If there is one thing that
David Bowie can do, it is excite you. If you’re a fan of Bowie, (and if you are
not then I don’t want to know you), then you will remember that glorious
morning of January 8th of this year as the most exciting day in
recent history. After a decade of near silence, David Bowie made an unannounced
comeback with the single ‘Where Are We Now?’ and virtually broke the internet
thanks to everybody tweeting and facebooking their approval. For an early
pioneer of the net, managing to keep a secret in this day and age of lesser
celebrities tweeting their most intimate and mundane movements was nothing
short of a miracle.
After refusing to perform at
the Olympic closing ceremony, and saying that there would be no tour in support
of the album The Next Day, it is clear that
David Bowie likes to play the fame game on his own terms. I attended the press
launch (and returned later to view it as a paying visitor) of the David Bowie
Is exhibition in that London, and was more than a little disappointed that he
didn’t make an appearance. In fact, it is not known whether he even graced the
doors of the Victoria and Albert museum at all.
This is part of the Bowie
legend these days, keeping a low profile and letting his legacy do the talking
for him.
The film David Bowie
Is Happening Now was exactly what the title suggested; a live link
up from the V&A broadcast to cinemas the length and breadth of the country,
every pair of eyes secretly wondering if he would turn up at the end and say
thanks. Hosted by curators Victoria Broakes and Geoffrey Marsh, with
appearances from the likes of Jarvis Cocker, Paul Morley, Jonathan Barnbrook,
and others, this was a fitting send off to what has been the most successful
exhibition in the history of the V&A. We saw behind the scenes, the
planning stages, and the reactions from the public.
We should all be glad that
David Bowie is such an unbelievable hoarder; the 300 items on display being a
mere tip of the iceberg. Maybe something like this was always at the back of
his mind, but you soon saw why he would need to employ a full time archivist.
Aside from some of the most iconic costumes, (although the jumpsuit from the
‘Dancing in the Street’ video was sadly omitted), there were private letters,
contact sheets, hand-written song lyrics, storyboards for music videos, (some
of which looked like they were drawn by children, but that was part of the
charm), and photographs. Such is Bowie’s vice-like grip on controlling every
aspect of his career; there were even cigarette packets with drawings on. Every
item an insight into the world and mind of music’s most influential star.
There are planned repeat
screenings happening, so if you missed this you do have a chance to see what
happened, but it won’t be the same as the live showing.
The audience at The Broadway
applauded as the end credits rolled, and rightly so. I had a tear in my eye as
I pondered the fact that there is literally no other musician who comes across
as an almost mythical figure; not Presley, not Mercury, not McCartney, not even
Andre.
David Bowie is…everything and
anything you want him to be.
NB: This is the full length version of a review that I wrote for Leftlion.
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