Everyone loved David Bowie so therefore its no surprise there’s been so many stories about him emerging in the last couple of weeks, but this one really caught my eye.
Music Journalist Steve Sutherland was interviewed by Stratford Upon-Avon Herald this week regarding his encounters with David Bowie. In the early 90’s Sutherland felt Bowie could do with some inspiration after his disappointing Tin Machine output, therefore he presented Bowie with a mixtape of the latest bands at that time, most of which were on Creation. Sadly Bowie was unimpressed!
“Knowing his reputation as a magpie, scarfing up other people’s ideas, sprinkling some fairy dust on them and then successfully representing them as his own, I figured Dave might benefit from an earful of some new stuff, so duly made him a cassette.
The tracklisting went something like Lush, Moose, Chapterhouse, Adorable , Slowdive, The Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, Telescopes, Ride — a veritable who’s who of shoegazers making a name for themselves at the time and a line-up I felt sure would top-up Dave’s creative juices.
Just goes to show how wrong you can be! A few weeks after I sent him said tape, I received a very nicely wrapped package which contained a small broken-up jigsaw of Michelangelo’s David. When the pieces were all put in place, there was a message handwritten on the back in, if I recall correctly, green ink, the gist of which went something like, “Thanks for the lovely tape. Not really my cup of tea. Try this instead.” The “this” was a cassette tape of Different Trains, an interminable modern classical piece by avant-garde composer Steve Reich performed by the dreaded Kronos Quartet. Shudder.
The jigsaw’s in the attic somewhere. Guess I’d better dig it out.”
I still love Bowie even if he doesn’t share my appreciation of those bands.