Continuing my spirited but sporadic autobiographical trawl through the Bowie back catalogue, it seems fitting that we give his 1972 breakthrough album ‘The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars’ (usually referred to as just ‘Ziggy Stardust’ or ‘Ziggy’) the Chairman’s once over, considering the album celebrates it’s 40th Anniversary this week. Crikey – 40 years?
40th Anniversary celebrations abound. Some of which would put the recent spectacle of HRH’s Jubilee to shame. I for one would have loved to have gone and had my sagging, jacket potato face photographed in Heddon Street, just off Regent Street, where the iconic front cover photo of Bowie was taken, standing under the ‘K West’ sign (no longer there) guitar in hand. I didn’t make it to Heddon Street, but I did manage to make it into the brim of Drew Crow Star’s top hat during his excellent rendition of ‘Moonage Daydream’ recorded and filmed as his own tribute (it's on You Tube!) That will do nicely.
When I first heard Ziggy I was 8 years old and it would have been early in 1973 (Bowie of course was by that time a global superstar, just about to release the follow up; ‘Aladdin Sane’ and would, just a few months, later kill off Ziggy completely in a shock announcement at the end of a gig at the Hammersmith Odeon – but such was the pace at which the great man moved in those days) Although by that time I already loved music and records genrally, I was, lets face it, only 8, and therefore concepts, complex lyrics and quality of production would have been lost on me for a good few years yet, but I had already been blown away by the legendary Top of The Pops performance of ‘Starman’ the previous year and I already owned my first Bowie single, a copy of ‘The Jean Genie’, which was a gift from a Catholic missionary priest and friend of my Mum’s (he sent it to me in the post, along with a copy of ‘Burning Love’ by Elvis for my sister Maria) but that is, of course, another story.
My brother Brian – a regular in these blog tales of mine, was sent down one evening to St Paul’s in Wood Green to meet me from cubs and of course walked me home along the alley-way alongside the railway lines – the alley-way we were under no circumstances allowed to walk along – and said something like “right then Col; I’m going to smoke a cigarette. You are not going to say anything to Mum and Dad and when we get home I’m going to let you listen to my Ziggy Stardust LP” Seemed like a result to me.
Much as I’d love to go on and on about how it ‘blew me away and changed my life’ etc, it didn’t really - at first – certainly not as much as the fear and thrills on first hearing as ‘Diamond Dogs’ (see earlier entry) or the tears of anger on my first hearing of ‘Low’ (see future entry) but it was still a very special experience. Looking back, that cunningly contrived piece of (I have to say – having never been a snitch – unnecessary) bribery by my beloved brother was the real beginning of my love of Bowie’s music and that first listen became a second, third, etc until poor old Brian probably got fed up with hearing the album because I played it so much.
Nowadays I make no secret of it, Ziggy is not my favourite Bowie album (fond of it as I am). I think he had made better before it (Man Who Sold The World) and would go on to make better after it (where do I begin?) but I am pretty sure it is his best album – if that makes sense. Forty years on, in an era where, sadly, Bowie has not released a new album in nearly a decade, it continues to be massively influential and a very important record, containing some of Bowie’s finest songs; ‘Moonage Daydream’, ‘Rock And Roll Suicide’, ‘Starman’ and ‘Suffragette City’ to name just a few.
A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to see the great Mike Joyce doing a DJ set at a photo exhibition preview at Camden Proud. He played ‘Suffragette City’ early on in the set and it was enough for me to just look around the room and see the affect it still has on kids of all ages. I also remember like it was yesterday – of course – when the Ziggy album was 20 years old back in 1992; at that time Nicky Campbell was a Radio 1 DJ doing the 10 – 12 slot (not sure where Peel was) and he described Ziggy as ‘the Sgt Pepper of glam rock’ I thought that statement was a bit crass at the time and still do, however, if you consider that The Beatles initial idea of Sgt Pepper was to create a fictional band behind which they could hide themselves, then I suppose the comparison makes sense.
Ziggy Stardust was the first of many personae and characters behind which the real David Bowie (if there ever was or is a ‘real’ Bowie) hid. All he had to do was give these characters life, which he did, astonishingly.
So, a very happy 40th birthday to this fine record. If you haven’t heard Ziggy for a while, give it a birthday listen. If you have never heard it – now is the time. Just remember to pay good attention to the strict instruction on the LP sleeve;
‘To be played at maximum volume’
More to follow…….
Friday 15 June 2012
Wednesday 16 May 2012
From out of the cellar.........
Blimey. Has it really been over a year? That's disgraceful.
Confined to the cellar, with only Mrs Norman Bates, an intimidating glow in the dark Jesus, a life size Edwardian sideshow mechanical laughing clown (with a tendency to ‘go off’ at random) – oh and a pen, paper and a job lot of Pot Noodle, Arthur has been wrestling with a bit of writer’s block. Time to make amends……..
Haven't even got a subject for this one to be honest, this is more like a dip of the toe back into the water, a cautious peep back into the daylight with squinting, dazzled eyes before - hopefully, I might feel inspired enough to get cracking once again on my enthralling tales of what I had for supper the day I first heard 'Hunky Dory' whilst watching episode 2 of 'The Talons Of Weng Chiang' (come to think of it, I could think of worse ways to spend a Saturday evening...)
I won't try and recap as far as back as Easter 2011, the night I wrote my last blog about 'Diamond Dogs' I reckon I'll just try and summarise 2012 so far, seeing as time is flying by at it's usual rapid rate and it might as well still be January considering how wet, cold and miserable it is outside. 15th May? Never.
The year started with a cracking New Year do courtesy of my sister and her family, which led inevitably to a filthy hangover the next day which I rode out by listening to Stuart Maconie on BBC6 playing 20 minute long epic freakouts by some early 1970s looney tune called Don Bradhsaw Leather. Still, if you're going to try and learn / hear something new every day, you might as well start on 1st January. I was supposed to be starting an ambitious podcasting project this year and my daughter Hayley gave me a lovely headset / microphone combo for Christmas for this exact purpose. Sadly, the bit of podcasting I had done in the past had been in the company of (and with all the technical expertise of) the seasoned old pros at Simply Syndicated, but it's a different story when trying to go it alone, without others there to bounce off (and to do some of the talking!) and a knackered old PC on it's last legs, even if you have got a superb, sexy and stylish headest / microphone combo (thanks Hay x) However, all is not lost on that front and I do still plan to get it up and running some time this year. Perhaps I ought to just get drunk one evening and crack on with it. We shall see.
Another huge but welcome distraction this year is that I also got for Christmas a Kindle, which I know wouldn't have come easy owing to our ongoing shaky circumstances, making it even more special. Of course these little things cost big pesetas to fill up, so naturally enough, like most new Kindle owners who are in their cups, I filled a large chunk of it's memory with 'the classics' - all in the public domain and can be downloaded completely and legally free. I won't start banging on about what I have read so far this year, but I am unashamed to admit that I love a lot of the Victorian and Edwardian fiction and it provides genuine escapism when times are stressful - for some reason a bit of Wilkie Collins, H G Wells or W M Thackeray can have the same calming effect on me as a few Scott Walker albums or a box set of The Persuaders on a damp and miserable weekend.
So that was another idea - a 'blog, son of blog' based on classic books. Nothing too scholarly, no big frilly blouses and catching the clap in the hills of Italy, just a light hearted guide and recommendation, much as I do with my favourite albums. The idea is big within my heart and mind, but not so easy to get going. I might need to consult my brother Brian for guidance - I know he usually reads these - what do you think, bruv?
I also aim to do as much as I can to promote the work of two very good friends of mine, one (Paul 'Ed' Edwards) an aspiring and genuinely excellent author, the other (Andrew 'Drew Crow Star' Warner) an accomplished and very talented musician, composer, songwriter, recording artist and performer. I aim to promote as much as I can their works (all currently available through various channels) and hopefully have the honour of collaborating with them in doing so. Drew, in fact comments regularly on my blog posts, all of these comments perserved for posterity amongst the back catalogue.
So, thar's about it for now - I hope to try and get back into this, if not daily or even weekly, but certainly a bit more often than yearly! I would love to hear from anyone who reads this - and my thanks to those who do - with any ideas you may have, a favourite record, film, TV show, book, play etc that you think might benefit if I took it down to Arthur in the cellar along with his meagre supper so that he might give it the Chairman's treatment.
More to follow?
Confined to the cellar, with only Mrs Norman Bates, an intimidating glow in the dark Jesus, a life size Edwardian sideshow mechanical laughing clown (with a tendency to ‘go off’ at random) – oh and a pen, paper and a job lot of Pot Noodle, Arthur has been wrestling with a bit of writer’s block. Time to make amends……..
Haven't even got a subject for this one to be honest, this is more like a dip of the toe back into the water, a cautious peep back into the daylight with squinting, dazzled eyes before - hopefully, I might feel inspired enough to get cracking once again on my enthralling tales of what I had for supper the day I first heard 'Hunky Dory' whilst watching episode 2 of 'The Talons Of Weng Chiang' (come to think of it, I could think of worse ways to spend a Saturday evening...)
I won't try and recap as far as back as Easter 2011, the night I wrote my last blog about 'Diamond Dogs' I reckon I'll just try and summarise 2012 so far, seeing as time is flying by at it's usual rapid rate and it might as well still be January considering how wet, cold and miserable it is outside. 15th May? Never.
The year started with a cracking New Year do courtesy of my sister and her family, which led inevitably to a filthy hangover the next day which I rode out by listening to Stuart Maconie on BBC6 playing 20 minute long epic freakouts by some early 1970s looney tune called Don Bradhsaw Leather. Still, if you're going to try and learn / hear something new every day, you might as well start on 1st January. I was supposed to be starting an ambitious podcasting project this year and my daughter Hayley gave me a lovely headset / microphone combo for Christmas for this exact purpose. Sadly, the bit of podcasting I had done in the past had been in the company of (and with all the technical expertise of) the seasoned old pros at Simply Syndicated, but it's a different story when trying to go it alone, without others there to bounce off (and to do some of the talking!) and a knackered old PC on it's last legs, even if you have got a superb, sexy and stylish headest / microphone combo (thanks Hay x) However, all is not lost on that front and I do still plan to get it up and running some time this year. Perhaps I ought to just get drunk one evening and crack on with it. We shall see.
Another huge but welcome distraction this year is that I also got for Christmas a Kindle, which I know wouldn't have come easy owing to our ongoing shaky circumstances, making it even more special. Of course these little things cost big pesetas to fill up, so naturally enough, like most new Kindle owners who are in their cups, I filled a large chunk of it's memory with 'the classics' - all in the public domain and can be downloaded completely and legally free. I won't start banging on about what I have read so far this year, but I am unashamed to admit that I love a lot of the Victorian and Edwardian fiction and it provides genuine escapism when times are stressful - for some reason a bit of Wilkie Collins, H G Wells or W M Thackeray can have the same calming effect on me as a few Scott Walker albums or a box set of The Persuaders on a damp and miserable weekend.
So that was another idea - a 'blog, son of blog' based on classic books. Nothing too scholarly, no big frilly blouses and catching the clap in the hills of Italy, just a light hearted guide and recommendation, much as I do with my favourite albums. The idea is big within my heart and mind, but not so easy to get going. I might need to consult my brother Brian for guidance - I know he usually reads these - what do you think, bruv?
I also aim to do as much as I can to promote the work of two very good friends of mine, one (Paul 'Ed' Edwards) an aspiring and genuinely excellent author, the other (Andrew 'Drew Crow Star' Warner) an accomplished and very talented musician, composer, songwriter, recording artist and performer. I aim to promote as much as I can their works (all currently available through various channels) and hopefully have the honour of collaborating with them in doing so. Drew, in fact comments regularly on my blog posts, all of these comments perserved for posterity amongst the back catalogue.
So, thar's about it for now - I hope to try and get back into this, if not daily or even weekly, but certainly a bit more often than yearly! I would love to hear from anyone who reads this - and my thanks to those who do - with any ideas you may have, a favourite record, film, TV show, book, play etc that you think might benefit if I took it down to Arthur in the cellar along with his meagre supper so that he might give it the Chairman's treatment.
More to follow?
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