Record Collector magazine solves Bowie ‘mystery’

“The Gospel According To Tony Steven”

Despite David Bowie refuting them himself, rumours have persisted over the years that our man was once so down on his uppers (or was that up on his downers?), he had to resort to session work as a vocalist for budget release cover version albums.

While this line of work may have suited a struggling Reginald Dwight, Bowie didn’t contribute to any such releases and now the real culprit has stepped forward to end any further speculation once and for all.

The February edition of Record Collector magazine (411) has a piece by Chris Groom on the actual singer of the songs mistakenly credited by some to Bowie, Tony Steven. Here‘s an edited excerpt from the article.

“One particular rumour that has been circulating for quite some time is that the cover version of Penny Lane which turned up on the budget-priced Hits ’67 LP was sung by one David Bowie, and despite repeated denials from the artist involved, it has failed to go away.

The idea of Bowie singing The Beatles is certainly a tantalising thought and although the album was once a staple of charity shops and car boot sales, Bowie collectors have snapped up copies for heavy prices just in case the fantasy became reality.

The truth is that the vocalist on this track is Tony Steven, formerly with the Johnny Howard Band and a highly respected session singer in his own right.

It was early in 1967 that Tony recorded the session that has sparked the “is it David?” rumour – or “Bowiegate”, as Tony calls it. The album in question was Hits ’67 (MFP 1089), the first budget collection of cover versions issued on the MFP (Music for Pleasure) label, and Tony recorded two tracks, covering The Beatles’ Penny Lane and The Monkees’ A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You. It was never his intention to mimic anyone, he confirms, and he was not trying to imitate Paul McCartney, let alone David Bowie.

It has often been noted that Bowie circa 1967 can sound like Anthony Newley and Tony can certainly take off Newley with ease – so maybe therein lies the answer to the vocal riddle.”

If you‘re a subscriber to Record Collector you can read the full article online now. It‘s fascinating stuff.

BBC’s Cracked Actor first aired this day in 1975

“I'm just the space cadet...he's the commander”

On the evening of Sunday 26th January 1975, BBC 1 premiered Alan Yentob's Cracked Actor documentary as part of the Omnibus series.

Thirty eight years later it's almost impossible to calculate just how important the broadcast was to Bowie-starved fans in the UK.

In America, not only did fans have the Diamond Dogs/Philly Dogs tours, but they also enjoyed the luxury of both The 1980 Floor Show and Ziggy Stardust The Motion Picture broadcast on TV.

After the seismic shock of 'Starman' on TOTPs in 1972 and Bowie's first proper television interview on Russell Harty Plus in January 1973, there had been little to sate the appetite of the hungry Bowie fan on UK TV.

Cracked Actor was filmed in California and Philadelphia during the legendary Diamond Dogs Tour of 1974 and it captured Bowie at a transitional stage in his life.

The BBC had unique access to Bowie on and off stage, in the recording studio and while travelling. This gave fans a rare glimpse of the private Bowie and it made for compelling viewing.

As with the aforementioned UK TV appearances, Cracked Actor had a profound effect on Bowie fans. Like much of the dialogue from The Man Who Fell To Earth (coincidentally it was Cracked Actor that inspired Nicolas Roeg to approach Bowie for the film), many fans would learn parrot-fashion the majority of the one-liners that Bowie uttered throughout: “Bleedin’ wax museum in the middle of the desert...you'd think it would melt”, “I never wanted to be a rock ‘n’ roll star. Honest guv, I wasn‘t even there. But I was, you see, I was there”.

And thank goodness he was there! If you’ve not seen it yet, you should make it your priority to track down a copy.

Bowie’s back in MOJO and Q

“We had a friend, a talking man”

MOJO and Q music monthlies both have features on Bowie’s return to the fray in their March editions.

Among others issuing forth with their theories, the normally tight-lipped Tony Visconti has contributed.

Hype Roundhouse screening preview in Radar

“Atomic Sunrise stream flickers on me”

The Radar section of Saturday’s Independent newspaper in the UK (Jan 26), has a double-page spread regarding an event that took place in London forty three years ago.

Of course we’re talking about the birth of Glam Rock and the performance by David Bowie’s “new electric band”, The Hype, during the week long Atomic Sunrise festival at the Roundhouse in Chalk Farm between 9 and 15 March 1970.

Three songs of the band’s performance on March 11 1970 were captured on film and have finally surfaced to be screened forty three years to the day at the very venue they were originally filmed.

Sadly the accompanying sound has been lost over the years and the tracks have now been dubbed, albeit pretty convincingly, with other Hype sessions from the time.

Here’s a bit from the Radar article…

“But for many, what will excite most about the film is the unique footage of The Hype, filmed just weeks before Bowie recorded The Man Who Sold The World with their bassist, Tony Visconti, acting as producer. Here, we see the birth of the classic rock’n’roll partnership between Ronson and Bowie, the essential axis that made up the Spiders from Mars, in glorious 16mm vintage colour. Given the media’s shock and awe surrounding the release of Bowie’s first single in 10 years, “Where Are We Now?”, and the forthcoming exhibition of his costumes at the V&A, the poignancy and vibrancy of this early footage rescued from oblivion is worthy of real celebration.”

Read the full piece online at independent.co.uk. 

You can also enjoy a sneak preview of the Bowie footage on YouTube and if you’re quick you may just snap up one of the few remaining tickets for the two March screenings at The Roundhouse. 

Station To Station released this day in 1976

“Such is the stuff from where dreams are woven”

As the headline says, David Bowie’s Station To Station album is thirty seven today.

Considered a classic among fans and critics alike, the record was unusual for a Bowie album in that it contained just six tracks, even though it still clocked in at just over thirty eight minutes.

Four of those six songs were released as commercial A-sides by RCA, with “Golden Years” being the pre-album hit. Here’s the tracklisting:

1. Station To Station (10:08)

2. Golden Years (4:03)

3. Word On A Wing (6:00)

4. TVC15 (5:29)

5. Stay (6:08)

6. Wild Is The Wind (5:58)

Pictured here is how the withdrawn colour version of the sleeve would have looked had it hit the racks. The two-colour version (red and black ink on a white sleeve) is the one that was actually released. 

Whether it was the intention or not, the released version was more in keeping with the monochromatic look of the 1976 Station To Station tour, or the Isolar tour as it’s since become known.

See the Facebook version of this story to view a couple of the press adverts published at the time.

Ziggy Stardust 40th anniversary contest

“Just about the best you can hear”

Back in the first week of this month, the Top 10 biggest selling vinyl albums of 2012 were announced by The Official Charts Company in the UK.

And, as you may already know, David Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars was placed at #2 on that chart.

In celebration of that fine achievement, EMI has kindly donated ten copies of the 40th Anniversary Vinyl/DVD Edition, along with an A4 print of Mr Stardust himself taken by Brian Ward, the man responsible for the original Ziggy album cover shoot.

This 40th Anniversary edition of Ziggy Stardust was remastered by original Trident Studios’ engineer Ray Staff and reviews of the release single out just what a great job he has made of it, with everybody in agreement that the recording hasn’t sounded better since its original release in 1972.

Check out the tracklisting for both the vinyl and DVD over at EMI Catalogue.

For your chance to win this Ziggy Stardust Vinyl/DVD/Print package, go to the contest page.

The competition ends at midnight UK time on 31st January 2013. Winners will be notified directly, shortly afterwards.

Vote for Bowie in 2013 NME awards

“One magical moment”

NME has announced the nominees for the NME Awards 2013 and David Bowie has been selected in three different categories.

Bowie is up for Music Moment of the Year as well as the Best Music Video and Hero of the Year awards and here’s who he’s up against in each category.

MUSIC MOMENT OF THE YEAR

David Bowie returns

The Stone Roses play Heaton Park

Olympics opening ceremony

The Rolling Stones play London's O2 Arena

Green Day's secret set at Reading Festival

Pussy Riot's punk prayer

BEST MUSIC VIDEO

Oblivion Grimes

Bad Girls MIA

Where Are We Now? David Bowie

R U Mine? Arctic Monkeys

Don't Save Me Haim

Feels Like We Only Go Backwards Tame Impala

HERO OF THE YEAR

David Bowie

Bradley Wiggins

Pussy Riot

Barack Obama

Frank Ocean

Dave Grohl 

The awards will be held at the Troxy in east London on February 27. Bowie fans can show their support by voting on the NME awards page if they so fancy.

Painter Jacqueline Humphries revealed

“With you by my side, it should be fine”

The exclusive Jimmy King shot of David Bowie that we posted a couple of days ago was actually a crop from the photograph accompanying this item.

The picture shows, from L to R, Bowie, Jacqueline Humphries, wife of Tony Oursler, and Oursler himself at the video shoot for ‘Where Are We Now?’.

As we pointed out last week, it is Jacqueline who appears in the video with David even though she hadn’t appeared in her husband’s work previously.

She is a successful artist in her own right and you can view some of her work from 1990 through to 2011 on her official page.

Meanwhile, if you missed them the first time, check out Tony’s interviews regarding working with Bowie on the BBC’s Front Row (Weds 16 Jan) and in the Independent on Sunday.

Exclusive Bowie photo from video shoot

“I’m happy, hope you’re happy too”

It’s been a few days since we posted an exclusive shot of David so here’s another of Jimmy King’s pictures, this time taken at the video shoot for ‘Where Are We Now?’.

While we have your eye and just in case you missed any of them, here are links to some of the media pieces that we enjoyed for one reason or another since David’s birthday.

Gary Kemp Interview - BBC - Jan 8

Bowie track Where Are We Now? leaves Kemp in tears

Jonathan Ross - The Guardian - Jan 8

Bowie's comeback places him back at the centre of the whole shebang

Caitlin Moran - The Times - Jan 8

Bowie's back and it's all hunky dory: Thin White Duke returns to his golden years

Neil McCormick - The Telegraph - Jan 9

David Bowie: Is this the perfect comeback?

Gordon Smart - The Sun - Jan 9

A Heroes welcome

Chris Roberts - thequietus.com - Jan 11

The Return Of The Thin White Hope

Alexis Petridis - The Guardian – Jan 12

The inside story of how David Bowie made The Next Day

Herbie Flowers - The Telegraph – Jan 13

David Bowie's new single made me cry

Bowie fans make Birthday Boy’s week

“Wham Bam Thank You Fans!”

Since David Bowie made a special announcement on January 8…

The Next Day reached #1 on the iTunes pre-order chart in 26 countries

‘Where Are We Now?’ currently sits at #6 on the UK Official Singles Chart

Pre-orders of the three formats of The Next Day occupied the top three slots on Amazon UK

The David Bowie (Official) Facebook page reached 5.2 million people in seven days

There have been over a million views of the ‘Where Are We Now?’ video on VEMO/YouTube

‘Likes’ for a post on the David Bowie (Official) Facebook page reached a new record when they topped the 100k mark for the Bowie birthday post

‘Comments’ on the same post reached over 8.5k. That’s a lot of Birthday greetings

At one point during the week, there were an astonishing 15 different Bowie back catalogue albums in Amazon UK’s Most Wished For in Glam Rock Top 20 and more than half of the Top 50 was taken up with Bowie releases too

If every word of every article written about David Bowie on Earth since January 8 were placed end to end, they would reach to Mars and back! *

*Depending on the size of the font.

Velvet Stream do Where Are We Now?

“You never knew that we could do that”

Hot-on-the-heels of the MOMUS cover of ‘Where Are We Now?’ (which was even hotter-on-the-heels of Bowie’s own version), London band Velvet Stream have now tackled the song too.

It’s poles apart from the MOMUS rendition, but that’s not to say it isn’t just as accomplished and equally affectionate.

Velvet Stream are a young, five-piece, female-led, alternative pop/rock band with a bright future ahead of them.

Take a moment to check out their delicious take on ‘Where Are We Now?’, you won’t regret it.

Riot Squad feature in Record Collector

“We are The Riot Squad and we're coming to town...”

The January issue (410) of Record Collector magazine has an in-depth feature by Ian Shirley regarding Mod sensations, The Riot Squad, punningly entitled The Riot Stuff.

As you may know, David Bowie fronted the band for a brief period in 1967 and while on-board he recorded demos and gigged with them in and around the London area.

The history of The Riot Squad has been largely undocumented in Bowie biographies, but they were an important chapter in his story for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, they were among the very first groups to wear make-up onstage (as evidenced by our exclusive picture), and they also have the very hip claim on being the first band to play a Velvet Underground cover version, even before the band's debut was released.

David had insisted on including ‘I’m Waiting For The Man’ in the band's live set along with the ‘Venus In Furs’ inspired ‘Little Toy Soldier’, even recording studio versions of both tracks with the band, neither of which have ever had an official release.

Here's an excerpt from Ian Shirley's piece picking up where Bowie joined:

In early March 1967, the band divided, with Gladstone, Crisp and Clifford going off to form soul band Pepper. Evans retained The Riot Squad name, along with Butch and Del. He was quick to recruit Rod Davies (guitar), Croak Prebble (bass) and a new lead singer.

Evans recalls: “I saw David Bowie with The Buzz at the Marquee and thought that he was fantastic. I approached him and he agreed to join.” Though Bowie had a growing reputation in London, like the Riot Squad he lacked a hit record.

Butch was underwhelmed when Evans informed him he’d offered the future Ziggy Stardust the job: “I thought, ‘Oh no, I don’t like him.’ We had supported Bowie months earlier. His presentation was superb, but his material was terrible.” Saying that, when Bowie turned up for their first rehearsal in a Tottenham pub, Butch admits he “fell in love with him because he had such charisma and he looked so cool when he walked in”.

The band had a few days to work up a set-list before their next gig and Bowie took charge in helping to knit together a running order. He even brought in a track from an unreleased LP by a US band called The Velvet Underground, I’m Waiting For The Man.

Butch recalls that, although The Riot Squad set had pop and soul roots, they were open to diverse material such as the Bowie-penned Little Toy Soldier. Bowie also pushed the band to be more theatrical. “He told me, ‘Why don’t you put paint on your face, Butch?’ We became more outrageous. Bob started throwing rags into the audience.

“Bob Evans loved it when Bowie came along,” recalls Butch, “because he was out front with the sax and flute and with tracks like The Vicar’s Daughter we got a bit more like The Bonzo Dog Band. When Bowie came in he had great ideas like Toy Soldier, where he’d whip Bob on stage. They got on like a house on fire because they were both great front men.”

Bowie led the band for around 20 gigs, between March and May 1967, before handing in his notice to go solo again.

“We were serious with David,” recalls Evans. “His material commanded respect, and while I wasn’t exactly hankering to loon about, I’m Waiting For The Man and Toy Soldier pointed that way. I can’t remember when we first chucked rags into the audience, that was post-David, but I enjoyed doing that stuff – all of which would develop at a pace soon after.”

It's fascinating reading and the story continues in the current edition of Record Collector.

The magazine has kindly given us two exclusive and previously unpublished images of David in make-up from a Riot Squad photo session. Check out David Bowie (Official) on Facebook for an alternative shot to the one here.

Record Collector is also releasing a limited edition Riot Squad album on 180gm vinyl. Though Bowie isn't on it, the record does include a version of his song ‘Little Toy Soldier’ recorded after he had left the band in 1968.

The album is limited to 750 copies and it will be available from the Record Collector shop at the end of the month.

Bowie v Elvis in NYC Sunday

“The Year Of The Diamond Hound Dogs...”

Those rather flamboyant types at Oh! You Pretty Things have been in touch with details of a rock ‘n’ glam gathering this coming Sunday, January 20, in NYC. Here's some blurb...

Michael T, Ben Ickies, Twig the Wonderkid and Laura Rebelangel present Oh! You Pretty Things: 2nd annual David Bowie & Elvis Presley Birthday Bash.

“Suspicious Minds & Moonage Daydreams”

Oh! You Pretty Things is proud to present a birthday bacchanalia for rock’s two greatest Capricorns David Bowie and Elvis Presley, Michael T and the Vanities and This Ambitious Orchestra perform larger-than-life arrangements of hit songs from their catalogue along with a live set from the Screamin’ Rebel Angels and burlesque performances by The Love Show, Bettina May, and Brewster for this Vegas-style three ring circus.

Visit Le Poisson Rouge for further details, tickets and the like.

Markus and Indrani ICONS book

“Pictured in the arms of the Karma Man”

Photographers to the stars, Markus Klinko and Indrani, have collected together some of their best work for the recently published ICONS book. The pair first met David while shooting the cover for Iman's book, I Am Iman.

Markus and Indrani made the beautiful photographic images of David Bowie for 2002's Heathen cover and associated releases, working alongside Jonathan Barnbrook's innovative and stylish design creations to produce a brilliant campaign for the album.

The image shown here is cropped from a full length shot used for the 'Slow Burn' single cover in 2002.

Markus has said of the experience: "We felt we grew as artists and revelled in expanding our creative horizons with a true rock and roll legend."

Bowie in Berlin cover feature in NME

“Sitting in the Dschungel” 

The new issue of NME (January 19), has a beautiful Sukita front cover and a six-page feature inside in celebration of Bowie's surprise return to music last week with 'Where Are We Now?'.

Mark Beaumont presents the story behind the Berlin years via period NME interviews.

Where Are We Now? The words

“The moment you know, you know, you know“

If you've been trying to decipher the words to the #6 song in the UK Hit Parade but couldn't quite get them, we've made things a little easier by presenting them here.

You may notice slight differences to the words that appear on the video, but the version below is now the correct one.

Where Are We Now? (David Bowie)

Had to get the train
From Potsdamer Platz
You never knew that
That I could do that
Just walking the dead

Sitting in the Dschungel
On Nürnberger Strasse
A man lost in time
Near KaDeWe
Just walking the dead

Where are we now, where are we now?
The moment you know, you know, you know

Twenty thousand people
Cross Bösebrücke
Fingers are crossed
Just in case
Walking the dead

Where are we now, where are we now?
The moment you know, you know, you know

As long as there's sun
As long as there's sun
As long as there's rain
As long as there's rain
As long as there's fire
As long as there's fire
As long as there's me
As long as there's you

Happy Birthday Low

“There'll be others on the line filing past, who'll whisper Low”

January 14 1977 saw the release of the first of what came to be known as Bowie's Berlin trilogy. That album was Low and it was followed later the same year by "Heroes" with the trilogy completed in 1979 by the arrival of Lodger.

Most of the music across the three albums wasn't even recorded in Berlin, the unifying factor actually being Bowie, Visconti and Eno. Low was a Bowie/Visconti production, and not a Brian Eno one as widely misreported.

Much has been written about the brilliance and braveness of the music on Low, and rightly so. It's probably hard to imagine how absolutely unique the record sounded back in 1977.

Apart from the obvious slicing of the album into two distinct sides (reflected better in the original working title of New Music Night And Day), Visconti gifted Low that distinctive gated snare via his latest gadget, the Evantide Harmonizer.

Though Low was a record purportedly informed by the likes of Kraftwerk and other German musicians of the time, it actually sounded far more organic and not at all mechanical.

This was in no small measure due to the nucleus of the band Bowie had favoured during this whole period (starting with Station To Station), of Carlos Alomar (guitar), Dennis Davis (drums) and George Murray (bass).

If you've not listened to it for a while, stick Low on now and prepare to be transported by its gloriously uplifting melancholia and musical language from another time and place, not necessarily the past.

Low sounds as fresh today as it ever did...thirty nine minutes of untouchable genius.

Bowie back in UK Top Ten after 20 years

“Where Are We Now?”

BBC Radio 1’s Official Chart show has just announced David Bowie's return to the Top Ten in the UK with the placing of his new single, 'Where Are We Now?', at Number 6.

It's Bowie's highest charting hit since 'Absolute Beginners' reached Number 2 in 1986. It's also his first Top Ten hit since 'Jump They Say' reached Number 9 in 1993.

This is an impressive result for Bowie, particularly when one takes into account the figures are based on just five days' sales (it's a full week normally), and that the track was available in the digital format only.

The surprise release of 'Where Are We Now? on Tuesday sparked a media frenzy which saw the single get off to a flying start and the song remains on both the BBC's A playlists for 6 Music and Radio 2.

Though 'Where Are We Now?' is included as an instant download with pre-orders of The Next Day, understandably those particular sales are not included towards the Official Singles Chart.

Martin Talbot, Managing Director of the Official Charts Company says "It is great to see a great British musical icon such as David Bowie returning to the Official Singles Chart. He had his first Top 10 with Space Oddity in 1969 - so the fact he is still scoring chart hits more than 40 years later is quite remarkable. Welcome back David."

And so say all of us! Well done David and thanks to all of you reading this that bought the single or pre-ordered the album.

Momus on that Bowie cover version

"I was running at the speed of life"

While we're on the subject of Bowie cover versions (see previous Lulu item), you must have seen or heard Momus's rather clever rendition of 'Where Are We Now?'

Apparently the Momus of Greek mythology was the god of satire and mockery among other things. In that case, it looks like the god's smiled upon Nicholas Currie (Momus's birth name), when he created this sincere and affectionate tribute.

It's certainly got to be the quickest that anybody has ever turned around a Bowie cover version, seeing as it was released the same day as Bowie's original. Here's a brief excerpt from Momus's explanation regarding both the track and the seemingly unconnected accompanying video.

How did you come up with idea to cover the song immediately?

In November I had some kind of premonition that Bowie might return in 2013. I did a spoof announcement on my Tumblr page about an album called Vivid Old Man. It envisaged something avant garde: “Over microtonal organ, harp and tambour backings drawing inspiration from early Penderecki, mid-period Messiaen and late Webern, Bowie sings avant-sea-shanties”. So when I heard the fairly mainstream sound of the new single, I already had this parallel world in my mind where he was doing something a bit more radical. I decided within an hour to extend that parallel world a bit with a cover version.

What makes a good cover-version in your opinion?

There has to be a rather peculiar mix of respect and aggression. You have to bring out the essence of your feelings about the artist, and the song. In this cover I really wanted to put in a lot of references to the Bowie that marked me most deeply, the 1970s Bowie. Hence the “do-do-do”s and thick bass synths from Fashion, the drum machine from Nightclubbing, the octaved backing vocals from The Bewlay Brothers. I suppose I wanted to out-Bowie Bowie.

Why did you pick Roddy McDowall’s 1968 home film of a make-up session for Planet of the Apes for the video-clip?

I’d watched it recently, and been struck by the creepiness of it. It seemed perfect for the video, for several reasons. I was aping the master, so the monkey was me. But also, so many Bowie documentaries show him being made up. It’s the perfect motif for his many self-transformations. There’s an allusion to the apes in the opening scene of Kubrick’s 2001, which triggered Bowie to write Space Oddity. And somehow the grotesqueness of the Cornelius character sums up how Bowie looked to me when I was 12. He was fascinating and terrifying in equal measure. Thin-lipped, not quite human. More than human!

As you can see, Momus also spoofed the cover of The Next Day to accompany 'Where are We Now'?, an idea that has caught on via BuzzFeed's Make Your Own David Bowie Album Cover.

Follow the complete timeline of the Momus cover, from conception to completion, on the official Momus page.

Naturally, David Bowie holds the record for fastest ever cover version, performing 'Waiting For The Man' live with The Riot Squad even before the first Velvet Underground album was released.

Lulu is 39 again

“Oh no, not me”

On January 11, 1974, Lulu released the first of her career resurrections in the shape of the Bowie-penned Polydor 45, The Man Who Sold The World/Watch That Man..

Produced and arranged by David Bowie and Mick Ronson the track reached #3 on the official UK singles chart, Lulu's first top ten hit for five years..

The success of the record prompted RCA to take full page adverts for the Bowie album of the same name with the wording: Contains the original version of The Man Who Sold The World. 

If you've not heard it, go track it down online. It's a cracking record with a great sax riff from Bowie that's not on his own version. Apparently DB is a bit partial to the Lulu version himself.

Lulu went on to record more Bowie numbers with David that didn't work out but his own versions ended up on the Young Americans album. But that's another story.