Letter #14
MUSIC NEWS
- *SCOOP* A reliable source has confirmed that Bowie and Reeves
Gabrels have been recording recently in London along with The Cure's
drummer. The music they've been laying down is intended for use as
soundtrack for an EIDOS CD-ROM game, and is being mixed in New York.
You may remember that last year, Bowie was spotted in the EIDOS
building in London, presumably to discuss this project.
My source also says that the intention at this stage is to release the
music on CD, possibly reworked (as The Buddha Of Suburbia CD featured
reworked material from The Buddha Of Suburbia soundtrack), though this
hasn't been decided for sure yet.
- Teenage Wildlife reports that the long awaited EMI reissues of
Bowie's back catalogue (to replace the now defunct Rykodisc/EMI
series) is expected to take place around the "middle of 1999"
according to a Dutch EMI spokesman. The format these reissues will
take is a hot topic in the Bowie-collector world. Bowie reported in
one of his online journals that he had recorded interviews about each
album last year that were planned for the EMI reissues. It was also
reported last year in the music trade press that the reissues would
come with a bonus CD, with the first CD containing just the remastered
original album, and the bonus CD containing bonus material.
Meanwhile, EMI in Europe has just released new midprice CD reissues of
Lodger, Ziggy Stardust The Motion Picture Soundtrack and Scary
Monsters together with an EMI Millennium vinyl reissue of Aladdin
Sane.
- Playboy reports in their March issue that the John Lennon tribute
album for which Bowie has already recorded a cover of Mother won't be
released until October 2000 to celebrate what would have been Lennon's
60th birthday.
- In an interview with What's Online, Bowie suggested that he may do
an online jam session:
"One of the things I'm really excited about at the moment is doing a
live online jam session. My long-time guitarist Reeves Gabrels and
myself, and probably Tony Visconti and a couple of other musicians,
are going to be doing an online jam in place of one of the chats in
the spring. That's going to be very exciting because we're doing an
hour of completely improvised music from the site. "
- The I'm Afraid Of Americans CD single has been belatedly released in
Japan.
- A 1996 Kodak Advantix commercial screened in Japan features music
witten specially by David Bowie for the commercial.
- Malcom Mclaren's latest pop managing venture is a group of four
Asian females going under the name Jungk. Described as a "an
addictive, exotic Mandarin blend of jungle and punk", the new venture
has three song clips available for download on their web page at
http://www.jungk.com/. The band are planning a forthcoming version of
China Girl.
- A Brazilian pagode (a very popular bastardised version of samba that
sells very well in Brazil) group has released a cover of Starman
(translated into Portuguese as O Astronauta de marmore - The Marble
Astronaut).
- The Athens, GA salute to David Bowie - Loving The Alien sold out in
a matter of days (mostly to non-American customers it seems).
Negotiations are taking place with a larger label to re-release the CD
with more promotion and distribution.
- Check out an interview Mark Plati did for a Natalie Imbruglia site
at www.imbruglia.com with some cool Bowie mentions, and a possible
hint of Bowie things to come.
__________________________________________
CONCERT NEWS
- Bowie's 1983 Serious Moonlight Tour video has been released on DVD.
- Bowie will become the first star to play live in the year 2000, as
part of a special festival being organised in New Yealand. Gisborne
2000 Millennium Concert tickets are now available. Tickets for
overseas visitors are only available via package tour deals as
described on the Gisborne 2000 website (the official reason being
given for this policy is that accommodation is severely limited and so
must be prearranged for overseas visitors). These are on sale now.
Locals (and possibly Australians?) will have 10,000 tickets set aside
which go on sale March 1 via Ticketek at prices of $NZ399, $NZ499 and
$NZ599 ($1NZ = $US0.54). Hence, if you want to arrange your own custom
itinerary, you'll have to find a local to buy a ticket for you.
There will be three main major shows during the 24 hour event. The
first is the dusk ceremony seeing out the last of 1999, which will
feature reunited New Zealand band Split Enz. The midnight show will
feature David Bowie, and the dawn show (the first sunlight of the year
2000) is described only as "including some very special guests". For
more information, including all these press releases, visit the
Teenage Wildlife Gisborne 2000 page at
http://www.teenagewildlife.com/cgi-bin/dcinfo.pl?date=20000101.
- The planned Live-Aid style show in aid of the Jubilee 2000 campaign
(which Bowie lent his support to at the Brits by appearing in their
first TV commercial) has received support from various acts according
to U2's Bono. The U2 singer says artists such as Oasis, Smashing
Pumpkins, Michael Jackson, Bob Geldof and Pavarotti want to take part
in the show planed for 19th June in Cologne, Germany to support the
drive to wipe out Third World Debt. With rumours abounding that Bowie
might play a show in Germany this year, there's also a possibility
(though nothing has been confirmed yet) that Bowie might play this
show too.
__________________________________________
CHART NEWS (Dara's ChartWatch)
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, 113, 120, 126, 139, 135
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, 73, 82, 76, 66
(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, 18, 21, 24, 22, 22
This soundtrack remains on the lower regions of the charts in the US
and Canada.
FACULTY Soundtrack (featuring Shawn Mullins' "Changes")
US: 136, 59, 47, 66, 77, 89, 108, 141
Canada: 191, 61, 45, 45, 44, 60, 72
(Alternative Top 50): 34, 15, 12, 11, 12, 18, 21, 26, 26
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
- In the UK, "Ziggy Stardust The Motion Picture" soundtrack re-entered
the Top 200 Albums at #181.
- After disappearing for one week, IAOA promptly reappeared in the
Canadian Top 200 singles at #134. It has now racked up 65 weeks on the
chart.
- Shawn Mullins' version of "Changes" is included as a bonus track on
his Lullaby single in the UK. The single cracked the top 10 there:
UK: 9, 20
- 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,
572, 881
Best Of 74/79: 833
There are also two 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, 208, 392
Godzilla: 3, 12, 16, 16, 27, 27, 130, 124, 206, 208, 199, 262, 583,
616, 646, 677, 513, 734, 948, 672, 902, 707, out
The Faculty: 179, 97, 105, 356
- In response to overall positive reaction to this section in the last
chart and a number of specific requests to do so, I am extending my
report on the Amazon chart to include all Bowie (and Bowie-related)
albums. 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 best-selling Bowie (or Bowie-related) albums at the moment are:
(1) The Best Of David Bowie 1969-1974 (Rank: 652)
(2) Let's Dance (Rank: 1,972)
(3) Best of David Bowie 1974-79 (Rank: 2,282)
(4) Labyrinth Soundtrack (Rank: 2,377)
(5) Diamond Dogs (Rank: 2,663)
(6) Young Americans (Rank: 4,383)
(7) Pin Ups (Rank: 6,319)
(8) Earthling (Rank: 6,740)
(9) David Live (Rank: 7,190)
(10) Outside (Rank: 8,547)
(11) Goth Oddity: Tribute (Rank: 9,692)
(12) Black Tie White Noise (Rank: 14,353)
(13) Singles Collection (Rank: 19,483)
(14) David Bowie Songbook (Rank: 20,386)
(15) The Buddha Of Suburbia (Rank: 22,218)
(16) Tonight (Rank: 23,669)
(17) DERAM Anthology (Rank: 28,533)
(18) Crash Course For The Ravers: Tribute (Rank: 29,632)
(19) David Bowie (Rank: 33,027)
(20) Singles Collection 2 (Rank: 37,340)
(21) Forgotten Songs of David Jones (Rank: 37,568)
(22) Ashes to Ashes - Tribute (Rank: 38,959)
(23) Never Let Me Down (Rank: 40,397)
(24) Early On (1964-1969) (Rank: 44,016)
(25) Singles Collection 1 (Rank: 68,315)
(26) Interview (Rank: 117,762)
(27) Santa Monica '72 (Rank: 161,136)
In case you're confused by the presence of three separate Singles
Collections on the Amazon chart, well, so am I. The one at #13 is
listed as an import double CD, so it presumably is EMI's version of
The Singles Collection. The other two are listed as recent single CD
releases, also on import. Has EMI broken the Singles Collection up
into two different single CD releases somewhere?
__________________________________________
MOVIE NEWS
- Everybody Loves Sunshine, the UK gangster flick starring Bowie and
Goldie will be officially released in Tokyo this month, and in Osaka
next month. The film had previously played at film festivals in Japan
last year, but this will be the first general public release, albeit
only in one theatre in each city.
The film is also set to be shown at the Brussels' International
Festival Of Fantasy, Thriller and Science Fiction Films. Scheduled for
12th March - 27th March and the Salerno Film Festival in Southern
Italy on 21st April to 25th April.
- A new documentary film on LA scenemaker/DJ Rodney Bingenheimer is
set to premiere at next year's Sundance Festival, and will include
exclusive photos and audio of Bowie during his first visit to the US.
Rodney Bingenheimer worked in Los Angeles for Mercury records when
Bowie made his trip to the US in early 1971 to promote the release of
The Man Who Sold The World on the Mercury label. Bingenheimer was
given the task of taking Bowie around town and entertaining "this
strange guy from England who wore a dress".
In an interview with Teenage Wildlife, Chris Carter, writer/producer
of the film, noted that amongst the footage are photos and audio of
Bowie playing acoustic versions of After All and All The Madmen while
sitting cross-legged on the floor of Tom Ayres' Hollywood Hills living
room. Later in the year, Bingenheimer travelled to England and was
present at many of the Hunky Dory recording sessions, from which he
has many personal photos of David and what would become the Spiders.
David encouraged Bingenheimer to open a club when he returned to LA,
and so "Rodney's English Disco" was born. Famous for its ability to
attract celebrities (Elvis Presley, Alice Cooper, Iggy Pop as well as
David Bowie used to frequent the club) as well as infamous for its
steady population of teenage girls in platform shoes, mini skirts,
tube tops and boas, the club was the place to be seen if you were into
"glitter rock" in the early 70s. After its closure in 1974,
Bingenheimer went on to become a KROQ DJ, introducing Los Angeles to
young startup bands who would often become legends, such as The Clash,
The Sex Pistols, Adam and the Ants, Van Halen and Duran Duran.
Included in the film is an interview with Bowie shot in 1997 after the
KROQ Christmas show in which Bowie reminisces about those early 70s.
Carter started working on the project over 5 years ago, and together
with director George Hickenlooper (writer of the acclaimed Hearts of
Darkness - A Filmmaker's Apocalypse), the two set out to chronicle the
strange and sometimes sad story of Bingenheimer. Carter expects the
film to come in at just under 2 hours length and go into a small
art-house film release after its showing at the Sundance Festival
2000. There will also be a soundtrack, for which Carter is trying his
hardest to include at least one of Bowie's acoustic guitar versions.
Look for it next year.
- Teenage Wildlife reports that a demonstration by federal blue collar
workers outside Montreal's LeClerc prison got out of hand yesterday
when a van carrying two prison employees taking pictures of the 500
demonstrators was flipped over. No injuries were reported. This
otherwise routine news report on Montreal's TV station CFCF 12 added
the following note:
"Rockstar David Bowie was filming a video in the prison at the time,
but the filming was not interupted by the dispute.
So what was Bowie doing filming inside the prison? It's almost
certainly the production of the cable television series The Hunger
which we reported last year would be filmed in Montreal.
- Fame is being used as backing music for some of the promos for a new
movie called EdTV, directed by Ron Howard. Also, Under Pressure is
used during the opening titles of the movie Stepmom.
__________________________________________
ART NEWS
- David Bowie and Iman are listed as the Honorary Exhibition Chairs
for the current show, Love: Error and Eros, at the American Visionary
Art Museum in Baltimore.
__________________________________________
BOWIENET NEWS
- The next chat guest appearing will be avant-garde performance artist
Joey Arias on Thursday, 18th March at 11.00pm GMT / 6.00 pm EST. The
last guests were the very entertaining Boy George (transcript at
http://www.bowiewonderworld.com/chats/dbchatbg0299.htm), Eddie Izzard
(http://www.bowiewonderworld.com/chats/dbchatizzard0299.htm), a rather
chaotic free-for-all starring Mike Garson
(http://www.bowiewonderworld.com/chats/dbchatgarson0299.htm) and Ronan
Keating (http://www.bowiewonderworld.com/chats/dbchatronan0199.htm)
__________________________________________
OTHER NEWS
- Little Wonderworld reports that next Friday 12th March is Comic
Relief Day, and hints and rumours abound that Bowie will appear being
interviewed by Alan Partridge played by the Steve Coogan.
On the Jo Whiley show this week, the producer of Comic Relief when
asked which big names were appearing in this year appeal mentioned
David Bowie.
- In what promises to be the largest poll of musical tastes of all
time, the Music Of The Millenium survey is now taking votes through a
number of means, including via their Website. To register your vote
for the music and musicians that mean the most to you, get yourself
along to http://www.motm.co.uk
- A number of online sites have been speculating that Bowie may be
offered a Knighthood soon. Meanwhile, the Berklee College of Music
will confer an honorary doctorate degree on David Bowie for his
contribution to music in their Spring commencement ceremony.
Recipients must have made contributions with "enduring qualities that
define the musical era in which they played a leading role". Berklee
is considered to be one of the most prestigious schools of music in
the USA. (Reeves Gabrels was educated at Berklee). Former honorees
include Paul Simon, Pat Metheny, Arif Mardin, Henry Mancini, George
Martin, BB King, Herbie Hancock, Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie and Duke
Ellington.
- The Mini designed by DAVID BOWIE is on show at the Design Museum
(Shad Thames, London SW1 2YD. Tel: 0171 465 7059) in London from 9th
February till 9th May.
- Bowie is now a regular book reviewer at the barnesandnoble.com site,
and this month is critiquing "Most Art Sucks: Five Years Of Coagula"
by Walter Robinson and Tom Patchett. Last month Bowie reviewed Barney
Hoskyn's "Glam". Bowie will write two reviews per month for the site.
- The INTERNATIONAL DAVID BOWIE FAN CLUB will have its annual fan
meeting on MARCH 14th in De Meern (Near Utrecht), Holland.
The meeting will be from 13.00 till 18.00
What to expect this year:
-- Merchandise: Dealers from Holland and England will sell CD's,
Singles, LP's, Magazines, Video's, Books, Posters etc. etc.
-- Free Market Place: Here you can swap your own Bowie material.
-- Video's in the movie theatre.
-- Great lottery with a lot of Bowie prices.
-- "The Shop" from The Voyeur.
-- Live Bowie music from the band "The Madmen".
-- Exhibition: The original hat that Bowie wore during "The Man Who
Fell To Earth" and more.
- And of course, meet other Bowie fans.
Place:
Cultureel Centrum Azotod, Meerendijk 126, De Meern (near Utrecht)
Admission:
Members: Fl. 7,50 (you can bring 1 guest who pays the same price).
Others: Fl.12, 50
Every visitor gets a nice surprise, while stock lasts!
How to get there:
By car: Take the A12 exit De Meern
By bus: From station Utrecht take bus 180 to Gouda. The bus goes
11.50, 12.20, 12,50 13.20 etc.
Information at The Voyeur web site
http://huizen.daxis.nl/wopereis/TheVoyeur.htm
- Over 1000 Italian Bowie-fanatics crowded into the Rock Cafe last
month to celebrate the 3rd Italian Bowie Bash, organised by
LovingTheAlien.com and fanzine Velvet Goldmine. Attendees were treated
to a night of Bowie cover bands, an Internet viewing terminal, and DJs
spinning Bowie tunes until 5 in the morning. One of the biggest Bowie
bashes ever was treated to a special message from Bowie himself:
"To all my Italian friends - thank you so much for having this
wonderful gathering - your 3rd annual Bowie Bash. I hope all the
attendees who are members of BowieNet are having as much fun as myself
and the BowieNet gang and that 1999 will be a personal best year for
all of us. There will be a lot of surprises as the year progresses -
both on the Internet and outside the technology walls, keep an eye
out! Have a great day and your support is truly
appreciated.........DB."
- Another fan get-together is being organised by Jennifer, aka
BabyGrace, who sends this message:
"I will be having my 18th birthday/high school graduation party in
mid-May 1999. It will be all Bowie (movies, music, interviews, etc.).
If you are between 16 and 20 (or think you would enjoy the party
anyway) and are in the Houston, TX USA area please email me. I'd love
for you all to come by! Love on ya..."
- The UK Mirror newspaper entertainment editor Matthew Wright has
launched a campaign to have the Bowie/Placebo duet recorded and
released for charity. He urges people to contact him via email at
matthew.wright@mirror.co.uk or by phone at 01712933950.
- Mazda is using Rebel Rebel as backing music throughout the entire 30
seconds for its new "rebellious" car image. It appears to be a session
band's rerecording of the song rather than Bowie's original.
- UK ARENA on Cable and Sky Digital are repeating two Bowie
documentaries, the BBC programmes BOWIE AT 50 and the classic CRACKED
ACTOR several times this month starting on Friday 12th March at
9.35pm.
- Other forthcoming Bowie TV and radio:
Mar 11, 00.35 GMT Virgin Soldiers ITV, UK
Mar 14, 21:00 ET, Absolute Beginners, Trio, USA
March 16, 12:45, Basquiat, Cinemax, Brazil
March 21, 15:00, Basquiat, Cinemax, Brazil
__________________________________________
END CREDITS
- As ever, the three best sources of Web info for Bowie news are
Teenage Wildlife (http://www.teenagewildlife.com/), Bassman
(http.//www.algonet.se/~bassman/BOWIE.html) and Little Wonderworld
(http://www.bowiewonderworld.com/). The latter has been selected as a
Surfers Choice Top 100 for 1998. Go along to the site and vote for it
in the awards.
- 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 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.
- 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 with intelligent fan viewpoint that is not afraid to
be critical, album reviews and a wealth of intelligent essays.
- And finally, a reminder that you can vote for Bowie in the Music Of
The Millenium survey at http://www.motm.co.uk
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