“The Stars (Are Around Tonight)” is Bowie’s second single from the upcoming album “The Next Day”, due to arrive in stores on the second week of March. The movie features the acclaimed british actress Tilda Swindon and in some parts it does bring us somehow to the imagery of “The Hunger”, a movie directed by Tony Scott and starring also Catherine Deneuve. Some might say that Bowie too got entangled in the new vampiresque trend, but the man did venture in the world of vampires in 1983 with that French actress in what some claimed was the ideal vampire pair, perfectly fit for the role of a life hungry couple.
In this movie Swindon and Bowie play an older couple whose quiet life is disturbed by a young band formed by kids in typicall Bowie-fashionable attire. The video is a beautiful display of pop and fashion and aesthetic imagery. As for the music and despite the high expectactions, it does not bring us to closer to the universe of “Heroes” or “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars” but rather to the sound of “Black Tie White Noise” or “Never Let Me Down”, considered by many the least inspired of all Bowie albums.
While the first single was indeed a great song, the second single “The Stars (Are Around Tonight)” did not meet the expectations. We will have to wait for the whole album to confirm whether “The Next Day” marks indeed a great comeback.
The firestarter
The Prodigy became one of the most important names of the nineties mixing punk with electronica and big beat. On the day of Keith Flint’s passing we evoke the work and stamina of the band’s frontman.
It’s 1996 and the second day of Super Bock Super Rock, an open air festival hosting its 2nd edition in Lisbon and featuring David Bowie on the third and last day. After a first day featuring Portuguese bands the second proved to be the most fruitful given the chance we had to see acts that would become major names in modern music, from the Divine Comedy to Fluke, from Massive Attack to The Prodigy. After the easy listening charm of The Divine Comedy, the groovy sounds of Fluke and the mellow tunes of Massive Attack the Prodigy ignited the audience with their powerful sound and the strong presence of Keith Flint. “Firestarter“ was the hit of the moment and all of a sudden the whole audience was pogo dancing in a sort of wild exorcism assisted by a 25-year young man with devilish hair and grins jumping like mad in a relentless performance. We hadn’t seen anything like this for a long time since the days of punk. It was as if punk was back under a new guise assisted by electronic beats and power drums. It wasn’t the first time Punk and derivatives had taken to the clubs with their hard beats. Names like SPK, Nitzer Ebb of DAF had done it to perfection before them. But The Prodigy were making it now in the nineties, the craziest decade as far as music is concerned and when rockers engaged in dance moves thanks to bands like Underworld, Chemical Brothers, Leftfield, Renegade Soundwave and The Prodigy. After a decade of new punk and synth, madchester and rave, the early nineties were much about rock either under grunge or combined with a molotov cocktail of beats and riffs which The Prodigy did master. Most of Prodigy’s material was signed by Liam Howlett, but much of the success of the band was due to Keith Flint with his provocative looks, spiked hair and piercings, who had joined the band as a dancer but who would become the frontman and distinguishing mark of the band, the very same man who brought back some rebellion to the music scene. Keith Flint died today at the age of 49 and the music scene is now paying tribute and acknowledging his role as one of the most influential names in the 1990’s.
Carlos Tomé Sousa
