“Tom, Tom she whispers low, don't forget my name” *
The May 2019 issue of UNCUT has a 4-page feature regarding both the Spying Through A Keyhole (STAK) and the David Bowie (with John 'Hutch' Hutchinson) - Clareville Grove Demos (CGD) 7” box sets.
Under the heading of “The right stuff! Ground control prepares for the lift-off of Major Tom, in demo form”, the feature by John Robinson awards STAK 7/10 and CGD 8/10
There’s also a reprint of an NME interview from November 1969 with Gordon Coxhill, following the success of the Space Oddity. Here’s a bit from it:
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It looked like a piece of master planning, but it wasn’t. It looked like a monster hit, and it was. David Bowie’s “Space Oddity”, inspired by a visit to the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, was released just as the world was staying up all night to watch the moon landing.
Like the modest, self-effacing young man he is, David passed the credit on to his record company, but as it was written last November, he can hardly disown his amazing foresight!
“Put it down to luck,” he said over the phone from Perth, where he was about to begin a short tour of the Haggisland. “I really am amazed at the success of the record, even though I had confidence in it. I’ve been the male equivalent of the dumb blonde for a few years, and I was beginning to despair of people accepting me for my music.
“It may be fine for a male model to be told that he’s a great-looking guy, but that doesn’t help a singer much, especially now that the pretty-boy personality cult seems to be on the way out.”
Much as David takes his songwriting seriously, he is amused by pundits who examine his material looking for hidden meanings even he is unaware of. “My songs are all from the heart, and they are wholly personal to me and I would like people to accept them as such.”
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the new issue of Uncut is in shops now and available online here.
The 4 x 7" Spying Through A Keyhole box set is released on 5th April
The 3 x 7" Clareville Grove Demos box set is released on 17th May
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The David Bowie Store has a limited T-shirt and box STAK set bundle:
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*Today’s lyric quotation is from Angel Angel Grubby Face (version 2)
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