hi all,
Well, where do i start?
It has been a strange, surreal and very sad week for music lovers but more so Bowie fans.
It started for me with unanswered beeping on my phone on a few occasions after 7 but before 8 on Monday morning….when i finally did attend to the beeps, the first message i saw had three words…Bowie is dead ( from a good source, i knew it was no wind up) i replied with two words….what? how?…which i received a one word answer…cancer….after that it was a stun.
As he mystically and magically pronounced….WHERE THE FUCK DID MONDAY GO.
I was knocked for six, i had two thoughts, one was for some hard core Bowie fans who support and frequent the shop and the other was….what a class act…what a way to go…graceful and dignified and on his own terms, not allowing his ego to be massaged or smoke blown up his arse for the last number of months…granted, he probably didn’t want the hassle of press and all the rest….nope, he spent his last months being incredibly creative and left a beautiful haunting piece of work for his fans to cry over for now but grow to love over time….i said it last week, its a brilliant record, it is dark, has Jazz and drum and bass influences but give it time, its a gem…last track on the album here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Now, i don’t profess to being a huge Bowie fan, league one type of fan ( promoting myself to the championship over the last week and looking forward to diving into more of the catalogue),i know a good few albums from the 70s well, and vaguely know other albums outside the hits, but we all probably have our own little Bowie memories….here are a couple of mine….i knew the name before i knew the music…born in 74…early 80s was the time for the Bowie suits, thin red leather ties, slick pants, open shirt, slip on shoes…a fashion movement brought about by a musician….i remember taping a Dave Fanning radio show where famous guests picked their favourite songs and Bowies ” https://www.youtube.com/
Ár nAthair atá ar neamh,
go naofar d’ainm,
I remember he was the first to use the internet to sell his album, 1997s Earthling i think….
And then i remember, his declaration in Irish this time of Tiocfaidh ar la at one of his Dublin concerts back along….made a stir at the time…he enjoyed that id say.
He was a musical genius, innovative and always ahead of the posse….
I asked one of the premier league lads , did he want to write a few lines about what Bowie meant to him,and some of his friends as i felt it would be better coming from him, a true true fan…
Here’s what he had to say…..
This has really knocked me for six. Even now my chest feels like it’s going to explode. It really is like losing a family member. I couldn’t be consoled on Monday. Tears were shed. Ray it’s hard to describe, but I grew up with this man. Forty years Ray, forty years. That’s a long time. The guy was with me since I was a child and all the way up to today. He sound tracked my whole life. BOWIE was always there even in the years when he was off the radar..he was never off mine. My abiding memory from my teenage years is my Mother screaming at me ’If you knew as much about your maths now as you do about David Bowie you’d be better off’!! Myself and Caroline even walked down the aisle to the sound of Absolute Beginners!! Dean the youngest, was born on a Thursday..Thursdays child! When I was in school there were two gangs or tribes in the yard..you were either Status Quo or BOWIE. For me there was no choice. Every album was an event in our lives. And as you know no two albums were the same. We tried to copy him..at one point I even smoked Gauloise cigarettes because BOWIE did. Jesus I nearly choked to death. You’d read an interview with BOWIE and if mentioned a band you never heard of e.g. Velvet Underground you’d go and get their stuff and listen to it. Something new. If he mentioned books he was reading you’d get then too. Something new.. Fashion..art….learned all about it from BOWIE. He informed all the various parts of our lives. I can honestly say he changed my life…completely. And all the friends from all over the world I’ve made over the years that I’ve met at various gigs. And we all keep in touch. I’ve followed him all over the world. America, Australia, Europe…everywhere. I met him a few times and a nicer guy you’d never meet. As we say in Cork..Sound out!!! And maybe that would be a good epitaph..SOUND….As you know the new album is a cracker. He was on a roll again, Seemingly he was eager to do another one soon and had cut 5 demos with Visconti for the next album. What that man must have gone through to cut BLACLKSTAR and the two videos no one knows. It must have been so hard physically and mentally. My heart breaks. This morning we hear he has already been cremated on his own. His wishes were for NO FAMILY to be present. My youth gone. I can honestly say that there are now no heroes left in my life. My heroes were Sinatra, Georgie Best and Bowie. All gone. Bowie was out there on his own in terms of music. No one there like him now. Always going forward. Never looking back. It was always about what’s next. Always the future. Always change. Sure it didn’t always work. But that was the beauty of the man. Not afraid to try or fail. And by the way I thought Tin Machine were great. You just never knew where he was going to take you. You always looked to him to see what the future was going to be. I always thought that Bowie would cheat Death. I truly expected to be getting a new release in 3016. Nothing has changed?……Everything has changed…… Jesus Ray sorry about that..looking back it looks like the ramblings of a deranged mind. All I wanted to ask you was, would you let people know in the newsletter that there’s a night to remember BOWIE and celebrate his life next Saturday night in the Friary at 9…Jim Comet…… Will drop in soon…Thanks….Tony
Bits in the shop for tomorrow include the new DAUGHTER record ” not to disappear” , the new SKUNK ANANSIE ,
Releases for next Friday include the new MEGADETH record ” dystopia” on CD, deluxe limited CD , LP and picture disc LP from Universal as well as a reissue on Vinyl record of THE KOOKS debut ” inside in, inside out” and a second album i think from ELIOT SUMNER…yep that guy SUMNER’s daughter.
RoM
REPUBLIC OF MUSIC have the new TINDERSTICKS record next Friday, on clear vinyl for the usual limited time folks!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Warner
Warner have the new SUEDE album which i must tune in to…” night thoughts” on CD, CD/DVD, Boxset thingy and double LP….as well as some fancy RHINO reissues on coloured Vinyl including THE MONKEES, GRATEFUL DEAD, VELVET UNDERGROUND and THE CARS.
Sony
Sony have talk of two SPRINGSTEEN reissues on Vinyl, MAGIC and THE SEEGER SESSIONS but i think they are pushed back a week or two….will let ye know next week.
PIAS
PIAS have the new ( second) SAVAGES record next Friday also….will could be a good un….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Pias also have new records from TY SEAGALL, BESWARD LAKES and PROMISE OF THE MONSTER and reissues from BADLY DRAWN BOY and JOHN CALE.
ESSENTIAL has the newest LUCINDA WILLIAMS record, ” the ghosts of highway 20″ out next Friday also….a double LP
So, Sin e i think………for some people it feels like last Monday really was the day the music died……. but in celebration of an absolutely STAGGERING musician whose music will live on long past all of us, i would like to finish the newsletter the same way as last week, so…..
altogether now…
THERES A STARMAN WAITING ……