David Bowie. In defence of the ABC, public art and poor acting.

Dear reader, theres been quite an upset at PCbyCp.

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Bowie and Jagger. Pure Gold. And not bad acting either.

The David Bowie ‘Bad Art, Murals and ABC’ letter went just a little bit too far. We apologise for the vein of the missive and have decided to print just one of the vast pile of angry, aggrieved and inconsolable letters sent in rebuttal. In the interests of bipartisanship and fair-mindedness we have printed this letter in full and have sent a copy to the Bowie Estate as a sign of true contrition.



’Dear Sirs, I would like the opportunity to vociferously complain about the improper and coarse tone of the diatribe directed against Rock-God Bowie. Clearly the author is utterly ignorant of the vast body of Bowie’s work and thus is blinded, ‘Abbott-like’ by the scientific facts I shall bring to bear. Bowie sold quite a few records since 1983. And his latest, published when he was still quite warm is set to be record-breaking, (excuse the pun) in Sales. “Vomitron” if that’s his real name insists that his character and artistic output suffered desertification in he early 80’s. Just for the record, he couldn’t be more utterly and completely wrong.

The ABC is quite right in playing hours and hours of Bowie nostalgia, honorifics, and quite correct in trawling the nonentities within, outside, and on the absolute fringe of the ossified and destitute Sydney music scene, (for that is where the ABC is stuck) in gaining an insight into BOWIE’S GENIUS!!.

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Bowie rediscovered MAKE-UP

Bowie’s best work was as an ACTOR. Though in Nicholas Roeg’s “Man who fell to Earth’ which was really very very good, In ‘Labyrinth’, he was both a goblin, a singer and a star. And he, “chameleon-like’ revisited on the big screen an innovative use of make-up.

A true pioneer.

Not since Lloyd Webber composed ‘Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat’, ‘Cats’ and ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ have we seen such consumate talent on display.

A momumental talent.

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Bowie performing ” Let’s Dance”, allegedly a tilt against racism, but actually filmed in AUSTRALIA!!

And sadly, unrecognised at his untimely death by a knighthood, O.B.E or, as has been allegedly proposed by our Federal Arts Minister a posthumous Order of Australia. For such is the depth manifest in the “Let’s Dance” film clip that was a actually filmed in Australia. Fitting then, and sad, though Bowie is dead, he was quite strident in letting some of us know how much he liked Australia. He was here for that brief time in the 80’s and left, but we know that he would’ve lived here for ever because this country knows how to nurture a successful and famous overseas artist. How wrong then for the Ill-informed to accuse the ABC of wallowing. What errant self indulgence. Bowie’s output from 1981 onwards took us on an entirely new trajectory.

What began with ‘Space Oddity’ went in another dimension when he teamed up with Mick jagger in ‘Dancing in the Street’, and then who could forget, his duet with Freddie Mercury, in ‘Under Pressure’, pure gold. Unrivalled since Macartney teamed up with Stevie Wonder in ‘Ebony and Ivory”. In music terms that’s recognised as; ‘breaking the sound-barrier’. And then, on top of all that, MTV came along, and Bowie was everywhere doing voice overs for commercials, infotainment spots, and when he wasn’t hanging around Sydney and Los Angeles and London, and New York, Paris and Berlin he was just…. Hanging around.