David Bowie: Finding Fame on iPlayer

[non capisco]

Following 'Five Years' and 'The Last Five Years', the latest impeccably researched and archive footage slathered Zavid doc from Francis Whately. This one concerning the nascent Bowie and all the old rammel he got up to in the 60s before he was good. (I'm being slightly facetious, Deram era fans). Another belting watch full of fascinating interviews and clips, my favourite moment being a clearly very ill Lindsay Kemp deciding to go out with a bang and have his final dying word on Bowie be that he thought his mime act was shite, accompanied by footage that doesn't exactly counter this opinion. To go from his fucking dreadful folk trio Feathers sitting on cushions singing "Ching-A-Ling" (like Telltale's 'Theme From Rainbow' without the bollocks) to the still startling and emotionally overwhelming 'Space Oddity' in the same year was a pretty vertiginous leap up. Anyone else watch this? I gather this is the last of a trio, I love all the Whately Bowie documentaries and this certainly didn't disappoint. Of course there were obscene 'Laughing Gnome' outtakes, how could there not have been?!

[PaulTMA]

I'd happily watch one of these even if they covered the Never Let Down - Oy Vey Baby era.  I rather wish they would.

[thugler]

Slightly sick of the endless rerunning of the ziggy stardust stuff. And while vaguely interesting a lot of his early stuff seems pretty obviously terrible. Hunky dory was skipped by pretty quickly for some reason. Enjoyed the bits about the man who sold the world era.

I notice kemp was introduced as 'boyfriend' was this actually the case? I thought bowie was a 'closet heterosexual' to use his term.

[gilbertharding]

I'm afraid I'm a big fan of the Deram/mod/Feathers stuff - I really like kitchen-sink string arrangements, and all that stuff. After that I lose interest until Hunky Dory.

The documentary also skipped Arnold Corns.

[phantom_power]

I love his 60s stuff, even some of the tat, so this was really enjoyable. There were a lot of clips that I first heard on the Adam Buxton Bowie special on 6music a few years ago but in longer or more visual form.

[daf]

Zavid

A-Wuzza Wuzza Wuzz

[Johnboy]

There was a another doc maybe 5 or 6 years ago about the birth of Ziggy which covered Hunky Dory and Ziggy quite well which might have influenced the content of this one

[JesusAndYourBush]

Was anyone annoyed by the very thin picture (black bars across the top & bottom even though it's already 16:9)?  I accept that it looked ok for most of it but there were a couple of the old clips (most notably the Harty appearance) where they'd chopped the top & bottom of his head off.  All the interviews that had been filmed recently (and which they could have filmed in super-thin-vision if they'd wanted to) were shown as 16:9, and yet the older 4:3 clips that needed as much screen as possible were cropped to buggery.  Wrong way round mate!  I can't remember, but did the director do the same with the other two documentaries?  And if he did, why did anyone not tell him to stop it!

There was a another doc maybe 5 or 6 years ago about the birth of Ziggy which covered Hunky Dory and Ziggy quite well which might have influenced the content of this one

Yeah it was called "Five Years" and was made by the same guy.  That's why the Ziggy-era part of the documentary would have come across as rushed - there's a whole 'nother documentary for that.

[Johnboy]

No, I don't think it was Five Years, that was five different eras.  The one I'm thinking of was about Ziggy and it dealt with the lead up to Ziggy - think it was narrated by Jarvis Cocker

[phantom_power]

Yeah I think it was called "David Bowie and the Story of Ziggy Stardust" or something similar

[daf]

Yeah I think it was called "David Bowie and the Story of Ziggy Stardust" or something similar

Close, it actually was -
"Dave Bowie & the Dave Bowie Band feat. Dave Bowie and the Story of Arnold Corns"

[phantom_power]

"Dame Dave Bowie & the Dave Bowie Band feat. Dame Dave Bowie and the Story of Arnold Corns & The Men Who Sold The World" actually

[daf]

"Dame Dave Bowie & the Dave Bowie Band feat. Dame Dave Bowie and the Story of Arnold Corns & The Thin White Men Who Sold The wuzz-a-wuzz-a-World as they fell wanking to the floor hearing the sound of man-do-l-i-i-i-ins while hoarding jars of piss in the fridge"

[phantom_power]

"Dame Dave Bowie & the Dave Bowie Band feat. Dame Dave Bowie and the Story of Arnold Corns & The Thin White Men Who Sold The wuzz-a-wuzz-a-World as they fell wanking to the floor hearing the sound of man-do-l-i-i-i-ins while hoarding jars of piss in the fridge again"

[gilbertharding]

It was nice to see that clip of Dave putting his arm round Ronno's shoulder on TotP again, but it was a crying shame no-one was available to labour a point about it.

I also had real fears that the sudden appearance of Rick Fucking Wakeman was so he could explain how he ruined the song Life on Mars with his trademark 'wanky bits'.

[massive bereavement]

Why did it go straight from "Space Oddity" to "Starman", then go back to the 1969 album?

[poodlefaker]

I noticed that, it did it a few times, didn't it? Fast forward then go back. Hunky Dory didn't get much attention.

[Head Gardener]

Let's Dance