Some five minutes worth of old news footage surrounding David Bowie's 1983 arrival in Perth, Western Australia has been uncovered.

BDU member Stevee had previously written about this event here on BDU. Apart from the airport arrival, this footage also has exceprts from the Perth Press Conference.

Thanks also to David O in Barcelona, Spain who managed to get this footage across to us via Stevee.

Details have come to hand on the forthcoming Station to Station re-release.

Released (at least overseas) on September 20, there are three editions to choose from - a 3 CD "special edition", a digital edition, and a 5 CD, DVD and heavy weight vinyl "deluxe edition" edition.

Further details available here on Bowienet.

Perthlings and other Earthlings might be interested to learn about the All Star Showstoppers - a new tribute concept that involves a rotating cast of the same five musicians in addition to having a stand alone tribute to David Bowie.

The next public Bowie tribute is due to take place on Friday the 23rd of July at The Civic Hotel in Inglewood. There's a Freddie Mercury tribute as support and tickets to the show are $20 each. The show starts around 9 PM.

More info on the Bowie tribute can be found on this page whilst more details on the 'All Star Supergroup' (a situation in which a Bowie tribute can potentially share the same stage as an Elvis Costello tribute, a Mark Knopfler tribute and a Ringo Starr tribute) can be found here.

Many thanks to drummer Dave Swan for making contact.

The Dr The Rocks tshirt website we told you about last month has opened. This includes a place to order your Holy Trinity tshirt among 15 other pop culture shirts.

Check them out here:

www.drtherocksteeshirts.com.au

There are many similarities between Canada and Australia.

Both countries are large, relatively isolated, sparsely inhabited and are fully-independent former settler colonies of Britain. Both use federal systems of government ... and both have serious Bowie fans...

On June 21, BDU's Canadian representative Alys has kindly offered to reslove our recent web host problems. Thus "Canada Day" begins a bit earlier this year.

Many, many thanks Alys!

Today sees the release of a brand new album by arguably the greatest Bowie-inspired antipodean band.

The band in question is Crowded House and the main reason for mentioning them now is that they have recently added a superb take on David Bowie's 'Moonage Daydream' to set lists on their current world tour. Check out a high quality video here featuring none other than legendary Johnny Marr on guitar.

Crowded House commence the European leg of their world tour on June 14. Their brand new album Intriguer is out today. Remember to also stop by our dedicated page on Neil Finn.

As part of the Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson curated VIVID Festival, a series of Tai Chai classes were held on top of the Sydney Opera House steps by Master Ren GuangYi.

Master Ren is the personal trainer of Lou Reed and long term Bowie producer, Tony Visconti. While many first timers joined the class, it was also evident that several were continuing on with years - if not decades - worth of training. Master Ren took participants through a '21 form' (a series of 21 moves) while 'Walk on the Wild Side' rocker Lou Reed provided assistance with posture.

Afterward, people enthused about the internal Chinese martial art and I managed to take some pics including one of Master Ren holding his brand new "Holy Trinity" T-shirt (see left).

Above: Tai Chi class, Monday June 7, 2010.

As described in The Sydney Morning Herald, the multi-act format of Slow Music Night was quite probably the emotional and musical highlight of the festival.

Some outstanding acts included Shara Worden (the powerful and versatile voice of My Brightest Diamond), the legendary Blind Boys of Alabama who performed three songs including The Velvet Underground's 'Jesus' and the extraordinary sounds of Chirgilchin - Tuvan throat singers for whom Laurie Anderson introduced to stage with much enthusiasm.

At one point, VIVID's husband and wife curators shared the stage together alone - Reed singing the lines "how nice it is to disappear / float into a mist / with a young lady on your arm / looking for a kiss" as he turned his gaze to Anderson on violin. Reed also performed 'Perfect Day' (from 1972's Transformer), 'Cremation' (from 1992's Magic and Loss) and a series of instrumentals for which Master Ren performed Tai Chi including a very fast sword form.

Later the same night but on a different stage, audiences experienced the frenzied sounds of punk blended with soul and jazz - an outfit known as The King Khan and BBQ Show.

When not ripping up the Sydney stage, King Khan also spent time with us at Tai Chi. The picture below shows him in his new robes signifying the reformation of the Black Panther political party - an idea he may or may not have come up with on stage Friday night!




King Khan continue their world tour tonight in Hong Kong with further Asian dates to follow.

On the Saturday morning (June 5), Laurie Anderson held a unique concert at the Opera House forecourt called Music For Dogs.

The idea was to bring along your pet dog to the performance. Contrary to what some were expecting, the sounds were not all undetectable high frequencies. Fortunately, the sun came out for a stunning Winter morning (ending the previous two weeks of almost constant rain) and there was a huge turn out of both people and canines.

Laurie Anderson turned 63 on the same day and the crowd sang an impromptu 'happy birthday' to mark the occasion.

Above: After the concert, Laurie Anderson (cheque shirt), the band Chirgilchin, King Khan and a happy canine.

VIVID winds up this week for 2010.

Fingers firmly crossed for an appearance by the man himself next year ...



Above: Laurie Anderson's 'O Superman' as performed by David Bowie and Gail Ann Dorsey in 1997.

Occurring on another Sydney stage over the weekend was an appearance by Jeff Duff with local band The Hipstones.

Performing to a full house at Sydney's Basement club, the venue was enlivened by Jeff's rendition of three songs including a Ray Charles and Lou Reed number. Before launching into 'Walk on the Wild Side', Jeff announced that Mr. Reed was in town and then pointed to the back of the club and said 'oh look there he is now, hello Lou'.

Jeff is on the verge of taking his Bowie tribute to the Sydney's State Theatre and around the country. The show plays this Saturday in Davistown, NSW (more info here). Jeff is also about to release a new album entitled Fragile Spaceman.

A short while ago, I received an email from Peter Maslen, member of the famous Australian rock band Boom Crash Opera.

Peter has had the fortunate experience of performing with David Bowie in Brisbane back in 1978. Moreover, this impromptu club appearance with some unusual musicians appears to have been missing from the Bowie history books until now....

"I came across your web site quite by accident and thought I should tell you about my 1978 Bowie experience to add to your anecdotes, should you wish. Strangely, it's a story I rarely tell, but visiting your web site, bought me back in time...."

Check it all out here.

Those of you who watched Spicks and Specks a couple of weeks ago may have caught this little pearl of wisdom from David Bowie via Australian singer Paul Dempsey.

Paul's band, Something For Kate, played support for DB in 2004. Cheers to youtuber Honeypotexplosion for sharing this.

Ria has sent in the 1983 Bowie interview in vastly improved quality. Press the play button (then flick it from 360p to 480p in the bottom right corner if your connection allows). Enjoy!

Mythic Flix at Sydney's ANMM is screening Labyrinth on Thursday April 29. The film commences at 7 PM sharp. Thanks to Armen for the pointer.

Order tickets here.

Close friends and collaborators of David Bowie will once again be curating Sydney's VIVID festival.

Following the first festival which took place last year (known as LUMINOUS and currated by BRIAN ENO), Sydney will now experience art rock's husband and wife team - the legendary LOU REED and LAURIE ANDERSON.

Vivid runs from May 27 to June 21.

A star studded cast of Australian musicians including Bernard Fanning (Powderfinger), Missy Higgens, Clare Bowditch and Tim Rogers (You Am I) recently rallied on stage for young people needing extensive care facilities.

During the encore at Brisbane's TIVOLI, the musicians came together to perform an awe-inspiring version of David Bowie's HEROES for the finale.

The event was organised by Fanning and will kick start a $5 million facility on the Gold Coast to accommodate young people who need around-the-clock medical attention and to avoid them having to live in aged care facilities.

For the entire month of February, it is nothing but David Bowie on digital station Gold Plus!

Tune in and listen here.

As most of you will be aware, late January saw the release of two major archival items - David Bowie's debut album from 1967 in an expanded form and Reality Live - the 2 CD edition of the Dublin show from his last world tour in 2003.

These CDs form quite a bookends of his career thus far so if you have not had a chance to see them yet, check them out here and here.