Later this month, the David Bowie Estate will launch Bowie 75, a year-long celebration marking David Bowie’s 75th birthday, kicking off with the openings of two curated experiential pop-up shops. One of them will be located in his birthplace of London at the site of the earliest confirmed Ziggy Stardust sighting and another in Bowie’s adopted hometown where his final album, ‘Blackstar,’ was created.
The pop-ups will offer visitors a unique and immersive career-spanning deep dive into the sound and vision of the legendary artist, but only for a limited window beginning October 25, 75 days before he would’ve counted that many candles, through late January, 2022. The Bowie 75 locations will be up and running at 150 Wooster Street, steps away from Bowie’s longtime downtown New York City neighborhood in SoHo and 14 Heddon Street, the London location where the cover of ‘The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars’ was shot. The NYC pop-up will be open seven days a week from 11 a.m.-7 p.m.
Included among the attractions at each pop-up will be immersive audio and HD video screening rooms in partnership with 360 Reality Audio, a music experience using Sony’s spatial sound technologies. It will allow fans to hear and see Bowie content available for the first time in immersive audio, exclusive to the Bowie 75 locations. There will also be hours of video content including previously unseen behind-the-scenes material, rare footage from the ‘Heathen’ and ‘Reality’ eras and more.
Additionally, there will be opportunities to purchase limited edition releases of exclusive Bowie apparel and collectibles, including a limited run of LPs and CDs from both the Warner/Parlophone and Sony catalogs. There will be exclusive fine art photography – including gallery installations – documenting Bowie’s many eras, persona and changes he morphed into throughout his career. Fans can also place themselves in iconic costumes and set pieces to share across social media.
Intimate special guest events are set to be announced as the three-month pop-ups continue on, all of which will be revealed at bowie75.com, where fans can also sign up to receive email updates.
VINYL OF THE WEEK
Keep an eye on this spot as each week we’ll be looking at new or soon-to-be-released vinyl from a variety of artists. It might be a re-pressing of a landmark recording, special edition or new collection from a legendary act. This week, it’s the fourth LP from a British alt-rock favorite.
THE CHARLATANS: ‘THE CHARLATANS’
The Charlatans decided to make their fourth effort a self-titled release, putting it out at the height of the Britpop explosion in 1995. It was UK outfit’s most ambitious and focused album to date, returning them right back to the number one slot in the charts. The album also spawned three UK Top 40 singles, “Crashin’ In,” “Just Lookin’” and “Just When You’re Thinkin’ Things Over,” which peaked at No. 12
Now the label Beggars Arkive has released the reissue of ‘The Charlatans’ pressed on marbled double yellow vinyl with a gatefold sleeve. It hasn’t been pressed on vinyl in over 20 years, and this time around the audio is via transfer to 96khz/24 bit, with vinyl mastering by Frank Arkwright at Abbey Road Studios.
When the Charlatans started out, there were countless bands with a somewhat similar sound, but they immediately catapulted to the forefront of the Madchester scene, standing alongside such icons as the Stone Roses and the Happy Mondays. Despite coming onto many American music fans at the peak of Britpop, the band was more alternative rock than anything else. They also got tagged with “The Charlatans UK” moniker on this side of the pond due to an act from the psychedelic rock scene in ‘60s San Francisco having the same name.
The band was – and remains – successful because, in addition to being able to ride the groove, they also write amazing songs. These were the gifts that made them among the greatest British survivors of our time, rolling through tragedy and stylistic changes to amass a terrific body of work, one that was modern enough to play in clubs but classicist enough to stand the test of time, and one that continues to grow to this day. They have notched 13 Top 40 studio albums – three of them chart toppers – alongside 22 hit singles, four of them Top 10.
‘The Charlatans’ was rated No. 84 in the Melody Maker’s top 100 albums of all-time list from 2000 and UK’s Select Magazine had it in their Top 30 the year it was released, calling it, “a ring of self-titled confidence, marvelous swirls of multi-layered guitar and organ, this is a blur of positive vibes that will send your heart through the ceiling”.
You can find the reissue of ‘The Charlatans’ online and in stores from all respectable retailers who carry vinyl.
To contact music columnist Michael Christopher, send an email to rockmusicmenu@gmail.com. Also, check out his blog at www.thechroniclesofmc.com
Source: Berkshire mont
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