Record Collector Article about David Bowie Published

Earlier this year I had the good fortune to collaborate on an article about David Bowie. He turned 60 this year and the article focused on 60 rare and intriguing recordings released during his career from 1964 through to the present. The article was published a couple of weeks ago in the Record Collector magazine.


I worked with Ruud Altenburg and Maarten Kwant, both of the Netherlands. We all had a great time writing the article and gathering together the images used throughout. Quite an experience and a further demonstration of the power of the Internet. The three of us have never actually met in person. We met via the web due to our interest in collecting records. Ruud is the creator of the excellent Illustrated db Discography. The article rated a couple of mentions on Bowie's web site as well.

Elvis Costello live at the Shellharbour Worker's Club

This afternoon I digitised an old live recording of an Elvis Costello performance at the Shellharbour Workers' Club in Shellharbour, NSW. He played with a band called the Confederates. The band consisted of Austin De Lone, Jim Keltner, Elvis Costello, Jerry Scheff and James Burton if I remember correctly. It also included Nick Lowe this night. It was the 5th December, 1987.

The performance was brilliant and the crowd went wild. They yelled and bellowed for more and the band played several encores. They ran out of tunes and they played "That's How You Got Killed Before" once more with different solos. You can hear me putting the cassette recorder away at the end after the house lights went up. My friends encircled me as I hid the recorder before we made our exit. Getting tape decks past security was always a worry. Anyway, have a listen...

That's How You Got Killed Before

David Bowie ~ Young Americans reissue

Listened to the re-issue of Bowie's 1975 album Young Americans. It was remixed by Tony Visconti. It sounds brilliant. I was disappointed with some of the remixing done with the Ryko reissue of Young Americans 15 or so years back. I missed the original rippling stereo saxohpone mix on Win for example. This 5.1 remix is luxurious. Win sounds wonderful. I have mixed feelings about the strings on It's Gonna Be Me. The video stuff from the Dick Cavett show is nice. Why they left off 'After Today' from this special edition is a mystery.

Station To Station Colour Sleeve

Bowie released Station To Station in 1976. The release number was RCA APL1-1327. The album released to the public had artwork with a black and white still from the Man Who Fell To Earth movie. Apparently plans had been made to release a full colour sleeve and some artwork had been undertaken. The colour artwork attracts considerable debate among collectors as to what was printed and what was not printed. It seems that in the UK RCA had 24" X 12" flat mock-ups printed. In the USA RCA printed proofs of the sleeve. Some collectors glued the proofs together to make up the sleeve.

This was further complicated in the late 1980s when an English collector obtained one of these US full colour proofs and had counterfeit copies made, possibly by a printing company in Japan. They were then sold by record dealers in England. Occasionally these counterfeits are now sold to unwitting collectors as authentic RCA USA sleeves. I think that is patently unfair. Check out this link for photographs of the UK 24" x 12" mock-up and one copy of the aforementioned counterfeit.

Anyway, Ryko reissued the album with the full colour artwork in 1990. Subsequent issues on CD have also included the full colour artwork. This year Toshiba reissued the album as a Mini LP CD with the original 1976 black and white artwork. In many respects the original 1976 black and white RCA album sleeve (especially the UK pressing) in mint or sealed condition would be a valuable acquistion.