I heard the news*… Bowie conference lineup announced; Bowie musical coming to AR; Ziggy’s PA found; Bowie’s art in VT; Gail Ann Dorsey Interview AND MORE
Welcome to my weekly roundup of Bowie news! Read on for summaries of Bowie-related stories that posted this past week, and click on the bolded story names to link to the original articles…
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NEWS
Late Bowie: Legacy, Mortality and the Archival Impulse Conference (November 5th & 6th – Kingston). A two-day conference at Kingston University’s Visconti Studio on November 5–6, 2026, will examine Bowie’s late work and posthumous legacy, including his treatment of mortality, authorship and earlier personas as well as his collaborations, self-curation and the continuing reshaping of his cultural significance. Marking both the tenth anniversary of Bowie’s death and the Visconti Studio, the program includes speakers associated with the David Bowie Archive and Bowie’s work, including Harriet Reed, Clare Watt and Jonathan Barnbrook, alongside an archive workshop, a screening of David Bowie Is Dead and discussions with Peter Carpenter and Kevin Loader. But the biggest news of the week is that I will be on a panel at this conference! Woooooooo!
Bowie-Inspired Musical to Premiere in Arkansas. Human Love: The Bowie Psychic Journey, an original rock musical created by Northwest Arkansas father-son team Gary and Jeremy Loss and inspired by Bowie’s life, work and spiritual journey, will premiere at the Momentary in Bentonville, Arkansas, at 7:30 p.m. on October 2 and 3 and 2 p.m. on October 4, 2026.
Bowie’s Celestion-loaded Ziggy PA found in garden shed and restored. Bowie’s original Celestion-loaded Turner Ground Control PA system from the 1972–73 Ziggy Stardust era, prized by Bowie for its ability to control feedback, has been recovered from a garden shed and restored to its historical specifications by vintage-audio specialist Chris Hewitt.
Bowie’s art on display in Vermont. Rain Enters My Diary, on view at the T.W. Wood Museum in Montpelier, Vermont from September 24 through November 21, 2026, is a collaborative installation curated by Howard Norman featuring photographs, drawings, collages, essays, translations, and other materials connected to artists including Bowie, Jane Rosen, Anatole Kaplan, and Gabrielle Dietzel.
Gail Ann Dorsey to Perform at New York Rock ’N’ Roll Event. Gail Ann Dorsey will perform alongside Nora Polinnia and the Dumka Chorus at the launch of New York Rock ’N’ Roll, a multimedia movement combining music, art and ritual, at the Central Park Bandshell in New York City. The free event takes place tomorrow, Monday, September 28 at 5 p.m. Check out my interview with Gail, which I link to in the “this week in the blog” section, below.
Masayoshi Sukita recognised at Abbey Road Music Photography Awards. Masayoshi Sukita, whose 44-year collaboration with Bowie included the iconic cover photograph for Heroes, received the 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award at the Abbey Road Music Photography Awards, presented by Let’s Dance producer Nile Rodgers.
Constellation: “Heroes” Released in North America. Hans Meertens’ Constellation: “Heroes,” a track-by-track exploration of Bowie’s 1977 album and its artistic, historical and cultural connections, was released in North America this past week by Sonicbond Publishing, following its earlier European release.
Donny McCaslin Brings Lullaby for the Lost Back to Brooklyn. Bowie’s Blackstar saxophonist Donny McCaslin will perform Lullaby for the Lost with keyboardist Jason Lindner, bassist Jonathan Maron and drummer Nate Wood at Public Records, 233 Butler Street in Brooklyn, New York, on September 30. The performance follows the project’s New York live debut in July.
Earl Slick to join Camille O’Sullivan. Camille O’Sullivan will perform her new show The Art of Falling Apart at London’s Union Chapel on November 20 with longtime Bowie guitarist Earl Slick as special guest, reuniting the pair 13 years after they performed John Lennon’s “I’m Losing You” together at Yoko Ono’s Meltdown festival.
Early David Bowie Recordings Arrive On Streaming Services. The Shel Talmy Recordings was finally released last week. The news here is that it (they?) are now available on streaming services.
James Briggs to speak at Yeovil Literary Festival. Author James Briggs will discuss his Bowie-inspired book From Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads, which recounts his journey cycling one of the lyrics from “Life on Mars?” in search of what life, love and the song really mean, at the Yeovil Literary Festival in Somerset, England. The event takes place in Wheeldon Suites 2 & 3 on October 25, 2026, at 8 p.m.
Bowie Sets the Mood at London Fashion Week. Burberry presented its Spring 2027 collection at London Fashion Week to a soundtrack of Bowie instrumentals, accompanying Daniel Lee’s effort to give the British fashion house’s traditional style a younger, less formal character.
“Rebel Rebel” used at the UK Liberal Democrat Conference. Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey entered his party conference to Bowie’s “Rebel Rebel” before outlining proposed tax cuts funded by anticipated economic growth from rejoining the EU single market and customs union and challenging Nigel Farage and Reform UK as the party’s principal political threat.
Amanda Lear alleges Miley Cyrus has copied her song. Amanda Lear, whose transition from modeling to a successful European disco career was aided by Bowie, has accused Miley Cyrus of plagiarizing her 1979 song “The Sphinx” on Cyrus’s “Redlights.”
Johnny Depp’s newly released live rendition of David Bowie’s “Heroes” has racked up more than 650,000 views. A newly released pro-shot video of Johnny Depp singing Bowie’s “Heroes” with Hollywood Vampires at the 2018 Montreux Jazz Festival attracted more than 650,000 YouTube views after its August 14 release.
Rhys Nicholson to film new stand-up special. Rhys Nicholson’s forthcoming comedy special will adapt the award-winning RHYS! RHYS! RHYS! into a cinematic production influenced by David Byrne and 1970s televised variety performances by figures including Bowie, Cher, Richard Pryor and Liza Minnelli.
Sienna Miller Reveals She Met Her Fiancé Dressed as David Bowie. Sienna Miller recalled on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon that she met her future fiancé at a Halloween costume party while dressed as Bowie, as part of a conversation that also covered the Oasis reunion tour and her new television series War.
David Bowie hits at Halifax Playhouse. Bowie tribute band MoonAge, fronted by Andrew Walker, will perform a career-spanning selection of Bowie’s hits at Halifax Playhouse in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England, on October 10.
Blue plaque in honour of Mott the Hoople singer. A blue plaque honoring Mott the Hoople singer Ian Hunter has been unveiled at his birthplace in Oswestry, England, commemorating the frontman of the band whose best-known single, “All the Young Dudes,” was written by Bowie.
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FEATURES AND REFLECTIONS
Netflix’s $280m ‘rock opera’ Narnia film is even madder than it sounds. Greta Gerwig says Bowie is a major inspiration for her $280 million adaptation of The Magician’s Nephew, with Bowie influences including a White Witch styled in 1970s glam fashion and an Aslan visually modeled on the Aladdin Sane cover, as she recasts Narnia as a world inspired by classic British rock music. There were several more stories about this movie that mentioned Bowie— I did not read all of them, but the Bowie connection does not seem to be the main focus of any of the stories. So, this and the following are different from one another and are, I think representative of the week’s coverage.
Greta Gerwig’s War On Masculinity. A conservative Narnia fan argues that Greta Gerwig’s Bowie-inspired reimagining of Aslan for The Magician’s Nephew violates C. S. Lewis’s intentionally masculine Christian conception of the character by imposing Gerwig’s own ideas about gender and divinity.
Bowie was a beacon against rigid identity politics. Bowie embodied the freedom to continually reinvent identity across gender, sexuality, culture, and social affiliation, demonstrating that people need not be confined by fixed categories, communities, histories, or others’ expectations.
How some lost David Bowie songs were discovered in a Californian loft. The newly released David Bowie: The Shel Talmy Recordings includes previously unheard recordings discovered by producer Alec Palao among Shel Talmy’s archives that capture Bowie in 1965 as a still-unformed but recognizable young artist rapidly experimenting with different musical directions before finding lasting success.
How Movie and TV Soundtracks Are Reviving Forgotten Decades. Movies and television are introducing older music to new generations and reviving songs commercially and culturally, with Bowie’s “Moonage Daydream” among the classic tracks woven into Guardians of the Galaxy.
The everyday household items sitting in attics and lofts that could be worth thousands. Early pressings of albums by Bowie, the Beatles and Pink Floyd are among the potentially valuable collectibles people may have stored at home, with rarity, pressing details and condition helping determine their value.
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PROFILES
Dana Gillespie. Dana Gillespie’s decade-long personal and professional relationship with Bowie began when they met as teenagers at the Marquee Club and later included Bowie writing “Andy Warhol” for her, Gillespie singing backing vocals on Ziggy Stardust, and Bowie and Mick Ronson producing her 1973 album Weren’t Born a Man.
David Koppel. Photographer David Koppel’s forthcoming book Spotlight includes previously unseen celebrity photographs and recounts a 1987 encounter in which Bowie punched Koppel after he ignored Bowie’s request not to take pictures, only for Koppel to be invited to photograph Bowie at a charity luncheon six days later.
Mick Ronson. Mick Ronson transformed Bowie’s music and career through his guitar playing, arrangements and work with the Spiders from Mars on albums including The Man Who Sold the World, Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane, before building a wide-ranging career with artists including Lou Reed, Ian Hunter, Bob Dylan and Morrissey and later reuniting with Bowie shortly before his death from liver cancer in 1993 at age 46.
Nicholas Cage channels David Bowie to play John Madden (????) Nicolas Cage drew on Bowie’s advice that he sustained artistic reinvention by never becoming comfortable with what he was doing as Cage pushed beyond his own comfort zone to portray football coach, broadcaster and video-game icon John Madden in David O. Russell’s Madden.
Eric Barrett. Veteran roadie Eric Barrett recounts his four-decade backstage career in Experienced: On the Road with Jimi Hendrix and Beyond, including his early years working with Jimi Hendrix and his later work with Bowie, whom he remembers as charming.
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THIS WEEK IN THIS BLOG
September 20: Last week’s news
September 21: David Bowie Cover of the Week: Dwayne Gretzky covers “Under Pressure”
September 22: Drive-in Saturday Tuesday Movie Review: Buddy (2026)
September 23: David Byrne at SPAC: Saratoga 2026
September 24: Gail Ann Dorsey, David Bowie and the 1995 Outside Tour
September 25: Gail Ann Dorsey Preview
September 26: Gail Ann Dorsey: From Bowie to The Appearance of Life
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LISTS
4 Songs From 1975 That Will Change Your Mind About Rock Music. Bowie defied conventional expectations of rock by blending funk, rock, and soul in “Fame,” a song inspired by his difficult relationship with former manager Tony Defries and his disillusionment with celebrity. I realize the above embedded video is of “Fame ‘90,” but Bowie didn’t release an official video for the 1975 version…
Rock’s most embarrassing songs? Interestingly, this type of list usually includes only one song per artist, but the Beatles, Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd get at least two each. Bowie gets one— “The Laughing Gnome.”
The 25 best Indie Albums of 1993. I normally don’t think of Black Tie White Noise as an “indie album,” but it made this list alongside several other well-known, basically mainstream albums. The Buddha of Suburbia was also released, at least in England, in 1993 but did not make this list, despite coming closer to what I think the list is trying to get at by “indie.”
Albums released on September 24. Bowie released Tonight on September 24, 1984, as a more commercially oriented follow-up to Let’s Dance, with radio-friendly pop production and the Iggy Pop collaboration “Tonight” at its emotional center.
5 Iconic Celebrity Weddings from the 1990s. Bowie and Iman married in 1992 with ceremonies in Switzerland and Florence, remained together until Bowie’s death in 2016, and had a daughter, Alexandria Zahra Jones, while Iman continues to describe Bowie as her husband and their love as enduring through memory.
Famous Musicians Who Were Caught With Drugs. Bowie was arrested in March 1976 for marijuana possession alongside Iggy Pop and 20-year-old Chi Wah Soo after inviting Soo, who had attended his New York concert, to a party where police caught them smoking marijuana.
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CHURNALISM
This section separates genuine Bowie news and original writing from recycled “churnalism” stories that offer little original reporting and often use vague click-bait headlines to repackage familiar information, but may still be of interest if readers have not seen it before.
The 1969 song David Bowie played for decades before abruptly retiring it. Bowie described “Space Oddity” in 1987 as a song he could not imagine dropping from his concerts, but three years later he used the 1990 Sound and Vision tour as a farewell to much of his older repertoire and permanently retired the song from his live set.
This 1975 David Bowie Classic Hit No. 1—and It Was Co-Written by a Beatle. Bowie’s “Fame,” co-written with John Lennon and Carlos Alomar from a riff developed during sessions for Young Americans, became Bowie’s first U.S. No. 1 when it topped the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks beginning September 20, 1975, and reflected his frustrations with fame and the music business.
Iman Reflects on Grieving While Raising Lexi. Iman says she postponed processing her own grief after Bowie’s 2016 death because she was focused on helping their teenage daughter Lexi cope, and she now tries to keep Bowie’s memory alive through joy rather than sadness.
The “most precious” song Patti Smith ever heard. Patti Smith regarded Bowie’s “Heroes” as perhaps his finest work and the most touching song she had heard, identifying deeply with its portrayal of the desperate desire for a love that can exist only fleetingly.
The 1972 David Bowie song deemed “too risqué” for America. Bowie’s 1972 single “John, I’m Only Dancing,” which drew on his bisexuality and was accompanied by a sexually suggestive Mick Rock promotional film, was considered too risqué for release by RCA in the United States and faced resistance from British television despite the BBC playing the song.
This David Bowie Hit From the 80s Featured Three Legendary Contributors. Bowie transformed the Iggy Pop co-written “China Girl” into a major 1983 hit with crucial contributions from producer Nile Rodgers, who reshaped the arrangement for pop success, and guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan, whose blues playing gave the recording much of its distinctive character.
Was “Heroes” really based on a true story? Bowie’s “Heroes,” initially a modest 1977 hit but later regarded as an anthem and recently boosted by Stranger Things, drew on divided Berlin and multiple possible inspirations—including Tony Visconti and Antonia Maass, an Otto Mueller painting and A Grave for a Dolphin—to create its enduring image of love persisting heroically despite forces that make its triumph impossible.
Why Jack Douglas lived with “years of regret” thinking he could’ve saved John Lennon’s life on that night in 1980. Bowie struggled through The Elephant Man on December 9, 1980, after John Lennon’s murder left three front-row seats intended for Lennon, Yoko Ono and killer Mark David Chapman empty, while producer Jack Douglas spent years traumatized by the belief that he might have prevented the killing had he accompanied Lennon home as usual.
The 1976 movie David Bowie needed to walk away from. Bowie regretted walking away from creating the soundtrack for The Man Who Fell to Earth, with music originally begun for the film—including “Subterraneans”—later contributing to the atmospheric instrumental dimension of Low.
The “beautiful” songwriter Paul McCartney was always jealous of. As McCartney rebuilt his career with Wings in the 1970s, Bowie was among the artists reshaping rock by exploring new sonic territory, while Elton John and Bernie Taupin’s songwriting partnership made McCartney somewhat jealous.
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And with that, “we’ve finished our news…”**
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*“I’ve heard the news today” is Bowie’s adaptation of the Beatles lyric, which is heard in “Young Americans.”
** “We’ve finished our news” is a line from “Oh You Pretty Things.”