Commencing countdown...four...
As mentioned in Monday's news,
All you have to do is identify the album cover above from the enlarged section of its sleeve, along with the four others we'll be posting this week.
Don't do anything other than ponder the images we're posting for now, you'll be asked to identify them all in one go at the end of the contest.
Come back tomorrow for part three.
Commencing countdown...five...
As mentioned in Yesterday's news,
All you have to do is identify the album cover above from the enlarged section of its sleeve, along with the four others we'll be posting this week.
Don't do anything other than ponder the images we're posting for now, you'll be asked to identify them all in one go at the end of the contest.
Come back tomorrow for part two.
Sony wants to turn the world...
As you know,
We had intended to run this contest a little sooner, but here we are now anyway.
Over the next five days we'll be playing a game popularised on the BowieNet MBs by a couple of misfits recently, wherein you have to identify an album cover from an enlarged section of its sleeve. Except this version is much, much, easier.
We'll be posting a section from each of the above five front covers for you to ponder, and then next week we'll run the final part of the contest when you'll be asked to send in all of your answers at the same time.
Come back tomorrow for part one.
I want to know the real deal...
We've made more than one mention of Geoff MacCormack's delicious
And it seems the reaction to it from those of you that have already received your deluxe edition is what one has come to expect when talking about books from
We'll reward the senders of the questions that Geoff chooses to answer with something really rather nice, and obviously we'll publish the results of the exclusive interview here on BowieNet, along with a contest to win a collector's edition of
Send your question for Geoff MacCormack to me here.
Usual BowieNet rules apply: Only one question and one entry per BowieNet account, and please remember you must enter using your BowieNet e-mail or at least supply your BowieNet user name.
The deadline for questions is midnight NY time on Saturday August 18th, so you have plenty of time to dream up something that will capture Geoff's imagination. The interview and contest for the collector's edition will be posted as soon as we get the answers back from Geoff.
Tony, I bet you a tenner that Ashes To Ashes fairs better than Up The Hill Backwards in the UK chart.
OK David, you're on. I still think London Bye Ta Ta should have been released as a single though.
Alright Tony, don't keep going on about it. That was ten bleedin' years ago for goodness sake.
Staying back in your memory...
As promised, here's the contest wherein ten BowieNetters get the chance to win a copy of EMI's 17-track compilation CD,
It's a simple one-question contest, even if arriving at the answer isn't quite so easy...and here it is...
How many original UK David Bowie single release A-sides bear the name Tony Visconti as producer or co-producer?
For the sake of the contest, when there are several different formats of the same single release, you should only count them as one. It should also be noted that reissues, download-only and promo-only releases are not to be included.
Obviously CD singles don't have A and B-sides, in these instances, or in the instance of EPs, we're talking the lead-off track.
For example, the Baal EP, which entered the UK top 30 singles chart in March 1982, had as its lead-off track Baal's Hymn...a track that was produced by Tony Visconti and David Bowie (as was the rest of the EP, in fact) so this counts as one towards your total.
Please remember we are talking UK releases only.
When you think you have the right number, e-mail your answer to me here. If you really can't be bothered to research this one, have a guess anyway.
Usual BowieNet rules apply: Only one entry per BowieNet account, and please remember you must enter using your BowieNet e-mail or at least supply your BowieNet user name.
The contest ends at midnight NY time on Saturday August 11th, with the winners being notified shortly thereafter.
Here's the cover and tracklisting of The Producers - Tony Visconti
01 Héros - David Bowie Finally, I asked Tony what he remembered about the picture of him and David I've used at the top of this piece. This was his response...
"Hi Blammo - That photo was taken during the recording of "Scary Monsters". The studio was the old Power Station in NYC. Bruce Springsteen was recording in the same studio on the same floor. We often had lunch with him and the E Street Band. That's how Roy Bittan, his piano player, came to play on "Scary Monsters". David and I cracked up when drummer Dennis Davis asked Springsteen what band he was in during one of our lunch breaks. Cheers, Tony."
02 China Girl - Iggy Pop
03 Metal Guru - T. Rex
04 You Have Killed Me - Morrissey
05 Looks Looks Looks - Sparks
06 Will You - Hazel O?Connor
07 Chains - Mercury Rev
08 Oh Baby - Dib Cochran & The Earwigs
09 The Prettiest Star - David Bowie (original single version)
10 Flowers In The Rain ? The Move
11 Sarah - Thin Lizzy
12 Love Is The Law - Seahorses
13 Band On The Run - Wings
14 This Town Ain?t Big Enough For Both Of Us - Sparks (Plagiarism Album Version)
15 Got To Get You Into My Life - Surprise Sisters
16 Black Country Rock - David Bowie
17 Telegram Sam - T. Rex
Take a look at how lucky you are...
We set this contest last month to win a copy of each of the above 45s courtesy of 4AD. (07.21.2007 NEWS: PROVINCE UPDATE PLUS WIN ULTRA RARE GREEN VINYL) That's one of the ultra-rare original green vinyl versions of TVOTR's Province featuring David Bowie in the plain die-cut sleeve on the left, and a copy of the reissue in the picture sleeve on the right.
All you had to do for a chance of winning was state your preference, and these are the two members that The Random Generator shone upon this time...
Original green vinyl = pauljeans
Picture sleeve reissue = kbrubaker
If you two lucky things forward your address to me, your prizes will be with you pronto.
These are your favourite things?
I'm not sure if the buyers at Tescos supermarket in the UK are BowieNetters or not, but it seems somebody has been taking note of the current BowieNet poll at least. As you may have noticed, a close battle between Outside (20.89%) and Heathen (20.14%) has been raging at the top of part two of our best Bowie studio album poll.
Whether Tescos is aware of our poll or not, perhaps we'll never know, but I can tell you they intend to sell both albums packaged in a 'disc box slider' in the autumn. You may be familiar with these sliders that are all paper packaging with no plastic tray and no booklets. (Liner note details will be made available to consumers online).
This seems to be a fairly eco-friendly way of packaging and should appeal to people who are normally content to download albums. In the UK, Outside and Heathen will set you back the best part of sixteen quid as mp3 downloads, whereas this 2CD package will be made available in the mid-line range and would work out considerably cheaper...plus you can just make your own mp3s from the discs.
You should be able to find the discs instore at Tescos nationwide in the UK from October 17th.
Let's find another way...
Well, I did say that if people are that determined to vote more than once, then I'm sure they'll find a way...and sure enough, it seems the majority of you are convinced a few entrants have found that way. Shame.
As many of you have also suggested, it's finally looking like the only fair way of doing this is a members only e-mail vote where each member gets just one vote.
However, for this to work properly, we need to give you a few simple instructions.
If you still need to, refresh your memory of each of the forty five entries by going
Firstly, you must vote either using your BowieNet account, or you must at least supply your user name. If you try to vote using neither of these, your vote will be disqualified. Same applies if you use a BowieNet user name that isn't current.
Secondly, vote by clicking here, where you should automatically get an e-mail pop up with a subject line of "I am voting for number ". Simply add the number of the cover you wish to vote for to the subject line.
For example, if there was a number 46 and you considered it to be the best, the subject line of your e-mail would read: I am voting for number 46
Please make sure there is a single space before the number, as my example above. I know this all sounds a bit complicated, but it seems to be the only way it can be done fairly.
Voting still closes at midnight NY time on August 31st, and if members feel the need to appoint an independent adjudicator who is able to visit Blammo Towers to count the votes, then please feel free to do so.
This news item will only appear in the members only news section of BowieNet.
Vote now for the candidate...
Finally, it's time to cast your vote in the BowieNet Ziggy Stardust 35th Anniversary Cover Contest.
Zardoz has set up a page that should eliminate the usual vote rigging, though if people are that determined to vote more than once, then I'm sure they'll find a way.
To make things even fairer, we've opened up the voting to non-members too...this should lessen the effect of any clique voting.
I know this all sounds a bit serious, but this result will mean one lucky bugger will have their original artwork signed by David Bowie himself...and that's pretty serious!
OK, refresh your memory of each of the forty five entries by going
Voting closes at midnight NY time on August 31st. Good luck everybody.
Iman attends Trace Magazine's "Black Girls Rule!" Issue
Release Party, July 18th, at Room Service in New York.
The lady from another grinning soul?
Today is Iman's birthday, and I'm sure everybody reading this would like to join us all here at BowieNet to celebrate the fact by wishing the lovely lady many happy returns of the day.
BowieNet members can contribute directly to the well wishing by adding to the message board thread
It's just a one hundred dollar secret...
Since the last news item regarding the reissue of TVOTR's Province single at the beginning of the month, (07.01.2007 NEWS: 4AD REISSUES TVOTR's PROVINCE TOMORROW) we've had a few e-mails asking where one can purchase the limited edition green vinyl 7" 45 released in May of 2006 and even more of you asking why the reissue (above) sold out so quickly on the 4AD site.
OK, firstly the green vinyl version, (flecked with yellow and purple, above) released last year and apparently pressed in an unbelievably limited quantity of just 200 copies. I say unbelievably, but I guess I'll have to bow to the general consensus until I find evidence to the contrary.
This disc was a one sided white label promo in a die-cut card sleeve with no identifying marks other than the scratched in matrix number in the run-out groove on the playable side. (RTCM-2 A -1)
In October of last year, Record Collector magazine valued the disc at £30 ($60), but these days you'd be hard pushed to find a copy for under £50 ($100). Indeed, right now I can only find Aside from the plain die-cut sleeve, there were also the three versions above, printed in red, embossed gold foil and green. (Sorry, the gold doesn't scan so well.) All of which are harder to find than the plain sleeve.
Then, as previously mentioned, back at the beginning of July this year 4AD reissued Province as a two-track 45, in the sleeve at the top of this item, and as a three-track download single, thus:
Province - Released 02 July 2007
7" 45 - AD 2724 Digital (AAC) Digital Download - EAD 2724S It seemed that this version of Province (apparently limited to just 1,000 vinyl copies) sold out on the 4AD site almost immediately. However, this was a technical glitch and the record is now available again.
Anyway, we have a copy of each to give away courtesy of 4AD. That's one of the original green vinyl version in the plain die-cut sleeve, and one of the reissue in the picture sleeve at the top of the page.
All you have to do to be in with a slim chance of winning, is e-mail me here with your preference. I.E. 'original green vinyl issue' or 'picture sleeve reissue'. It's likely that the great majority of you will naturally go for the green vinyl...the impact of that on the odds of winning being obvious.
Usual BowieNet rules apply: Only one entry per BowieNet account, and please remember you must enter using your BowieNet e-mail or at least supply your BowieNet user name. Also, please remember you may only enter for one or other of the formats, not both.
The contest ends at midnight NY time on Saturday July 28th, with the winners being notified shortly thereafter.
If you don't like contests, you can simply order Province directly from 4AD by clicking on any of the images above, or you can just have a listen on
A - Province (Featuring David Bowie)
B - Dumb Animal
1 - Province (Featuring David Bowie)
2 - Dumb Animal
3 - Wasted Weekend
I could make a transformation...
Those of you following this will know that the deadline for entries to the Ziggy Stardust 35th Anniversary Cover Contest
In the end, we received forty five entries and we're hoping to have the voting system ready for early next week. This will be a two-part system that we'll explain next week.
Meanwhile, go and peruse the handiwork of your fellow BowieNetters
Time Machine, Time Machine, Take me anywhere...
As we told you in a news piece last week (07.12.2007 REMINDER: 1976 IGGY INTERVIEW ON RILEY'S TIME MACHINE TONIGHT) and as blurbed in today's Independent newspaper in the UK, following on from last week's 1976 interview with Iggy Pop, Stuart Grundy is again the interviewer in a chat with "an exhausted but excitable David Bowie", from May 1987 during rehearsals for The Glass Spider Tour at Feyenoord Stadium in Rotterdam, Holland.
Somebody plays my song in tune...
We first told you about David Bowie: Cover To Cover back in March. (03.27.2007 NEWS: ROUND-UP OF STUFF)
It's a 10-track download only compilation from EMI that gathers together some of the David Bowie cover versions recorded by EMI artists over the years, and it will now be available all around the globe for those of you that haven't managed to download it thus far.
August 27th is the tentative release date, and I'll leave you with the tracklisting again to save you traipsing all the way back to March.
01 The Dandy Warhols - The Jean Genie
02 Culture Club - Starman (2002 Digital Remaster)
03 Duran Duran - Fame
04 White Buffalo - Ziggy Stardust
05 Midge Ure - The Man Who Sold The World
06 Peter Noone - Oh! You Pretty Things
07 Terrorvision - Moonage Daydream (Specially Recorded Track)
08 Skids - All The Young Dudes (2003 Digital Remaster)
09 Loose Ends - Golden Years
10 Peter Noone - Right On Mother
You may notice that they've had another go at the cover (see aforementioned news story for original) ...I'm saying nothing.
Speaking of Bowie cover versions, 1999's Goth Oddity has been repackaged in a new sleeve as Tribute To David Bowie through German label, ZYX Records...just in case you were tempted to shell out for this 'new' release.
On its twenty second birthday...
Join Mike Sweeney on Capital Gold for tonight's (Friday)
Next Friday (July 20th) Mike's guest is a chap who has taken photographs of various pop performers over the years, the appropriately named Mick Rock. I wouldn't mind betting that he's taken a shot or two of David Bowie.
I'm an Idiot for you...
You may have already stumbled upon Marc Riley's splendid new Radio 2 mini-series:
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Marc Riley dips into the BBC's archives and unearths seminal and tantalising rock interviews.
It's funny how things can look so different many years down the line; once the dust has settled, tempers have calmed and much water has gone under the bridge. Not seeking to open old wounds or anything, Marc Riley goes back in time to the turning points in the careers of some of the biggest artists in music to check out exactly what they DID say in the heat of the moment, and to put it into today's context ....
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You may want to tune in to the last two instalments of the six shows.
Tonight's archive interview is from December 1976 when Stuart Grundy met Iggy Pop to talk over his past and his then recent work with David Bowie for the upcoming The Idiot album.
Next week is another Stuart Grundy interview, this time with "an exhausted but excitable David Bowie", a little over ten years later in May 1987 during rehearsals for The Glass Spider Tour at Feyenoord Stadium in Rotterdam, Holland.
Fans of 1977 era Iggy Pop, (and who with a full set of ears couldn't be?) should keep an eye out for the upcoming
Oh nous les vaincrons, Nous les vaincrons àjamais...
We told you about EMI's plans to release
Well, we did also promise you a look at the cover when we had it, so there it is, above, as promised.
See aforementioned news story for the tracklist of the album (or click on the cover above) which is released on July 30th and will be available in the UK and Eire only.
Stay tuned for a contest to win copies of the CD shortly.
Gone, gone, the DVDs have all gone...
With the news that David Bowie's Glass Spider DVD entered the
But, before we get on to the winners, here are the answers to those questions that all ten winners obviously got right...
Question 1 ~ Above is the front of the DVD booklet which utilises a shot from one of the breathtakingly stunning moments from the Glass Spider show. What song would have been performed at this point?
Answer 1 ~ Time
Question 2 ~ One of the Glass Spider band members' fathers used to be David's art teacher at Bromley Tech. What was the name of that teacher?
Answer 2 ~ Owen Frampton
Question 3 ~ The two CDs in this set were actually recorded at a different show to that at which the film was made. The Olympic Stadium, Montreal, August 30th, 1987 and The Entertainment Center, Sydney, November 7th and 9th, 1987 were the shows in question. But, which show was the film made at, and where were the CDs recorded?
Answer 3 ~ The show was filmed at Sydney, Entertainment Center, on November 7th and 9th, 1987 and the audio for the CDs was recorded at the Olympic Stadium, Montreal, on August 30th, 1987
Question 4 ~ Who was the guest guitarist in the film during I Wanna Be Your Dog and White Light/White Heat?
Answer 4 ~ Charlie Sexton
Question 5 ~ Which artists originally recorded the songs mentioned in the previous question?
Answer 5 ~ I Wanna Be Your Dog originally appeared on The Stooges' eponymous debut album from 1969, while White Light/White Heat first surfaced as the title track on The Velvet Underground's second album from the previous year, 1968.
And the winners in an alphabetical type doo dah, are:
2212
giuseppetarantino
haywoodstenton
jimmycov
jungtheforeman
m.art
mothtrap
scotty
thirduncle
tonyp
Let me know where you want your winnings sent, you winners you.
She's so swishy in her satin and tat...
If you're kicking around the SF Bay area this evening, wondering where on earth you can catch a unique celebratory presentation of David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust album, then look no further than the handy and well-timed details below...
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This Tuesday July 3 - Hang On To Yourself!
In loving memory of Ziggy's last stand, (34 years ago today) Trannyshack presents an interpretation of "Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars"!
Featuring Glam-tastic performances by:
Jordan L'Moore
Heklina
Precious Moments
Putanesca
Metal Patricia
Kiddie
Vinsantos
Fauxnique
Miss Trannyshack 2006 Raya Light ...and more!
Trannyshack at The Stud
399 9th St. @ Harrison
Your cordial hostess Heklina
Door Mistress Chocolate
DJ Derek
Visuals By III
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As I post this, you still have a good few hours to get your glammed up self down to Trannyshack. Apparently the show itself starts at midnight local time...just as those of us over this side of the planet are settling in to a busy Wednesday morning's work.
Click on the flyer above for more information regarding Trannyshack.
He opened strange doors that we'd never close again...
The August edition of MOJO magazine has a free A5 supplementary booklet celebrating that often unfairly maligned of musical decades, the 1980s.
The 52-page booklet contains the above pages in relation to David Bowie's 1980 masterpiece: Scary Monsters... And Super Creeps.
Here are the first couple of paragraphs from the piece...
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Scary Monsters still sparkles today. Its intense, churning grooves sound remarkably contemporary - in retrospect, it's the obvious source of Blur's angular rock attack from Park Life on - but despite the complexity of its arrangements, there are many moments of unaffected simplicity. Recorded mostly at New York's Power Station, Scary Monsters moves on stylistically from its three Berlin-inspired predecessors, but also looks back, both at Bowie's own career and at the new wave kids who were coming up behind him.
Popular folklore has it that Bowie, working in New York after his sojourn in Europe, was intent on scoring a hit record. Certainly Chuck Hammer, who had met Bowie via Lou Reed, observed a frighteningly intense work ethos when he arrived to add his cutting-edge guitar synthesizer to three songs. Bowie, mustachio'd, in full-length leather jacket and Japanese sandals, was armed with a clipboard to plan the recording, while producer Tony Visconti was almost scarily 'on-it'; recording and planning ahead at the same time. "They were an absolutely unified team, impressively organised," says Hammer. "There was no chaos - but it was very relaxed and creative, too."
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So there you have it...The greatest album of the eighties made in the first year of the decade and not bettered in the nine that followed. IMHO.