Posts Tagged ‘David Bowie’
These TV Adverts For David Bowie’s 1974 Diamond Dogs Tour And Live Album Are Terrible
Rock star David Bowie, his wife Angie and their son Zowie. Date: 01/02/1974
IT’S 1974, and all the cool kids are buying David Live, David Bowie’s first live album, recored at Philadelphia’s Tower Theatre.
Well, they would buy it once they’re pocket had been emptied by this TV advert:
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Posted: 22nd, February 2014 | In: Celebrities, Flashback, Music | Comment
The Elephant Man: Blondie And David Bowie At New York’s Booth Theater In 1980
FLASHBACK photo: Deborah Harry of the rock band Blondie visits David Bowie backstage at the Booth Theater where he is starring in The Elephant Man, Nov. 1980. (AP Photo/Nancy Kaye)
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Posted: 15th, January 2014 | In: Celebrities, Flashback | Comment
Happy Birthday David Bowie: BOWIE’S IN SPACE
HAPPY birthday David Bowie, for us and Flight of the Conchords:
Spotter: Iowahawk
Watch David Bowie’s Cracked Actor: The Queasy Lure Of Fame
IN 1974, David Bowie was at a low ebb. The 1975 BBC film Cracked Actor recorded the singer on his 1974 Diamond Dogs Tour. The then 27-year-old Alan Yentob’s Omnibus film showed Bowie in the raw. In 1987, Bowie would say of the BBC film:
“I was so blocked … so stoned … It’s quite a casualty case, isn’t it. I’m amazed I came out of that period, honest. When I see that now I cannot believe I survived it. I was so close to really throwing myself away physically, completely.”
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Posted: 30th, October 2013 | In: Flashback, Key Posts, Music | Comment
Stage disasters: the unlucky 13 pop stars for whom the show did not always go on
IN this Flashback, we look at State Disasters. The show doesn’t always go on
Beyoncé’s bad hair day had a happy ending – she extricated herself from the fan (mechanical, rather than maniacal in this case).
And at least she had the good humour to see the funny side afterwards – other victims of onstage disasters certainly didn’t. And one didn’t even live to tell the tale…
Syd Barrett
Early signs of the Pink Floyd front-man’s mental disintegration were apparent in 1967. That year he appeared on stage with an entire tube of Brylcreem in his hair into which – according to some accounts – he had crushed a handful of Mandrax tablets. Mandies or not, the lotion melted under the lights, leaving him looking like ‘a guttered candle’. The song Vegetable Man (unreleased) reflected Syd’s self-loathing at the time…
Arthur Brown
Arthur’s bad hair was in a league of its own, thanks to his famous flaming helmet, worn in honour of The Crazy World of Arthur Brown’s solitary hit, Fire. Its precursor – a colander soaked in methanol – was less successful. The fuel soaked into his scalp and set his head alight at the Windsor Festival in 1967. The fire was put out with beer.
Vince Taylor
The pioneering British rocker is remembered for two things: his classic single Brand new Cadillac and the mental problems, exacerbated by LSD and booze, which led to incidents such as declaring himself the apostle Matthew at one of his London concerts.
David Bowie was a friend of Taylor’s, and recalls encountering Taylor lying on the pavement in Caring Cross Road, studying a map of Europe and pointing out where UFOs would be landing. He later based the character of Ziggy Stardust on Taylor.
Keith Moon
So many to choose from, not least the time he overdosed and fell unconscious twice during a 1973 Who concert in California. After the second incident, Pete Townshend asked if there was a drummer in the audience, and the volunteer played the rest of the set.
Possibly the most spectacular mishap occurred when Moon detonated some powerful fireworks in his drum kit after the band’s 1967 appearance on the Smothers Brothers show. The explosion (7.20 onwards in the clip below) genuinely stunned the hosts, and is blamed by Townshend for his subsequent hearing problems.
Video here.
Frank Zappa
December 1971 was a bad month for the Mothers of Invention. First their equipment was set on fire by a flare fired from the audience during an appearance at the Casio de Montreux. The casino was razed to the ground, and, as a final indignity, the fire inspired Deep Purple to write Smoke on the Water.
Later that month a fan pushed Zappa off the stage at London’s Rainbow Theatre. He fell into the concrete orchestra pit, sustaining serious injuries to his head, neck, back and legs, and crushing his larynx. He was wheelchair-bound for a long period afterwards and his voice deepened significantly.
Patti Smith
The rock poet ‘did a Zappa’ in 1977, with a 15 foot fall into an orchestra pit in Tampa. She broke several vertebrae.
Harry Styles
One Direction’s young shaver was hit squarely in the other kind of ‘orchestra stalls’ by a shoe hurled from the audience during a performance in Glasgow earlier this year.
Stereophonics
The Welsh rockers suffered a less dramatic shock in 2004 when Kelly Jones and Richard Jones were electrocuted at the Bataclan in Paris. Sparks flew but the band played on.
Kris Novoselic
The Nirvana bassist failed to catch his instrument after throwing it in the air during the 1992 Music Video Awards. Apparently he still has a dent in his head.
Iggy Pop
In 201o, Iggy Pop dived at the New York crowd; and missed.
“When I landed it hurt and I made a mental note that Carnegie Hall would be a good place for my last stagedive. The audience were just like, ‘What are you doing?'”
Les Harvey
The mother of all stage accidents occurred the following year during a Stone The Crows gig the Top Rank Suite in Swansea. Les Harvey (brother of The Sensational Alex) touched an unearthed microphone with wet hands and was killed on the spot.
And finally…
U2
Our favourite. Life imitates art as the Irish megastars suffer a Spinal Tap moment – trapped inside a 40ft mechanical lemon. When the fruit malfunctioned the band were forced to clamber out of the back during their PopMart tour in Oslo.
Posted: 6th, September 2013 | In: Flashback, Key Posts, Music | Comment
David Bowie mural in Brixton shows the cover of his 1973 album Aladdin Sane
A NEW mural painted on a Brixton wall by James Cochran aka Jimmy C shows the image of David Bowie from the cover of his 1973 album Aladdin Sane.
David Robert Jones was Brixton born in 1947.
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In this 1973 photo Sid Vicious is seen heading to a David Bowie gig
IN 1973, Sid Vicious – then known as John Simon Ritchie was pictured on his way to watch David Bowie perform in London. He’d have 16 or 17 years old. Four years later he joined the Sex Pistols. What impact did Glam Rock have on the punks?
[Not a valid template]Spotter: Mannequinfemme
Who owns Commander Chris Hadfield’s version of Space Oddity? Copyright issues are trickier than space travel
SPACE Commander Chris Hadfield sang David Bowie’s Space Oddity as his finale to his International Space Station show. And when he did, he potentially opened a can of worms (and lawyers). You can send a man to live in space. No sweat. But it’s much harder to work out who owns the words he says when he’s up there.
The song “Space Oddity” is under copyright protection in most countries, and the rights to it belong to Mr Bowie. But compulsory-licensing rights in many nations mean that any composition that has been released to the public (free or commercially) as an audio recording may be recorded again and sold by others for a statutorily defined fee, although it must be substantively the same music and lyrics as the original. But with the ISS circling the globe, which jurisdiction was Commander Hadfield in when he recorded the song and video? Moreover, compulsory-licensing rights for covers of existing songs do not include permission for broadcast or video distribution. Commander Hadfield’s song was loaded onto YouTube, which delivers video on demand to users in many countries around the world. The first time the video was streamed in each country constituted publication in that country, and with it the potential for copyright infringement under local laws. Commander Hadfield could have made matters even more complicated by broadcasting live as he sang to an assembled audience of fellow astronauts for an onboard public performance while floating from segment to segment of the ISS.
Ridiculous…
Posted: 25th, May 2013 | In: Music, Technology | Comments (2)
Harry Styles: Not the first popstar to be hit with something on stage (video round-up)
RECENTLY, Harry Styles of One Direction, was pelted in the wang by a stray shoe, thrown from his beloved audience. This writer himself has thrown an errant trainer at The Prodigy, missing the target (Keef) by some distance and hitting the drummer’s cymbal at Reading ’96 (if you have a recording of the show, listen out for it during Poison).
Of course, this kind of behaviour is not to be cheered at… mostly. It is wilfully stupid behaviour, but alas, is all part of the rock ‘n’ roll circus.
Some musicians get bras and drugs thrown at them, which is very nice. Most however, aren’t too pleased with what comes their way.
With that, let us look at some of the most brutal bottlings and weirdest missiles aimed toward people just trying to earn a living.
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Posted: 28th, February 2013 | In: Key Posts, Music | Comment (1)
David Bowie’s 1967 letter to his first American fan
IN 1967, Sandra Dodd, a 14-year-old fan living in the USA wrote to David Bowie. Would Bowie be interested in endorsing her efforts to start a USA fanclub? The 20-year-old Bowie took the time to reply.
I hope one day to get to America. My manager tells me lots about it as he has been there many times with other acts he manages. I was watching an old film on TV the other night called “No Down Payment” a great film, but rather depressing if it is a true reflection of The American Way Of Life. However, shortly after that they showed a documentary about Robert Frost the American poet, filmed mainly at his home in Vermont, and that evened the score. I am sure that that is nearer the real America.
When David Bowie committed Rock ‘N’ Roll Suicide live
12 obscure David Bowie gems today’s artists would kill for
<ahref=”http://www.lettersofnote.com/2009/12/my-real-name-is-david-jones.html”>Letters of Note
Posted: 25th, February 2013 | In: Flashback, Music | Comment
When David Bowie committed Rock ‘N’ Roll Suicide live
THE Pope has resigned. Many of his workmates were shocked at the surprise announcement. But Benedict XVI is not the first. There’s precedent there:
Posted: 11th, February 2013 | In: Flashback, Music | Comment
The 8 worse acts of censorship in TV history
CENSORSHIP reared its ugly head again this week, as the BBC cut a line of dialogue from the classic comedy Fawlty Towers, in which the ‘old-fashioned’ major tells Basil about the time he took a lady to see India play cricket at the Oval:
‘The strange thing was, throughout the morning she kept referring to the Indians as niggers. “No, no, no,” I said, “the niggers are the West Indians. These people are wogs”.’
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Posted: 25th, January 2013 | In: Key Posts, TV & Radio | Comment
12 obscure David Bowie gems today’s artists would kill for
SO. David Bowie’s somewhat nondescript new single hit number one, and the newspapers are hailing his new album as a masterpiece, as they have done with every album he has produced since his last commercially successful ‘LP’ (as then was) 33 years ago.
Those themselves under the age of 33 might be forgiven for wondering what all the fuss is about, but the fact is that Bowie remains the sole pop artist worthy of standing alongside the giants of the 1960s. Between 1969 and 1977 he produced a series of albums to rank, in their range and quality, with those of Bob Dylan, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Who and the rest. Some would go further and argue that his mid-sixties, late seventies and early eighties work deserves equal billing too.
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Posted: 17th, January 2013 | In: Flashback, Key Posts, Music | Comments (3)
David Bowie’s no limit cocaine albums
DAVID Bowie is back with anew album. Is it as good as his best? Tony Visconti produced 12 Bowie albums. He tells Tim Teeman:
During the making of Young Americans [1975] he was taking so much cocaine it would have killed a horse. Cocaine certainly almost killed me. During the making of that album I nearly died. I thought I was going to have a heart attack. I worked day and night. He’d come in to the studio at 11pm and work till 11am. One day I said, ‘I have to pack it in, the cocaine isn’t propping me up any more. I cannot stay awake. On the way home my heart felt like it was going to explode. I didn’t want to cause a scandal for him and me by going to hospital, so I took 12 sleeping pills — no suicidal intent, just to slow my heart and it did and I survived. We’d have both been dead if we’d carried on. There was a myth it wasn’t habit-forming back then. Foolishly we believed that. It was a social drug and socially acceptable. You went to any cocktail party and somebody put a line or spoon under your nose and you said ‘Oh, thank you.’ I know people who sold their homes to feed their habit. For us there was no limit.”
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Posted: 12th, January 2013 | In: Celebrities | Comment
David Bowie is not so Sweet
SELF-publicising Tory Iain Dale offers a view on the new David Bowie record:
I really don’t like David Bowie… He’s not a patch on Sparks, Roxette, Meat Loaf and Sir Cliff. Just my humble opinion!
Taste is individual. But, as our Tim puts it, you should perhaps be held accountable if you have no taste at all.
Posted: 10th, January 2013 | In: Music | Comment (1)
Famous musicians doing ordinary things at home
IN this collection of great photos, we see famous faces form the 1970s at home. Look out for Frank Zappa, Elton John, Iggy Pop, Keith Richards, Grace Slick, Freddie Mercury and David Bowie:
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Posted: 6th, November 2012 | In: Celebrities, Flashback | Comment
Elton John Outsells Michael Jackson
MICHAEL Jackson Watch: Anorak brings you that OK! magazine souvenir issue…
OK!’s “official” tribute issue to Michael Jackson should not be confused with those downmarket unofficial tribute issues that fail to feature a picture of the dying signer on their cover.
Only OK! cares enough to equip a picture of a dying man with the legend “IN LOVING MEMORY”.
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Posted: 1st, July 2009 | In: Celebrities, Key Posts | Comments (5)
Susan Boyle Watch: Boyle Gets Makeover And Sings With David Bowie
SUSAN BoyleWatch: In which the Britain’s Got Talent winner gets a makeover and becomes David Bowie…
Susan Boyle’s Makeover
BRITAIN’S Got Talent star Susan Boyle was at the centre of an amazing makeover shock last night. The “Hairy Angel” singer, who has wowed fans with her powerful voice, was shown just how good she can look after coming under pressure to ditch her frumpy image.
For shocking picture of the real Susan Boyle, go here.
Computer whizzkids got to work on the dowdy Scot, 47, to reveal her hidden beauty. A new hairdo, facelift, whitened teeth and several other nips and tucks turned the frumpy virgin into glamorous head-turner – Daily Star
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Posted: 21st, April 2009 | In: Celebrities, Key Posts | Comment
