Letter #13
MUSIC NEWS
- *Scoop* *Rumour* Will 1999 be the Year of the Resurrection of Ziggy
Stardust? Reports emanating from England suggest that record stores
there are listing a new Bowie album called "Ziggy Stardust Part 2" as
due for release in early 1999. Meanwhile Bowie has said that the album
that he, Reeves Gabrels and Tony Visconti are currently working on is
intended to be released in "early 1999", and there will hopefully be
one or two "other" releases later that year.
Isolar, Bowie's management group, has registered the www domain names
http://www.ziggystardust.com/ and http://www.ziggystardust.net. There
is nothing currently at these sites except the identical messages
"Welcome to the future site of ...." with a watch face as a picture.
Watch this space.
- After completing both the Low Symphony and the Heroes Symphony, a
recent interview with composer Philip Glass indicates that he and
Bowie still plan on a similar reworking of Lodger.
- Bowie's latest journals have hints of other things musical to come
later this year?
--"Reeves, Gail and I will be reuniting again for a little something
toward the end of the year."
--"Tony Oursler (he of the Earthling stage-puppet designs) sends me
initial visual designs based on our conversations, for a project
commissioned by the Germans for 2000. We would be working along with
Glen Branca, a real plus for me."
--"Reeves and myself are closeted away in a hotel room on George Cinq,
surrounded by D8s and 707s. Throbbing along to the pulse of life we
sit and write, it seems, one not bad song after another."
- Another Bowie tribute album, this one entitled Goth Oddity, has been
released (by Cleopatra Records). It features the following tracklist:
1.After All (5:00) The Mission UK
2.All The Madmen (4:59) Alien Sex Fiend
3.All The Young Dudes (4:25) Gene Loves Jezebel/Michael Aston
4.Starman (4:08) Nosferatu
5.Scary Monsters (4:56) Ex-Voto
6."Heroes" (4:02) Wreckage
7.China Girl (4:47) Trance To The Sun
8.Time (4:14) Cinema Strange
9.Always Crashing In The Same Car (4:35) Silent Order
10.Andy Warhol (4:47) Tubalcain
11.Hang On To Yourself (4:42) Kommunity FK
12.Suffragette City (3:22) Corpus Delicti
13.Panic In Detroit (5:00) Christian Death
14.Cat People (4:57) Big Electric Cat
- Ronnie Spector has been telling the UK press that her new album
features a new song written specially for her by David Bowie.
- The Heroes, who released a charity single cover of Bowie's "Heroes"
before Xmas, are currently recording The Heroes Charity album'
"Access All Areas". The tracklisting is as follows:
Heroes (DavidBowie/Brian Eno)
Let's Dance (David Bowie)
Come Up And See Me (Steve Harley/Cockney Rebel)
School's Out (Alice Cooper)
Another Brick In The Wall (Pink Floyd)
I Wanna Break Free (Queen)
You Really Got Me (The Kinks)
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (U2)
- Singer/songwriter Dar Williams has recorded her cover of Starman as
promised following the People's Choice Vote. The song is available for
a limited time from the Razor 'N Tie website
(http://www.razorandtie.com/spotlight.html). You must have LiquidAudio
installed on your computer to hear the song.
__________________________________________
CONCERT NEWS
- BowieNet confirms that Bowie and Placebo will duet on T-Rex's "20th
Century Boy" at this year's Brit Awards, which take place at London's
Dockland's arena on the 16th February. The ceremony will be broadcast
on ITV the following night between 8 and 10 PM.
- *Scoop* *Rumour* There is a rumour circulating on Usenet in various
newsgroups that Bowie has been asked to headline a European version of
Woodstock this summer.
__________________________________________
CHART NEWS (Dara's ChartWatch)
PEACE ON EARTH/LITTLE DRUMMER BOY (with Bing Crosby)
Canada: 46, 19, 9, 8, 8, 9, 24, 44, 27
This perennial favourite was a Top 50 hit single in Canada for the
third consecutive year, climbing even higher on this occasion than
previously. Also in Canada, "I'm Afraid Of Americans" has finally
dropped off the Top 200, after more than 60 weeks on the chart.
WEDDING SINGER SOUNDTRACK (featuring China Girl)
US (Billboard): 90, 26, 9, 5, 9, 7, 11, 11, 19, 20, 25, 35, 52, 60,
70, 78, 65, 83, 86, 98, 103, 130, 127, 141, 151, 126, 72, 39, 36, 45,
50, 54, 62, 60, 73, 86, 89, 98, 106, 121, 125, 135, 114, 98, 104, 102,
99, 88, 98, 134, 122
Canada (Soundscan): 100, 47, 15, 15, 13, 12, 18, 23, 38, 45, 50, out,
147, 148, 53, 36, 34, 32, 31, 28, 27, 22, 22, 25, 27, 27, 35, 43, 60,
63, 75, 76, 70, 63, 67, 73
(alternative Top 50): 28, 12, 2, 2, 1, 1, 3, 4, 9, 11, 12, 14,
17, 21, 22, 21, 23, 24, 26, 25, 33, 35, 35, 40, 38, 14, 10, 11, 11, 8,
9, 9, 7, 7, 7, 8, 8, 8, 10, 17, 16, 15, 18, 15, 15, 14, 16, 16, 16, 18
Australia: X, X, X, X, 13, 2, 1, 2, 2, 3, 5, 5, 6, 10, 7, 8, 10, 15,
19, 24, 23, 26, 38, 50, 49, 51, out, 70, 69, out for several weeks,
89, 52, 54, 48, 56, out
This soundtrack remains on the charts in the US and Canada, though
there are signs its long tenure may be reaching an end.
FACULTY Soundtrack (featuring Shawn Mullins' "Changes")
US: 136, 59, 47, 66, 77
Canada: 191, 61, 45, 45
(Alternative Top 50): 34, 15, 12, 11
This soundtrack has generated some chart action in the US and Canada,
but while it has gone better than some recent soundtracks featuring
Bowie songs (Dead Man On Campus, Whatever), it has not fared nearly as
well as others (Wedding Singer, Godzilla, Grosse Point Blank).
OTHER SNIPPETS
- The only charts that Red Hot And Rhapsody (containing the
Bowie/Badamalenti collaboration) seems to have shown up are Music
Boulevard's Online chart (one week at #84), the Tower Records Top 1000
(209, ?, 352, 384, 401, 515, out) and Amazon (currently at 1,439).
Best Of 69/74 enjoyed a resurgence on Tower Records Top 1000 over the
seasonal period:
Best Of 69/74: 167, 288, 438, 449, 587, 554, 730, 318, 351, 291, 505
There are also three soundtracks featuring Bowie contributions on the
chart. Recent Bowie-related soundtrack performances:
Wedding Singer: 2, 3, 3, 3, 8, 17, 19, 29, 58, 73, 72, 69, 73, 81,
159, 134, 137, 222, 214, 79, 38, 41, 53, 85, 99, 108, 118, 142, 199,
197, 158, 160
Godzilla: 3, 12, 16, 16, 27, 27, 130, 124, 206, 208, 199, 262, 583,
616, 646, 677, 513, 734, 948, 672, 902
The Faculty: 179, 97
- Amazon have a comprehensive CD chart for all titles they carry (over
100,000), which gives a good indicator of the residual sales of albums
that aren't selling enough to chart anywhere. Based on that, the dozen
best-selling Bowie (or Bowie-related) albums currently are:
(1) The Best Of David Bowie 1969-1974 (Rank: 457)
(2) Labyrinth (Rank: 1,287)
(3) Young Americans (Rank: 1,314)
(4) Best of David Bowie 1974-79 (Rank: 1,361)
(5) Let's Dance (Rank: 1,897)
(6) Diamond Dogs (Rank: 4,645)
(7) Pin Ups (5,531)
(8) Earthling (Rank: 5,892)
(9) Black Tie White Noise (Rank: 9,145)
(10) David Live (Rank: 10,871)
(11) Outside (Rank: 11,114)
(12) Goth Oddity: Tribute...David Bowie (Rank: 11,770)
By far the lowest Bowie studio album on the Amazon list is,
unsurprisingly, Never Let Me Down, which languishes at 35,267
__________________________________________
MOVIE NEWS
- *Scoop* *Rumour* The Sunday Times of January 17 reported that
Julian Schnabel is planning to direct a new film called 'Into the
Night' with Johnny Depp, Sean Penn and David Bowie to star. If this is
true, this will be the third "Into The Night" film featuring Bowie
(the 1985 "Into The Night" John Landis flick and the 1996 "Gentle Into
The Night" which Bowie executive produced). Thanks to Stephen Bourke
for this information.
- Reports from Italy suggest that after opening brightly at the box
office, "Il Mio West" slumped badly below expectations. If you speak
Italian, you can read a review of the film at
http://www.oocities.org/Hollywood/Boulevard/2508/ci_miowe.htm
(otherwise, you can look at the piccies).
- Still no word on release dates for the other two movies Bowie made
last year, "Everybody Loves Sunshine" and "Exhuming Mr. Rice".
- Padova's local University Centre is planning a Bowie film exhibition
over the next two months, examining Bowie's film and acting career.
The program is:
February 17: Furyo (aka Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence)
February 23: Rarities and Video Clips (with Mixo & Lorenzo Scoles)
March 3: The Man Who Fell To Earth
March 10: Just A Gigolo
March 17: Labyrinth
March 31: The Hunger
Location: Auditorium Liceo Modigliani, Padova, Italy
Organization: University Centre
Cost: Free with CUC card
__________________________________________
ART NEWS
- Photographer and music video director Floria Sigismondi has a new
photography book out which features stills from some of her most
famous videos. Included (and on the cover) are shots from the Little
Wonder and Dead Man Walking videos.
__________________________________________
BOWIENET NEWS
- Ronan Keating of Irish boy band Boyzone (a sort of Irish version of
Take That or the Backstreet Boys) will join Bowie in the BowieNet Chat
Room Saturday, 30th January 1999 at 7.00pm GMT (2.00pm EST). Mike
Garson will be the next special guest on BowieNet Friday, 5th February
at 9:00 p.m. EST (6:00 p.m. PST). Also coming soon is comic/actor
Eddie Izzard who will be a BowieNet chat special guest on 11th
February 1999. (Time to be announced).
- A number of subscribers to this newsletter contacted me saying that
despite persistent attempts to cancel their BowieNet subscriptions,
their cards go on getting charged monthly. When I contacted BowieNet,
they reiterated that the subscribers' agreement states that it is the
responsibility of subscribers to communicate their cancellations to
BowieNet in the manner defined by BowieNet.
__________________________________________
OTHER NEWS
- The winners of the songwriting contest have been announced. The
overall winner is Alex Grant. The four main runners up were:
1. Scott Nellis
2. Michael Solem
3. Bob DeVore
4. Jane Gilmartin.
In addition, though not strictly speaking prizewinners, Bowie singled
out the creator of The Bowie Remix/Recreation Project website
(http://members.aol.com/bowieremix/) for a Special Creativity award
for going "above and beyond", and also the following
1. Dara O Kearney
2. Emilio Pacheco
3. Toshiya Takaoka
4. Hannah Aki Hawkins
for their outstanding contributions.
- Bowie will be Nicky Horne's studio guest on his ACCESS ALL AREAS
show on Talk Radio on 31st January from 5 - 6pm GMT. He will be
talking about BowieNet, the future of technology, the internet and a
variety of other topics. The event will be Talk Radio's first webcast
in both RealAudio and RealVideo and will be broadcast around the world
live from the Talk Radio studio in London. The interview will only be
available on Talk Radio in the UK and in Sound and Vision on BowieNet.
Talk-Radio can be found at 1053 and 1089 MW (Medium Wave).
If you are in the UK, you can call David with your questions on 0500
1053 89 or if you are outside the UK, you can email your questions to
David in the Talk Radio studio. The address to send your questions to
David Bowie and Nicky Horne is: questions@davidbowie.co.uk
- Bowie was on and in a recent THE BIG ISSUE. Besides adorning the
front cover, the inside article entitled 'Starman Lost In Cyberspace'.
You can see the cover and read the article at
http://www.teenagewildlife.com/Appearances/Press/1999/0111/bigissue.html.
Bowie also wrote a piece on music and the Internet for the Guardian
recently (you can read this in full at
http://www.algonet.se/~bassman/articles/1999/tg.html).
- Bowie is to be one of the judges for the prestigious 1999 'Webby
Awards'. These awards are considered to the equivalent of the Oscar
for the internet.
The ceremony event held yearly in San Francisco, USA, attracts over
3,000 to the event. The netwebcast will be held on 18th March 1999 at
8 PM PST.
- LovingTheAlien.com and fanzine Velvet Goldmine are hosting their
3rd Bowie Bash for Italian fans
When?: January 30, 1999 at 10:30 p.m.
Where?: ROCK CAFE', Via T.Eger 45, Bassano del Grappa (Vicenza)
Who?: DJ D. and DJ. Kighine along with local rock bands
Scary Monsters: cover Bowie, Reed and Iggy Pop songs
RadioFiera: from Treviso with their new CD Allarme
Carlo Casale: former leader of Frigidaire Tango, an 80's
new-wave group
What: lots of Bowie memorabilia, paintings, rarities, plus an
Internet connection to view Bowie-related websites
Special Guest: Evan Torrie
- In the last newsletter, I reported on the then forthcoming Ziggy
Stardust tribute re-enactment shows in Luxembourg, Paris, Brussels and
Amsterdam. The last show in Amsterdam was cancelled at the last
minute. Attendees, some of whom had travelled hundreds of miles to be
at the event, were told by the organizers that the show had problems
arising between "the artist, producers and Bowie management."
Bowie's management company in England and BowieNet both declined to
make an official comment on the matter when contacted by me.
- The UK Mirror named Bowie 1998 Businessman of the Year in their
pre-xmas issue.
- The Wallflowers' version of "Heroes" has been nominated for this
year's Grammy in the category of Best Rock performance by a Duo or
Group with Vocal.
- In the pop culture trivia corner, Bowie made an appearance on the
popular medical drama E.R. last night. Not in person, but via Space
Oddity being played over the PA. One of the characters held up
ChangesBowie and said "my mom always used to play this album". An
orderly came up and said "Patients in the waiting room are requesting
more Bowie".
- According to a column in the NY Observer, Bowie has put his Broadway
loft back on the market for $1.85 million, having paid $1.5 million
for it last year. Bowie has paid out $4 million for two penthouse
apartments totalling 5300 square feet under development on Lafayette
Street. The luxury condos are being built atop six stories of
artist-in-residence lofts, and are expected to be finished in April,
complete with custom-made French tile, polished nickel vanities and
Brazilian hardwood floors.
- Forthcoming Bowie TV and radio:
Jan 31 Talk Radio (UK) Access All Areas 17.00-18.00 GMT
Feb 3 Sundance (US) Basquiat 12.00-14.00 EST
19.00-21.00 EST
Feb 4 Sundance (US) Basquiat 03.00-05.00 EST
Feb 17 ITV (US) Brit Awards 20.00-22.00 GMT
__________________________________________
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- For a cheeky take on the songwriting contest, check out
http://roswell.fortunecity.com/callanish/296/what.html
- If you're a Ziggy era fan, http://www.5years.com/ is the site for
you. In-depth information on Bowie's landmark album, plus all the
latest Ziggy news.
- Are you new to the Bowie fan world and confused about what album to
get first or next? Then check out the great album-by-album buyer's
guide at http://www.users.cts.com/crash/p/phil/bowielps.html
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Repetition at http://www.oocities.org/SoHo/Cafe/4723/main.html.
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