Check out DAVID BOWIE Live on Stage, Earl's Court, London 1978 from NACHO's 2023 Documentary (Part 1).

On this day, 15 years ago, DAVID BOWIE released the iSelect free compilation CD from THE MAIL ON SUNDAY newspaper.

In the liner notes, David Bowie comments on each of the twelve tracks he selected for the album. It makes fascinating reading...

David Bowie: 'For this CD compilation I've selected 12 of my songs that I don't seem to tire of. Few of them are well known, but many of them are still sung at my concerts. Usually by me. I'll start off with the hit.'

Life On Mars?

This song was so easy. Being young was easy. A really beautiful day in the park, sitting on the steps of the bandstand. 'Sailors bap-bap-bap-bap-baaa-bap.' An anomic (not a 'gnomic') heroine. Middle-class ecstasy.

I took a walk to Beckenham High Street to catch a bus to Lewisham to buy shoes and shirts but couldn't get the riff out of my head. Jumped off two stops into the ride and more or less loped back to the house up on Southend Road.

Workspace was a big empty room with a chaise longue; a bargain-price art nouveau screen ('William Morris,' so I told anyone who asked); a huge overflowing freestanding ashtray and a grand piano. Little else.

I started working it out on the piano and had the whole lyric and melody finished by late afternoon. Nice.

Rick Wakeman came over a couple of weeks later and embellished the piano part and guitarist Mick Ronson created one of his first and best string parts for this song which now has become something of a fixture in my live shows.

Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing.

I'd failed to obtain the theatrical rights from George Orwell's widow for the book 1984 and having written three or more songs for it already, I did a fast about-face and recobbled the idea into Diamond Dogs: teen punks on rusty skates living on the roofs of the dystopian Hunger City; a post-apocalyptic landscape.

A centrepiece for this would-be stage production was to be Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing, which I wrote using William Burroughs's cut-up method.

You write down a paragraph or two describing several different subjects creating a kind of story ingredients-list, I suppose, and then cut the sentences into four or five-word sections; mix 'em up and reconnect them.

You can get some pretty interesting idea combinations like this. You can use them as is or, if you have a craven need to not lose control, bounce off these ideas and write whole new sections.

I was looking to create a profligate world that could have been inhabited by characters from Kurt Weill or John Rechy - that sort of atmosphere. A bridge between Enid Blyton's Beckenham and The Velvet Underground's New York. Without Noddy, though.

I thought it evocative to wander between the melodramatic Sweet Thing croon into the dirty sound of Candidate and back again. For no clear reason (what's new?) I stopped singing this song around the mid-Seventies.

Though I've never had the patience or discipline to get down to finishing a musical theatre idea other than the rock shows I'm known for, I know what I'd try to produce if I did.

I've never been keen on traditional musicals. I find it awfully hard to suspend my disbelief when dialogue is suddenly song. I suppose one of the few people who can make this work is Stephen Sondheim with works such as Assassins.

I much prefer through-sung pieces where there is little if any dialogue at all. Sweeney Todd is a good example, of course. Peter Grimes and The Turn Of The Screw, both operas by Benjamin Britten, and The Rise And Fall Of The City Of Mahagonny by Weill. How fantastic to be able to create something like that.

The Bewlay Brothers.

The only pipe I have ever smoked was a cheap Bewlay. It was a common item in the late Sixties and for this song I used Bewlay as a cognomen - in place of my own. This wasn't just a song about brotherhood so I didn't want to misrepresent it by using my true name.

Having said that, I wouldn't know how to interpret the lyric of this song other than suggesting that there are layers of ghosts within it. It's a palimpsest, then.

The circumstances of the recording barely exist in my memory. It was late, I know that. I was on my own with my producer Ken Scott; the other musicians having gone for the night.

Unlike the rest of the Hunky Dory album, which I had written before the studio had been booked, this song was an unwritten piece that I felt had to be recorded instantaneously.

I had a whole wad of words that I had been writing all day. I had felt distanced and unsteady all evening, something settling in my mind. It's possible that I may have smoked something in my Bewlay pipe. I distinctly remember a sense of emotional invasion.

I do believe that we finished the whole thing on that one night. It's likely that I ended up drinking at the Sombrero in Kensington High Street or possibly Wardour Street's crumbling La Chasse. Cool.

Lady Grinning Soul.

Mike Garson's piano opens with the most ridiculous and spot-on re-creation of a 19th Century music hall 'exotic' number. I can see now the 'poses plastiques' as if through a smoke-filled bar. Fans, castanets and lots of Spanish black lace and little else. Sexy, mmm? And for you, Madam?

This was written for a wonderful young girl whom I've not seen for more than 30 years. When I hear this song she's still in her 20s, of course.

A song will put you tantalisingly close to the past, so close that you can almost reach out and touch it. The sound of ghosts again.

Win.

This is not, you may be speechless to learn, an ode to Winifred Atwell, though I almost wish it were for she was a real winner. In the Fifties in England it was virtually impossible for a ten-year-old to hear boogiewoogies and rags unless our Winifred was playing them on her 'other' piano.

At home in Trinidad she'd been brought up with blues and R&B and had played it for the American GIs who were based at what is now the main airport. Winnie was the first black artist in Britain to sell one million records. She was tops.

No, this song is about, er, winning. David Sanborn is on sax. He was experimenting with sound effects at the time and I'd rather hoped he would push further into that area, but he chose to become rich and famous instead. So he did win really, didn't he?

Some Are.

A quiet little piece Brian Eno and I wrote in the Seventies. The cries of wolves in the background are sounds that you might not pick up on immediately. Unless you're a wolf. They're almost human, both beautiful and creepy.

Images of the failed Napoleonic force stumbling back through Smolensk. Finding the unburied corpses of their comrades left from their original advance on Moscow. Or possibly a snowman with a carrot for a nose; a crumpled Crystal Palace Football Club admission ticket at his feet. A Weltschmerz [world weariness] indeed. Send in your own images, children, and we'll show the best of them next week.

Teenage Wildlife.

So it's late morning and I'm thinking: 'New song and a fresh approach. I know, I'm going to do a Ronnie Spector. Oh yes I am. Ersatz, just for one day.'

And I did and here it is. Bless. I'm still enamoured of this song and would give you two Modern Loves for it any time. It's also one that I find fulfilling to sing onstage. It has some nice interesting sections to it that can trip you up, always a good kind of obstacle to contend with live.

Ironically, the lyric is something about taking a short view of life, not looking too far ahead and not predicting the oncoming hard knocks. The lyric might have been a note to a younger brother or my own adolescent self.

The guitars on this track form a splintery little duel between the great Robert Fripp and my long-time friend Carlos Alomar.

Repetition.

By virtue of the instrument's classical baggage, Simon House's violin touches a vein of pure Goth on this recording. There's a numbness to the whole rhythm section that I try to duplicate with a deadpan vocal, as though I'm reading a report rather than witnessing the event. I used to find this quite easy to accomplish.

I decided to write something on the deeply disturbing subject of wife abuse in the manner of a short-form drama.

I had known more instances of this behaviour than I would have preferred to have been made aware of and could not for the life of me imagine how someone could hit a woman, not only once but many, many times.

Fantastic Voyage.

It's almost quaint, this one. It has a strong feel of the Fifties variety show to it. A cavil in passing - if I'd been in the position of the mid-Sixties Rolling Stones, I definitely would have gone on the Sunday Night At The London Palladium show's revolving stage.

They had refused to stand on the roundabout with the other acts at the end of the show, as it didn't fit in with their rebellious image. I was surprised to read that the American entertainer Judy Garland also refused a whirl, as she was too emotionally upset. Who knew?

I would have been shyly clawing my way past Jimmy Tarbuck to get on. I remember my mother being excited about the first time this show appeared on television in 1955.

My father had bought our set for Princess Elizabeth's coronation in 1953 and it had opened up a new world for us. Guy Mitchell was apparently an exciting part of this world as my mother went all schoolgirl when he came on screen and sang She Wears Red Feathers (And A Hula Hula Skirt).

This song's chord structure (Fantastic Voyage, I mean, not She Wears Red Feathers) appeared on the album Lodger in two forms. First, as it appears here and then further in as Boys Keep Swinging (they were men's dresses, I tell you). Both the tempo and top-line melody are rewritten.

I did this again on the album Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps). It proved nothing. Thinking about it, Guy Mitchell would have done this song proud.

Loving The Alien.

I'm trying to come up with a little-used word for each song entry. I've not got one for this song. And this song is not, it may surprise you to know, another ode to little green Martians. Oh, recidivism, that'll fit.

Time Will Crawl

There are a host of songs that I've recorded over the years that for one reason or another (clenched teeth) I've often wanted to re-record some time in the future. This track from Never Let Me Down is one of those.

I've replaced the drum machine with true drums and added some crickety strings and remixed. I'm very fond of this new version with its Neil Young of Shortlands accents. Oh, to redo the rest of that album.

One Saturday afternoon in April 1986, along with some other musicians I was taking a break from recording at Montreux studios in Switzerland. It was a beautiful day and we were outside on a small piece of lawn facing the Alps and the lake.

Our engineer, who had been listening to the radio, shot out of the studio and shouted: 'There's a whole lot of s*** going on in Russia.'

The Swiss news had picked up a Norwegian radio station that was screaming - to anyone who would listen - that huge billowing clouds were moving over from the Motherland and they weren't rain clouds. This was the first news in Europe of the satanic Chernobyl.

I phoned a writer friend in London, but he hadn't heard anything about it. It wasn't for many more hours that the story started trickling out as major news.

For those first few moments it felt sort of claustrophobic to know you were one of only a few witnesses to something of this magnitude.

Over the next couple of months a complicated crucible of impressions collected in my head prompted by this insanity, any one of which could have become a song. I stuck them all in Time Will Crawl. That last sentence rhymes.

Hang On To Yourself (live).

Ziggy and the Spiders had played around 50 UK shows total, and this Santa Monica performance, from October 20, 1972, would be our 12th in America.

Although of only bootleg quality and despite the drums and bass being casually miked, I hope you can feel our real thrill here of presenting the band to a radio audience for the first time. I necessarily took the most centre-stage position as easily as an old ham from Bromley Repertory would, though in reality I was deadly nervous.

This was our first live American radio broadcast, so it was a big deal. We fluffed a lot of stuff that night, but the enthusiasm and pride stand 10ft tall.

One astounding thing about Mainman, my management at the time, is that for the 18 months of the Spiders' life-cycle (and after, actually) they never arranged for us to play anywhere in Europe where Ziggy was a proverbial monster. No tours, no shows, not even Paris.

I never understood that and was pretty miserable about it at the time, but now realise how naive and unprepared my management was for the serious job of actually managing.

© David Bowie 2008.

On this day, 23 years ago, DAVID BOWIE performed at the BBC Radio Theatre, Portland Place, London in 2000 to a specially invited audience.

I wrote in my diary... 'An awesome performance tonight by David and the band, even more so considering David was clearly under the weather with "half a bronchitis on top of the laryngitis" and a ticklish throat. Ever the professional, he kept soldering on, with the aid of a breathing type menthol thingy-inhaler... he even joked around with the inhaler doing Frank Booth impressions from the 'Blue Velvet' movie'.

The full set list ran as follows:

       01. Wild Is The Wind.
       02. Ashes To Ashes.
       03. Seven.
       04. This Is Not America.
       05. Absolute Beginners.
       06. Always Crashing In The Same Car.
       07. Survive.
       08. The London Boys.
       09. I Dig Everything.
       10. Little Wonder.
       11. The Man Who Sold The World.
       12. Fame.
       13. Stay.
       14. Hallo Spaceboy.
       15. Cracked Actor.
       16. I'm Afraid Of Americans.
Encore:
       17. Ziggy Stardust.
       18. The Jean Genie (instrumental fill in).
       19. All The Young Dudes.
       20. Starman.
       21. "Heroes".
       22. Let's Dance.

Check out his performance of The London Boys below, which wasn't part of the original broadcast on BBC.

Check out the upgrade 4k versions of DAVID BOWIE 'Ziggy Stardust' and 'Changes' recorded and filmed at the Hammersmith Odeon, in London, 3rd July 1973.

From the official David Bowie YouTube channel.

On this day, 52 years ago, DAVID BOWIE performed at Glastonbury Fayre for the first time in 1971.

David is pictured here leaving the Eavises' farmhouse. For the performance he wore a blue Magician's cloak and a hat purchased from 'The Universal Witness' boutique on the Fulham Road in London.

Photographs © Gabi Nasemann...

      

For it's 50th anniversary DAVID BOWIE's 'Life On Mars? official video, gets the 4k upgrade treatment.

• On this day, 51 years ago, DAVID BOWIE released his immortal The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars album in 1972...

• On this day, 6 years ago, DAVID BOWIE Cracked Actor (Live Los Angeles '74) 2CD was released in 2017...

• On this day, 6 years ago, DAVID BOWIE Be My Wife 40th Anniversary 7" Picture Disc Single was released in 2017...

Taking place at OMEGA AUCTIONS next month on 4th July is an Omega Showcase Sale: Guitars, Music Memorabilia and Rare Vinyl Records'.

At present there are twelve DAVID BOWIE lots on offer, including signed items, highlights include:

Lot 455: A stage-worn sailor's cap, made by 'Christie's Pty. Ltd' of Sydney, Australia, worn onstage by David Bowie during his concert at Western Springs, Auckland, New Zealand on 2nd December 1978. Size 6 7/8 in very good condition. Also included are four modern prints of 8x10"e; images of Bowie including one of him during the Auckland concert wearing the cap.

Lot 100: The Man Who Sold The World LP, original UK 'Dress Sleeve' (Mercury 6338 041).

Check out the items over at omegaauctions.co.uk website.

Reminder that later this month is the 'Audio Equipment and Music Memorabilia' (Day 1) and 'Rare & Collectable Vinyl Records' (Day 2) auction on 27th/28th June both auctions contain several David Bowie lots.

Available now is the latest DAVID BOWIE: GLAMOUR FANZINE Compendium (Volume 3) to pre-order.

This 320-page volume is very high quality, with threaded binding, containing issues 7, 8 and 9 of the fanzine.

Once again, it is a very limited print run, so please don't delay.

Along with this latest hardback edition, featuring cover artwork by Helen Green, each compendium is also accompanied by a beautiful A4 size photograph print of Bowie. The image taken by Philippe Auliac in October 1977 when Bowie appeared on the French TF1 TV show 'Les Rendez-vous du Dimanche' (Sunday Meetings) with host Michel Drucker.

Inside is packed with interviews including: Earl Slick, Carlos Alomar, Angie Bowie, Brian Aris, Dylan Jones, Geoff MacCormack, George Murray, Harry Maslin, Kevin Cann, Terry O'Neill, Mark Allan, David Baddiel, Victoria Broackes, Vernon Dewhurst, Alan Dodds, Alan Edwards, Reeves Gabrels, Kenney Jones, Mark Radcliffe, Iain R. Webb, Tony Zanetta, Joey Arias, John 'Cambo' Cambridge, Alan Childs, Justin DeVilleneuve, Gail Ann Dorsey, Chris Duffy, Bob Harris, Eduard Meyer, Denis O'Regan, Maria Primolan and Masayoshi Sukita.

For more details and information, please visit davidbowieglamour.wordpress.com website.

Update: The 100 copies available have now sold out. An additional 50 copies have been made available.

Canadian art auctioneers COWLEY ABBOTT hold their Spring Live Auction - Session 1 (Important Canadian and International Art) at Globe & Mail Centre, Toronto on Thursday, 8th June at 4:00 pm EDT.

Included in the auction is artwork by DAVID BOWIE - titled 'Nail' (Head of Trent Reznor), this piece was created in 1995 and has now been put up for auction by a private collector in Quebec.

Lot #70
David Bowie
Nail - (Head of Trent Reznor)
Oil and mixed media on canvas
Titled and annotated with lyrics; signed, titled and dated 1995 on the reverse
11 x 8.5 ins (27.9 x 21.6 cms)
Estimated: $35,000.00 - $55,000.00
[View lot]

For more details and information, please visit cowleyabbott.ca website.

Update: The artwork realised $32,000 Canadian Dollars (£19,074.67) GBP.

Today marks the 31st anniversary of DAVID and IMAN's wedding ceremony at Saint James Episcopal Church, in Florence, Italy in 1992.

The best man was David's son Duncan, with chief usher Alan Edwards.

Iman's maid of honour was her best friend Bethann Hardison.

Besides immediate family, among the sixty-eight invited guests were Yoko Ono, Brian Eno and his wife Anthea, Bono Vox, Eric Idle and his wife Tanya, Geoff MacCormack, George Underwood, Corinne Schwab, Jennifer Ichida (Duncan's then girlfriend), Hervé Léger (who designed Iman's dress), Thierry Mugler (who designed David's suit) and hair arranged by Teddy Antolin. Teddy was a very special guest - in a way responsible for what was happening that day, because it was he who introduced David and Iman at a dinner party two years previously in Los Angeles.

During the ceremony, Geoff MacCormack read Psalm 121 during the service and David's cousin Kristina Amadeus read from Corinthians.

You can click here to read an article from Hello! magazine entitled 'The Wedding of David Bowie and Iman' by Brian Aris from the BW press archive.

Today marks the anniversary of DAVID BOWIE's first ever lead vocal single release 'Liza Jane' credited to Davie Jones with The King Bees, which was released 59 years ago today, 5th June 1964 on the Vocalion Pop label (V 9221).

Featuring seventeen-year-old Davie Jones (vocals and saxophone), George Underwood (guitar), Roger Bluck (guitar), Francis Howard (bass) and Robert Allen (drums).

Although credited to Leslie Conn, David's then manager who negotiated a one-single deal with Decca Records, George Underwood said the song was originally an old Negro spiritual that the band played around with and came up with this R'n'B song.

Leslie Conn's recollection of the events in 1997:

"I can tell you that I have got a pretty retentive memory, but that is something I can't clearly recall. I used to write songs except that I don't write music and I don't play piano. When the boys were jamming to kind of come up with some ideas to make a record, they came up with some six bar blues, which everyone uses. As they were doing that, I came up with my own idea, which came from nowhere, and we improvised and the song came together. I mean, I would never take credit for something that I never did and I know David wouldn't have agreed for me to sign the contract as writer if he had wrote it himself. I would never have stolen someone else's song on principle. I know that I'm quite vague on that and I can't be absolutely sure how it all came about, but I know that I did come up with a lot of ideas. As for the production of the song that was most certainly me, I arranged and organised the whole thing and I always produced the material I was arranging with Decca at that time. George Underwood is definitely wrong on that point.

"There is a funny story while were still on the subject of 'Liza Jane'. When David and I parted company I went off to live and work in Majorca for a few years and one day I was on the phone to my mother and she said, 'what shall I do with those records I have in the garage' which were a few hundred copies of 'Liza Jane'. So I replied, 'Throw them out', and she did. The last time David came up here he said, 'Have you got any of those records we made, you know they're worth over a hundred pounds each!' I told him I got my mother to throw them all out! We had to laugh."

Backed with 'Louie Louie Go Home', written by Paul Revere and Mark Lindsay, which was incidentally pencilled in as the A-side, both songs were recorded in a seven-hour session at Decca Studios in Broadhurst Gardens, West Hampstead.

The single was re-released by Decca in September 1978 (catalogue number F 13807) and beware there are counterfeit Vocalion copies in circulation. Produced in the USA in 70s, the tell-tale difference between the original and the illegal pressings is the matrix number. On the original 1964 issue the matrix number is machine stamped on the vinyl and on the fake copies it is handwritten.

The official press release for the single from the press room of the Dick James Organisation in May 1964 read...

INTRODUCING DAVIE JONES WITH THE KING-BEES... AND THEIR FIRST DISC 'LIZA JANE'

Pop Music isn't all affluence. Just ask new seventeen year old recording star Davie Jones. Time was (two months ago, in fact) when he and his group were almost on their uppers. No money, bad equipment. Then Davie had a brainwave. "I had been reading a lot in the papers about John Bloom," says Davie. "So I put pen to paper and wrote him a letter." David told Bloom that he had the chance of backing one of the most talented and up-and-coming groups on the pop scene. All he had to do was advance the several hundred pounds it requires to outfit a pop group with the best equipment.

Davie didn't get the money, but he did get a telegram next day from John Bloom giving the phone number of Artist's Manager Leslie Conn. Davie got in touch, he was rewarded with a booking at Bloom's Wedding Anniversary Party. "We were a dismal failure", recalls Davie. "It was a dinner dress affair and we turned up in jeans and sweat shirts and played our usual brand of rhythm and blues. It didn't go down too well. Still we'll know better next time."

However, all's well that ends well. Leslie Conn liked the earthy type of music the group played, arranged an audition with Decca Records which resulted in a contract and the first release by David Jones with the King-Bees. "Liza Jane", released by Decca (Vocalion 9221) on June 5th.

DAVIE JONES WITH THE KING-BEES MET AT BARBERS

Davie Jones met up with his four member backing group the King-Bees when he visited his local barber shop in Bromley. In between clips he got chatting to the four lads, also there to be sheared, about their musical interests, and before you could say "Short back and sides", they decided to join forces.

The group specialise in hard-driving, uncompromising R & B, a brand of music that has won for them a dedicated following in the London area, a following which should soon be spreading throughout the length and breadth of England on the strength of their first disc.

"LIZA JANE", is a beaty, action packed disc which features the direct no-holds-barred Davie Jones vocal delivery. The King-Bees supply a hard core, R & B backing and the whole thing is crowned by a catchy chorus featuring the line "Little Liza Jane".

DAVIE JONES - Seventeen years old, fair haired Davie first got interested in pop music when he was ten. His father's secretary (Davie's father in P.R.O. for Dr. Barnardo's homes) who had previously worked for a disc company, sent Davie a 'Demo' copy of a new Little Richard disc. As the phrase goes, Davie was "knocked out", and when he had scraped together a few pounds of his pocket money, bought a plastic saxophone. Eventually he progressed on to the real thing. Lessons were the next step. "My idol on saxophone has always been Ronnie Ross", says Davie, "So I looked up his name up in the phone book and asked him if he would give me lessons." Ross agreed, but after Davie played him a few bars Ross's comment was: "Right now we can start working on you, that was bloody awful!" Davie gave up his music to take his G.C.E. at 15, then left school and joined an advertising agency as a commercial artist, where he still works.

When he left school Davie was able to concentrated on his music again, this time mainly as a vocalist, playing dance halls and clubs in and around the Bromley area. Then came the hair-cut and the letter to John Bloom...

Davie's favourite vocalists are Little Richard, Bob Dylan and John Lee Hooker. Apart from the saxophone he also plays the guitar. He dislikes Adams apples, and lists as his interests Baseball, American Football and collecting Boots. A handsome six footer with a warm and engaging personality, Davie Jones has all it takes to get to the show business heights, including... talent.

The eagerly awaited English language version of DAVID BOWIE RAINBOWMAN 1967-1980 by JÉRÔME SOLIGNY is to be published on 5th September in the US and on 8th September in the UK.

Published by Monoray, this hardcover edition contains a whopping 704-pages and is distributed by Hachette Book Group.

David Bowie Rainbowman 1967-1980 by Jérôme Soligny is a meticulously detailed history of the moments that shaped Bowie's musical career told by the people who were actually "in the room" with him.

The book publishes September 5th in the US and September 8th in the UK - the 50th anniversary of the release of Aladdin Sane. First published in France in 2019 as the first of two volumes, Rainbowman is appearing now in English for the very first time.

This uniquely exhaustive work on Bowie's 1967-1980 albums draws on over 150 extensive interviews with some of the most significant people in David Bowie's life - the musicians, producers and friends who knew Bowie best, including Ken Scott, Hermione Farthingale, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, George Underwood, Mick Ronson, Carlos Alomar, Trevor Bolder, Mike Garson, Woody Woodmansey and many, many others.

Hermione Farthingale calls it "a book unlike any other, the definitive analysis of David's music, told in a quiet natural way, but with absolute authenticity, by the people around him."

Tony Visconti says: "Jérôme Soligny is one of the best authorities in the world of David Bowie's career and life in general... His new biography Rainbowman is a thorough and honest account of the great man."

According to Tony Visconti, Jérôme Soligny was David Bowie's favourite French journalist and over 25 years, he spent time getting to know the artist and his fellow musicians.

"Not long ago, "Jérôme told me something that I find very true: 'David played saxophone, guitar, a bit of keyboards, but above all, he played musicians!' I think he really hit the nail on the head." - Mike Garson.

With an essay by Soligny on each album, followed by oral histories from the most trusted and influential figures in Bowie's musical life, David Bowie Rainbowman: 1967-1980 is the definitive guide to the musical development of a singular and mercurial genius - the Rainbowman himself.

The essential book is completed by a foreword by Tony Visconti and an introduction by Mike Garson, with a cover photo by Mick Rock, and an iconic cover design by Barnbrook.

About the Author: Jérôme Soligny is a musician, writer and journalist based in Le Havre, France. Over the course of 25 years, Jérôme spoke with Bowie many times, and interviewed him on numerous occasions for Rock&Folk magazine. Jérôme is one of the five worldwide Bowie experts chosen to write in Chris Duffy's book, Aladdin Sane 50 Years, about the iconic photo session for the cover of Aladdin Sane, shot by Chris' father, Brian Duffy. Jérôme was made Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 2019 Visconti and is described by Bryan Ferry as "one of the great French authorities on contemporary music."

Jérôme Soligny said: "It's an honour and privilege for me to realise that Rainbowman is going to be published in English, the language of rock music and also David Bowie's. The whole project took five years of my life, but as my closest friend say 'There was 40 years of passion before this'. I hope the true lovers of David's music will be as happy to read the book as I've been to write it. Sure, Rainbowman is a heavy brick of paper full of information but also a tribute to musicians and music people - famous and those who stayed in the shadow - who helped David craft his songs and albums. Funnily enough, it's a musician who brought me to Monoray and no, it can't be chance. Some things are written in the stars."

David Bowie Rainbowman 1967-1980 by Jérôme Soligny
Foreword by Tony Visconti
September 5, 2023, US
September 8, 2023, UK
Monoray, Distributed by Hachette Book Group
ISBN: 9781800960633
Monoray is an imprint of Octopus Publishing.

You can pre-order David Bowie Rainbowman 1967-1980 NOW!

• On this day, 11 years ago, DAVID BOWIE released the 40th Anniversary Edition of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars album...

• On this day, 19 years ago, DAVID BOWIE performed at Tommy Hilfiger at Jones Beach Theatre, in Wantagh, New York, USA during his A Reality World Tour...

• On this day, 22 years ago, DAVID BOWIE held an official chat in the BowieNet chatrooms - [Read chat log]...

• On this day, 27 years ago, DAVID BOWIE performed at the Budokan Hall in Tokyo, Japan during his Outside World Tour in 1996...

On this day, 33 years ago, DAVID BOWIE performed at the Starplex Amphitheatre in Dallas, USA during his Sound+Vision World Tour in 1990...

• On this day, 40 years ago, DAVID BOWIE performed at Wembley Arena in London, England during his Serious Moonlight World Tour in 1983...

• On this day, 45 years ago, DAVID BOWIE performed at the Scandanavium in Gothenburg, Sweden during his 1978 World Tour...

On this day, 50 years ago, DAVID BOWIE performed at the Gaumont Theatre in Worcester, England during his 1973 World Tour...

• On this day, 51 years ago, DAVID BOWIE performed at the Public Hall in Preston, England during his 1972 UK Tour #1...

• On this day, 58 years ago, DAVIE JONES and THE LOWER THIRD performed at the Pavilion Ballroom in Bournemouth, England in 1965...

• On this day, 67 years ago, REEVES GABRELS was born. Happy Birthday! wishing you a wonderful day...

"Of all the shows on this tour, this particular show will remain with us the longest, because not only is it the last show of the tour, but it's the last show that we'll ever do." - David Bowie, 1973.

"A truly great star knows not only how to make a grand entrance, but a grand exit." - Charles Shaar Murray, 2023.

3rd July, 1973 - David Bowie retired Ziggy Stardust, his most famous alter-ego, in front of 5,000 stunned fans at London's Hammersmith Odeon. Now, the fully restored film and soundtrack will be released for the first time for the 50th anniversary of the show. Renowned filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker (Monterey Pop, Bob Dylan - Don't Look Back, Depeche Mode - 101) captured the momentous event by filming Bowie and The Spiders From Mars backstage and onstage. The digital restoration of the new version of the film has been overseen by his son, Frazer Pennebaker with remastered audio.

Although filmed 50 years ago, the film was not widely seen for over a decade. However, the film and its soundtrack have been newly remastered with the medley of 'The Jean Genie'/'Love Me Do' medley and 'Round And Round' featuring the late legendary Jeff Beck reinstated - the latter track making its very first appearance anywhere. Both performances were newly mixed by long-time Bowie collaborator Tony Visconti.

The show featured Bowie's famous speech just before the final encore, 'Rock 'N' Roll Suicide', where he revealed that he was retiring the Ziggy Stardust persona. The shocking announcement came as a surprise to all in attendance - including members of his band and was the first proclamation of its kind in rock and roll.

DAVID BOWIE - ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS: THE MOTION PICTURE - 50th ANNIVERSARY

BLU-RAY

Opening Credits/Introduction
Hang On To Yourself
Ziggy Stardust
Watch That Man
Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud
All The Young Dudes
Oh! You Pretty Things
Moonage Daydream
Changes
Space Oddity
My Death
Cracked Actor
Time
The Width Of A Circle
Let's Spend The Night Together
Suffragette City
White Light/White Heat
Medley: The Jean Genie / Love Me Do / The Jean Genie (featuring Jeff Beck)
Round And Round (featuring Jeff Beck)
Farewell Speech
Rock 'N' Roll Suicide
End Credits

Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 / 48kHz/24bit, PCM Stereo / 48kHz/24bit, Aspect Ratio / 4:3. All Regions. Exempt from classification.
5.1 Surround sound music mix by Tony Visconti, assisted by Rich Tozzoli/Gizmo Enterprises. Stereo mix by Tony Visconti.
'The Jean Genie'/'Love Me Do' medley and 'Round And Round' stereo: mixed and engineered by Tony Visconti, 5.1: mixed by Tony Visconti, engineered by Jannek Zechner.

CD
DISC 1
Introduction Part 1
Hang On To Yourself
Ziggy Stardust
Watch That Man
Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud
All The Young Dudes
Oh! You Pretty Things
Moonage Daydream
Changes
Space Oddity
My Death

DISC 2
Cracked Actor
Time
The Width Of A Circle
Let's Spend The Night Together
Suffragette City
White Light/White Heat
Medley: The Jean Genie / Love Me Do / The Jean Genie (featuring Jeff Beck)
Round And Round (featuring Jeff Beck)
Farewell Speech
Rock 'N' Roll Suicide

VINYL
Side 1
Introduction
Hang On To Yourself
Ziggy Stardust
Watch That Man
Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud
All The Young Dudes
Oh! You Pretty Things
Moonage Daydream

SIDE 2
Changes
Space Oddity
My Death
Cracked Actor
Time

SIDE 3
The Width Of A Circle
Let's Spend The Night Together
Suffragette City

SIDE 4
White Light/White Heat
Medley: The Jean Genie / Love Me Do / The Jean Genie (featuring Jeff Beck)
Round And Round (featuring Jeff Beck)
Farewell Speech
Rock 'N' Roll Suicide

DIGITAL (standard 44.1kHz/16bit resolution and 96kHz/24bit resolution).
Hang On To Yourself
Ziggy Stardust
Watch That Man
Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud
All The Young Dudes
Oh! You Pretty Things
Moonage Daydream
Changes
Space Oddity
My Death
Cracked Actor
Time
The Width Of A Circle
Let's Spend The Night Together
Suffragette City
White Light/White Heat
Medley: The Jean Genie / Love Me Do / The Jean Genie (featuring Jeff Beck)
Round And Round (featuring Jeff Beck)
Farewell Speech
Rock 'N' Roll Suicide

Mastering and remastering by John Webber at AIR Studios, London.

You can pre-order Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars: The Motion Picture 50th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray / 2-CD and 2-LP Limited Edition Gold Vinyl Set now!

Opening this Saturday in Stockholm, Sweden is a photographic exhibition displaying DAVID BOWIE photographs taken by KENT ALMQVIST in 1976 and 1978 at the Royal Tennis Hall.

These wonderful photographs have never previously been shown in connection with any exhibition.

The exhibition runs from 3rd-8th June at Galleri Fotografi, Hornsgatan 42, Stockholm, Sweden.

For more information, please visit gallerifotografi.se website.

Check out the details of the full schedule for the upcoming DAVID BOWIE WORLD CONVENTION taking in place New York later this month on 16th (VIP)/17th/18th June 2023 at Terminal 5, New York City, USA.

    

For more details, please visit bowieconvention.com

davidbowie.com announced details of ZIGGY STARDUST: THE GLOBAL PREMIERE.

Fifty years to the day since Bowie's last show as his famous alter-ego, Ziggy Stardust returns to The Eventim Apollo Hammersmith (formerly the Odeon) on 3rd July for one night only.

For the 50th anniversary, 'Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars: The Motion Picture' is digitally restored with never-before-seen footage. The film will be unveiled at a red-carpet global premiere and the screening will be preceded by conversation live on stage with some of Bowie's famous friends.

Fans will relive that iconic night in music history in the venue where it all happened exactly fifty years ago. The film features the complete set, including a performance by late guitarist Jeff Beck, which was cut from D A Pennebaker's original version.

The event will be live streamed to cinemas across the UK and Europe, with screenings in cinemas worldwide throughout July.

Tickets for The Eventim Hammersmith Apollo on sale now at davidbowie.com and cinema tickets on sale now.

- Limited tickets for the Eventim Apollo premiere will be made available to fans and there will also be simultaneous one-night-only screenings of the Q&A and the film on July 3 in cinemas in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Netherlands, Italy and Australia.

- Film screenings in Canada, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia and Hungary will take place throughout July.

- Further screenings of the digitally restored film will also be announced in US, Latin America, Asia, France, Spain, Belgium and Scandinavia.

- The event and global screenings will be produced and promoted by multi-media production company Echo Velvet and award-winning event specialists The Makers Of on behalf of RZO Music and the David Bowie Estate and Warner Music. The Q&A at the Eventim Apollo will be hosted by award-winning editor and Echo Velvet's Creative Director Phil Alexander (MOJO, Q, Kerrang! and Mercury Music Prize judge).

Artist ALEXANDRIA ZAHRA JONES daughter of DAVID BOWIE and IMAN has just launched her own art website.

Her first art collection entitled: 'Pieces of Me' is about joining together to heal through the beauty of art.

'Pieces of Me' has been released as a limited collection with each print individually signed and numbered by the artist making it a unique closed edition collection.

There are only 100 prints available of each artwork.

For more details and information, please visit alexandriazahrajones.com website.

Open now is the FREE exhibition BOWIE AND BEYOND at KINGSTON MUSEUM in South West London, which explores the life of DAVID BOWIE alter-ego Ziggy Stardust.

Opened on 31st March and runs until 16th September at Kingston Museum, Wheatfield Way, Kingston upon Thames KT1 2PS, England.

This exhibition is open to the public during Kingston Museum's opening hours.

For more details, opening times and information, please visit kingstonheritage.org.uk website.

'Kevin does what I pretend to do. Kevin's a proper musician.' David Bowie.

Scheduled for publication on 17th October is ABSOLUTE BEGINNER: Memoirs of the World's Best Least-Known Guitarist by KEVIN ARMSTRONG.

Growing up in a world of punk squats and the London pub-rock scene, suburban rookie guitarist Kevin Armstrong found himself signed to EMI as a solo artist in the early 80s, but fate had other plans for him, his life and career changing in an instant when he was called for a studio date with an unnamed star at Abbey Road.

That unnamed star was soon revealed to be DAVID BOWIE, and that afternoon's recording catapulted this unlikely lad onto the world's grandest stages alongside some of the biggest names in the business. Kevin has gone on to carve out a singular career as a producer, songwriter, and guitarist, touring and recording with everyone from Grace Jones to Paul McCartney, Iggy Pop to Roy Orbison, Sandie Shaw to Alien Sex Fiend.

Absolute Beginner is the story of what it takes to survive as a self-taught musician. It provides an honest and funny glimpse into the backstage world of the artists Kevin has worked with, and is packed with acerbic, laugh-out-loud observations on popular music and musicians from someone who has had a prime seat at the high table of rock 'n' roll for more than forty years.

Reviews:

'This is a frank, revealing, and often very funny memoir of a life playing with other people and at the same time being yourself.' - David Quantick.

'An absolute whirlwind - a wonderfully funny, cleverly observed account of real life spent touring or recording with musicians on every level.' - Mark Ellen.

'Kevin Armstrong has written a beautifully gentle tale of a life spent playing guitar with some of the hardest rockers around - a must for anyone who loves music, or even just ... loves.' - Will Self.

About the Author:
Kevin Armstrong began his musical life on Charlie Gillett's Oval Records in 1981 with his own band, Local Heroes SW9. After two albums, his career began thriving as a writer, producer, bandleader, and, above all, bulletproof guitarist. Most notably, Kevin met David Bowie in late 1984 and worked with him on various projects, from Live Aid to his acclaimed 1. Outside album. Bowie also introduced Kevin to Iggy Pop during sessions for his 1986 album Blah-Blah-Blah, and Kevin promptly became Iggy's bandleader. He also led Iggy's touring band from 2014 to 2019. In between times, he has worked with Paul McCartney, Morrissey, Grace Jones, Sinéad O'Connor, Prefab Sprout, Thomas Dolby, Transvision Vamp, Brian Eno, Sandie Shaw, Gil Evans, Alien Sex Fiend, Keziah Jones, and many, many more. This is his first book.

You can pre-order Absolute Beginner: Memoirs of the World's Best Least-Known Guitarist now!

• New book DAVID BOWIE, ENID BLYTON and the sun machine by Nicholas Royale, hardcover and paperback, 264-pages - to be published on 28th November - more details

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

• New book ABSOLUTE BEGINNER: Memoirs of the World's Best Least-Known Guitarist by Kevin Armstrong, paperback, 288-pages - to be published on 17th October - more details

• New book 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

• New book BOWIE AT THE BBC: A LIFE IN INTERVIEWS by DAVID BOWIE and TOM HAGLER, hardcover and Kindle, 464-pages - to be published on 14th September - more details

• English version of DAVID BOWIE RAINBOWMAN 1967-1980 by JÉRÔME SOLIGNY, hardback, 704-pages, to be published on 5th September in US and 8th September in the UK - 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.

• ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS: THE MOTION PICTURE - 50th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray / Audio 2-CD and 2-LP Limited Edition Gold Vinyl Set all released on 11th August

• ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS: THE MOTION PICTURE at Eventim Apollo Hammersmith, London, England on 3rd July. Also simultaneous one-night-only screenings of the Q&A and the film in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Netherlands, Italy and Australia. Also screenings in Canada, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia and Hungary in July. Further screenings of the digitally restored film will also be announced in US, Latin America, Asia, France, Spain, Belgium and Scandinavia - more details

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

DAVID BOWIE IN THE SOVIET UNION exhibition of Geoff MacCormack photographs at the Wende Museum, Culver City, CA 90230, USA. Opened 1st April through 22nd October. Free entry - more details

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