Bowies

David Bowie‘s Ziggy Stardust era will be chronicled in the new box set Rock ‘n’ Roll Star!, out June 14 via Parlophone Records. The 5-CD, Blu-Ray audio set tracks the late rock star’s creation of the Ziggy Stardust character, the release of 1972’s The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, and the many U.K. radio sessions and TV appearances Bowie’s famous alter ego participated in. The collection includes 29 unreleased tracks, from demos to outtakes to live performances. Highlights…

This honest and troubled memoir belongs to a genre one may shorthand as I-was-Sinatra’s-valet: how an ordinary day jobber encountered a star and found life glitteringly transformed. Here it’s a 21-year-old hairdresser, Suzi Fussey, living at home with her parents in Bromley, south-east London, and working at a salon in neighbouring (“posher”) Beckenham. One day in 1970 a customer, Mrs Jones, mentions her “artistic” son, David, who plays in a band; the following week, she brings in David’s wife, Angie, who wants a haircut…

Ian Hunter, lead vocals, pianoWe were losing money and Island Records were losing patience with us. They booked us to play the Gaskessel in Berne, Switzerland, which is basically a gas tank. We were so fed up we decided to split up, then had a great time on the trip home because all the tension was gone and we were done.Our bass player Pete Overend Watts called David Bowie to ask for a job playing bass, because David was putting together his band. Then Pete rang me to say: “Bowie doesn’t want us to split up. He’s got a…

To mark what would have been David Bowie’s 77th birthday today, Wilco have shared their live rendition of the music icon’s “Space Oddity.” The cover was recorded during the band’s visit to Mountain Stage, NPR Music, and West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s long-running live radio show and features as the opening track on an upcoming compilation highlighting performances from the series. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j45bb5balc “As a gratefully, if not begrudgingly, Earth-bound band, it’s always an…

You have one of the greatest flows in the history of hip-hop. How have you developed the rhythmic aspect of it? Any similarities with free jazz? BaroqsaverioPeople have always made a point of highlighting the uniqueness of my flow patterns, which is beautiful to hear. Big Daddy Kane talks about how he heard me use between seven and 10 different flows on one song. Listen: I don’t do it intentionally! I don’t write my songs until I hear the music, as I want my flow to truly marry the music. Therefore, one flow I do for one…

This Thursday marks 50 years since David Bowie’s Life on Mars? was released as a single. A cornucopia of surreal images, a musical soap opera to float away with, it still regularly appears in lists of the greatest ever Bowie songs – and indeed lists of the greatest songs by anyone.Trying to deconstruct this tale starring mice, Mickey Mouse and a mousy-haired girl, is about as easy as getting to Mars itself. I should know as I cycled one of the song’s lyrics – “from Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads” – pedalling 2,700 miles in…

Robin Scott, singer, songwriter, producerI had been a singer-songwriter in David Bowie’s Beckenham Arts Lab, and ended up working with my old art school friend Malcolm McLaren as punk started happening. I was in Paris making a live recording of the Slits when someone said: “Why don’t you do something yourself?” I asked an engineer if there was any downtime at the studio so I could lay down some ideas.Pop Muzik started as a three-chord guitar strum. I tried rhythm, blues and funk versions before remembering that a friend,…

Starman – Bowie’s Stardust Years Cartoonist: Reinhard KleistColoring: Thomas Gilke and Reinhard KleistPublisher: SelfMadeHeroPublication Date: May 2023  I’ve written about this before, but David Bowie has many things in common with a common book character. A history of colorful outfits, a striking personage, a list of alter-egos, neatly divided eras of his career, an outsized reputation, and the list goes on and on. As such, Bowie has been the subject of many books and graphic novels, several in recent years. There was…

The famous flash of lightning across David Bowie’s closed eyelid was a tiny emblem gracing the rock star’s cheekbone until the celebrated photographer Brian Duffy stepped in.“He told the makeup artist ‘No, no, not like that’,” said the photographer’s son, Chris. So Duffy grabbed some lipstick to draw an outline of a much bigger flash … and Aladdin Sane was born.The photograph is the centrepiece of an exhibition celebrating the 50th anniversary of the 1973 Bowie album that was released with 100,000 advance orders, taking…

David Bowie’s handwritten lyrics to his 1972 song Starman have sold for more than £200,000 (A$334,958) at auction, five times their estimated sale price.The song featured on his fifth album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, which propelled the musician to international rock and pop stardom.The handwritten lyrics, which were originally estimated to fetch up to £40,000 (A$66,991) sold for £203,500 (A$340,819), including buyer’s premium.The lyrics to David Bowie’s Starman. Photograph: Omega…