• On this day, 52 years ago, DAVID BOWIE performed two gigs at the Tower Theatre, Philadelphia, USA in 1973...

• On this day, 53 years ago, DAVID BOWIE performed at Sheffield University in 1972...

Recollections of the 1972 Sheffield University gig...

DR. JURIJ PARASZCZAK (BSc Chemistry 1973, PhD Chemistry 1977).

"One [performer I remember] was the as yet relatively unknown David Bowie. He came into the Lower Refectory, long before the concert, to test out the sound system. As the evening folded over the refectory and darkness came through from the tall glass wall, someone from our lights' team targeted a spotlight on him and from the moment that he sat down on one of those laminated chairs in the middle of the stage all the hubbub of people going to take showers, passing through the refectory to the Union building, ceased. David Bowie commanded attention and it was obvious that he was unique and important to listen to. He came to the University on 18 February 1972."

BARRY EVERARD (owner of Record Collector in Broomhill).

"I was on the entertainment committee and very excited that he'd been booked. He was not scheduled to go on until about 1.30am. I was quite shocked to get into the room to find a guy manning the bar, and standing next to it four rather drunken lecturers chatting up four slightly inebriated girl students. I found myself the only member of the audience paying him any attention. It was amazing that somebody who would later be so central, and vital, in music, I had a virtual one-to-one with. When every David Bowie album came out, it was an event."

GLENN GREGORY (Heaven 17 and Woody Woodmansey's Holy Holy).

"I was about 12 when I first started listening to Bowie along with Bolan (Tyrannosaurus Rex) as well as bands like The Sweet and even Slade, I was a budding Glam Rocker, but Bowie's music always seemed to me to be something extra terrestrial. Words and meanings and hidden in poetic strangeness allowing personal interpretation and perfect for an impressionable eager music listener like me.

"I met Martin Ware and Ian Craig Marsh when I was about 14 and we had identical musical tastes. Bowie being one of the artists we were all most interested in. We found out that he was playing live at Sheffield University but that we were unable to get to see the gig, as you had to be a member of the Student Union to get in!

"However this did not deter us. With the aid of, can you believe it, a John Bull children's printing set and a trip to Boots in town to use the photo booth we set about making fake Student Union ID's. Actually, they were quite good and not only did they get us into the Bowie gig, we carried on using them for quite some time and saw some other amazing bands there. But I can honestly say none touched me as much as seeing David Bowie on stage that first time. It was a life changing experience. It made me want to part of the music industry, buy a pair of sky blue dungarees and dye my hair blue, it made me want to be David Bowie. Now all this time later I have the chance to live a boyhood dream."

Looking through various worldwide charts, here's a round-up on what's happening for DAVID BOWIE this week.

Legacy still remains in the UK Albums Top 100 chart, this week placed at #71, making it a total of 430 weeks on the UK Album chart, which is an incredible 8.2 years!

The same album is also place at #72 in the UK Official Albums Chart Update and #60 in the UK Official Albums Streaming Chart.

Over in Greece, in their current Official IFPI Charts - Top Albums Sales Chart (Week: 06/2025), Bowie has two albums in the chart, namely The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars at #74 and "Heroes" makes an appearance at #88.

On this day, 51 years ago, DAVID BOWIE released his anthemic 'Rebel Rebel' single in 1974.

Originally scheduled for release on 1st February, it was delayed by two weeks. The RCA music press advertisement stated: 'A Valentine Day Release', but in reality it was available the following day.

Despite no official promotional video or live appearance on Top Of The Pops, the song entered UK charts at #6 on 17th February, (one place behind Lulu's cover of 'The Man Who Sold The World'), and the following week (24th) it climbed one place to peak at #5, where it remained for another week.

The single was "played" twice on Top Of The Pops 28th February and 7th March. In case you were wondering, no we didn't get the now famous AVRO Toppop Dutch TV show performance.

David was scheduled to perform live on Top Of The Pops on 21st February, but was unable to appear. Earlier on 18th February, Robin Nash (TOTP producer) contacted Ronnie Fowler (head of EMI promotion) stating that he urgently needed a live replacement. So we got an unknown band named Queen performing 'Seven Seas Of Rhye' instead.

The single spent a total of 7 weeks on the Top 50 UK Singles Chart.

#6 - 17th Feb / #5 - 24th Feb / #5 - 3rd March / #13 - 10th March / #16 - 17th March / #36 - 24th March / #47 - 31st March.

• The DAVID BOWIE classic 1971 song CHANGES has received the next upgrade in the BRIT Certified Awards Programme. On 7th February 2025 it attained PLATINUM status...

• DAVID BOWIE's 'Modern Love' features on the Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy movie soundtrack. This fourth film in the franchise includes tunes by Nina Simone, Robbie Williams and Dinah Washington, among others. The movie hits UK cinemas on Thursday (February 13th)...

• Performing on Saturday 15th February is KEVIN ARMSTRONG: Absolute Beginner - A One-Man Show at The Hertford Club, Bull Plain, Hertford SG14 1DT, England. More details and tickets - [HERE]...

• Featured in MUSIC WEEK is an interview by Karen Bliss with Riverman Management's ALEX WESTON on thirty-five years in the industry working with Placebo, Nirvana, DAVID BOWIE and more. The Riverman Management founders Alex Weston and Dave McLean were awarded the title of Managers' Manager at the A&MAs.

Q: Can you share an memories of the band working with David Bowie?

"We did quite a lot with him. It was '96. David heard about Placebo from a demo tape from our agent, Steve Strange, at the time. Morrissey pulled out of supporting him and he asked Placebo. Placebo were pulling 40 people in clubs in London and we said yes, obviously. It was just the three boys, myself, and the tour manager, driver, sound guy and we went and played arenas with him. It was spectacular and incredible to have him spend time with the band and give them the benefit of his experience and encouragement. He was so encouraging. He did a lot of work with him. He came on stage with the band at two shows in New York. They did 20th Century Boy on stage at the BRITs. We played his 50th birthday party at Madison Square Garden in New York.

"We did a single with him, which was the second album title track, Without You I'm Nothing. It wasn't a single but he called up one day and just said, 'I love this track, I want to put it out as a single, I've written a vocal harmony'... 'Well, the album's already been out, David,' and he said, 'I really want to do this,' and we were like, 'Well, okay.' We're not gonna say no to that. So, we flew to New York and walked into the studio, [there's] Tony Visconti. That was the first time we heard what he'd done. He was in the vocal box. He was just singing it and we all just sat there mouths wide open, going, 'Oh my God, this is amazing.' We eventually put that track out as a single, but the label at the time, Hut, decided not to make it chart eligible for some extraordinary reason, but it would have been No.1."

You can read the complete interview via the musicweek.com website...

• Happy Birthday wishes to ★ bass guitarist TIM LEFEBVRE - have a fabulous day...

• Sending Happy Birthday greetings to Spiders From Mars drummer WOODY WOODMANSEY - wishing you all the very best...

Check out the latest episode of the DAVID BOWIE AlbumToAlbum podcast which is available now.

In this final episode, ARSALAN MOHAMMAD talks with NICHOLAS PEGG about the Tonight album.

Nicholas Pegg and Arsalan are back for the final instalment of their three-part extravaganza about David Bowie's 1984 album 'Tonight' and it's a good one - you'll have never heard anyone explore the joys of 'Tumble And Twirl', 'I Keep Forgettin' and 'Dancing With The Big Boys' in quite such vivid detail before.

In making this series of episodes, Arsalab has changed his mind about 'Tonight' to some extent.

Listen in here: audioboom.com.

Check out all the previous podcasts here or via your favourite streaming service.

Two of the upcoming OMEGA AUCTIONS sales this month feature plenty of DAVID BOWIE items to pique your interest.

First up is THE BILL ALLERTON COLLECTION taking place on 11th February, which features several Bowie items, including: TMWSTW LP 'Tonny' version, Bowie/Bolan at the Beeb complete set of transcription discs, promotional photographs, press kits, contact sheets and a sheet music collection.

The Bill Allerton Collection - Part One / Date: 11th February at 9:00 GMT.

Check out all the David Bowie items in this sale - [HERE].

This is followed by the big two-day auction taking place on 25th/26th February...

Day 1: Audio Equipment and Music Memorabilia - Lot: 1 to 599 - 25th February at 9:00 GMT

Day 2: Rare & Collectable Vinyl Records - Lot: 600 to 1700 - 26th February at 9:00 GMT

You can view all the Bowie items in this 2-day sale - [HERE].

Bowie highlights include:

LOT 568: DAVID BOWIE - CIRCA 1960s TAPE RECORDING WITH UNRELEASED TRACK 'GOING DOWN'

A reel of AKAI 1/4" audio tape on a plastic spool (5" diameter), containing recordings made circa 1967/68 including a version of unreleased David Bowie track 'Going Down'. The tape contains recordings made with a microphone from original vinyl/acetates circa 1967/68, with one side of the tape containing Bowie songs including 'Everything Is You' (likely an unreleased version), 'Going Down', 'Love You Till Tuesday', 'Over The Wall We Go', 'She's Got Medals', 'Uncle Arthur', 'Come And Buy My Toys', 'Sell Me A Coat', 'Rubber Band', 'Love You Till Tuesday','There Is A Happy Land'.

Box with handwritten text to front 'From Bowie' and to verso 'From David Bowie'. Note a splice to the tape - does not affect 'Going Down'.

The second side of the tape contains recordings of songs by Alexis Korner and others.

Provenance: Given to the vendor by a life-long friend, who had lived with David Bowie during the 1960s when they were working at NEMS for Brian Epstein. The original owner was gifted this tape by Bowie during the time they were living together.

This item is sold as an artefact only, without copyright. Any reproduction is strictly prohibited.

Estimate: £3,000 - £5,000

LOT 582: DAVID BOWIE - THREE ORIGINAL TRIDENT STUDIOS TAPES WITH 'DRIVE IN SATURDAY' RECORDINGS.

Three boxed reels of 1/4 Emitape, each with an original Trident Studios label. The tapes include studio recordings made by David Bowie in January and December 1972, produced by Ken Scott. Tape one (1st Jan 1972) tracklist is 'All The Young Dudes', 'Drive In Saturday', 'Prettiest Star' - note that 'Drive In Saturday' is marked 'Re-make'. Tape two (17th December 1972) is marked as a master reel and tracklist is 'Drive In Saturday' and 'The Prettiest Star'. Tape three bears a trimmed Trident label and is dated 16th Jan 1972 with only a recording of 'Drive In Saturday'.

These items are sold as artefacts only, without copyright. Any reproduction is strictly prohibited.

Estimate: £2,000 - £4,000 GBP.

Please visit Omega Auctions for more details and information on their omegaauctions.co.uk website.

Tickets for the DUBLIN BOWIE FESTIVAL 2025 are on sale now!

Taking place later this month on 26th February until 2nd March this year's festival celebrates 50 years of Young Americans.

Festival highlights include:

For more details, information and tickets, please visit dublinbowiefestival.ie website.

For those of you who use FACEBOOK - check out the private DAVID BOWIE WONDERWORLD Group.

Feel free to join in with the other 98,000 plus members, add yourself and invite your Bowie fan friends. You never know what might get posted, or who you might meet...

RECORD STORE DAY 2025 sees the release of DAVID BOWIE - READY, SET, GO! (LIVE, RIVERSIDE STUDIOS '03) on a limited 14-track double vinyl LP, as well as on CD.

Parlophone Records is proud to announce the release of a very special David Bowie limited double vinyl LP and CD READY, SET, GO! (LIVE, RIVERSIDE STUDIOS' 03) which will be released on 12th April, 2024, for Record Store Day.

On 8th September, 2003, David Bowie made history at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, London, with the biggest ever live and interactive music satellite event the world had seen to that point. The special one-off live concert was beamed simultaneously to fans in 86 cinemas in 26 countries, from Hong Kong to Helsinki, and 14 screens in Paris alone were dedicated to the show.

Bowie and his band unveiled the first-ever live performance of his new album REALITY, released a week later. Now, for the first time, the eleven-song main set, the REALITY album in its entirety, plus three previously unreleased tracks from the encore, will be available on double vinyl and single CD exclusively for Record Store Day 2025.

The event marked many firsts in technological terms; it was the biggest ever non-TV satellite broadcast, the first ever interactive cinema event via a Q&A element hosted by Bowie fan and broadcaster Jonathan Ross and the first live satellite event in 5.1 DTS surround sound, which was overseen by long-time collaborator, Tony Visconti.

The precedent-setting event also went live across Asia a day later with a live Q&A between David and fans in Japan, Australia, Singapore, and Southeast Asia. The event was also beamed to North and South America, and Canada the day the album was released, with David doing brand new live Q&A sessions for those broadcasts.

DAVID BOWIE - READY, SET, GO! (LIVE, RIVERSIDE STUDIOS '03)

2LP

Side 1
New Killer Star
Pablo Picasso
Never Get Old

Side 2
The Loneliest Guy
Looking For Water
She'll Drive The Big Car

Side 3
Days
Fall Dog Bombs The Moon
Try Some, Buy Some
Reality

Side 4
Bring Me The Disco King
Hallo Spaceboy
Cactus
Afraid

CD
New Killer Star
Pablo Picasso
Never Get Old
The Loneliest Guy
Looking For Water
She'll Drive The Big Car
Days
Fall Dog Bombs The Moon
Try Some, Buy Some
Reality
Bring Me The Disco King
Hallo Spaceboy
Cactus
Afraid

Produced by David Bowie and Tony Visconti.

Vocal, Guitar: David Bowie
Keyboards: Mike Garson
Bass, Vocals: Gail Ann Dorsey
Guitars: Earl Slick
Guitars, Vocals: Gerry Leonard
Drums: Sterling Campbell
Keyboards, Guitar, Vocals: Catherine Russell

DAVID BOWIE - READY, SET, GO! (LIVE, RIVERSIDE STUDIOS '03)

LIMITED 14-TRACK VINYL DOUBLE ALBUM & CD RELEASED BY PARLOPHONE EXCLUSIVELY FOR RECORD STORE DAY 12th APRIL, 2025

• CARLOS ALOMAR presents THE D.A.M. TRILOGY Tour 2025 begins 7th November with performances in Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, Switzerland, France, Belgium, England, Scotland and Ireland. Tickets go on sale 31st January - more details

• The DAVID BOWIE CENTRE opens on 13th September at V&A East Storehouse, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Stratford, London E20 - more details

• DAVID BOWIE IS: FOREVER AND EVER by VICTORIA BROACKES and GEOFFREY MARSH, paperback, 320-pages - to be published on 11th September - more details

• FAR ABOVE THE WORLD: THE TIME AND SPACE OF DAVID BOWIE by PAUL MORLEY, hardcover, Kindle, 320-pages - to be published on 4th September - more details

• DAVID BOWIE BY DENIS O'REGAN: FROM THE MAN WHO PHOTOGRAPHED HIM MOST by DENIS O'REGAN, hardcover, 300-pages - to be published on 3rd July - more details

• 13th ANNUAL BOWIE FAN CHARITY EVENT a night of live music plus auction and raffle at The Water Rats, 328 Grays Inn Road, Kings Cross, London WC1X 8BZ, England on 14th June - more details

• TONY VISCONTI and WOODY WOODMANSEY - HOLY HOLY featuring GLENN GREGORY - A Celebration of Bowie, gigs at O2 Academy venues in London, Leeds, Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle, Oxford, Bristol, Liverpool, Bournemouth between 15th May and 6th June - pre-sale tickets 15th Jan and general sale at 10am 17th Jan - more details

• LAZARUS stage play written by DAVID BOWIE and ENDA WALSH, directed by Valter Malosti, starring Manuel Agnelli and Casadilego at Teatro della Pergola, Via della Pergola 5 - 50121 Firenze (FI), Italy on 24th, 25th, 26th, 27th April - more details

• Record Store Day 2025 - DAVID BOWIE - READY, SET, GO! (LIVE, RIVERSIDE STUDIOS '03) Double Vinyl LP and CD releases for RSD 2025 on 12th April - more details

• BOWIE ODYSSEY 75 by SIMON GODDARD, paperback, 192-pages, to be published on 3rd April - more details

• BOWIELAND: WALKING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF DAVID by PETER CARPENTER, hardcover 320-pages - to be published on 27th March - more details

• STYLES CODES: DAVID BOWIE: A Guide to Dressing Like a Fashion Icon by NATALIE HAMMOND, hardcover, 192-pages, to be published on 25th March - more details

• WHERE ARE WE NOW DAVID BOWIE? by RICHARD PURDEN, paperback, 280-pages, to be published on 21st March - more details

• The 9th CONVENTION BOWIE FRANCE 2025 takes place on 16th March at La Java, 105 Rue du Faubourg du Temple, 75010 Paris, France - more details

• YOUNG AMERICANS 50th Anniversary limited edition vinyl releases - half-speed master vinyl LP and picture disc LP - both released on 7th March.

• The DUBLIN BOWIE FESTIVAL 2025 takes place on 26th February until 2nd March celebrating 50 years of Young Americans, with live music, talks, screenings, exhibitions, theatre and lots more. To stay up to date with news and info subscribe to their newsletter where you will have first access to tickets and exclusives - more details

• BOWIE ODYSSEY at Faversham Literary Festival 2025, Simon Goddard Q&A with Mark Stay at Faversham Assembly Rooms, 64 Preston St, Faversham ME13 8PG, Kent, England on 22nd February at 5pm-6pm. Tickets £10 - more details

• DAVID BOWIE - THE YEAR OF THE SCAVENGER luxury collector's book from MAYAK PUBLISHING covering the 1974 period - coming soon - mayakpublishing.co.uk

DAVID BOWIE 1983 TO 2016 ON TRACK: EVERY ALBUM, EVERY SONG by DON KLEES, paperback, 176-pages - published on 30th January - more details

Exclusive DAVID BOWIE lino-cut print available to PURCHASE - don't hang around, these are ALL the remaining original left-over stock from 40 years ago, once they've gone, they've gone!