Just listening to the "Bowie At The Beeb" album, which I've only just managed to get hold of a copy of.

On the outro to "The Width Of A Circle" there is some discussion with John Peel about whether the band are going out on tour to which Bowie responds that "Michael doesn't really know, he's just come down from Hull. I met him two days ago......"

This must then be the first recordings of Mick Ronson with Bowie ?

Johnny Walker's new series Long Players starts tonight at 11pm on R2 and features Hunky Dory and Aladdin Sane in part one. A bit late in the evening for this old bird, but definitely one for the iPlayer - looks like a good series.

Also starring one of our two fave mag editors;

"The programme will feature highlights of the albums, with comment and cultural history from Johnnie and broadcaster and critic David Hepworth alongside archive interviews with many of the key players."

Info here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01bh924

David Bowie has given the go ahead to a musical featuring twenty of his songs -
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/music-news/8918602/David-Bowie-...

I don't know how I feel. I don't think they usually manage to make the mark. Could this be different? I live in hope.

I've been running a classic album night at the Tyneside Cinema in Newcastle over the last eleven weeks. The albums included were voted for via my blog, and the take up has been most excellent.

Here's the chart placings measured by ticket sales. The top two sold out and we had to squeeze more folk in to avoid disappointment.

After every album ended people applauded the vinyl. It's been marvellous.

1. Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars
2. Led Zep 4
3. Dark Side of the Moon
4. The Hounds of Love
5. Pet Sounds
6. For Emma, Forever Ago
7. Seldom Seen Kid
8. Abbey Road
9. Queen 2
10. Quadrophenia
11. The Stone Roses

If you haven't seen it yet, the advert for the latest Genesis Publications offering in this month's Word features a striking portrait of Tin Machine-era Bowie replete with beard. In my opinion never has Bowie looked so good with or without a beard - gone the gaunt years of addiction, his dishevelled beard in Baal thankfully a thing of the past, not to mention the freaky, if not disturbing cover on the Christopher Sanford biography of a bewhiskered Bowie.

Masayoshi Sukita's photo shows Bowie at his most self-assured, and, dare I say it, handsome.

Sadly the book is only ever likely to be on my wish list as the Geoff McCormack Station to Station book from the same publishers is still available at, for me, an eye-watering £295 so I suppose I'll have to wait for the Hoi Polloi edition as I did for Mick Rock's Moonage Daydream. If you haven't seen the picture it's here. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/photos/exclusive-photos-speed-of-life-...

And there's more Masayoshi Sukita pics here http://www.howtobearetronaut.com/2011/11/alternative-heroes-1977-by-suki...

Photographs copyright © Masayoshi Sukita, from forthcoming limited edition Speed of Life, genesis-publications.com

I can't see it written about anywhere else on here. Maybe I'm blind, or have been relentlessly busy for two weeks and haven't had much time on the Massive.

Either way, the current Bowie special, as published by the pre-circumcision magazine Uncut is really good. Extended looks at all his albums, plus an absolute wealth of old articles and interviews, particularly around the mid-70s period, cocaine, peppers and all.

As Bowie is currently number 1 on the Word Magazine group's chart on last.fm I thought it would be worth sharing. Pricey with a cover price of £7.99, but well worth it. It is after all the length of a book at 170-ish A4 pages. Definitely recommended. Even if it was produced by the competitors.

Oh and for the Massive's chart:

http://www.last.fm/group/The+Word+Magazine

Whilst idling I realised that I can do the six degrees of separation thing with David Bowie, but in four.

David Bowie had Trevor Bolder as a Spider from Mars.
Trevor Bolders dad Harry had a record shop in Hull called Bolders Record bar.
I bought some records from Trevor bolders dad.

Close? I'm almost a blood relative.

Beat that?

From today's 'Independent' there is an article about a children's illustrated book based on Bowie's 'Space Oddity' - here's the link:
http://www.kolbisneat.com/spaceoddity.htm

See what you think - I quite like it.

In Fopp today they had a fistful of reasonably-priced live David Bowie CDs - Stage, Live, Ziggy Stardust, Santa Monica. Given that I already have all the relevant studio albums, any opinions on whether any of these live CDs are worth having also?

As we know, it's an Englishman's inalienable right to dress in women's clothing whenever the mood takes him. Nowhere is this more evident than in the world of rock & roll. Here are just a few examples of rock stars in drag. I'm sure there are plenty of others.

The Rolling Stones - September 1966: "and this is pretty much how we'll look in 2011"

Queen do Coronation Street. Freddie is clearly enjoying himself

Bowie always claimed it was a "man's dress". Yeah, right

Keith Moon. This is just wrong, isn't it?

not to my taste but I'm sure some here will enjoy
http://blogs.kcrw.com/musicnews/2010/09/kcrw-djs-remix-golden-years-by-d...

You´re not missing this documentary, are you? It features lots of interviews, with both the usual and unusual suspects, and a decent tune or two.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00svdyw/episodes/player

"Heroes" is one of my favourite Bowie-songs, but as an album I think Low is superior to "Heroes", despite quotation marks used nicely on the latter. On both albums I prefer the instrumental sides to the ones with singing, even if he´s one of my favorite singers. And Lodger is ridiculously underestimated.

But the question is - Low or "Heroes"?

So here's Bromley Dave with the dress rehearsal of Station To Station 1976. I love the way it's himself who loses it to begin with, then snaps into being "David Bowie" at about 4mins 30