Bowie at the beeb

Posted by: Simon Jenkins on 29 September 2000

Anybody else got this yet ?

Must admit that after first listen it's probably one for Bowie anoraks only, probably why I like it.

The old 60's and 70's recordings are not the greatest quality, but hearing Bowie and Ronson playing together for virtally the first time is kind of cool.

The bonus CD of the 2000 recordings is OK as well. A little bit over mixed IMHO, but some really interesting takes on some classic songs (really funky version of let's dance).

Simon

Bowie Anorak

Posted on: 04 October 2000 by Simon Jenkins

Jean-christophe,

Not sure. Haven't seen it on Vinyl anywhere, then most of the shops round me are fairly poor on stocking new vinyl, and charge stupid prices for it.

To be honest, the quality of most of the recordings is not wonderful, so a half decent CD player or record deck will probably get the most out of the recording. It's certainly not audiophile quality.

Simon

Posted on: 04 October 2000 by Steve Catterall

There are no vinyl versions so far - and I doubt the Live show would be released on vinyl.

Not sure that I'd aggree about the quality Simon. The earlier session are certainly limited by the basic BBC equipment of the time, but the seventies stuff comes across pretty well. Its certainly not over-produced (which is no bad thing), but it comes across very well on my system and sounds very live and real. Not audiophile quality maybe - but pretty good.

Dissappointed with the live disk though - he chooses to do quite alot of filler tracks when you think what he left out from his glastonbury set - and why they opted to fade each track out before fading in the next track ... it really wrecks the live feel.

Posted on: 04 October 2000 by Simon Jenkins

Steve,

Have to agree with you on the live disk. I think there are some very good tracks on there, but completly over produced.

The BBC sessions are basic in comparisson, again no bad thing. I'm still not sure about the quality, but as your rightly point out, this is because of the BBC recording quality of the day. They do come across as a real "live" studio show.

However, as I put in my original post, I do think this is one for the Bowie fan only, I personally wouldn't recommend it to the occasional Bowie listener. Tried this with my wife, who likes DB, but is not fanatical, and she doesn't like the album much.

Simon

Posted on: 04 October 2000 by Steve Catterall

I think you're probably right about it being for fans only - although there are some very interesting versions of the Ziggy Stardust material - Ronson's extended workout on Moonage Daydream is wonderful.

I actually have the 4 CD bootleg version as well containing all the sessions. Not quite the same quality (although not far off), and they've left off some good stuff from the HD/Ziggy sessions. They should have put those on the limited extra disk instead of the live show.