Bowie Bowed Out Of "Goldmine"
David Bowie declined to contribute his music to the soundtrack of the Michael Stipe-produced "Velvet Goldmine," according to The London Times.
The paper reports that US. director Todd Haynes confirmed at Cannes that Bowie had been approached about using six of the eleven songs from his "Ziggy Stardust" album, but that Bowie had refused. (The film takes its title from a song originally recorded for the album but released years later.)The movie's lead characters are an androgynous glam star named Brian Slade, played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers, and his collaborator Curt Wild, played by Ewan McGregor. Slade is said to be based on Bowie and Wild on Iggy Pop.
Haynes told reporters that the film was a fictional piece of work from an era where the artists historically created fiction about themselves and that the characters were based on an era-wide amalgam of Bowie, Pop, Brian Ferry, Marc Bolan and others.
The much heralded movie, produced by Stipe and laden with sex,
drugs and glitter (see [article id="1433397"]"Radiohead, Sonic Youth, Pulp, Others Turn Up In "Velvet Goldmine" Music"[/article], won the best artistic contribution award at Cannes this year. The soundtrack includes contributions from Shudder To Think, Grant Lee Buffalo, Pulp, Teenage Fanclub, Placebo, and members of Radiohead and Sonic Youth.
Meanwhile the L.A. Times reports that a new Bowie tune, "Fun," will be included on the singer's pending live album due this fall. The rest of the album features performances from Bowie's 1997 "Earthling" tour. The song, with two remixes by Danny Saber and Dillinja, will appear as bonus tracks.
