Bowie fan art #5 at Brooklyn Museum

“The paintings are all your own”

David Bowie collected all of the fan art he was sent over the years and now the Brooklyn Museum has fulfilled his desire that one day they would be exhibited.

We’re posting a piece online every Friday with the hashtag #DavidBowieArt. The aim is to eventually create an online gallery dedicated to Bowie inspired art.

Unfortunately, the creators of the majority of the works collected are unknown, but it would be a great help if anybody reading this has more information, be it the artists themselves or somebody who knows them. This approach seems to be working as we’ve now connected with two of the first four artists.

Apologies for the low quality reproduction. Much of the work was photographed through glass and sometimes intrusive reflections were unavoidable.

We’ve a hunch that this week’s selection may ruffle a few feathers, as did last week’s, but isn’t that what art’s all about?

You can enjoy all of the pieces on display at the exhibition until July 15th. Tickets and more here.

#DavidBowieIs #DavidBowieIsBKM #DavidBowieArt #BowieFanFriday

ISOLAR 2 Tour kicks off 40 years ago tonight

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

On Wednesday, March 29, 1978, the Sports Arena in San Diego, California, was the date and location David Bowie chose to commence The 1978 World Tour in front of 15,000 peoploids.

Following the ISOLAR Tour of 1976, the two years between tours seemed an age, though unbearably longer absences from the road were to follow.

The tour visited 15 countries with a total of 78 performances by an ensemble consisting of:

David Bowie (vocals, keyboards)

Carlos Alomar (rhythm guitar)

Adrian Belew (lead guitar)

Dennis Davis (drums, percussion)

Simon House (electric violin)

Sean Mayes (piano, string ensemble)

George Murray (bass)

Roger Powell (keyboards, synthesisers)

The setlist comprised primarily of songs from the two most recent albums, Low and "Heroes", with half of Station To Station, a peppering of hits (The Jean Genie and Fame among them), and a large dose of the Ziggy Stardust album.

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March 29, 1978, Sports Arena, San Diego, CA setlist:

Warszawa

"Heroes"

What in the World

Be My Wife

The Jean Genie

Blackout

Sense Of Doubt

Speed Of Life

Breaking Glass

Beauty And The Beast

Fame

20 minute interval

Band intro

Five Years

Soul Love

Star

Hang On To Yourself

Ziggy Stardust

Suffragette City

Rock ’N’ Roll Suicide

Art Decade

Station to Station

Encore #1:

Stay

TVC15

Encore #2:

Rebel Rebel

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The two Sue Halstenberg pictures we’ve used see David in a couple of outfits that didn’t last the tour. The more familiar Natasha Korniloff costumes were also worn on the night.

If you’ve not already read it, Life On Tour With David Bowie by pianist Sean Mayes is a great insider account of the tour.

Finally, read Pimm Jal de la Parra’s review of the gig from a cassette over on the excellent French site, Man Of Music, from where we borrowed the ticket for our montage and where you can view more shots from the gig, by Ralph Hulett.

#Bowie1978 #BowieThrowbackThursday

Bowie Superfan Rates DB is Brooklyn

“She's so swishy in her satin and tat”

Nothing quite like a David Bowie fan who knows their stuff to give an honest opinion of the David Bowie is at the Brooklyn Museum exhibition.

Fourth-grade Bowie superfan, Trixie Madell, recently rated the show after the nine-year-old Ziggy Stardust expert donned sequinned pants and silver Doc Martens to tour the exhibition with her mum.

Here’s an excerpt from a great piece in The New Yorker, by Sarah Larson.

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Trixie made her way through the exhibition, admiring a photo of Earth that had helped inspire “Space Oddity” (“From the lunar orbit, not the moon landing”); the video for “Life on Mars” (“I’ve seen this a bajillion times”); a rigid, doll-like costume that Bowie wore on “Saturday Night Live” (“They had to carry him, because he couldn’t move”); a patterned zip-up number (“That’s ‘Oh, You Pretty Things’ ”); the crystal ball and sceptre from Jim Henson’s “Labyrinth” (“Mommy!”); the keys to Bowie’s Berlin apartment (“They look old”); playfully altered stills from “The Man Who Fell to Earth” (“They changed the bathtub water to tiles”); a suit that she correctly identified as being from Mick Rock’s “Pin Ups” photos; Bowie’s diary entry about writing “Fame” with John Lennon; a Pierrot mannequin (“Isn’t that the ‘Ashes to Ashes’ costume?”). She was uninterested in the “Blue Jean” display—Bowie’s post-seventies œuvre is still of less appeal—and avoided the 1969 short “The Mask,” involving tights and white face paint. “She’s not fond of the mime phase,” Dawn said. At the display for “Blackstar,” Bowie’s final album, lauded by critics but not by Trixie, she politely pointed out an attractive pattern in the black stars.

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Read the full thing here.

If Trixie, Dawn or Josh Madell are reading this, please get in touch.

#DavidBowieIs #DavidBowieIsBKM #NewYorkerBowie

Bowie fan art #4 at Brooklyn Museum

“The paintings are all your own”

David Bowie collected all of the fan art he was sent over the years and now the Brooklyn Museum has fulfilled his desire that one day they would be exhibited.

We’re posting a piece online every Friday with the hashtag #DavidBowieArt. The aim is to eventually create an online gallery dedicated to Bowie inspired art.

Unfortunately, the creators of the majority of the works collected are unknown, but it would be a great help if anybody reading this has more information, be it the artists themselves or somebody who knows them.

Apologies to each artist for the low quality reproduction. Much of the work was photographed through glass and sometimes intrusive reflections were unavoidable.

Anybody out there know anything about this week’s picture? Whoever painted this has based it on a photograph of Bowie performing his bird in flight mime from Earl’s Court in 1973.

You can enjoy all of the pieces on display at the exhibition until July 15th. Tickets and more here.

#DavidBowieIs #DavidBowieIsBKM #DavidBowieArt #BowieFanFriday

'Life On Mars?' wins BBC’s Best Music Production

“Oh man! Wonder if he'll ever know”

We’re sure you remember Tris Penna’s fascinating Exploring 'Life On Mars?' documentary, presented by Martin Kemp and originally broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on January 9th, 2017.

Well now the programme has received the accolade it truly deserves at the BBC’s Radio & Music Awards on Tuesday evening (March 20).

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BEST MUSIC PRODUCTION

This award recognises creativity and originality in production process as well as new and innovative ways of engaging our audiences.

The programme featured never before broadcast archive recordings, mixes and demos as well as new and archive interviews with band members, sound engineers, friends, fans and music publishers to create an extraordinary music production and a brilliantly narrated story.

The winner is Exploring Life on Mars – Sue Clark Productions.

Presenter: Martin Kemp

Presenter/Writer & Co-producer: Tris Penna

This is a Sue Clark Production for BBC Radio 2

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The very lovely Tris Penna had this to say regarding the broadcast: “What was so satisfying about making 'Exploring Life on Mars?' was that I was able to devote a whole hour to what makes DB’s music so special. Wipe away the make-up, discard the costumes, forget the record sleeves - and still the music astonishes and is uniquely timeless…”.

Mr Penna is pictured here holding the gong with producer Sue Clark. The bloke on the right is the chap who wrote the subject of the documentary, photographed around the time that he did.

Sonos Song Stories : Bowie in Berlin free event

“Sons of sound and SONOS of sound”

Following similar successful events in both London and New York... On April 12 at Sonos Berlin hear Tony Visconti, Alison Goldfrapp, Michael Rother, Gudrun Gut and Thomas Venker share personal stories inspired by David Bowie. Sign up for free tickets here http://sonos.com/bowie

Keep reading for the full press release.

#SongStories #SonosStoreBerlin

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Great Sound in Mitte:

Sonos Concept Store Berlin opens on April 12

Song Stories: Bowie Opening Night Event hosted by Thomas Venker to feature Tony Visconti, Goldfrapp, Ellen Allien; Gudrun Gut and Michael Rother

RSVP Open to the Public at www.sonos.com/events

Berlin is Germany’s urban capital of music – even more so soon, as the new Sonos Concept Store at Oranienburger Straße 83 in the Mitte district is opening its doors on April 12. After opening branches in New York and London 2017, the Berlin Sonos store is the second in Europe and third worldwide.

Experience Sound & Sonic Culture

The concept is more than a store: Sonos lets you experience music culture in its new Berlin space. Events from music, film, technology as well as art & design will be happening on an ongoing basis. Visitors can deep-dive into sound, experience Sonos products in an interactive ‘home’ environment and listen to music as intended by the artist. Naturally, sound & acoustics are a crucial part of the concept of the space.

Two listening rooms offer a unique listening experience and are the ideal set-up for product demonstrations: Designed to reflect the feeling of a modern home, the listening rooms let visitors experience the power of sound. Visitors can choose their own favorite songs and stream their own music via one of the many streaming services available on Sonos.

„The Berlin Concept Store is a place for music lovers to come together and find inspiration,“ says Marco Schultz, Country Director DACH at Sonos. „We want to let people feel how sound can bring every home to life.”

Those who want to find the best speaker or the ideal set-up of sound for their home can get qualified advice in the store and, at the same time, experience the products themselves. It’s also the ideal place for those curious to learn more about voice control and intuitive technology: The first Sonos smart speaker – Sonos One with Amazon Alexa built in – can be controlled with your own voice.

Store Design: Urban Berlin

Carefully selected elements distinguish the Berlin space from those in London and New York: For the design of the listening rooms, Sonos collaborated with Berlin artists 44flavors and Lena Petersen. Inspired by music and urban culture, they created the individual look & feel of the two rooms.

Even parts of the store interior are from Berlin – with furniture pieces from 45Kilo, Loehr, Deadgood and Selleck & Sohn.

Another highlight of the space is the eye-catching Art Wall: a space for music-inspired art by international and local artists. For the store’s opening, an exhibition on David Bowie, who had a close musical connection to the German capital, is being showcased, featuring photographs by Denis O'Regan, Masayoshi Sukita and Christian Simonpietri documenting Bowie during his Berlin era.

Song Stories Store Opening

The store’s opening event is inspired by an icon who created some of his most innovative and enduring work in Berlin: On Thursday, April 12, Sonos presents the Song Stories: Bowie. Thomas Venker will be the host for the evening and invites selected artists to share their personal David Bowie-inspired music experiences: Co-producer of Bowie’s famed Berlin Trilogy of Low, “Heroes” and Lodger Tony Visconti, Alison Goldfrapp, Michael Rother and Gudrun Gut will tell their very own song stories and add individual soundtracks. This evening is open to the public and meant to bring together Bowie fans, music lovers and Berliners – RSVP is open on www.sonos.com/events.

During Opening Weekend, on April 13&14, British radio station NTS will create a music experience with a focus on David Bowie’s Berlin era with a live broadcast, inspiring guests, interviews & talks.

Bowie by Mick Rock exhibition in Mexico City

“Well, how come you only want tomorrow”

If you’re wanting a fix of Mick Rock’s Bowie photographs and you’re in Mexico City between March 22 and April 29, then you’ve struck lucky.

More than a mere exhibition, this Bowie happening promises: Music - Art - Special Events - Cinema.

And Mick Rock himself will even be at the opening party.

Get the full lowdown and tickets here.

#BowieExperience

BV presale ends Monday night - General on sale Tuesday

“Where the f*ck did Monday go?”

Less than three hours remaining till the Brooklyn Vegan Lazarus presale ends (10:00pm EDT). However, if you missed that, tickets for this one-off event go on sale to the general public tomorrow at 10:00am EDT. Links below.

LAZARUS

By David Bowie and Enda Walsh

THE MOTION PICTURE/LIVE SOUNDTRACK EXPERIENCE

Starring Michael C. Hall

Michael Esper, Sophia Anne Caruso, Amy Lennox

Directed by Ivo van Hove

Featuring 18 David Bowie Songs

Exclusively performed live by the original band from the off-Broadway show

Inspired by the novel

THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH by Walter Tevis

Courtesy of StudioCanal

IN ASSOCIATION WITH RZO PRODUCTIONS INC. UNDER LICENSE FROM DAVID BOWIE ARCHIVE

Wednesday, May 2

Kings Theatre

EXCLUSIVE BROOKLYN VEGAN PRESALE

Ends Monday, 3/19 at 10pm

Code: SoundAndVegan

Tickets go on sale to the general public tomorrow at 10am.

#LazarusMusical #LazarusMoPiLive

Lazarus pre-sale now on at Brooklyn Vegan

“It’s happening now”

Go here now for Brooklyn Vegan presale.

See previous post for more information.

#LazarusMusical #LazarusMoPiLive

One-off Lazarus experience tickets on sale tomorrow

“By the time I got to New York”

LAZARUS

THE MOTION PICTURE/LIVE SOUNDTRACK EXPERIENCE

FEATURING EXCLUSIVE PERFORMANCE BY THE ORIGINAL BAND FROM THE

OFF-BROADWAY SHOW BY DAVID BOWIE & ENDA WALSH

ONE NIGHT ONLY MAY 2 AT THE KINGS THEATRE IN BROOKLYN

Tickets On Sale Tuesday, March 20 HERE

LAZARUS By David Bowie and Enda Walsh

THE MOTION PICTURE/LIVE SOUNDTRACK EXPERIENCE

Starring Michael C. Hall

Michael Esper, Sophia Anne Caruso, Amy Lennox

Directed by Ivo van Hove

Featuring 18 David Bowie Songs

Exclusively performed live by the original band from the off-Broadway show

Inspired by the novel

THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH by Walter Tevis

Courtesy of StudioCanal

IN ASSOCIATION WITH RZO PRODUCTIONS INC. UNDER LICENSE FROM DAVID BOWIE ARCHIVE

#LazarusMusical #LazarusMoPiLive

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Lazarus, the stage musical written by David Bowie and Enda Walsh, will be given a new life in a new light on May 2 at 8pm at the Kings Theatre in Brooklyn.

For the first time and for one night only, the theatrical premiere of a film of Lazarus’s London production will be soundtracked in the flesh by the actual band who brought the show to life in New York. Not only will fans who were unable to score tickets to Lazarus’s sold out New York run finally be able to see the show on the silver screen—they will have the unique and unprecedented experience of seeing the film with the music played in its entirety by the seven-piece band that backed Michael C. Hall and the Lazarus cast beginning with the show's December 7, 2015 opening in New York City.

Lazarus features of nearly 20 songs spanning the Bowie catalogue personally rearranged by David Bowie and Henry Hey, from singles (“Heroes,” “Changes,” “Life On Mars?”) to deep cuts (“Always Crashing in the Same Car,” “It’s No Game (Part 1),” “Dirty Boys”) to the four songs written specifically for the show (“Lazarus,” “No Plan,” “Killing a Little Time,” “When I Met You”). The Lazarus film/live soundtrack experience will mark the first time that these musicians have played these songs live since the January 20, 2016 finale of the show’s New York run.

The original Lazarus band is comprised of musical director/arranger/keyboardist (and producer of the Lazarus Cast Album) Henry Hey, keyboardist/guitarist JJ Appleton, drummer Brian Delaney, saxophonist Lucas Dodd, bassist Fima Ephron, trombonist Karl Lyden and guitarist Chris McQueen. Together, they will provide live accompaniment to on screen performances by Lazarus London cast members including Michael C. Hall as Thomas Jerome Newton, Amy Lennox as Elly, Sophia Anne Caruso as Girl, Michael Esper as Valentine, Jamie Muscato as Ben, and more.

Written by Bowie and Enda Walsh, Lazarus was inspired by Walter Tevis’s novel The Man Who Fell to Earth, and starred Michael C. Hall as Thomas Jerome Newton, the character Bowie portrayed in the 1976 film adaptation of that book. Directed by Ivo Van Hove and produced by Robert Fox, Lazarus opened December 7, 2015 at the New York Theatre Workshop to great critical acclaim. The New York Times raved “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,” while Rolling Stone hailed it as a “Surrealistic Tour de Force… milk-swimming, lingerie-sniffing, gin-chugging theater at its finest.” Tickets to the entire New York run of Lazarus sold out within hours of going on sale. The sold out London production of Lazarus, which was filmed for the May 2 event, had an exclusive limited run at the specially built Kings Cross Theatre from November 8, 2016 to January 22, 2017.

Lazarus The Motion Picture/Live Soundtrack Experience is presented by Live Nation in association with RZO Productions, Inc., under license from David Bowie Archive. All net proceeds from this show will be donated to Public Programs at the Brooklyn Museum including monthly, talks, performances, and screenings.

Hallo Spaceboy Spotify playlist

“Bye bye spaceboy”

Seemingly to mark the sad passing of English theoretical physicist, cosmologist and author (among other things), Stephen Hawking last week, Spotify created a various artists, space-themed playlist, commencing with Starman.

So we thought we’d pay tribute to the great man ourselves, who, in case you didn’t know, shared the same January 8 birthday as Elvis Presley and David Bowie. We’ve created our own Spotify playlist containing Bowie tracks exclusively, what with him being the master of the otherworldly and everything.

We’ve chosen 10 tracks that run for the traditional vinyl album total length of 43 minutes.

Space Oddity

Life On Mars?

Starman

Moonage Daydream

Hallo Spaceboy (original Outside album version)

Looking For Satellites

I Took A Trip On A Gemini Spaceship

Dancing Out In Space

Born In A UFO

Hallo Spaceboy (Pet Shop Boys remix)

However, unlike Hawking, our playlist wasn’t wholly scientific. We tried to choose tracks with a space-themed title, but that also had some kind of relevant content.

But how on Earth could we omit a song like Life On Mars?, which, as you know, isn't actually a song regarding the likelihood of extra-terrestrials on the red planet?

Other tracks that didn't make it onto the playlist, for obvious reasons, include the following:

Star

Loving The Alien

New Killer Star

Fall Dog Bombs The Moon

Blackstar

Did we miss any other contenders?

Anyway, here’s the link.

#BowieSpotify #BowieHalloSpaceboy

Bowie fan art #3 at Brooklyn Museum

“The paintings are all your own”

As previously mentioned, David Bowie had collected all of the fan art he was sent over the years with a desire to one day exhibit them. Knowing this, the @brooklynmuseum has created exactly that with a section dedicated to those contributions within the David Bowie Is Brooklyn exhibition.

We will be posting a piece online every Friday with the hashtag #DavidBowieArt. The aim is to eventually create an online gallery dedicated to Bowie inspired art.

Sadly, the creators of the majority of the works that Bowie collected are unknown, but it would be a great help if anybody reading this has more information, be it the artists themselves or somebody who knows them.

Anybody out there know anything about this week’s picture? The artist has based their work on a Mick Rock photograph which can be found on the back of the Pin Ups album.

Finally, apologies to each artist for the low quality reproduction. Much of the work was photographed through glass and sometimes intrusive reflections were unavoidable.

You can enjoy all of the pieces on display at the exhibition until July 15th. Tickets and more here.

#DavidBowieIs #DavidBowieIsBKM #DavidBowieArt #BowieFanFriday

They said jump 25 years ago

“Got to believe somebody”

A 1993 Top Ten single in the UK, Jump They Say was a taster for the upcoming David Bowie/Nile Rodgers produced Black Tie White Noise album.

According to Bowie, the song tackled his feelings about his schizophrenic half-brother Terry, who had taken his own life in January 1985. The lyrics tell of a desperate man driven to a terrible act by the pressures put upon him. Bowie also cited his own feelings about jumping into the unknown metaphysically. Musically, the influence of Nile Rodgers led to a funk-based sound, though the track was also influenced by contemporary jazz, with a solo from Avant-jazz trumpeter Lester Bowie.

As the first single from the album, Jump They Say received a considerable promotional push with widespread press advertising and a slew of promotional 12" singles. The following year Jump: The David Bowie Interactive CD-ROM was released, wherein endless mixes of the song and versions of the video could be created.

The promotion also included a darkly stylish video shot by Mark Romanek, depicting Bowie as a businessman paranoid of his colleagues, who seemingly conduct experiments on him and force him to jump from the roof of the corporate building.

The video was influenced by Jean-Luc Godard's 1965 film Alphaville, Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (1971), as well as Chris Marker's film La jetée and Orson Welles' The Trial - both from 1962. The uniformed women shown monitoring Bowie through high powered telescopes are an homage to the stewardesses in the Pan-Am space plane in Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). The video was praised by Entertainment Weekly after Bowie passed in 2016, saying “Bowie is an excellent actor, and this video may be his best character performance in a music video.”

We happen to agree, but you can make up your own mind about that here.

#BowieJumpTheySay

Bowie said Let’s Dance on this day in 1983

“To the song they're playin' on the radio”

David Bowie’s worldwide smash hit single, Let’s Dance, was released 35 years ago today in the UK. Previously recorded as a March 17 release, new evidence points to the fact that the single was actually issued on Monday March 14, 1983.

Considering the previous album, Scary Monsters, Let’s Dance heralded yet another sharp change in direction for Bowie and this single and it’s flipside (a rerecording of Cat People) were perfect tasters for the album of the same name which followed in April.

Aside from the new sound that producer Nile Rodgers brought to the table (albeit very much influenced by the sound of his own band, Chic), the late Stevie Ray Vaughan also provided his distinctive signature guitar sound for solos on both sides of the disc.

The massive success of the song was unquestionably helped by Bowie and David Mallet’s iconic video, with its observations of oppression, symbolised neatly by a pair of red shoes.

The album and attendant tour would provide Bowie with a bigger commercial success than he had previously known. But that’s a whole other story.

Released on both 12" and 7" 45s, Let’s Dance was also issued two weeks later as a cassette single. In the UK the record entered the chart at #5 and two weeks later it was at #1, where it remained for three weeks.

We’ll leave you with an indicator of the single’s success via this list of some of the peak chart positions held by Let’s Dance back in 1983.

Australian Singles Chart - 2

Austrian Singles Chart - 2

Canadian Singles Chart - 1

Dutch Singles Chart - 1

German Singles Chart - 2

Irish Singles Chart - 1

New Zealand Singles Chart - 1

Norwegian Singles Chart - 1

Swedish Singles Chart - 1

Swiss Singles Chart - 1

UK Singles Chart - 1

US Billboard Hot 100 - 1

US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play - 1

#BowieLetsDance

Falcon Heavy & Starman compilation video

“It's the freakiest show”

It’s already five weeks since Starman embarked on his fantastic 250 million mile voyage from Earth. Now the folk at SpaceX have published a 1:52 compilation video on YouTube from the February 6 launch, titled Falcon Heavy & Starman, accompanied by an edit of Life On Mars?

The video has already had approaching 3 million views since it was uploaded on March 10, so chances are you have already viewed it. But we won’t let that stop us from posting this beautiful picture of Bowie from the Hunky Dory photo session.

Hunky Dory is the 1971 album from whence Life On Mars? was lifted to become a Top 3 single in the UK, during the summer of 1973. Listen to Life On Mars? on the David Bowie Official Playlist: Top Tracks on Spotify.

Falcon Heavy & Starman video

#FalconHeavy #SpaceX #StarmanBowie #LifeOnMarsBowie #BowieForever

Moby has last word in final print edition of NME

“Then the NME dropped a bomb”

The last ever print edition of New Musical Express (NME) was published on Friday (March 9 2018), after 66 years as the UK’s most popular music weekly.

The magazine was always generous with column inches to Bowie though rival Melody Maker (MM) beat them to the first Bowie cover in January 1972.

NME retaliated with 34 Bowie covers (more than any other featured artist), published from July 15 1972 (BOWIE ZOWIE) through to January 15 2016 (So long, Spaceboy), both issues pictured here.

But it was a symbiotic relationship, as MM journalist Chris Welch explained to Paul Gorman for Gorman’s book, In Their Own Write: Adventures in the Music Press.

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Chris Welch: The NME really became a threat when Bowie came on the scene. I think they covered Bowie really well. I remember suggesting that we cover his return from Japan on the Trans-Siberian Express by going to Paris to interview him, but when we arrived, Charles Shaar Murray was already there. Mercifully, Bowie went and sat in the same carriage as our chaps, so we got a good interview.

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Charles Shaar Murray became Bowie’s biggest champion at the NME with many great exclusives under his belt, and, for that reason, we’re not even going to mention that Low review.

We’ll hopefully do a gallery of all 34 NME Bowie covers at some point.

Finally, Bowie’s old friend Moby got to have the last word on the last editorial page of Friday’s final print edition, in the regular feature: Soundtrack Of My Life.

In it, he chooses "Heroes" as the song he wishes he had written. If you can’t read what he had to say about the song and David Bowie in our montage, checkout the online version, where NME will no doubt continue to be published until all the electricity has run out.

So long NME, you were a great friend.

#BowieNME

More Bowie vinyl for RSD 2018

“Did you ever have a Deram or two?”*

As we exclusively revealed last month, Parlophone will be issuing three limited edition David Bowie discs for Record Store Day on April 21st.

You’ve probably heard of discs being released by other companies too, such as UMC’s beautifully packaged David Bowie album, first released on Deram in 1967, which we are giving you an exclusive first look at here.

This double vinyl gatefold RSD version features a blue vinyl mono disc and a red vinyl stereo one, housed in replica packaging. Confusingly, and unlike parent company, Decca, Deram had red labels for their stereo releases and brown for their mono issues.

The inner gatefold is taken up with Kevin Cann’s very thorough and informative Deram Chronology, as used in the 2010 issue of this album.

*Although not on the album, Did You Ever Have a Dream was the B-side of Bowie’s final single for Deram, Love You Till Tuesday. Today’s lyric quotation is from it, with an intentional tweak of dream to Deram.

#BowieRSD #RSD2018 #BowieVinyl #BowieDeram

Bowie fan art #2 at Brooklyn Museum

“The paintings are all your own”

As we mentioned last Friday, David Bowie had collected all of the fan art he was sent over the years and it had long been a wish of his to exhibit these works, which is exactly what Brooklyn Museum has done with a section dedicated to those contributions.

We will be posting a piece online every week with the hashtag #DavidBowieArt, with the aim of eventually creating an ever expanding online gallery.

Sadly, the creators of the majority of the works are unknown, but it would be a great help if anybody reading this has more information, be it the artists themselves or somebody who knows them. We’re pleased to say that the creator of last week’s painting has already identified herself. More of which very soon.

Anybody know anything about this week’s picture? The artist is clearly influenced by the Surrealist movement. We’re wondering how many clues in the work are referencing Bowie songs. Can you see any?

Finally, apologies to each artist for the low quality reproduction. Much of the work was photographed through glass and sometimes intrusive reflections were unavoidable.

You can enjoy all of the pieces on display at the exhibition until July 15th. Tickets and more here.

#DavidBowieIs #DavidBowieIsBKM #DavidBowieArt #BowieFanFriday

The Next Day is five

“Five years, What a surprise”

On January 8, 2013 (Bowie’s 66th birthday), suddenly and without fanfare, David Bowie released a new single, Where Are We Now? On the same day it was announced that the song would also be on a new album titled The Next Day.

On February 28, 2013, the 14-track standard edition of the album was made available to stream as a worldwide exclusive in the iTunes Store, more than a week before the first physical version was available to buy on March 8th, five years ago today.

Here are the original release dates...

March 8th: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland.

March 11th: Asia, Croatia, Denmark, France, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Latin America, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, South Africa, UK.

March 12th: Brazil, Canada, Italy, Korea, Mexico, Spain, Taiwan, USA.

March 13th: Japan (with exclusive 4th bonus track).

March 15th: Turkey

The Next Day was released in three basic formats: Audio CD Standard Edition (14-tracks); Audio CD Deluxe Edition (17-tracks); 17-track Double Vinyl LP (with free Deluxe Edition CD)

Despite a complete lack of conventional promotion (not a single interview or live performance promoted the release), Bowie's 27th studio album and first in 10 years hit #1 in the UK and 18 other countries and entered the U.S. chart at a career high #2, only topped by ★ (Blackstar) which gave Bowie his first US #1 album, albeit posthumously.

In November 2013, The Next Day Extra deluxe edition was issued. Read all about the various editions and chart placings, etc., in this exhaustive Wikipedia entry: http://smarturl.it/TNDwiki

#TheNextDay #BowieTND

Bowie albums dominate Official UK Vinyl Top 5

“Thanking one and all”

The five selected stand-alone albums from last year’s A New Career In A New Town (1977 – 1982) (ANCIANT) box set were released on Friday, February 23rd, and they have all entered this week’s Official Vinyl Albums Chart Top 40, with the four studio albums dominating the top 5.

Official Vinyl Albums Chart Top 40

02 March 2018 - 08 March 2018

01 - Low

02 - "Heroes"

04 - Scary Monsters

05 - Lodger

19 - Legacy

24 - Stage (2017)

As you know, these vinyl albums haven’t been available officially on vinyl since 1991, so it’s no surprise that demand is high.

Thanks so much to those of you who helped these records top the charts again, and If you’ve not already got yours...

Low

"Heroes"