I thought it was a great documentary. The talking heads were all people who knew him, the older clips were used for context and the Bowie quotes were perfect. I was delighted that there wasn’t a single ‘critic’ or ‘uber-fan’ in sight. You got the impression he was full of beans, excitement and curiosity right through to the very end. He looked so fit and energetic. What a man! What a life!
I could have done with more of The Next Day band talking about and playing those songs. That band was much more engaging and interesting on the TV than the Blackstar one, although the opposite is arguably true on the records. I also felt the last few months were somewhat rushed, but, then, those last few months were probably very rushed in real life for the man himself.
The most moving part was Tony Visconti spotlighting Bowie’s vocal on the track Lazarus. Fair choked me up, it did.
What did you think?
I thought it was good. Maybe there were a bit too many archive clips, surely most people watching would be aware of his past? However given they had no interviews with him and little footage they had to pad it out with something. Possibly it should have been an hour long?
I agree. I thought it was an excellent documentary, but it suffered a little because of the lack of recent clips of Bowie other than in the Next Day and Blackstar videos. The archive material was great, but frequently seemed like padding which underlined the lack of recent material.
There was plenty to talk about really – there was no mention of the huge (ongoing) impact of the V & A exhibition, or the very revealing Nothing Has Changed – probably the only Bowie compo ever to have been compiled by the man himself.
Yes, I was very surprised about the absence of any mention of David Bowie Is – in many ways, the anticipatory media attention towards the exhibition was a very effective primer for the frenzy around the ‘shock’ return, and there was a real symbiosis between those two events, intentional or otherwise.
Perhaps it didn’t/doesn’t resonate in the US in the same way. What that “market” is interested in tends to dictate these things.
Why is the US important? It was a British doc wasn’t it? Anyway the exhibition has toured and appeared in at least 2 major North American cities
I should imagine there was American money in it and it will have been sold/syndicated to US networks. That’s usually the way. Not knocking it, that’s the way these things get made. Leave everything to exclusively UK-based interests and we’d be stuck with Portillo shuffling about on various branch lines in a series of improbable jackets and not a lot else.
It’s the case for Dr Who or Sherlock, not sure such a big factor for documentaries about a relatively marginal artist in the US.
Re Portillo, he also wears trousers that clash with the jackets. Thank goodness for small mercies I say.
Not the clashing but at least he has trousers on.
Favourite amusing moment in a recent Great Continental Railway Journeys was when a train driver gave Portillo a dayglo yellow health & safety jacket and apologised for making him less visible.
Yes. I think they missed a trick there. However, it might have given them an excuse to show even more archive material rather than less (here’s Bowie on stage with those circular pant things…and so on).
I thought it was mostly brilliant, although the musical theatre rehearsals made my skin crawl (like nearly all musical theatre does).
Yeah. It didn’t inspire me to go and see the show.
Au contraire pour moi – although I may be biased as I’m going to see Lazarus on Tuesday, the footage and discussion has only served to pique my anticipation even higher – although it could have done without quite so many spoilers…
Didn’t he look handsome during the 2003/4 Reality tour footage (and beyond)? I’d given up on his records by then, but by god he looked fabulous right to the end.
I found myself enjoying it, but I thought it was just going to be about the last 5 years. Felt it bit like they used the older footage to stretch it out a bit, and there was actually just a 30/45min documentary about the last five years. Enjoyed it nevertheless.
I’ve never been a big Bowie fan but was looking forward to this but, like others, was slightly disappointed insofar as it seemed to take a while to actually focus on those last five years. For someone renowned for looking forward and reinventing himself, I thought the amount of archive material slightly odd and excessive. Would have loved to have heard more from the people he worked with, particularly the musicians, to shed some more light on that part of his life.
Interesting stuff, nonetheless.
Not sure if the musicians could necessarily give much more insight. He chose them, he showed up and recorded with them, he went home (or presumably sometimes to hospital).
I’m taking my usual day off after finishing a painting. I’ve just watched the doc on iPlayer.
I don’t know if enjoy is the correct word considering the context so I’ll use the word engaging instead. As an overview of such a full life I thought it a little slight. Obviously the most affecting sequences came towards the end. Was I touched? Yes I was. This surprised me as I wasn’t expecting it to do so.
In an odd way and I suspect completely unintended way this doc was for me a lot like Bowie’s career, patchy. Often brilliant, sometimes sketchy and as far as the stage musical scenes are concerned somewhat misguided.
I was ‘ engaged’ by it.
I enjoyed it a lot. There was some unseen footage of the Reality tour, plus the colour footage of The Hype at the Roundhouse in 1970 that was great to see for the first time. Also, the story of The Song Of Norway tee-shirt and Hermione Farthingale was a beautifully judged bit of context for Bowie’s nostalgic binge. I read an interview with Iman in June 2014 in which she said that DB had just taken her and their daughter on an incognito trip arounf Brixton and Bromley to see where he grew up. I’m guessing that was his last trip to the UK.
I too was touched.
I lay on my sofa stricken with the heaviest cold I have had in years and feeling not exactly in the toppest of top form so perhaps the not the best time for me to watch this…
With that proviso – yet another example of falling into the trap so many of these rock documentaries topple into ie imagining that the minutae of recording an album is interesting to anyone other than dedicated fans.
Like Mr Squeezer I was touched by the sequences towards the end – although that may well have just been morbid curiosity- but the musical looks absolute pants.
On the other hand, the wisest person in Château Wrongness (not in any way a Bowie fan) thought it was “fascinatingly brilliant”.
Exhausting.
Did you watch it at the gym?
No. I was keeping my resolutions.
I thought it was excellent & thoroughly enjoyed it.
Missing out the V&A exhibition was strange as this was the major retrospective on his career – and as has been mentioned already, could have done without the rehearsals for the stage play – otherwise, an interesting watch given what they had to work with.
Yes of course they used his last work as a jumping off point to show wonderful archive footage to show nothing had changed (gerrit?) but did you really expect oodles of film from 2004-2016?
Lazarus looks awful but it was his last artistic achievement so should have been covered in detail. It’s still unclear how much involvement he had with the V&A exhibition and besides there is a 90 minute documentary on that out there if you want it.
I think it went a fair way to show us Bowie as a human being rather than a rock star – goofing about backstage with stuffed birds, seemingly furious with camera crews only to break into that lupine grin and in his final video shoot when he knew the gig was up – giving the ‘ner ner ner ner nerrr’ sign to the camera.
There are plenty of little moments like that which will be revealed in repeat viewings and were they Cracked Actor out-takes? Yentob said the film rushes had been lost but I wonder if Bowie had them or other footage from that tour. It was tantalising stuff.
Yet still it kept things private, wasn’t ghoulish about his death and none of the talking heads felt irrelevant ie we didn’t discover what Joey Essex though about David Essex death n that sad stuff to do with Prince n Brexit.
Visconti’s bits were aces – as @DrJ says , I never get tired of seeing someone sitting at a mixing desk and playing with the faders. Although I was constantly thinking of Adam Buxton’s Low sessions sketch expecting him to say ‘OK, this is Tony Visconti, who had a lot more to do with the making of Blackstar then many people realise…
The casual fan may have been expecting something else, maybe a bit more tabloid or invasive but as a fully paid up space kid I was fascinated by the insight we got into someone whose loss we’re still feeling so keenly a year later.
Luvonya Spaceboy
You have just said what I felt, I wish I had a fraction of your articularcy (is that even a word/thing?)
I must admit that I did not realise the clips from cracked actor were out takes.
Great comment DFB.
I’ve looked & I can’t see any comment from @DrJ.
Dr_J says this a lot in Conversation both in podcasts and if you meet him in the street
I pass him in the street all the time. I’ll wave & say it depends on who is at the mixer desk. Tony is good value, though.
Do they mean me? They most certainly do!
DFB would be referring to this recent bon mot:
Wildeian, I’m sure you’ll agree.
My main concern going in to The Last Five Years was that it would remove the mistique from those years. Bowie’s final works have had their power heightened in the way they were delivered: The Next Day arriving as a total surprise, Blackstar being so good, his death arriving as a total surprise. If I had awoken in 2010 to the news that Bowie had died, it would have been sad but we would have all shrugged our shoulders and said something along the lines of “well, he’s been unwell, hasn’t he?” The news on January 10th 2016 was more shocking because we knew what it was like already (as fans) for him to be gone, and how good it was when he came back. But you all know that already.
So I wondered would the documentary have video camera footage of Next Day sessions, would we see him larking about, but none of that came to pass. And instead of taking away the mistique of the last five years, I think the documentary increased it.
I agree with people posting about how important the David Bowie Is exhibition has been in recent years. I don’t see how it could have been incorporated into the documentary though. A retrospective documentary covering another retrospective event would have been confusing. I went to see it in Summer 2013 in London and it had a profound affect on me in terms of how I understood Bowie, and how I understood all artists. (I think I prattled on about it in the Bowie podcast last January). I travelled to see it again in Groningen last February, a trip arranged before he had died. The affect was still there, the context was totally different. I think it would be interesting to know what Bowie’s involvement was, it wouldn’t surprise me either way to find out that it was a lot or a little. It certainly had his blessing and he signed off on it. What is obvious from the exhibition is that there is a well-minded and organanised and deep BowieArchive being preserved by his estate out there which I guess will slowly reveal itself over upcoming years.
Another thing the documentary didn’t point out is that Bowie didn’t totally disappear after his heart attack in 2004. He was pretty active in 2005-6: He appeared live with Arcade Fire in New York, with David “Dave” Gilmour in London, did ads for satellite radio, wrote for Vanity Fair, did Gervais’ Extras (boo!) and had a significant role in Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige. What he didn’t do in those years was an interview.
So he really only took 2007-10 off. Three years. Not a huge amount if you’ve got a young kid. But he took it completely off. Gone. But again, only three years. He obviously ruminated about making The Next Day before he started the project for real. I think it’s *fascinating* that on day one he got NDAs signed by the musicians, that the project’s secrecy was part of his artistic intent from the get-go. It was a ferociously far-sighted move which gets glossed over as an amusing affectation.
To be clear though, I really did enjoy the documentary, and I think all the context prior to 2001 was justified. This documentary needs to be watched in another five years time by someone not quite as Bowie-literate as people on here and explain everything to that viewer. It does that admirably. And I really enjoyed seeing the bands play to the Bowie vocal tracks. The Next Day would have been a fine album to tour behind. I saw a band last night do Lazarus live, it was great.
Finally, does anyone who came into contact with David Bowie (outside of his Angie-cocaine-DeFries years) have anything bad to say about him? He seemed to bring out the best in people and make them very happy.
I agree he came across as a lovely, generous, extremely fascinating man. I had a lump in my throat whenever I saw Mick Ronson in the archive clips. I bet he was the source of some regret for Mr B.
One of my favourite moments is when he turns and says ‘You staying, Ronno? ‘ and gives him a grin and thumbs up before ‘Heroes’ at the Freddie Tribute gig.
I never realised there was a connection between the telly show Peaky Blinders and Blackstar. Apparently Bowie was a big fan and may even have got the title from the show. (http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/whats-on/film-news/david-bowie-album-title-blackstar-11323513).
Certainly “black star” scene from Episode 5 (4.06 mins) seems more than coincidence:
Clip not available in the UK. I remember one episode of PB beginning (or was it ending?) with Lazarus, apparently at Bowie’s request.
In the clip Cillian Murphy draws a black star in his diary for the day when he plans to kill the big baddie chappy. ‘‘Black star. What does that mean?’’ he is asked. ‘‘Black star day is the day we take out Billy Kimber and his men. No one knows this.’’ The star looks exactly like the cover of Bowie’s album. This was in series 1, which Bowie was an avid fan of, two years before the Blackstar album.
Thanks. Ooh!
Hey, lookit @minibreakfast, via the miracle of modern technology and by virtue of me having way too much free time I’ve made the clip available to all and sundry:
Although a friend informs me it’s still blocked by BBC. My little 15 second clip. Rude.
Yep, that was the message last time. Gah!
1.6m viewers according to Richard Osman, which isn’t bad for a Saturday on BBC 2 he says.
It was 20 years ago today
Yes the B&W Diamond Dogs footage was previously unseen (but not from the BBC I suspect) as was Bowie’s wonderful 1974 DD animation using miniatures. He did it all himself according to Tony Visconti.
I would have liked to have seen an interview with Coco (Corrine Schwab) who has been Bowie’s highly trusted personal assistant ever since being sent along by a London Temping agency in 1974 with a notebook and pen. She obviously impressed. I suspect she is virtually running all Bowie estate and product matters now. in collaboration with family and lawyers. I have only ever seen her in one Bowie video miming as a guitarist IIRC.
The Brixton tribute gig sounds grim. Freddie Mercury got Robert Plant, George Michael, Metallica and Joe Elliott. Bowie gets Tony Hadley, Simon Le Bon, La Roux & err, Joe Elliott
Mercury got Bowie too (er.. and Joe Elliot)
Yes Bowie obvs had better things to do than turn up tonight. Like Ronson’s tribute gig
The footage of the Hype was interesting, especially Tony Visconti on bass with his sub-Chicory Tip stage outfit
Chicory Tip with a hint of Ming The Merciless…
He’s married to Those Were The Days hitmaker Mary Hopkin, you know
Not any more – they divorced in 1981, after which he married none other than ex-Lennon companion May Pang. They’re not married any more either.
Blimey, I missed all that!
Just got it here in Canada 🇨🇦 5 minutes in 😎
Carlos Alomar is the most joyful of human beings. No wonder Bowie had him around.
Can’t make it all the way through. Too much for me to take in all at once.
Lazarus The Musical looks absolutely pony though, doesn’t it? Not sure they did themselves any favours with those rehearsal clips. I’m listening to the soundtrack on Spotify now. It’s, um… it’s… horrible
Indeed it does, as mentioned above. Looks dreadful. Mind you (DFB puts on steel toe caps) all of his film / mime etc ventures were ghastly. The typewriter. The typewriter.
Well, that was quick going – I just saw this on Swedish TV (or rather on their online service – don’t know if it’s been shown on old school telly yet, they usually put these kinds of things up on the site in advance). I thought it was fascinating and interesting all the way through. I certainly didn’t mind any of the old footage being shown, it illustrated beautifully how diverse his life and work was and didn’t take up very much time on the whole.
I don’t think you can judge the musical on some short rehearsal clips…theatre always looks awful unless you’re in the theatre watching it! I don’t mind the soundtrack either – but then I’m a fan of musicals (as long as they haven’t been written by Andrew Lloyd Webber!) so I’m quite tolerant of that way of singing…but whatshisname from 6 feet and Dexter is definitely much better than the rest of the cast, IMO.
Just watched it in real time on Swedish TV and really enjoyed it a lot. Reminded me why I liked him so much back in the day.
Competely agree with Chiz(!). That Lazarus show looks naff beyond words and I was not very impressed by that Diamond Dogs tour either. But was fascinated by and enjoyed his colloboration with Maria Schneider
and Donny McCaslin’s band.
Änd to my surprise was very impressed and moved by some of the more modern songs.
Excellent TV. I could not turn it off.
Was Tony Visconti the prototype for Brains in Thunderbirds?
We caught about 2/3rds of it and were captivated and moved in equal measure.
I think you’ll enjoy the other third too.
Haven’t caught up with this yet, but in the mean time here’s a link which combines Bowie and guitars, for those whose interests combine Bowie and guitars.
Great stuff! Lots of unusual cheaper brands there and he did love his 12-strings, didn’t he?
Probably a trite point, but he might have been attracted to the volume.
As Pete Seeger once said about the joys of playing a 12-string: “You spend half your time tuning it and the other half playing it out of tune”
Well I have seen Lazarus, and yes, it is a bit naff. Yes there is some school play type acting / words in it. On the other hand, the songs.
As I said here, I wouldn’t go twice, but I needed to see it for some sort of stupid closure I guess. I do remember everyone giving it a “standing O”, so I guess everyone else there needed something similar too.
This is rather good. From Mike Garson’s homepage, Bowie and Moby cover the Pixies’ Cactus.
http://mikegarson.com/bowie_cactus02.html
I really enjoyed the documentary.
Although I’m not a fan of The Next Day, and have no interest in seeing “Lazarus”, I still found the film interesting right the way through. What an extraordinary artist and remarkable man he was.
One of my favourite bits was when the touring band turns up at that remote truckstop in Montana, or wherever it was, to find a place selling off some old CDs that had been gathering dust for years – including “Lodger” and Tin Machine” Ha!