From Henry Moss : David Bowie
Reading the review you wrote on David Bowie reminded me that the person who influenced Bowie.
Mark Feld/ Bolan was my brother’s best friend, my mum cooked his favourite meal egg and chips when he came over when we lived in Highbury New Park N.5. for the first 20 years of my life. (That’s why I cannot stop supporting the Reds)
We were all Mods and hung around Stamford Hill around 1960 onwards. Mark was about 12 at that time and dressed better than any twelve year old should, due to nicking money off his mum stall in Berwick Street market.
I have forgotten to thank you for the pleasure your writing has given me. It makes me sad to hear the truth about the Arse, but I will follow them to the death. The responsibility is with the board not Wenger.
Merry Christmas.
From Sjaak Blaauw : Bowie review
Myles,
I have never been a Bowie fan, unlike my wife. Found him to be a guy that knew which way the wind would be blowing and sourced from that without crediting. But that is just my take.
However, saw him live last time he came through Chicago and the show was superb to say the least. He also gave room to Earl Slick to roam and Slicky did not disappoint either. Al in all if he would tour and the venue is small ’nuff I’d see him again. My wife splurges on good seats and I never ask about the $$$$.
It’s been eerily quiet around Bowie after his heart probs, any news on that on your side of the pond?
Happy Holidays and to a 2011 Arsenal championship or ChampLeague win (hey, one can wish !)
From Richard in New York : Bowie
Back when I was in college (uni) in the early ’90s, in the summers I used to work for IATSE (the stagehands union) during summers because the pay far exceeded what an unskilled kid could earn in most jobs.
One summer, during his “Sound and Vision” tour, Bowie had some time off between gigs in Buffalo, NY and Toronto, ONT, so he and his management decided to do a gig at the then Niagara Falls (NY) Convention Center, and I got to work the in and the out.
During the in, after most everything was set up and in place, I was walking around backstage with another guy and we came upon Bowie himself. The guy says to Bowie (who was smoking a cigarette), “Hey, David Bowie! I was gonna ask you for a cigarette, but since you’re David Bowie, how ’bout the whole pack?!” Bowie threw his head back and laughed, and promptly threw the entire pack of smokes to the guy! Great moment, top man.
Also, being an amateur guitarist, I always poked around to see the guitars and setups of professional guitarists. I remember it was less than an hour to showtime and I saw Bowie’s black Gibson Flying V (modern, not vintage) leaned in a stand near some cabinets. Oddly it had only one string, the D string. I approached his guitar tech, fearing that perhaps in the rush he’d forgotten to string the instrument. To which the tech replied, “Nah, it goes onstage like that.” I was flabbergasted! He did stuff from “Spiders” on that guitar and nobody in the audience was any the wiser!
Have you ever seen “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou”? Brilliant movie and a great use of Bowie songs in the score, especially the acoustic versions in Portuguese by the Brazilian guy (whose name I forget) that also acts in the movie.
From BW: Fuchsia
Well, I’d certainly wear it – maybe in The Fuchsia restaurant in St Vaast Le Hougue in Normandy……Calvados, Champagne, Oysters
I recently bought the “remastered” 30 year commemorative album of Ziggy Stardust…..just to add to the collection….and realised it was from 2002. Surely 2002 is not 8 years ago?
If there’s a better live album than “Stage” it might be “David Live!”
Thanks for everything.
Myles adds:
Jeff Dexter and I are still working on his memoir. He knows almost every rock star. We don’t have a suitable title yet. But I think it’s the greatest untold story in British showbiz. We have 65,000 words but we haven’t done the Small Faces yet.
Jeff recalls: “I met Marc Bolan at the Lyceum in 1961 when he was Marc Feld, the face.We had quite a lot in common because we were both runts and both dandies. He was a short-arse fancy dresser from Hackney and I was a short-arse fancy dresser from the Elephant.
Marc first came to fame about 1962 when Town magazine did a feature on him. Town was an upmarket men’s monthly, edited by Michael Heseltine, almost a men’s Vogue, but it was not just fashion.Nothing quite like Town had ever been done before. It was a sophisticated magazine for new gentlemen and boys about town, and it took an interest in youth cults. A photographer had twigged that there was this whole new cult of dandyism within the Mod culture, a whole new group of dandies who had a certain look, and they went out to find out about it. Marc always looked really sharp. He was one of the sharpest of that bunch at the time.”
Jeff understands artists and gets on very well with them.
He did Glastonbury with Bowie in the early days and told me that Bowie once said, a few years ago, “D’you remember when we did the first Glastonbury, Jeff?”
And Jeff’s amiable reply was, “That was the second one, David. I did the first one the year before with Bolan.”