Aladdin Sane 50th Anniversary (Half Speed Master)

Product Information

Bowie described ALADDIN SANE as ‘Ziggy Goes To Washington: Ziggy under the influence of America’. The album was to be Ziggy Stardust's last stand, and the persona was laid to rest three months after the album's release in July 1973 at the infamous final show with the Spiders From Mars at London’s Hammersmith Odeon. From Ziggy to Thin White Duke, to the Lodger, Scary Monsters. So he fundamentally understood the power and importance of image.” Aladdin Sane: 50 Years exhibition is curated by Chris Duffy, the son of photographer Brian Duffy, the latter of whom collaborated with Bowie to create the 1973 album’s iconic lightning flash portrait artwork. Read next It will also look at the music scene of the early 1970s, when Bowie and Brian Duffy first met, and go on to chart the relationship that developed between the musician and photographer. The Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer will host two nights of club music in celebration of Bowie on April 21 and 22, with DJ collective Queer House Party and Afro-Caribbean-inspired Queer Bruk.

Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge. The exhibition, which is based in the Spirit Level at the Royal Festival Hall, will explore this idea of how Bowie continuously reinvented his image throughout his career and inspired his fans to do the same. Chris Duffy who took the photo used on the front cover of David Bowie's Aladdin Sane album Credit: Duffy (c) Duffy Archive & The David Bowie Archive Additionally, Anna Calvi, Scissor Sisters’ Jake Shears, Roxanne Tataei, Tawiah, and Lynks will join join the Nu Civilisation Orchestra to perform Aladdin Sane live in full on 21 April at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall.

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) 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.” Aladdin Sane perhaps more than any other Bowie album achieved that aim. One of Garson’s abiding memories is perpetually-exploding speakers. “Our recordings were being blasted out and every night. The speakers would blow out and they would have to replace it. God knows what it was costing.”

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. 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”.Also among the exhibition is behind-the-scenes information on how the lighting bolt make-up was created as well as other shots taken in the same session with Bowie’s angular face captured in many ways.

Duffy’s image became “the Mona Lisa of pop”, according to his son, who curated the exhibition at the Southbank Centre in central London and has written a book, Aladdin Sane 50: The definitive celebration of Bowie’s most iconic album and music’s most famous photograph. Bowie describedALADDIN SANEas ‘Ziggy Goes To Washington: Ziggy under the influence of America’. The album was to be Ziggy Stardust's last stand, and the persona was laid to rest three months after the album's release in July 1973 at the infamous final showwith theSpidersFromMarsat London’s Hammersmith Odeon. Aladdin Sane 50 Years is being marked by a series of events The Southbank Centre, London for more info southbankcentre.co.uk Bowie performed at the Purcell Room at the Southbank Centre in 1969, and later curated Meltdown, an arts festival at the Festival Hall.

Statistics

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. Photographer Chris Duffy calls the image “the Mona Lisa of pop”. It was shot by his father, Brian Duffy, a renowned celebrity photographer who died in 2010. Bowie and Brian Duffy enjoyed a fruitful creative partnership: Aladdin Sane was the first of three album covers they shot together. 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.