THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN COUGHS

The Gonzo Daily - Monday

http://www.gonzomultimedia.co.uk/about.html

Yesterday afternoon I wrote the editorial for next weekend's Gonzo Weekly. It was a review of the excellent ★ album by David Bowie. In it I wrote how fantastic it was that Bowie was finally back on track as an artist, that the album is his best for forty years, and I analysed some of its nuances. I even made some tentative guesses about its meaning.

As anyone with an iPad knows, incoming messages are heralded with a 'ding' sound. Corinna got up early to go to work, and an hour or so later I was still mostly asleep when in came a barrage of 'ding' sounds.

Tony Visconti is quoted as saying: "He always did what he wanted to do. And he wanted to do it his way and he wanted to do it the best way. His death was no different from his life – a work of Art. He made Blackstar for us, his parting gift. I knew for a year this was the way it would be. I wasn't, however, prepared for it. He was an extraordinary man, full of love and life. He will always be with us. For now, it is appropriate to cry."

And what about my interpretations of the album? They are not that far wrong, but they missed something very important:

"Look up here, I’m in heaven

I’ve got scars that can’t be seen

I’ve got drama, can’t be stolen

Everybody knows me now

Look up here, man, I’m in danger

I’ve got nothing left to lose

I’m so high it makes my brain whirl

Dropped my cell phone down below"

★ is about all sorts of things, including - quite possibly - what I wrote yesterday afternoon. But above all it is his final statement, his valedictory soliloquy, his last farewell. Be sad my dears, David Bowie/Ziggy Stardust/The Thin White Duke/The Gouster/The Prettiest Star and a dozen otherws have left the building, and the world is an immeasurably poorer place.

David Bowie Dead at 69

http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/david-bowie-dead-at-69.html

YES: RABIN ANDERSON WAKEMAN PROJECT BACK ON?

http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/yes-rabin-anderson-wakeman-project-back.html

THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem

http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/the-gonzo-track-of-day-david-bowie-my.html

THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: David Bowie – My Death...

http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/the-gonzo-track-of-day-david-bowie-my.html

ZAPPA'S LOST BROADCAST COMING TO DVD

http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/zappas-lost-broadcast-coming-to-dvd.html

Gonzo Weekly #164

www.gonzoweekly.com

Free Festival, Fleetwood Mac, New Order, Joy Division, Canterbury Sans Frontieres, Hawkwind, Bridget Wishart, Twink, Digitiser, Mr Biffo, Jaki Windmill, Roy Weard,  Dogwatch, That Legendary Wooden Lion, Hawkwind, and Yes fans had better look out!

The first issue of 2016 is now available, featuring an exclusive interview with Ian Abrahams about 'Festivalized'; his remarkable new book cowritten with one-time Hawkwind chanteuse Bridget Wishart. There is also a feature about Fleetwood Mac's best loved record, Jon moaning about the UK Government's Austerity measures, a review of the autobiography of New Order's Bernard Sumner, radio shows from Strange Harvest, Canterbury Sans Frontieres and Mack Moloney, the latest installment of the saga of Xtul, and columns from all sorts of folk including Mr Biffo and the irrepressable Corinna. There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and antechinuses wanting poos (OK, nothing to do with small marsupials who are slightly constipated, but I got carried away with things that rhymed with OOOOS) than you can shake a stick at. And the best part is IT's ABSOLUTELY FREE!!!

This issue features:

Steely Dan, Donald Fagen, Syd Barrett, Jack White, The Edge, Bono, Keith Richards, Lemmy, Damon Albarn, Barbara Dickson, The Beatles, Galahad, Strange Harvest, Canterbury Sans Frontieres, Mack Maloney's Mystery Hour, Pierre Boulez, John Thurman Hunter Jr., Robert Colin Stigwood, Hyman Paul Bley, CM, Mark Barnes, Natalie Maria Cole, Marion James, William Wayne McMillan Rogers III, The Pirates, Freddie King, Denny Laine, The Selecter, Wild Man Fischer, Rick Wakeman, Ian Abrahams, Fleetwood Mac, Bridget Wishart, Twink, Roy Weard, A J Smitrovich, Mr Dad's LPs, Mr Biffo, Hawkwind, Motorhead, Xtul, Bernard Sumner, Eric Clapton, Bjork, Grateful Dead, David Bowie, Elvis, John Lennon, Yes, Jon Anderson, Micky Dolenz, Chris Squire, Steve Howe, Jean-Luc Ponty, Neil Nixon, Blowfly, Stary Olsa

Read the previous few issues of Gonzo Weekly:

Issue 163 (Lemmy)

http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo163.html

Issue 161-2 (The Christmas Double Feature)

http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo-161-21-yer-festive-double-issue.html

Issue 160 (Frank Zappa)

http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo160.html

Issue 159 (Jon Anderson and Matt Malley)

http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo159.html

Issue 158 (Billy Sherwood)

http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo158.html

Issue 157 (Drones for Daevid)

http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo157.html

Issue 156 (Rick and Emmie)

http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo156.html

Issue 155 (Pink Fairies)

http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo155.html

Issue 154 (Steve Ignorant)

http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo154.html

Issue 153 (Martin Barre)

http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo153.html

Issue 152 (4th Eden)

http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo152.html

Issue 151 (Corky Laing)

http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo151.html

Issue 150 (Roger Dean)

http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo150.html

Issue 149 (Tony Palmer in Space)

http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo149.html

Issue 148 (Wally Hope)

http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo148.html

Issue 147 (Thom the World Poet cover)

http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo147.html

Issue 146 (Bee and Flower cover)

http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo146.html

Issue 145 (Dave Brock cover)

http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo145.html

Issue 144 (Percy Jones cover)

http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo144.html

Issue 143 (Billy Sherwood cover)

http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo143.html

Issue 142 (Daevid Allen and Spirits Burning cover)

http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo142.html

Issue 141 (Rick Wakeman cover)

http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo141.html

Issue 140 (Jaki Windmill cover)

http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo140.html

Issue 139 (Raz cover)

http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo139.html

Issue 138 (Galahad cover)

http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo138.html

Issue 137 (Chris Squire cover)

http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo137.html

Issue 136 (Neil Nixon cover)

http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo136.html

Issue 135 (FNP cover)

http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo135.html

All issues from #70 can be downloaded at www.gonzoweekly.com if you prefer. If you have problems downloading, just email me and I will add you to the Gonzo Weekly dropbox. The first 69 issues are archived there as well. Information is power chaps, we have to share it!

You can download the magazine in pdf form HERE:

http://www.gonzoweekly.com/pdf/

SPECIAL NOTICE: If you, too, want to unleash the power of your inner rock journalist, and want to join a rapidly growing band of likewise minded weirdos please email me at jon@eclipse.co.uk The more the merrier really.

* The Gonzo Daily is a two way process. If you have any news or want to write for us, please contact me at jon@eclipse.co.uk. If you are an artist and want to showcase your work, or even just say hello please write to me at gonzo@cfz.org.uk. Please copy, paste and spread the word about this magazine as widely as possible. We need people to read us in order to grow, and as soon as it is viable we shall be invading more traditional magaziney areas. Join in the fun, spread the word, and maybe if we all chant loud enough we CAN stop it raining. See you tomorrow...

* The Gonzo Daily is - as the name implies - a daily online magazine (mostly) about artists connected to the Gonzo Multimedia group of companies. But it also has other stuff as and when the editor feels like it. The same team also do a weekly newsletter called - imaginatively - The Gonzo Weekly. Find out about it at this link: www.gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.co.uk

* We should probably mention here, that some of our posts are links to things we have found on the internet that we think are of interest. We are not responsible for spelling or factual errors in other people's websites. Honest guv!

* Jon Downes, the Editor of all these ventures (and several others) is an old hippy of 56 who - together with an infantile orange cat named after a song by Frank Zappa, and a small kitten totally coincidentally named after one of the Manson Family, purely because she squeaks, puts it all together from a converted potato shed in a tumbledown cottage deep in rural Devon which he shares with various fish, and sometimes a young lady called Jessica. He is ably assisted by his lovely wife Corinna, his bulldog/boxer Prudence, his elderly mother-in-law, and a motley collection of social malcontents. Plus.. did we mention the infantile orange cat, and the adventurous kitten?