Brian Eno is MORE DARK THAN SHARK

INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS & RELATED ARTICLES

Classic Pop AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2015 - by Pierre Perrone

BOWIE ON BOWIE: INTERVIEWS & ENCOUNTERS

Bowie treated journalistic encounters as performances as much as platforms to present new work, so this imaginative compendium of more than thirty interviews is a welcome addition to an ever-lengthening bibliography. Throughout, Bowie proves incredibly prescient, telling the NME in 1969 "people will have to accept me the way I am, or not bother at all", while the first Michael Watts Melody Maker piece contains not only the infamous "I'm gay" quote but also a claim he was "never gonna try and play black music, 'cause I'm white. Singularly white!" - only three years before Fame. Allan Jones confronts him about that 'fascist salute' at Victoria Station in 1976; the superstar's forceful denial - "THAT DID NOT HAPPEN. I just WAVED" - reads even more genuine now. Playful and quotable, Bowie praises John Foxx over Gary Numan, is candid about the shortcomings of Tonight, takes a tour of London in 1993 for Rolling Stone, and reveals much in joint interviews with Brian Eno, Brett Anderson and Alexander McQueen. So good, you want to read it as you revisit his peerless catalogue.