Well what a start to the decade that was. My God it absolutely flew by! Who said time flies when you're having fun? Oh yeah DJ said it...

DAVID BOWIE will obviously without doubt, look back on the year 2000 with a great deal of immense pride and fondness in both his personal and career life. First and foremost, with the birth of his daughter Alexandria in August. The photographic spread in Hello! magazine of Alex, Iman and David was an absolute treasure to behold. Simply beautiful photographs showing their emotion and joy outright for all to see.

There were lots of db happenings and gatherings during the year 2000, where do I start?... Well right at the beginning of JANUARY David phoned Los Angeles radio station KROQ and gave host Rodney Biggenheimer a lengthy interview, revealing some of his upcoming plans. He received another trophy to add to his mantlepiece - he was named 'Artist of the Millennium' by Radio Tel Aviv in Israel. His then current album '...hours' had also been his most successful ever in the Middle East, firmly entrenched at number one. The second UK single to be released from the album 'Survive' was released as a three part set, CD1, CD2 collectors edition and a limited edition 7" picture disc. It entered the UK charts at number 28 and at number 20 in the independent charts.

FEBRUARY brought the exciting announcement that Iman was expecting their first child. The couple announced that they were "absolutely thrilled" at the news. David said: "It's been a long and patient wait for our baby, but both Iman and I wanted the circumstances to be absolutely right, and didn't want to find ourselves working flat out during the first couple of years of the baby's life. "This is a wonderful time in both our lives."

During MARCH BBC Radio 2 host Mark Goodier presented the excellent 'Golden Years: The David Bowie Story', an original three part radio documentary. David got not only his boat race on the cover of the Sunday New York Times magazine but featured inside was a self penned piece by himself commissioned by The Times.

There was an unexpected huge mega press frenzy in JUNE after David's triumphant return to England for the Glastonbury 2000 Festival. Never mind just stealing the festival.. he WAS the festival. He totally blew everyone out of the water. How many of you noticed the nice touch of the frock coat worn by David being styled around the same shirt pattern he wore at his first Glastonbury Festival back in 1971? Glastonbury photographs.

The warm up shows for the festival were held in New York City at the Roseland Ballroom on the 16th, 17th and 19th. The first gig he performed an astonishing two and a half hour, 25-song set with lots of surprises. The next day he woke with no voice whatsoever and the second gig had to be cancelled. There were lots of bitten fingernails until the final gig on the 19th got the go-ahead. Roseland photographs and reviews.

The television gig for the BBC at Portland Place for the invited audience was unbelievable. The band was tight and the audience were really up for it. Despite the obvious problems with David's throat, he was able to deliver a moving performance. BBC pictures and reviews.

More new books were published this month: Bowie Style by Mark Paytress and the revised version of Strange Fascination by David Buckley. David made his second appearance on TFI Friday on UK's Channel 4, he opened the show with an excellent rendition of 'Wild Is The Wind' and closed the show with a singalong 'Starman'. He then treated the audience with two more songs... a great version of 'Absolute Beginners' and a wonderful rocking 'Cracked Actor'.

JULY saw the presentation of the Yahoo! Internet Life Online Music Awards, live from Studio 54 in NYC. David was named as the 'Online Pioneer of the Year, and BowieNet deservedly won the award for Best Artist Music website. After being presented with his award by Sandra Bernhard, David went on to sing two songs 'Wild Is The Wind' and 'Life On Mars?' accompanied by Mike Garson on the piano. Photographs and RealAudio.

Q magazine featured David in their 'Cash For Questions' section, which was a great read for the fans. David again contributed artwork towards the 'Take Home A Nude' auction for the New York Academy Of Art. He completed three simple pieces of work based around 'pregnancy'. BowieNet hosted 'The David Bowie FanMix', a one hour event which was streamed live from the studio with David and Mark Plati, where members were given the opportunity of choosing which mixes were to be used for the Beeb album. His third single 'Seven' taken from his 'hours...' album was released as a limited edition 3CD part set and entered the UK charts at number 32. In another unprecedented move in the online world, David made twenty of his classic titles available for commercial download when EMI Recorded Music launched its digital download campaign.

The highlight of the year without any shadow of doubt was the news that Alexandria Zahra Jones was born on 15th AUGUST at precisely 5:06 a.m. in New York. David assisted with the delivery and cut the umbilical cord. She weighed in at 7lbs 4.6oz (3.28 kilogrammes) and her length was 20.5. Her christian names were chosen for their real meanings - Alexandria means "defender of mankind" and Zahra is Arabic for "inner light."

Besides being the most stylish dad, David was voted "The Most Stylish Man Of The Year" at the GQ Awards 2000 in SEPTEMBER at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London by the readership of the magazine. Members of BowieNet started receiving their free copy of 'liveandwell' a 14 track 2CD set. Well worth joining just for the CD alone.

This month also saw the long awaited BBC recordings finally being released. Was it worth the wait? You bet your arse it was. The 2CD album included a limited edition bonus CD of the amazing June 2000 show from BBC Portland Place. The performance was shown the previous night as part of the promotion for the album release, followed by a long awaited repeating showing of the brilliant Alan Yentob documentary 'Cracked Actor'. David also turned up on Radio One's Mark 'n' Lard show for a telephone interview and prize giving competition. After receiving excellent reviews everywhere, the album entered the UK charts at number 7, making it his 25th top ten hit. Unfortunately or not, depending on your outlook, there was a slight 'boob on the beeb' with the initial pressings on one of the Ziggy Stardust tracks. So who cares? I didn't! You got a highly collectible single tracked CD out of EMI for free... now valued already at an incredible £20 by Record Collector magazine. The repeated track was put right incredibly fast and all copies of the album now in stores are as intended. Q magazine placed the album in its 'Five Best Re-Issues Of 2000' list.

Bowieart.com received a new splendid revamp, reframe and relaunch. Besides featuring new unseen pieces of David's artwork, it now also houses a special area for several graduating student artists who attend London's Royal College of Art and Assembly 4 graduates. Each student now has their own individual free web pages where you can view their work along with their contact number.

David made a surprise appearance in OCTOBER at the VH-1 / Vogue Fashion Awards at Madison Square Garden in NYC to announce the winner of the 'Fashion Designer Of The Year' award, which deservedly went to UK designer Stella McCartney for her work with Chloe. Another surprise in store was her father Paul sneaking up behind her at the ceremony. GQ fashion director Jo Levin's published GQ Cool which featured a foreword written by our David, he also adorned the front cover along with a "cool" portrait inside. Another Bowie bible reference book released was The Complete David Bowie written by Nicholas Pegg and published by Reynolds and Hearn. Once again, David generously contributed towards the ArtAid 2000 art exhibition in support of Crusaid, Britain's national fundraiser for HIV and AIDS with one of his series of Dheads. The 'Rock Style' exhibition hit London... music and fashion and attitude at the Barbican Gallery which featured seven of David's costumes. Two wonderful limited edition prints of Iman were donated by David to the Berklee College of Music for auction towards the benefit of the outreach programme for urban teens.

NOVEMBER saw BowieArt take over the official sponsorship the Secret 2000 Royal College of Art exhibition. The RCA Secret postcard annual event gives the public the possibility of owning the work of an internationally renowned artist for just £35, as well as contributing to the cost of the students. David has contributed artwork pieces for the last several years. David contributed a rather excellent photograph entitled 'East Side Other' towards a charity photographic book entitled 'Life's Ups And Downs'. The 5,000 limited edition book is published by Big Issue In The North Trust. A host of celebrity entertainers, writers and artists were asked to take photographs with the theme 'looking up and looking down', what would they see, and how would they see it? And might it change our own perspective of the world we live in? The proceeds from this book go to help place homeless people into good homes, good jobs, good health and good life.

David's response to receiving this accolade?... "It means more to me than any number of hit albums, this. Thanks very much."

Tarrah,
Rednik.

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