Aladdin Sane 50th Anniversary (Half Speed Master)

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There will also be talks exploring Aladdin Sane, Bowie, and his cultural significance. The National Poetry Library presents Aladdin Sound with ten of the UK’s most exciting poets in the Centre’s Purcell Room on 21 April. As part of the 50th anniversary celebrations, a number of artists will pay tribute to Bowie and Aladdin Sane in the Royal Festival Hall on April 21.

It was a habit Bowie continued throughout his life, taking threads from previous ideas and giving them a new context. Mike Garson explains: “That’s a 1920s stride style of piano; again David pulled that out of me. He was the ultimate casting director because he got the best out of everybody.” Time’ had at first been written with Underwood in mind. “The song was originally titled ‘We Should Be On By Now’ and recorded with me on vocals,” says Underwood. “Along with ‘Hole In The Ground’ and ‘Song for Bob Dylan’, these three songs David wrote for me. He wanted to revive my singing career at the time. Later on, David decided to re-write 'We Should Be On By Now' and turned it into 'Time', a very different song with a few bits from the original.” It was in this rather surreal atmosphere that Bowie wrote his sixth album Aladdin Sane, currently celebrating its 50th anniversary with a remastered reissue and Aladdin Sane: 50 Years event season at London’s Southbank Centre, including a tribute concert featuring Scissor Sisters’ Jake Shears, Anna Calvi and Roxanne Tataei. It's a spine-tingling moment when Garson begins to play some of the tune’s higher notes over Zoom to illustrate the influence of French composer Claude Debussy. “There’s a lot of classical influences,” he explains. “Chopin, Franz Liszt, there’s some Rachmaninov mixed with my voice adding some jazz chords.”An exhibition to celebrate 50 years of David Bowie‘s album Aladdin Sane has been announced for London’s Southbank Centre. I think he was having a hard time with the pressure he was under, having created this character he had to play every night,” says Woodmansey, who was blindsided by the announcement and was told he was no longer needed by Bowie four days later – on his wedding day. “So he eventually stayed in character as Ziggy all the time. And Ziggy was pretty f***ing weird. It was impossible having a normal conversation with Ziggy.” David always had the flash concept in his head,” says Chris. “Being a big Elvis fan who he shared his birthday with, he lifted it from his taking care of business in a flash acronym. When they were deciding on the colour scheme they agreed on the flash from the Panasonic rice cooker my grandma bought. So you could say she was elemental in bringing that to fruition.”

This new pressing of ALADDIN SANE was cut on a customised late Neumann VMS80 lathe with fully recapped electronics from 192kHz restored masters of the original master tapes, with no additional processing on transfer. The half-speed was cut by John Webber at AIR Studios. The album was preceded by two singles ‘The Jean Genie’ and ‘Drive-In Saturday’, peaking in the U.K. singles chart at numbers 2 and 3 respectively, and was the first time Bowie topped the U.K. album charts. It also marked his debut on the U.S. top 20 album chart, where ‘Time’ and ‘Let’s Spend The Night Together’ were follow ups to the ‘The Jean Genie’. Camille Paglia, a US feminist academic, described the picture as “one of the most emblematic and influential art images of the past half-century, reproduced or parodied in advertising, media and entertainment worldwide”. We’re honoured to pay tribute to David Bowie, who made his Southbank Centre debut in 1969. The Aladdin Sane album cover portrait is considered to be one of the most influential pop culture images of the past half century, and the music remains fresh and contemporary, so we wanted to recognise this major anniversary and reflect on the album and its artwork’s enduring legacy. It’s a work that continues to inspire today’s contemporary artists and the gender fluidity of the images still resonate deeply in queer culture in the UK and across the world. On the Aladdin Sane celebrations, Southbank Centre Artistic Director Mark Ball His son Chris explains: “Duffy’s father was from Athlone and his mother from Mayo. They moved to London, and while he was conceived in Ireland, he was born in London.”The Nu Civilisation Orchestra will host the event, which will see Anna Calvi, Jake Shears of the Scissor Sisters, Tawiah, Roxanne Tataei and Lynks perform Bowie’s album in its entirety, including hits such as The Jean Genie, Drive In Saturday and Lady Grinning Soul. The album was preceded by two singles‘The Jean Genie’and‘Drive-In Saturday’,peaking in the U.K. singles chart at numbers 2 and 3 respectively,and was the first time he topped the U.K. album charts. It also markedBowie’sdebut on the U.S. charts reaching the top 20 album chart there, where an edited version of‘Time’was released as a single. Featuring a two-month long exhibition (6 April – 28 May) as well as a stellar line-up of live music and talks inspired by the album (21 & 22 April) Culture The David Bowie V&A exhibition could be the last of its kind - our memories are digital now Read More The cover had a profound effect on many who saw it. Gillespie was at primary school in Glasgow when a friend brought the album into class. “The first thing was the image, this creature of indeterminate sex. It’s very powerful stuff for an 11-year-old to be… I’m not gonna say ‘exposed to’, because that makes it sound seedy. But to be presented with. I thought it was attractive, but not in a sexual way. More just – I’d never seen anything like this before. It messed around with the idea of what a man could and should be. It was revolutionary”.

The famous picture of David Bowie on the cover of Aladdin Sane was taken by Brian Duffy (commonly known as ‘Duffy’).Mark Ball, the Southbank Centre’s artistic director, said: “The Aladdin Sane album cover portrait is considered to be one of the most influential pop culture images of the past half century, and the music remains fresh and contemporary, so we wanted to recognise this major anniversary and reflect on the album and its artwork’s enduring legacy. I think that was Duffy putting his Daliesque abstract stamp on it, the image would still look striking without it but the watermark makes it even more mysterious. It could be a teardrop, it could be a mercury water droplet, and its shape is also quite phallic. David didn’t know about that until afterwards, Duffy just put it on there.”