I heard the news today…* More coverage of the 10th anniversary; “Heroes” charts again; The Starman is everywhere; “Lazarus” cover; Cherry Makes Waves; the coolest of all interviews plus MUCH MORE!
Welcome to my weekly roundup of Bowie news! The onslaught of retrospective stories corresponding with the 10th anniversary of Bowie’s passing, as well as the release of Blackstar and what would have been his 79th birthday spilled over from last week into this week. I included a section on such stories below the “reflections” section, though the regular reflections are largely pedestrian. The actual Bowie related news stories are also not groundbreaking. That said, there are a lot of them, and a few of the following stories are worth reading. I’d add that the “Blog in Review” section has links to some pretty good posts, so if you missed any from the week check them out. 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
Bowie makes cover of Rock Cellar. Marking major anniversaries of Station to Station and Blackstar, collaborators describe how Bowie transformed personal collapse and excess into a fiercely collaborative creative breakthrough that reshaped his sound in the mid-1970s and set the template for the constant reinvention that culminated in his final work.
“Heroes” Charts Again. “Heroes” has surged back onto multiple U.K. charts following its prominent use in the Stranger Things finale, driving renewed sales and streaming across his catalog, including strong returns for Blackstar, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust, and other releases.
Why the Starman Is Suddenly Everywhere Again. This piece argues that Bowie’s renewed visibility in early 2026 is being driven by the 10-year anniversary cycle plus algorithmic rediscovery on TikTok and streaming platforms, with “Heroes,” “Space Oddity,” and “Life on Mars?” resurfacing through edits, sync placements, playlists, and ongoing reissues, alongside tribute events rather than any actual Bowie tour.
Music lives on in the suburban street where Bowie grew up. A decade after his death, David Bowie’s early creative presence endures on Plaistow Grove in Bromley, where a street now home to multiple working musicians includes his childhood house at number 4, recently purchased by the Heritage of London Trust to preserve the place where he first began to pursue a life in music.
Sleaford Mods share Bowie-inspired new single. Sleaford Mods released the new single “Elitest G.O.A.T.” featuring Aldous Harding, explicitly drawing inspiration from Bowie’s work on Low and his broader experimental approach to albums like Station To Station, while continuing to channel that influence into their forthcoming album The Demise Of Planet X.
The Divine Comedy pay tribute to Bowie with ‘Starman’ cover. The Divine Comedy honored Bowie by covering “Starman” as part of a televised tribute marking the tenth anniversary of his death, a program that underscored his lasting influence on music, culture, and artistic risk-taking through performances of his songs by multiple contemporary artists.
“Test Of Time” Video. A new Professor of Rock video revisits enduring hits by Journey, Foreigner, Queen, Loverboy, and Bowie, framing songs like “Under Pressure” as benchmarks whose long-term cultural impact outgrew their original chart performance and reinforced Bowie’s central role in shaping what ultimately stands the test of time.
The Egg to host 40th anniversary Labyrinth concert. News from my home town: The Egg in Albany, NY will mark the 40th anniversary of Labyrinth with a live concert screening that pairs the film with a band performing the score and Bowie’s original vocals, spotlighting his role as Jareth the Goblin King and songs like “As the World Falls Down,” “Magic Dance,” and “Chilly Down.” It’s called “The Egg” because the building is shaped like a giant egg. I can walk to it from my office underground.
Robyn slams Elon Musk. Robyn criticized Elon Musk by pointing to the moment he launched a Tesla into space accompanied by Bowie’s “Space Oddity,” using the gesture as an example of what she sees as tacky excess and corporate arrogance while invoking Bowie’s music as a symbol misused for spectacle.
A David Bowie Afternoon Tea Has Launched In London. A Bowie-inspired afternoon tea at Café Royal Grill on Regent Street marks ten years since Bowie’s death by transforming moments from his career and personas like Ziggy Stardust, the Thin White Duke, and the Berlin years into themed sandwiches, desserts, and drinks that nod to songs such as “Rebel Rebel” and his history at the venue.
Mick Rock Exhibit. A December exhibition and soiree celebrated the late photographer Mick Rock—renowned for his work with David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Joan Jett, and Queen—by showcasing images from his new Rocky Horror book and inspiring a Rocky Horror Picture Show–themed event curated by Kii Arens at FAB LA, featuring performances by Alaska Thunderfuck of RuPaul’s Drag Race and DJ sets including one by Paul McCartney’s touring deejay.
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REFLECTIONS
Cocaine, chaos and genius. Marking the 50th anniversary reissue of Station to Station, the piece argues that Bowie’s cocaine-fueled Thin White Duke era produced an overlooked masterpiece that bridges glam, soul, and the coming Berlin period through songs like “Station to Station,” “Golden Years,” “Word on a Wing,” “Stay,” “TVC15,” and “Wild Is the Wind,” reaffirming Bowie at a creative peak.
A Day with Bowie: how a visit to a psychiatric clinic changed him. A 1994 visit by Bowie and Brian Eno to the Maria Gugging psychiatric clinic near Vienna, where they encountered Art Brut created by residents living with mental illness, became a formative experience that directly shaped the conceptual approach, atmosphere, and methods behind Bowie’s album 1. Outside while also resonating with his lifelong engagement with themes of creativity, freedom of expression, and the shadow of mental illness in his own family history.
The Making Of Low. Bowie’s album Low emerged from a period of personal collapse and creative reinvention involving his rescue of Iggy Pop, collaborations with Brian Eno and Tony Visconti, chaotic sessions shaped by chance and discipline, and songs like “Sound and Vision,” “Always Crashing in the Same Car,” and “Warszawa” that transformed turmoil, European influence, and experimentation into the foundation of his Berlin-era work.
Bowie hid a secret message on the cover of one of his most famous albums. Low concealed a visual joke and statement of intent on its cover by pairing the title with a profile image from The Man Who Fell to Earth to signal his deliberate retreat from fame, a “low profile” period that aligned with his move away from Los Angeles, his turn toward Berlin, and the stark, instrumental-heavy music that defined this phase of his career.
How Low Came About, and the Low Reviews It Received. Low, initially dismissed on release in 1977, is now recognized as a pivotal Bowie album.
Bowie, the museum and me. Bowie’s legacy is explored through the David Bowie Centre at the V&A East Storehouse, where thousands of meticulously preserved objects, immersive audiovisuals, and a celebratory, living atmosphere frame him not only as a musician behind songs like “Heroes” and “Space Oddity” but as a master of reinvention whose cultural, visual, and design influence has fully entered the realm of museum history while continuing to inspire joy, movement, and connection.
‘Heroes’ was a song for the Germans. A linguist from Babbel argues that Bowie’s multilingual recordings of “Heroes” were intentional cultural localizations rather than literal translations, with the German “Helden” version using scheinen (“to seem”) to embed Cold War-era uncertainty and the French “Héros” reading as more romantically melancholic and closer to the English text.
The classic Rolling Stones single that features Bowie on backing vocals. Bowie’s connection to the Rolling Stones is illustrated by his backing vocals on the Stones’ “It’s Only Rock ’n Roll (But I Like It),” his earlier Stones-inspired Ziggy-era overlap and Aladdin Sane cover of “Let’s Spend the Night Together,” and his later high-profile collaboration with Mick Jagger on “Dancing in the Street.”
The Man Who Sold the World Review. The review frames The Man Who Sold the World as an uneven but pivotal early album whose title track, adventurous opener “The Width of a Circle,” and glam-leaning experimentation show him shedding earlier false starts and moving decisively toward the confident, risk-taking artistic identity he would refine over the next decade.
Every Song in the ‘Stranger Things 5’ Finale Explained. The breakdown of the Stranger Things finale highlights how music drives the emotional resolution of the series, culminating in Bowie’s “Heroes” over the closing credits as a symbolic acknowledgment of sacrifice, survival, and the show’s deep connection to the cultural moment shaped by Bowie’s legacy.
How a Bowie screw-up helped Queen secure their first hit single. Queen’s rise in early 1974 was catalyzed when Bowie’s team failed to supply a promo video for “Rebel Rebel,” creating an opening on Top Of The Pops that allowed Queen to perform “Seven Seas of Rhye,” gain national exposure, and convert that moment into their first UK Top 10 hit and lasting momentum.
It All Started With Ziggy Stardust at Tower Theater. A teenage fan’s candid letter after Bowie’s 1972 Ziggy Stardust shows at the Tower Theater led to her becoming part of the so-called Sigma Kids, a small group of Philadelphia teens who later danced with Bowie during the making of Young Americans, illustrating how his openness to fans shaped both his creative process and their lives.
Bowie’s Young Americans. Young Americans is framed through Carlos Alomar’s account as a deliberate pivot from glam rock toward what Bowie called “plastic soul,” blending Philadelphia R&B influences, collaborators like Ava Cherry and Luther Vandross, and tracks such as “Young Americans” and the John Lennon–assisted “Fame” into a tightly recorded album that reshaped his sound and expanded his artistic identity.
Why Bowie rejected a Coldplay collaboration at height of band’s fame. Bowie’s rejection of a proposed Coldplay collaboration at the peak of the band’s fame is presented as a reflection of his exacting standards and refusal to attach his name to material he felt was weak, a mindset consistent with the artistic discipline that produced work ranging from Hunky Dory and “Life on Mars” to his broader insistence on creative control throughout his career.
The Rock Icon Who Once Called the Genre “A Boring Dead End.” Bowie famously declared rock music “a boring dead end” in 1976 despite recent success with “Fame,” then quickly contradicted himself by touring again and explaining that reinvention, provocation, and refusing to be pinned down were central to his artistic identity.
Bowie Struggled for Years Before a 1971 Rock Song Changed Everything. Bowie’s music has endured because its experimentation rewards time and repeat listening—albums like Low feel as challenging now as they did on release—while earlier work such as “Quicksand,” placed at the center of Hunky Dory, shows him already arriving at his first full artistic statement well before his later commercial peak.
How rock’s freakiest alien built his pop stardom through a series of ch-ch-ch-changes. Chris Molanphy traces Bowie’s career as both artistic and commercial shape-shifter—moving fluidly across genres, personas, and chart fortunes—from “Starman” to “Blackstar,” culminating in a final chart-topping farewell a decade ago.
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10 YEARS ON
Bowie’s bandmates pay tribute. On the tenth anniversary of his death, longtime collaborators including Gail Ann Dorsey and Mike Garson reflected on working with Bowie, emphasizing his generosity, creative courage, and enduring presence through music ranging from live performances of “Under Pressure” to landmark albums like Earthling, Heathen, Reality, The Next Day, Aladdin Sane, and Outside.
Will we ever forget David Bowie? A decade after his death, Bowie’s legacy endures through songs from “Space Oddity” and “Ashes to Ashes” to Blackstar’s “I Can’t Give Everything Away,” as listeners continue searching for the man behind the personas, finding that his self-mythologizing, final artistic control, and resistance to being fully known are precisely what keep his work alive and culturally dominant.
Heroes Never Die tribute special. Ten years after his death, Bowie is celebrated through a multi-artist tribute in which musicians including The Libertines, The Horrors, Anna Calvi, and others reinterpret songs such as “Heroes,” “Rebel Rebel,” “Let’s Dance,” “Starman,” and “Rock ’N’ Roll Suicide,” alongside renewed public remembrances from his family and collaborators that underline his enduring influence.
A World Without Bowie. Ten years after his death, Bowie is remembered through a deeply personal reflection that traces the author’s gradual discovery of his music, the shock of losing him in 2016, the lasting impact of songs like “Lazarus,” “Ashes to Ashes,” “Fashion,” and “Heroes,” and the complex legacy of posthumous releases, exhibitions, and cultural moments that continue to affirm Bowie as a singular, transformative artistic force.
His best since Scary Monsters. The essay argues that Bowie’s Blackstar, intertwined with Lazarus and shaped by his final illness and long-standing use of personas, is a profound late-career masterpiece whose songs including “Blackstar,” “Lazarus,” “Dollar Days,” “I Can’t Give Everything Away,” and “No Plan” confront mortality through dense cultural references, cryptic imagery, and emotional candor while framing Bowie’s legacy as still unfolding through posthumous releases and enduring influence.
There’s a star man, waiting in the sky. A former music news editor recalls being alone on the night Bowie died, scrambling to confirm the news, write the first post, and confront how Bowie’s death, coming days after Blackstar and songs like “Space Oddity,” crystallized both the emotional weight of Bowie’s legacy and the personal cost of a career built on constant reaction.
Looking Back On Bowie’s Legacy. Marking a decade since his death, Bowie is portrayed as a cultural force whose influence spans music, fashion, and film, from ever-shifting personas tied to albums like Hunky Dory and Blackstar to iconic songs such as “Space Oddity” and “Ziggy Stardust” and memorable screen roles including Labyrinth, all underscoring his enduring theatricality and artistic reinvention.
A flubbed interview… Ten years after his death, Bowie is framed as a cultural architect whose passing seemed to coincide with a darker global era, while a radio host recounts a haunting personal memory of botching a 1991 Tin Machine interview that underscored Bowie’s charisma, generosity, and enduring impact.
His Influence Endures. Ten years after his death, Bowie is remembered through reflections from artists, collaborators, and loved ones who describe his generosity, genre-shifting creativity, and personal support, citing moments tied to songs like “Heroes,” “Space Oddity,” “Rebel Rebel,” “Fame,” and “Young Americans” as evidence of an influence that continues to shape music and culture across generations.
It’s been 10 years since ‘David’s dead!’ A decade after the Celebrity Big Brother “David’s dead!” misunderstanding in which Tiffany Pollard thought David Gest had died when Angie was actually announcing Bowie’s death, the episode is revisited along with later updates on the housemates’ lives and careers.
Bowie’s bizarre final two words to Gary Oldman. Bowie’s final days were marked by dark humor and intimacy as Gary Oldman recalled their regular Skype conversations during Bowie’s illness, including a characteristically irreverent farewell as he fumbled to end a call shortly after releasing Blackstar, underscoring how the wit, warmth, and humanity behind songs like “Life on Mars?” and “Space Oddity” endured until the very end.
Bowie’s final transformation. Ten years after his death, Bowie’s final transformation is framed through Blackstar and the carefully staged symbolism around songs like “Lazarus” and “Dollar Days,” underscoring how his lifelong pattern of reinvention, technological foresight, and artistic control culminated in a deliberately enigmatic farewell.
When the Starman fell to Earth with a bump. A new examination of Bowie’s so-called lost decades traces his fall from critical favor during periods like Tin Machine and the Let’s Dance aftermath to his eventual restoration as a towering cultural figure, culminating in Blackstar and reaffirming how his long-term influence, reinvention, and resilience ultimately defined his legacy.
Howard Stern pays tribute to Bowie. Howard Stern marks the tenth anniversary of Bowie’s death with a dedicated radio tribute featuring Bowie’s full 1998 birthday performance, covers of his songs by other artists, and reflections from musicians and celebrities, reinforcing Bowie’s enduring cultural impact across generations.
Bowie’s Spirit Returns in a Powerful, All-Star L.A. Tribute. This is a paywalled Rolling Stone article covering Mike Garson’s all-star tribute concert.
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PROFLIES
Meet the North Taunton man who idolizes Bowie. A lifelong fan has turned his home into a personal shrine to Bowie, tracing how decades of concerts, memorabilia, and devotion to eras like Ziggy Stardust have made Bowie’s music and image a constant presence in his daily life even ten years after his death.
Tim Renwick. Tim Renwick recalls nearly joining Bowie’s Spiders From Mars after playing on Space Oddity, touring nervy early shows with him, and then building a journeyman career alongside figures like Eric Clapton and Al Stewart, underscoring how Bowie’s early decisions and collaborators helped shape multiple intertwined rock careers.
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LISTS
Five Albums That Explain Why David Bowie Still Matters. A decade after his death, Bowie is presented as a benchmark for artistic reinvention through albums like Hunky Dory, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, Young Americans, Heroes, and Blackstar, each marking a deliberate shift in sound, persona, or ambition that explains why he still matters.
4 British Acts That Defined Glam Rock. A look at four British glam rock acts argues that Bowie was the central figure of the movement, with his Ziggy Stardust era setting the visual and musical template that shaped contemporaries like T. Rex, Mott the Hoople, and The Sweet while producing some of the most enduring albums of the early 1970s.
3 Bowie Songs That Were Tributes to Other Musicians. This piece highlights how Bowie wrote explicit tributes to fellow musicians by examining “Song for Bob Dylan,” which directly addresses Dylan, “Queen Bitch,” which channels the sound and attitude of the Velvet Underground, and “The Jean Genie,” inspired by Iggy Pop and the Stooges, underscoring how Bowie’s songwriting often absorbed, acknowledged, and transformed the work of his contemporaries.
4 Classic Rock Hits That Feature Aynsley Dunbar. A celebration of drummer Aynsley Dunbar’s career highlights his wide-ranging work across classic rock while underscoring his connection to Bowie through his playing on Diamond Dogs and the enduring glam-rock staple “Rebel Rebel,” situating Bowie within a broader network of 1970s collaborators who shaped the era’s sound.
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FAR OUT MAGAZINE
The online magazine posts multiple Bowie-related stories every week. A handful seem to be products of real journalism and present new information. Some are opinion pieces or lists that reflect an original take on something having to do with Bowie. But most of these stories tend to be recycled anecdotes that have been kicking around for a while, usually given a title designed to leave some mystery for the reader to discover. Both because of their volume and inconsistent reliability as a news source, I list these separately from the others. This week featured:
(1) The singer David Bowie called “a phoenix from the ashes”
(2) The rap star that David Bowie had nothing but respect for
(3) Bob Geldof on how David Bowie made the phone lines melt at Live Aid
(4) The album that changed Dave Gahan’s life
(5) The erotic David Bowie anthem inspired by Mick Jagger
(6) Bowie’s impossible personal problems with Tin Machine
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THIS WEEK IN THIS BLOG
January 11: Last week’s news
January 12: David Bowie Cover of the Week: Canary Covers “Lazarus”
January 13: The Sound and Vision of David Bowie ‘26: Concert Review
January 14: Cherry Making Waves with “Spaceman”
January 15: 10 Bowie Songs that Borrow from Other Songs
January 16: Bowie, Icon of Cool
January 17: The Professor of Cool
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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”