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 __________________________________________ END CREDITS - To unsubscribe at any time, send an Unsubscribe message (or alternatively, "Your newsletter is a steaming pile of horse shit") to bowie_news@hotmail.com. The Bowie_News Web-site has passed the 1,600 hit mark...now getting it's own domain address! The new address to Bowie_News is http://come.to/bowienews, so if you want to read old editions of the newsletter, or leave an abusive note on the guestbook, get yourself along there. The main Aladdin Sane website is at http://welcome.to/aladdinsane. Bonnie Powell runs the other more frequent Bowie newsletter (usually weekly) covering, in her own words "things only a fan would want to know". Send her a mail at Dbfan@aol.com if you want in. - 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 - The best site for serious critical analysis of all things Bowie is Repetition at http://www.oocities.org/SoHo/Cafe/4723/main.html. Regular columns, critical albums reviews and a wealth of intelligent essays.


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