks and had ideas, one side being conventional songs and the other an instrumental side based on Brian’s ambient music compositions. I was asked, “What can you bring to the table?” (This is the first time I heard this phrase not referring to bottles of red and white wine). I said I have a new thing called the Harmonizer (the second sold in the U.K.). “What does it do?” they asked. Hmmm. This thing was so original and difficult to explain in simple terms, so I spontaneously came up with what most people have heard of by now, “It fucks with the fabric of time.” Then I heard big ‘whoops’ from both of them.

LOW FACT FILE:

Working Title: New Music: Night And Day (Last minute name change to the visually punning Low)
Released in the UK as RCA PL 12030 on 14th January, 1977.
Peak UK chart position: #2
Peak US chart position: #11

Original Tracklisting

SIDE 1
1. SPEED OF LIFE
2. BREAKING GLASS
3. WHAT IN THE WORLD
4. SOUND AND VISION
5. ALWAYS CRASHING IN THE SAME CAR
6. BE MY WIFE
7. A NEW CAREER IN A NEW TOWN

SIDE 2

1. WARSZAWA
2. ART DECADE
3. WEEPING WALL 4. SUBTERRANEANS

Bonus tracks on 1991 RykoDisc reissue:
Some Are (3:24) Previously unreleased track recorded 1976-79
All Saints (3:35) Previously unreleased track recorded 1976-79
Sound And Vision (4:43) Remixed version, 1991

Original UK Singles:
Sound And Vision/A New Career In A New Town released February 1977 - (Peak UK chart position: #3)
Be My Wife/Speed Of Life released June 1977 - (Peak UK chart position: N/A)

Did you know that both Mary Visconti (Nee Hopkin) and Brian Eno provide backing vocals on Sound And Vision, as does Iggy Pop on What In The World?

(Pictured on the right of our montage is the US advert for the Sound And Vison 45 and the UK ad for the Be My Wife single)

All songs written by DAVID BOWIE except ‘BREAKING GLASS’ written by DAVID BOWIE, GEORGE MURRAY and DENNIS DAVIS and ‘WARSZAWA’ written by DAVID BOWIE and BRIAN ENO.

All songs arranged by DAVID BOWIE except ‘WARSZAWA’ arranged by DAVID BOWIE and BRIAN ENO.

Produced by DAVID BOWIE and TONY VISCONTI.
Mixed by TONY VISCONTI at HANSA BY THE WALL, BERLIN.
Recorded at THE CHÂTEAU D’HÉROUVILLE and HANSA BY THE WALL, BERLIN between September and October, 1976.
‘SUBTERRANEANS’ originally recorded at CHEROKEE STUDIOS, LOS ANGELES, December 1975.

Don’t forget you can listen to the official David Bowie: A New Career In A New Town playlist here.

Pre-order ANCIANT here.

#ANCIANTbox #ANewCareerInANewTownBox #BowieLow

ANCIANT Album Focus: Low

“Share my life”

In the run up to the September 29th release of the David Bowie: A New Career In A New Town (1977–1982) box set (ANCIANT), we’ll be running a week by week album focus looking at each in chronological order.

As you’ve no doubt gathered, we’re starting with the first LP in the set, 1977’s Low.

Listen to this classic and hugely influential recording over at the official David Bowie: A New Career In A New Town playlist, updated regularly with instant grat tracks and including the material released by Bowie between 1977 and 1982:

Pre-order ANCIANT here.

FOOTNOTE: Something not quite right about that cover of Low? See why here.

#ANCIANTbox #ANewCareerInANewTownBox #BowieLow

ANCIANT unboxing video

“Come see, come see...”

Here’s an exclusive first look at the unboxing of the David Bowie: A New Career In A New Town (1977–1982) box set, due September 29th.

Pre-order here: https://lnk.to/ANCIANTMP

#ANCIANTbox

Visconti and Murphy talk DB in UNCUT

“We had a friend, a talking man”

The October 2017 issue of Uncut magazine has an interview with Tony Visconti and another with James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem.

Here’s a bit from Michael Bonner’s monthly introduction to the new issue...

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Tony Visconti gives us a sneak preview of his Lodger remix in the forthcoming David Bowie retrospective box set: “I found some little gems on the tapes,” he reveals, telling us about Arabic raps, the original Lodger sessions and Bowie’s later attitude to re-releases.
On the subject of records, LCD Soundsystem’s American Dream is our Album Of The Month – James Murphy shares a very good David Bowie story.
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Here’s a bit from the Visconti interview expanding upon that Arabic rap hint above...

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Visconti’s 2017 mix of Lodger is included in David Bowie: A New Career In A New Town (1977–1982), the third in a series of boxsets spanning Bowie’s career.
“I found some little gems on the tapes,” he reveals. “At the end of ‘Yassassin’, David does a little Arabic rap that didn’t make the record. I put it on the mix this time and it sounds wonderful. David was proud of these re-releases, but he didn’t want to get involved. There are so many capable people, including his own staff and myself, who could deal with it. He’d hear the final test pressing and say, ‘Great, it’s wonderful. Release it.’ But he always wanted to move on.”
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Elsewhere, James Murphy (who has featured here on a few occasions), is interviewed by Tom Pinnock regarding the new album, American Dream. Here’s a small excerpt from that...

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UNCUT: Does it feel strange referencing David Bowie in your music after you became friends with him?
James Murphy: Not to me. He was a remarkable person, in that you never had a negative collision between your vision of him and who he was, at least I didn't. And it wasn't because when you met him he seemed like Ziggy Stardust, or something – quite the opposite. He was an incredibly disarming and human person, really respectful, appreciative and thoughtful. But you were never disappointed because he was so incredibly good about being a person.
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Go here for more detail regarding this particular issue which is out now.

Go here for further details and full tracklistings for David Bowie: A New Career In A New Town (1977–1982).

#ANCIANTbox #BowieUNCUT #BowieVisconti #BowieJamesMurphy

Happy 17th birthday to Lexi

“You’re only seventeen”

We’re sure you will all want to join us in wishing many happy returns of the day to Alexandria Zahra Jones on her 17th birthday.

Lexi is 16 in this picture, which was posted by her mother, Iman, last year.

The colour pic (by DEZO HOFFMANN) is of her father, Davie Jones, in 1964, an ambitious 17-year-old King Bee himself with a very bright future ahead of him.

Happy Birthday Lexi, here’s wishing you a similarly bright future with love ‘n stuff from everybody here.

FOOTNOTE: Congratulations are also due to Iman on becoming a grandmother, with the arrival of baby Lavinia Rose Young to Iman’s daughter Zulekha and her husband Jason.

#HappyBirthdayLexi #Lexi17 #LexiLove #NanaLove

Labyrinth OST, don't forget the black vinyl

“Putting on the black vinyl, cranking out the white noise”

Back in June we told you about today’s release via UMe of the limited green and lavender vinyl editions of the Labyrinth soundtrack.

However, in our excitement, we neglected to mention the 180 gram heavyweight black vinyl edition with free download code (released on July 7th), though it seems enough of you noticed to get it to #4 on the following week’s Official Vinyl Albums Chart Top 40.

There are some that aren’t so keen for coloured vinyl releases, but, of course, black vinyl is a kind of coloured vinyl in itself, as the plastic used in the production of records is naturally clear before carbon black is added.

Anyway, forget all that, the main reason for posting this item is so that we can kick the weekend off with a delightful picture of Jareth and Sarah.

#Labyrinth #LabyrinthTheMovie #Jareth #LabyrinthBowie #JarethBowie #BowieVinyl

Changes inducted into GRAMMY Hall of Fame

“Oh, look out you rock 'n rollers”

At the tail end of last year, the GRAMMY Awards department announced that David Bowie’s Changes was being inducted into the GRAMMY Hall of Fame, 45 years after its release as a 45.

They’ve recently been in touch with a certificate and the award to mark that fact.

So congratulations to all those involved with the making of this classic track, which was originally to be heard on the Hunky Dory album.

But, of course, special mention must be made of Bowie himself, the man who wrote what is considered by many to be his signature song, and a good one word summation of the essence of his outlook.

FOOTNOTE: Pictured here with the certificate from the GRAMMY Hall of Fame, are the original 1972 US and UK press ads for the Changes single release.

#BowieChanges

Lazarus in Amsterdam next year

“...speak Chinese, French and Dutch?” *

As you may already know, Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant, has announced that David Bowie and Enda Walsh’s Lazarus will open in Amsterdam next year.

Here’s an edited excerpt in English from the interview with Albert Verlinde:

A beaming Albert Verlinde (56) greets me in his office in the Zuidas business district of Amsterdam. He has news. He has managed to bring a special production to the Netherlands: Lazarus, the musical which director Ivo van Hove created with David Bowie in 2015. ‘I'm so proud’, says Verlinde. ‘We've already started casting. It will have a Dutch cast, but the songs will stay in English.’
‘18 months ago, I invited Ivo van Hove and Jan Versweyveld to an introductory dinner when all three of us were in New York. We haven't stopped talking since then. It took quite some doing to get the rights, which are managed by the major producer Robert Fox. He's nobility, you could say.’
The aim is for Lazarus to run at the DeLaMar for at least half a year. Van Hove is starting to reign supreme on the lively Leidseplein square, with his own repertory company Toneelgroep Amsterdam in the Stadsschouwburg and his direction of the musical on the other side of the Marnixstraat.
Verlinde has high expectations for the production. ‘David Bowie's legacy appeals to a wide audience. Just look how many people came to see the Bowie exhibition in the Groninger Museum (200,700). When you add in Ivo, who put on successful productions of Lazarus in New York and London, I think: this is the one.’

So, to recap: Ivo van Hove-directed Dutch language version of Lazarus (with songs in the original English), to run at the DeLaMar Theater in Amsterdam for at least six months from September, 2018. More details as we get them.

* Just Dutch.

#LazarusMusical #LazarusAmsterdam #DeLaMarTheater #Lazarus #TMWFTE #TJNewton

"Heroes" 40th anniversary picture disc

“We can be Heroes, for ever and ever, What d'you say?”

Many of you will have already worked out that "Heroes" will be the next limited edition 40th-anniversary 7" picture disc. It will be issued on 22nd September 2017 via Parlophone.

Originally released in the UK on 23rd September 1977, "Heroes" was the first single to be taken from the album of the same name, the second of the so-called ‘Berlin Trilogy’ of albums.

"Heroes" was recorded in English, French and German and has over the past forty years become an inspirational anthem. When Bowie performed the song in West Berlin in 1987 with the Wall as a backdrop, thousands of East Berliners could be heard singing and cheering along; Bowie later described it as one of the most emotional performances of his career.

The AA of the disc is a previously unreleased live version of the track from Marc Bolan’s ‘Marc’ ITV show, where the song was heard for the first time by fans in the UK. The track was recorded on the 7th of September 1977 but wasn’t broadcast until later that month by which time Bolan had passed away in a tragic accident.

"Heroes" is one of Bowie’s most-covered tracks with the likes of Prince, Blondie, Oasis, Nico, Depeche Mode, LCD Soundsystem, Peter Gabriel, Janelle Monae, King Crimson, Philip Glass, Kasabian, TV On The Radio, The Wallflowers and many more having performed it.

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DAVID BOWIE “HEROES" LIMITED EDITION 40th ANNIVERSARY 7" PICTURE DISC

A-Side “HEROES” (Single version 2017 Remaster)
(Lyrics by David Bowie, Music by David Bowie and Brian Eno)
Produced by David Bowie & Tony Visconti
Recorded at Hansa by the Wall, Berlin and Mountain Studios, Montreux
AA-Side “HEROES” (‘Marc’ show version)
(Lyrics by David Bowie, Music by David Bowie and Brian Eno)
Recorded for the television show ‘Marc’ on 7th September 1977 and broadcast on 20th September 1977
Previously unreleased

The image used on the A-side was taken by Sukita in Japan 1977, and the AA side was taken during the recording of the ‘Marc’ show in September, 1977.

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“HEROES” is released via Parlophone on September 22nd, 2017.

#DBHERO40 #BowieHeroes #BowieBolan #BowieVinyl

A NEW CAREER IN A NEW TOWN (1977 – 1982)

“THERE’S OLD WAVE. THERE’S NEW WAVE. AND THERE’S DAVID BOWIE...”

DAVID BOWIE - ‘A NEW CAREER IN A NEW TOWN (1977 – 1982)’

THE THIRD IN A SERIES OF DAVID BOWIE BOX SETS - RELEASED 29th SEPTEMBER 2017

CD, DIGITAL* AND AUDIOPHILE VINYL BOX SETS EXCLUSIVELY FEATURE ‘LODGER’ (TONY VISCONTI 2017 MIX)

‘BEAUTY AND THE BEAST’ (EXTENDED VERSION) AVAILABLE NOW AS AN INSTANT GRAT TRACK - PREVOUSLY UNAVAILABLE ON DIGITAL / CD: BuyANCIANT

#ANCIANTbox

Parlophone Records are proud to announce DAVID BOWIE ‘A NEW CAREER IN A NEW TOWN (1977 – 1982)’, the third in a series of box sets spanning Bowie’s career from 1969.

The follow-up to the awarding winning and critically acclaimed DAVID BOWIE ‘FIVE YEARS (1969 – 1973)’ and DAVID BOWIE ‘WHO CAN I BE NOW? (1974 – 1976)’ will be released on 29th September and will contain a brand new remix of the 1979 album ‘LODGER’ by long time Bowie producer/collaborator Tony Visconti.

The eleven CD box, thirteen-piece vinyl set and the Mastered For iTunes and standard digital download sets feature material officially released by Bowie between 1977 and 1982. It includes the so-called ‘Berlin Trilogy’ of albums on which he collaborated with Visconti and Brian Eno, and is completed by ‘SCARY MONSTERS (And Super Creeps)’.

The box set, named after the final track on side one of ‘LOW’, includes ‘LOW’, ‘“HEROES”’, ‘STAGE’ (ORIGINAL and 2017 VERSIONS), ‘LODGER’, ‘LODGER (Tony Visconti 2017 Mix)’, ‘SCARY MONSTERS (And Super Creeps)’ and ‘RE:CALL 3’. Finally we have the ‘“HEROES”’ E.P., which rounds up the German and French album and single versions of the track in one place for the first time, a compilation exclusive to the set celebrating the 40th anniversary of the song.

In the vinyl version of the box the original ‘STAGE’ will be pressed on yellow vinyl, replicating the limited edition U.K. release of the time. The 2017 version of ‘STAGE’ features two previously unreleased tracks.

Exclusive to each of the box sets is ‘LODGER (Tony Visconti 2017 Mix)’. The remix was started with David's blessing before his passing in January last year. Tony Visconti has revisited the original multi-tracks at Human Studios and remixed the album with the benefit of modern technology to better highlight the album’s nuances. Always a personal favourite of David’s, this version of the album will also feature newly 'remixed' artwork featuring unseen images from the original cover photographic session from the archive of the Estate of photographer Duffy, working closely with his son Chris.

Also exclusive to each box is ‘Re:Call 3’, a new compilation featuring remastered contemporary single versions, non-album singles and b-sides, and songs featured on soundtracks. The cover features a photo by Christian Simonpietri taken at Hansa Studios in Berlin during the ‘“Heroes”’ sessions in 1977. The ‘Baal’ E.P. in its entirety is making its CD debut while ‘Beauty And The Beast’ (extended version) and ‘Breaking Glass’ (Australian single version) are making their debuts on CD and digital formats.

‘Beauty And The Beast’ (extended version) is available as a digital download upon pre-order of the box set. This version of the ‘“Heroes”’ album track is making its digital and CD debut having previously only been available on a rare US promo 12” and as a limited 12” release in Spain.

The physical box set’s accompanying book, 128 pages in the CD box and 84 in the vinyl set, will feature rarely seen and previously unpublished photos by photographers including Anton Corbijn, Helmut Newton, Andrew Kent, Steve Schapiro, Duffy and many others as well as historical press reviews and technical notes about the albums from producer Tony Visconti.

The CD box set will include faithfully reproduced mini-vinyl versions of the original albums, and the CDs will be gold coloured rather than the usual silver. The vinyl box set has the same content as the CD set and is pressed on audiophile quality 180g vinyl.

*A New Career In A New Town (1977-1982) will also be made available in High Definition audio digital formats (192kHZ/24bit and 96kHZ/24bit). Content varies from other formats due to the resolution of the available original source material.

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“Tomorrow Belongs To Those Who Can Hear It Coming”

DAVID BOWIE ‘A NEW CAREER IN A NEW TOWN (1977-1982)’

LP Box Set:
84 Page hardback book
Low (remastered) (1LP)
"Heroes" (remastered) (1LP)
“Heroes” E.P. (remastered) (12” Single)*
Stage (remastered) (2LP Yellow Vinyl) *
Stage (2017) (remastered) (3LP)
Lodger (remastered) (1LP)
Lodger (Tony Visconti 2017 Mix) (1LP)*
Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) (1LP)
Re:Call 3 (non-album singles, single versions and b-sides) (remastered) (2LP)*

* Exclusive to ‘A New Career In A New Town (1977-1982)’

CD Box Set:
128 Page hardback book
Low (remastered) (1CD)
"Heroes" (remastered) (1CD)
“Heroes” E.P. (remastered) (CD EP)*
Stage (remastered) (2CD)*
Stage (2017) (remastered) (2CD)
Lodger (remastered) (1CD)
Lodger (Tony Visconti 2017 Mix) (1CD)*
Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) (1CD)
Re:Call 3 (non-album singles, single versions and b-sides) (remastered) (1CD)*

* Exclusive to ‘A New Career In A New Town (1977-1982)’

Digital download 192kHz/24bit box set:
Low (remaster)
“Heroes” (remaster)
“Heroes” E.P.*
Stage (original) (remaster) *
Stage (2017) (remaster)
Lodger (remaster)
Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) (remaster)

NB Lodger (Tony Visconti 2017 mix) is not included in this digital box set.

Digital download 96kHz/24bit box set:
Low (remaster)
“Heroes” (remaster)
“Heroes” E.P.*
Stage (original) (remaster) *
Stage (2017) (remaster)
Lodger (remaster)
Lodger (Tony Visconti 2017 mix) *
Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) (remaster)

Digital download standard/MFiT box set:

Low (remaster)
“Heroes” (remaster)
“Heroes” E.P.*
Stage (original) (remaster) *
Stage (2017) (remaster)
Lodger (remaster)
Lodger (Tony Visconti 2017 mix) *
Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) (remaster)
Re:Call 3 (Single versions and non album B-sides) (non MFiT) *

* Set exclusives

‘A NEW CAREER IN A NEW TOWN (1977-1982)’ CD & Vinyl Tracklistings (showing Vinyl side breaks)

LOW
Released on RCA PL 12030 (U.K.) / CPL1-2030 (U.S.) on 14th January, 1977.

Side 1
1. Speed Of Life
2. Breaking Glass
3. What In The World
4. Sound And Vision
5. Always Crashing In The Same Car
6. Be My Wife
7. A New Career In A New Town

Side 2
1. Warszawa
2. Art Decade
3. Weeping Wall
4. Subterraneans

"HEROES"
Released on RCA PL 12522 (U.K.) / AFL1-2522 (U.S.)

Side 1
1. Beauty And The Beast
2. Joe The Lion
3. "Heroes"
4. Sons Of The Silent Age
5. Blackout

Side 2
1. V-2 Schneider
2. Sense Of Doubt
3. Moss Garden
4. Neuköln
5. The Secret Life Of Arabia

"HEROES" E.P.

Side 1
1. "Heroes"/"Helden" (German album version)
2. "Helden" (German single version)

Side 2
1. "Heroes"/"Héros" (French album version)
2. "Héros" (French single version)

STAGE (Original)
Released on RCA PL 02913 (U.K.) / CPL2-2913 (U.S.)

Side 1
1. Hang On To Yourself
2. Ziggy Stardust
3. Five Years
4. Soul Love
5. Star

Side 2
1. Station To Station
2. Fame
3. TVC 15

Side 3
1. Warszawa
2. Speed Of Life
3. Art Decade
4. Sense Of Doubt
5. Breaking Glass

Side 4
1. "Heroes"
2. What In The World
3. Blackout
4. Beauty And The Beast

STAGE (2017)

Side 1
1. Warszawa
2. "Heroes"
3. What In The World

Side 2
1. Be My Wife
2. The Jean Genie *
3. Blackout
4. Sense Of Doubt

Side 3
1. Speed Of Life
2. Breaking Glass
3. Beauty And The Beast
4. Fame

Side 4
1. Five Years
2. Soul Love
3. Star
4. Hang On To Yourself
5. Ziggy Stardust
6. Suffragette City *

Side 5
1. Art Decade
2. Alabama Song
3. Station To Station

Side 6
1. Stay
2. TVC 15

* Previously unreleased

LODGER
Released on RCA PL 13254 (U.K.) / APL1-3254 (U.S.)

LODGER (2017 Tony Visconti mix)

Side 1
1. Fantastic Voyage
2. African Night Flight
3. Move On
4. Yassassin (Turkish for: Long Live)
5. Red Sails

Side 2
1. D.J.
2. Look Back In Anger
3. Boys Keep Swinging
4. Repetition
5. Red Money

SCARY MONSTERS (AND SUPER CREEPS)
Released on RCA BOWLP 2 (PL 13647) (U.K.) / AQL1-3647 (U.S.)

Side 1
1. It's No Game (Part 1)
2. Up The Hill Backwards
3. Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)
4. Ashes To Ashes
5. Fashion

Side 2
1. Teenage Wildlife
2. Scream Like A Baby
3. Kingdom Come
4. Because You're Young
5. It's No Game (Part 2)

RE:CALL 3

Side 1
1. "Heroes" (single version)
2. Beauty And The Beast (extended version)
3. Breaking Glass (Australian single version)
4. Yassassin (single version)
5. D.J. (single version)

Side 2
1. Alabama Song
2. Space Oddity (1979 version)
3. Ashes To Ashes (single version)
4. Fashion (single version)
5. Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) (single version)

Side 3
1. Crystal Japan
2. Under Pressure (single version) - Queen and David Bowie
3. Cat People (Putting Out Fire) (soundtrack album version)
4. Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy * - David Bowie and Bing Crosby
* mono

Side 4
Bertolt Brecht's Baal
1. Baal's Hymn
2. Remembering Marie A.
3. Ballad Of The Adventurers
4. The Drowned Girl
5. The Dirty Song

The running order for Re:Call 3 CD differs from the vinyl version

1. "Heroes" (single version)
2. Beauty And The Beast (extended version)
3. Breaking Glass (Australian single version)
4. Yassassin (single version)
5. D.J. (single version)
6. Alabama Song
7. Space Oddity (1979 version)
8. Ashes To Ashes (single version)
9. Fashion (single version)
10.Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) (single version)
11.Crystal Japan
12.Under Pressure (single version) - Queen and David Bowie

Bertolt Brecht's Baal
13.Baal's Hymn
14.Remembering Marie A.
15.Ballad Of The Adventurers
16.The Drowned Girl
17.The Dirty Song
18.Cat People (Putting Out Fire) (soundtrack album version)
19.Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy * - David Bowie and Bing Crosby
* mono

Happy 1st birthday to Stenton David Jones

“Soon you'll grow so take a chance, With a couple of Kooks, Hung up on romancing” - The little lad’s grandad for the little lad’s dad, 1971.

Bowie’s ★ album wins at the SBSAA 2017

“I will see you in the sky, Tonight”

David Bowie received a posthumous award for his ★ album in the Pop Music category at the Melvyn Bragg-hosted South Bank Sky Arts Awards (SBSAA) 2017, at The Savoy Hotel in London tonight (Sunday).

Iggy Pop paid tribute to his long-time friend and collaborator in a pre-recorded video message from his home in the United States. Iggy reminisced about how he and David would watch The South Bank Show together in the late ‘70s.

Here’s an exclusive transcript of what he said:

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“Hi, I’m Iggy Pop and I was a sort of stowaway, if you will, on David Bowie’s Station To Station tour, during which he shared digs with me in London at a beautiful old Victorian house that was looked after by a lady named Mrs Potter. And during our time with Mrs Potter he introduced me to The South Bank Show, because it was on TV and he didn't want to miss it. He thought it was the place to be if you were going to be a who's who or what's what in British arts, performing arts especially.”
“Later, during the making of The Idiot in Hérouville, France, the producer Tony Visconti had brought over a big load of The South Bank Shows which we would watch to interrupt the hilarity of the Monty Python stuff he also brought with him.”
“So, as important as David Bowie was to a lot of us, certainly for changing the game in my life, but also for changing the game in rock and roll and in popular music, The South Bank Show meant something to him as well. I can testify to that.”
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You can watch The South Bank Sky Arts Awards 2017 in the UK, on Wednesday, July 12th, at 8:00pm on Sky Arts.

#BowieBlackstar #Blackstar #BowieIggy #SouthBankSkyArtsAwards #SouthBankShowAwards