GUITAR…
BOWIE AND THE BIZ How the star changed the industry music biz honours a non-conformist genius who did it his way
Hempstead Pavilion, now one of the great venues in the sky. The audience was gobsmacked. “He was a genius because he didn’t conform, he would do a tour and then just disappear until he was ready to do whatever he wanted to do next. He had a kind of internal alarm clock and until that alarm went off inside him it didn’t matter what you threw at him in terms of opportunities, he was only ready to do it when he wanted to do it – and he was always right.” One of Bowie’s most fondly-remembered concerts of the 21st century was his return to Glastonbury in 2000. “The best gig I’ve seen here,” says co-organiser Emily Eavis. Her father, the festival’s founder, Michael Eavis, declares: “He’s one of the three greatest of all-time: Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and David Bowie.” In 2002, Bowie curated the Southbank Festival’s Meltdown festival, putting together a line-up that included Coldplay, Suede, Mercury Rev, Television, Peaches, The The, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Badly Drawn Boy, Supergrass, The Waterboys, Philip Glass, Asian Dub Foundation and The Legendary Stardust Cowboy. “It was one of the most intense festivals we ever did, simply because he had massive pulling power,” says the venue’s technical director Eddy Smith. “Anyone that was asked said, Yes, straight away. His name had the ability to draw a lot of people in.”
particularly by other artists – and rightfully so.” Legendary promoter Harvey Goldsmith, who organised Live Aid with Bob Geldof, had known Bowie since the 1960s and staged a number of his tours. “I started working with him in about 1969,” recalls Goldsmith. “His manager got on my case and wouldn’t get off the phone, so I booked him for Hemel
Bowie’s Top 6 Selling UK Singles
Bowie’s last public performance was in November 2006 when he sang Changes with Alicia Keys at the Black Ball fundraiser at New York’s Hammersmith Ballroom. Six months earlier, he had appeared with David Gilmour to perform Pink Floyd’s Arnold Layne and Comfortably Numb at the Royal Albert Hall, the last time he took to the stage in the UK. “I think he wanted to bring his daughter up, spend time with her,” suggests Giddings. “He was a very private person. This has come out of the blue and none of us knew about [his illness]. Those people very close to him protected him.”
O ne of the more unheralded innovations of David Bowie’s career came in the financial world, with the conception of his so-called ‘Bowie Bonds’. In 1997, Bowie, his financial manager Bill Zysblat and banker David Pullman, came up with the idea to sell investors a share in his future royalties for 10 years. He agreed a deal with EMI to sell bonds on royalties for 25 albums released from 1969 to 1990, which were privately sold to Prudential Financial for $55 million (£38m) and gave a fixed annual return of 7.9%. Sources told music writer Paul Trynka that the windfall enabled Bowie to buy back the publishing rights to some songs owned by former manager Tony DeFries, as well as make other investments. Though the securities were initially given the seventh-highest investment-grade rank, record sales fell with the rise of internet piracy and in 2004 the bonds were rated one level above junk by Moody’s Investors Services. Moody’s spokesman Thomas Lemon said the securities were paid off after 10 years and the ratings withdrawn. In September 1996, Bowie released Telling Lies, the first internet-only single by a major artist, on his official website. More than 300,000 people downloaded the track, which was released as a single by BMG two months later. Telling Lies also featured on his 1997 album Earthling. In July 1998, he became the first musician to create an internet service provider, launching the pioneering BowieNet.
For a $19.95 monthly fee, users were given access to a “a fully customisable home page, davidbowie. com email address [
your.name@
davidbowie.com], news groups, chat rooms, online shareware, multi- player gaming, and much much more”, according to a press release at the time.
Title Let’s Dance
Date of first chart entry Mar 83
Sales 905,029
Title Under Pressure*
Date of first chart entry Nov 81 Sales
764,140
Title Dancing In The Street**
Date of first chart entry Sep 85 Sales
725,155
* = Queen & David Bowie, ** = David Bowie & Mick Jagger. Sales as at Jan 7. Date of first chart entry
MUSIC Week 17 JANUARY 18
Title Space Oddity
Date of first chart entry Sep 69
Sales 680,825
Title Ashes To Ashes
Date of first chart entry Aug 80 Sales
679,703
Title Modern Love
Date of first chart entry Sep 83
Sales 522,989
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