The exhibition DAVID BOWIE IN THE SOVIET UNION opens at the WENDE MUSEUM in Culver City, California, USA next month and runs through until October.

Geoff MacCormack was one of David Bowie's oldest and closest friends. Starting in 1973, he joined Bowie on his tours as singer, percussionist, dancer, and photographer. As Bowie preferred not to fly, they travelled together by boat, train, and road.

Later in 1973 they undertook a journey from Yokohama, Japan, back to England, traveling through the Soviet Union with the Trans-Siberian Express. MacCormack's photos show Bowie unguarded, documenting their close friendship and shared sense of adventure. While on the train, they participated in drinking sessions with sailors and soldiers, meeting fans and tourists, and providing impromptu performances.

The exhibition, guest curated by Olya Sova, also includes David Bowie's film 'The Long Way Home', which documents various stages of their trip on the train, including their time in Moscow during the May Day Parade.

'David Bowie in the Soviet Union' is generously supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

Admission: The Wende Museum re-opens at 11 a.m. on Saturday, April 1st.
Admission is FREE for all exhibitions and public programmes.

Opening times:
Saturday, April 1 - 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Sunday, April 2 - 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Monday and Tuesday - Closed.
Wednesday and Thursday - Open for school tours only
Friday, Saturday and Sunday - 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Directions:
10808 Culver Blvd., Culver City, CA 90230
The Wende Museum is located in Culver City's arts and culture corridor near the intersection of Culver Blvd. and Overland Ave.

For more details and information, please visit: wendemuseum.org

Geoff's excellent new book David Bowie: Rock 'n' Roll With Me was published this week. Highly recommended!

This is the final instalment from LEAH KARDOS who is analysing the song 'I Can't Give Everything Away' by DAVID BOWIE on her YouTube channel.

Leah's essential book is entitled: Blackstar Theory: The Last Works of David Bowie', which is available in most bookshops all over the world.

Please subscribe, follow and click for updates on her YT channel on mylithiumandme which covers Bowie songs from the 2013-2016 period.

Burt Sugarman's THE MIDNIGHT SPECIAL official YouTube channel has another DAVID BOWIE song from 'The 1980 Floor Show' uploaded onto their channel.

At present there are now seven songs online, expect 'Everything's Alight' to follow:

1984/Dodo medley / Sorrow / Space Oddity / I Can't Explain / Time / The Jean Genie / I Got You Babe (with Marianne Faithfull)

Heads up... you didn't it from me, I've heard that the complete show is "coming soon".

• On this day, 10 years ago DAVID BOWIE released The Next Day album.

Initially released in twelve countries, The Next Day was available in various formats... Audio CD Deluxe Edition / Audio CD / Vinyl [2 LPs] digital and then later the Exclusive Japanese Blu-spec CD2.

If you never bought this album, it would make complete sense to purchase the later November 2013 release The Next Day Extra Collectors Edition 3-disc Box Set, which features more songs, remixes and a DVD featuring 4 promo videos.

• On this day, 58 years ago, DAVID BOWIE (aka Davy Jones) performed his first ever musical television appearance with The Manish Boys, when they appeared on 'Gadzooks! It's All Happening', which aired on BBC2 on March 8th 1965. The band performed their debut single 'I Pity The Fool'.

Other guests on the show included: Peter Cooke, Dorris Henderson, The Three Bells, Adrienne Poster and The Mike Leander Combo featuring The Beat Girls.

In the Radio Times dated 8th March 1965 it stated: The Producer of Gadzooks, Barry Langford, is taking great care to keep his show up to date. "I'm not booking far ahead," he explains. "I'm waiting to hear the releases before I engage the artists. The scene is changing so fast that some of the guests will come as a 'complete surprise.' Davy Jones and the Manish Boys, who are appearing tonight, are likely to come into this category."

Little known outside the London clubs, they cut their first disc on March 5th, and their main claim to fame at present is that they have produced another 'new sound.' It is the 'sax sound,' and the group contains two tenor saxophones (one played by Davy Jones himself), a baritone sax, a lead guitar, bass guitar, organ, and drums. All the boys come from Maidstone in Kent - except for eighteen-year-old Davy, who hails from Bromley.

David's then manager Les Conn got some excellent wide press coverage with a spoof publicity story about the BBC not allowing David to appear on the show without him first getting his hair cut.

The story, some complete with photos David in a hairnet got national coverage and appeared in The Daily Mail, The Daily Mirror, Daily Telegraph, The Sun and local press Kent Messenger.

For those of you old enough not to remember... 'Gadzooks! It's All Happening' was a sequel to producer Barry Langford's 'Beat Room' and offered top pop acts as well as the dance troupe The Beat Girls. The show presenters were Alan David and Christine Holmes. The title changed five months or so later to 'Gadzooks! It's the In Crowd' when I'm reliably informed that Lulu co-presented the show for a short while. Later it was shortened to just Gadzooks! Alas no known shows are thought to remain in the BBC archives.

Oh and here's one for the real trivia buffs out there... actor Robert Powell's wife was one of the original Beat Girls dancers.

Burt Sugarman's THE MIDNIGHT SPECIAL is now back! It's been 50 years since the first season of The Midnight Special and now they are back via their official YouTube channel

The Midnight Special was an American late-night musical variety series originally broadcast on NBC during the 1970s and early 1980s, created and produced by Burt Sugarman.

Check out the DAVID BOWIE The 1980 Floor Show footage they've uploaded onto their channel.

At present there are six songs online, expect a couple more to follow:

Sorrow / Space Oddity / I Can't Explain / Time / The Jean Genie / I Got You Babe (with Marianne Faithfull)

From The Midnight Special YouTube channel

Published next Monday is the eagerly awaited memoir by GEOFF MACCORMACK titled: 'DAVID BOWIE: ROCK 'N' ROLL WITH ME'.

This hardback, containing 240-pages, is published on Monday 13th March.

David Bowie: Rock 'n' Roll With Me is Geoff MacCormack's remarkable photographic memoir, charting his lifelong friendship with David Bowie. Images bring MacCormack's stories to life, showing the places he and Bowie inhabited, the people they met and the adventures they shared. Beginning at Burnt Ash Primary school in the mid-1950s, the years go by in a whirlwind of discovering and making music.

The book contains nearly 150 photos taken by MacCormack throughout the years, some never seen before: from touring the Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane shows and sailing to New York on a world tour, to Bowie's first major film The Man Who Fell To Earth and the recording of Station To Station and his Thin White Duke persona. David Bowie: Rock 'n' Roll with Me is an incredible story, told with wit and candour. A must for all Bowie fans, it sheds a rare insight into a friendship where two men shared their love for music from the moment they met to their final goodbyes.

Geoff MacCormack, David Bowie's lifelong friend, joined Bowie's 1973 world tour as an additional back-up vocalist and percussionist, and later as a 'Diamond Dog' in '74 and what would be known as 'The Young Americans Soul Tour'. He also worked on the six albums from Aladdin Sane to Station To Station. After three years of touring, recording and travelling with Bowie, MacCormack started an award winning (Gold Clio, Ivor Novello) music production partnership with Simon Goldenberg who he met, coincidentally, in The Three Tuns pub, home of Bowie's earlier 'Arts Lab'. For over 20 years, they wrote music for high-end advertising, films and TV. Geoff now manages the use and sale of his photographs of David Bowie around the world and has exhibited in St Petersburg, the USA and the UK, including the hugely successful 'Rock 'n' Roll with Me' exhibition at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery from September 2020 through to May 2022.

David Bowie: Rock 'n' Roll With Me is available to pre-order now!

On this day, 48 years ago, DAVID BOWIE released his 'Young Americans' album in 1975.

Recorded primarily at Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in August 1974, it was agreed early on to record as much of the album as possible live, with the full band playing together, including David's vocals, as a single continuous take for each song.

There were no fewer than 7 different "working" titles for the album mentioned in the press at the time, including: 'Shilling The Rubes' (which is circus slang for taking money off people), 'The Gouster', 'Somebody Up There Likes Me', 'One Damn Song', 'Fascination', 'Dancin' and 'Young American'.

For the album cover artwork, Bowie initially wanted to commission Norman Rockwell to create a painting, but retracted the offer when he heard that Rockwell would need at least six months to do the job. The album's cover photo was eventually taken in Los Angeles on 30th August 1974, by Eric Stephen Jacobs. The inspiration for the cover came from a copy of After Dark magazine (September 1974) which featured another of Jacobs' photographs of Bowie's then choreographer Toni Basil.

The highly anticipated illustrated hardback book DAVID BOWIE AND CRACKED ACTOR. THE FLY IN THE MILK is now scheduled for publication on 2nd September via Red Planet Books.

Created by author SUSAN COMPO and illustrated by MARK WARDEL, with a foreword by producer ALAN YENTOB, this book details in depth the documentary film 'Cracked Actor: A Film about David Bowie'.

On September 2, 1974 David Bowie opened a week-long engagement at Universal Amphitheatre which was captured by a film crew led by Alan Yentob making a film for the BBC. The documentary first aired on 26th January 1975 as 'Cracked Actor: A Film about David Bowie' in the Omnibus documentary series.

It was a unique look at David Bowie post-Ziggy Stardust and stands today as an extraordinary achievement and a remarkable insight into David Bowie.

This deluxe hardback book is the back story of Cracked Actor with access to BBC archives and many people involved behind the scenes.

It is illustrated with artwork by artist Mark Wardel and rarely-seen photographs by 17-year-old photographer David Stratford.

More details can be found at redplanetmusicbooks.com website.

Update: Both the deluxe hardback and limited edition box with mask and book are available for pre-ordering now.

• On this day, 46 years ago, IGGY POP along with DAVID BOWIE on keyboards and backing vocals, performed in Ardwick, Manchester, England at the Apollo Theatre during The Idiot Tour in 1977. The band also consisted of Ricky Gardiner, with Hunt and Tony Sales. The support band were The Vibrators...

• On this day, 47 years ago, DAVID BOWIE performed at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago, Illinois, US during his 1976 'On Stage!' World Tour...

• On this day, 53 years ago, DAVID BOWIE & HYPE performed at The White Bear public house, location of the Hounslow Arts Lab, run by Dave Cousins of Strawbs, in Middlesex, England in 1970. Also on the bill were Seasoning with Maggie Nichols...

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

Feel free to join in with the other 83,000 plus members, add yourself and invite your Bowie fan friends. You never know what might get posted, or who you might meet...

• If you want to pick up a DAVID BOWIE bargain... the BRILLIANT ADVENTURE (1992 - 2001) 18-LP vinyl box set is now currently available at £211.64, reduced from the original price of £365 and the audio 11-CD box set is priced at £64.30...

• KINGSTON MUSEUM in SW London has a new exhibition BOWIE AND BEYOND opening at the end of this month. The exhibition by Creative Youth - in partnership with The Community Brain and Kingston Museum - will explore the life of David Bowie alter-ego Ziggy Stardust who was launched in Tolworth and the wider music and pop culture scene in the borough. Begins 31st March through 16th September. The exhibition is FREE. For more details, visit kingstonheritage.org.uk...

• On German TV tonight, there's a showing of DAVID BOWIE - Sein Weg zum Erflog (Finding Fame) documentary on Sky Documentaries at 22.25 CET...

• On TV today in the USA, Bandslam which features DAVID BOWIE is on MAX, USA at 5.17pm ET and Atlantis SquarePantis, NIK at 7.00pm ET...

• Happy Birthday wishes to HUNT SALES, Tin Machine drummer/singer...

• I'm hearing that supporters of ARSENAL F.C. have created a new chant for their star player BUKAYO SAKA to the tune of DAVID BOWIE's 'Starman', which goes:
"There's a staaaaaarboy / Running down the right / His name's Bukayo Saka / And he's f***ing dynamite"
Yeah OK, but I remember when MAN UNITED fans first sang something similar for ADNAN JANUZAJ nearly ten years ago! [Listen here]...

• Today is WORLD BOOK DAY - take a look at DAVID BOWIE's Top 100 "Must Read" Books - [View here]...

The DAVID BOWIE film 'The Man Who Fell To Earth' is to get released in a 4K Ultra HD Limited Edition Steelbook for EUROPEAN regions.

        

On 4K Ultra High Definition for the first time, Nicolas Roeg's classic 70s sci-fi classic stars the inimitable David Bowie in one of his finest roles. Thomas Jerome Newton (David Bowie) is a humanoid alien who comes to Earth from a distant planet on a mission for water, in the midst of a catastrophic drought on his home planet.

Featuring a startling and era-defining lead performance from David Bowie in his debut feature role, and based on the cult novel by Walter Tevis, The Man Who Fell To Earth endures, not only as a bitingly caustic indictment of the modern world, but also as a poignant commentary on the loneliness of the outsider.

Released later this month on Thursday 20th March, it is available to pre-order now!

The DAVID BOWIE film 'The Man Who Fell To Earth' gets an exclusive release via BEST BUY in a 4K Steelbook for USA/Canada regions.

Lionsgate will release the 1976 sci-fi film, newly restored for the first time on 4K Ultra HD (plus Blu-ray plus digital) in an exclusive Steelbook at 'Best Buy' next month on Tuesday 25th April for the retail price of $21.99.

Based on the 1963 novel by Walter Tevis and directed by sci-fi legend Nicolas Roeg, this impressionistic film offers contemporary audiences a timeless, poignant mirror in its exploration of the impact of capitalism and industrialisation on the future of humanity and the planet.

Special features on the Blu-ray include:

David Bowie Interview - French TV (1977)
Interview with Costume Designer May Routh, featuring original costume sketches
Interview with Stills Photographer David James, featuring behind-the-scenes stills
Interview with fan Sam Taylor-Johnson
Interview with Producer Michael Deeley
'The Lost Soundtracks' Featurette, featuring interviews with Paul Buckmaster and author Chris Campion
Interview with Candy Clark
Interview with Writer Paul Mayersberg
Interview with Cinematographer Tony Richmond
Interview with Director Nicolas Roeg
Trailer

From mediaplaynews.com

Pre-ordering is available now, only at Best Buy, (pick-up is not available for this item).

The European version is released later this month on Thursday 20th March and is available to pre-order now!

ALADDIN SANE: 50 Years - an exhibition and events celebrating half a century of DAVID BOWIE's iconic album is taking place at the Southbank Centre in London opening next month on Thursday 6th April through to 28th May.

Aladdin Sane: 50 Years features an exhibition that centres on Bowie's lightning portrait by photographer Brian Duffy - one of the most influential pop culture images of the past half century.

Accompanying the exhibition, a line-up of live music and talks include a star-studded homage on the 50th anniversary of the album's release, two nights of joyous club music, and talks and poetry events.

Highlights include:

21st April: NPL Presents: 'Aladdin Sound' at Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall
Join us for an explosive evening of Bowie-inspired poetry, as ten of the UK's most exciting poets reimagine his album Aladdin Sane on its 50th anniversary.

21st April: 'Aladdin Sane Live' at Royal Festival Hall
Nu Civilisation Orchestra leads a 50th anniversary reimagining of Bowie's Aladdin Sane, with Anna Calvi, Scissor Sisters' Jake Shears, Roxanne Tataei and Lynks.

22nd April: 'Aladdin Sane at 50: The Making of an Icon' at Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall
Delve deeper into our exhibition celebrating Bowie's album and its unforgettable cover image, in a discussion chaired by curator Victoria Broackes.

22nd April: 'Making a Show' at Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall
Follow a discussion with Geoffrey Marsh and Victoria Broackes charting the rise of immersive music exhibitions, such as the V&A's David Bowie Is, and where their success might take them.

To view all the events happening and ticket info, please visit southbankcentre.co.uk website.

The Southbank Centre Archive will also present a separate free display exploring David Bowie's history with the Centre, stretching over 50 years, and his ongoing legacy.

The upcoming memoir by GEOFF MACCORMACK first announced last year in April is titled: 'DAVID BOWIE: ROCK 'N' ROLL WITH ME'.

This hardback, containing 240-pages, is to be published on 13th March.

David Bowie: Rock 'n' Roll With Me is Geoff MacCormack's remarkable photographic memoir, charting his lifelong friendship with David Bowie. Images bring MacCormack's stories to life, showing the places he and Bowie inhabited, the people they met and the adventures they shared. Beginning at Burnt Ash Primary school in the mid-1950s, the years go by in a whirlwind of discovering and making music. The book contains nearly 150 photos taken by MacCormack throughout the years, some never seen before: from touring the Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane shows and sailing to New York on a world tour, to Bowie's first major film The Man Who Fell To Earth and the recording of Station to Station and his Thin White Duke persona.

David Bowie: Rock 'n' Roll With Me is an incredible story, told with wit and candour. A must for all Bowie fans, it sheds a rare insight into a friendship where two men shared their love for music from the moment they met to their final goodbyes.

About the Author:
Geoff MacCormack, David Bowie's lifelong friend, joined Bowie's 1973 world tour as an additional back-up vocalist and percussionist, and later as a 'Diamond Dog' in '74 and what would be known as 'The Young Americans Soul Tour'. He also worked on the six albums from Aladdin Sane to Station To Station. After three years of touring, recording and travelling with Bowie, MacCormack started an award winning (Gold Clio, Ivor Novello) music production partnership with Simon Goldenberg who he met, coincidentally, in The Three Tuns pub, home of Bowie's earlier 'Arts Lab'. For over 20 years, they wrote music for high-end advertising, films and TV. Geoff now manages the use and sale of his photographs of David Bowie around the world and has exhibited in St Petersburg, the USA and the UK, including the hugely successful 'Rock 'n' Roll With Me' exhibition at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery from September 2020 through to May 2022.

David Bowie: Rock 'n' Roll With Me is available to pre-order now!

Taking place at the ROSEHILL THEATRE in Moresby, Whitehaven, Cumbria on 11th March is 'When DAVID BOWIE Came to Rosehill - An Evening with Nicholas Pegg'.

Join Nicholas as he takes us on a journey to discover the fascinating connection between David Bowie and Rosehill. This event is rescheduled from 2020. If you already had tickets these have been rolled over to the new date, unless you have contacted us to say you are unable to attend. If you haven't heard from us please call the box office. Remaining tickets are now on general sale.

The story takes us back to 1968, when Bowie performed on the Rosehill stage with the legendary mime artist Lindsay Kemp. It was a collaboration which would make its influence felt throughout the rock star's glittering career, as we will discover in an illustrated talk with music and images, followed by a Q&A session.

For more details, tickets and information, please visit rosehilltheatre.co.uk website.

• New book DAVID BOWIE: MIXING MEMORY & DESIRE: Photography by KEVIN CUMMINS, hardcover, 256-pages - to be published on 9th November - more details

• SILHOUETTES AND SHADOWS: The Secret History of David Bowie's Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) by ADAM STEINER, paperback, 296-pages - to be published on 15th September - more details

• BOWIE AT THE BBC: A LIFE IN INTERVIEWS by DAVID BOWIE and TOM HAGLER, hardcover and Kindle, 352-pages - to be published on 14th September - more details

• DAVID BOWIE RAINBOWMAN 1967-1980 by JÉRÔME SOLIGNY, (ENGLISH VERSION), hardback, 704-pages, now to be published on 5th September - more details

• New book DAVID BOWIE AND CRACKED ACTOR... THE FLY IN THE MILK by SUSAN COMPO and MARK WARDEL available in deluxe hardback and limited edition box with mask and book, to be published by Red Planet Books on 2nd September - more details.

• The 2023 DAVID BOWIE WORLD CONVENTION takes place on 16th (VIP)/17th/18th June 2023 at Terminal 5, New York City, USA - more details

• BOWIE ODYSSEY 73 by SIMON GODDARD, paperback, 176-pages, to be published on 25th May - more details

• USA/Canada: Exclusive 'Best Buy' steelbook THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH movie in 4K Ultra HD (plus Blu-ray plus digital), released 25th April - more details

• RSD 2023 DAVID BOWIE - 'Laughing with Liza - The Vocalion and Deram Singles 1964-1967' in 5x7" Box Set to be released on 22nd April - more details

• ALADDIN SANE 50th Anniversary Limited Edition Half-Speed Master LP to be released on 14th April - more details

• ALADDIN SANE 50th Anniversary Limited Edition Picture Disc LP to be released on 14th April - more details

• ALADDIN SANE: 50 YEARS EXHIBITION at Royal Festival Hall, Exhibition Space, Southbank Centre, London, England, opens 6th April - more details

• DAVID BOWIE IN THE SOVIET UNION exhibition of Geoff MacCormack photographs at the Wende Museum, Culver City, CA 90230, USA. Opens 2nd April through 22nd October. Free entry - more details

• DAVID BOWIE - MOONAGE DAYDREAM 3-LP Vinyl Box Set to be released on 31st March - more details

• Free exhibition BOWIE AND BEYOND at KINGSTON MUSEUM in SW London explores the life of David Bowie alter-ego Ziggy Stardust. Opens on 31st March until 16th September - more details

• ALADDIN SANE 50 YEARS The definitive celebration of Bowie's iconic album and music's most famous photographs - with unseen images by CHRIS DUFFY, hardcover, 256-pages - to be published on 30th March - more details

Theatre production LAZARUS written by David Bowie and Enda Walsh, Italian version directed by Valter Malosti is now underway in Italy. Performances began in March and continue through to June in various Italian cities - more details

Europe: 4K Ultra HD Steelbook Limited Edition of THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH movie released on 20th March - more details

Bowie TAKEN by Duffy exhibition at COAM Madrid, Calle de Hortaleza, 63, 28004, Madrid, Spain. Opened 15th March until 25th June - more details

New memoir DAVID BOWIE: ROCK 'N' ROLL WITH ME by GEOFF MACCORMACK, hardback, 240-pages, published on 13th March - more details

DAVID BOWIE - A DIVINE SYMMETRY (An Alternative Journey Through Hunky Dory) Vinyl LP released on 24th February - more details

DAVID BOWIE - WHAM BAM THANK YOU MA'AM! by IVOR JONES, limited edition of #300, special collector's publication is now sold out. There are some unnumbered copies available which you can purchase at a reduced price - 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 39 years ago, once they've gone, they've gone!