Thoughts on the David Bowie Centre over at V&E East.

tl;dr Where’s Dave? I struggled to find him in spirt amongst the sterile setting of the vast storehouse out east.

Actually, that’s a little unfair.

The DB Collection itself is a right faff to find. Once I had dragged my arse all the way over from Stratford tube, past the Copper Box and then a bit further to the V&E, all would be fine, I thought.

Wrong.

There was zero signage for the DB Collection. Or nothing visible that leaps out at you.

I had a tight deadline as I was booked in at a specific time slot. I had to find the Collection or lose my spot.

I asked a staff member - who was looking cool as fuck, in the oh so urban V&E livery.

“Up two flights of stairs and turn left by aisle 27.”

OK…

And so I headed up two flights, turned left, and then nothing except more racks hoarding the world’s largest jumble sale of tat, aka the new V&E Storehouse.

I asked another staff member. This time I was given more detailed instructions.

Ah - so there’s the entrance. But yeah, what a bloody faff.

The V&E has been keen to hype up the DB Centre with limited drops for ticket availability. If something is so hot, then I would want to make a splash about it at the actual Storehouse.

What awaits inside is a curated selection of the 90,000 items from the Bowie archive, all entrusted to the V&A for a public show and tell.

That’s obviously a lot of floor space needed, which isn’t there. And so the items are rotated every few months or so.

It’s a clever marketing ploy for repeat visits, even if tickets are free.

Exit through the gift shop, etc.

I made my way into what I thought was the first room. It turned out to be the only room.

Oh. So is that it?

It’s not that the DB Centre is dull, but it is lacking in any sense of the artist being amongst you. One large video screen doesn’t cut it.

For such a visual artist, it’s a little odd that some of his costumes are packaged up in suit bags, and then hung up on high.

Dave? DAVE?

Anyone home?

The QR thing was also a right pain. Little context is given in the display cabinets themselves. You need to access pdfs on your phone via the QR code to get a basic item description.

I found myself blue screening at my bloody phone, rather than actually engaging with some major artefacts of cultural significance that were right in front of my eyes.

When I did look up, there were some lovely moments. The TOTP Starman jacket, the Ziggy bodysuit knitwear, and even the Steve McQueen designed Earthling Union jacket are on display.

Bowie was at his best when he had the best hairstyle - which has to be 1975 and Young Americans, right? The display covering the plastic soul period is great.

Not so thrilling was the Yahoo! Internet Life Online Music Award.

I had a genuine wtf moment in seeing a Gail Ann Dorsey stage outfit with a retro Forest patch sewn in.

It was quite relaxed in the small space. My one memory from the paid for David Bowie Is at the V&E back in 2013 was the bunfight to view anything.

And so despite the schlep out East, despite the difficulty in finding the front door, and despite the Where’s Dave? angle, the DB Centre is probably worth a visit.

I hope that more can be made of the great man during future visits, given the vastness of the archive available.

I love the oddball story behind this. Writing an urban concept album based around losing £1k [SPOILER] down the back of a telly, shows that we have moved on from the days of 70’s prog.

This was so fresh when it was first released. There wasn’t anything like it around at the time. It does sound a little dated now, but only with the song references, and not the style. C-Mone steals the show.

I rinsed this to death back in the day. I wouldn’t have hesitated then in giving it five stars. I paused a little this morning. But yep - it still stacks up.

So ambitious, so cocky, so bloody young.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

A spare half hour or so hanging around in Notting Hill.

Hey! I know what. The old Music and Video Exchange is still open around these parts. You can’t beat a bit of Sunday lunchtime crate digging.

Music and Video Exchanges are quite a thing.

Back in the day the Fulham Broadway branch was my legit fence to offload all the endless promo crap that was sent my way. That kept me in BOOZE money for the week ahead.

I’m amazed that the Notting Hill shop is still open. It’s quite a treasure trove as well.

Vinyl, CD’s and yep, cassettes are all on sale. I struggled to see any videos. It’s best not to mess with a brand.

The place was buzzing around lunchtime - and not just with old muso farts like me.

It was encouraging to see the young folk of West London flocking through the vinyl and spending.

My budget didn’t quite reach to vinyl today. I did walk out with The The’s Time Bomb and the debut solo from the silly old racist Mozza - but he wasn’t a sill old racist back then, so, erm, that makes it alright then.

Suedehead remains a beautiful piece of work, sitting well immediately after the post- Smiths period. It’s also got the His Master’s Voice label imprint.

Time Bomb is of a similar theme. Beat(en) Generation is perhaps the last great rally cry against Thatcherism in the later 1980’s.

I had to leave the flat on Saturday afternoon. Have For Sale sign, have prospective buyers wanting to poke around.

It’s best to give them some privacy. But please do take your shoes off.

Oh…

I laced up my rain cherry red DM’s, and went off stomping towards Wankerville.

I made it a circular route, cutting through lovely Larkhall Park, a brief stretch along Wandsworth Road, and then up towards Wankerville Old Town.

My face doesn’t fit around here. I was clean cut and freshly shaven. But even my boy-ish good looks struggle a little with the Clap’ham 20-somethings.

I took cover in the charity shop stretch.

Clap’ham once had a half decent run of bog standard charity shops. The past few years has seen them morph into ‘vintage retro shops.’

This is Wankerville talk for add another £20 on to the price tag.

Trinity Hospice in the Old Town remains affordable. It has the second best CD collection in South London, only rivalled by Oxfam in Herne Hill.

I don’t usually waste my time digging through the charity shop CD crap: Cliff, Simply Red and Boyzone is your usual offering.

But an upside of having an upmarket neighbourhood like Clap’ham and Herne Hill is that the Bright Young Things do have good tastes in the CD’s they want to dispose of.

I spent five minutes flicking through. I ended up with a couple of Neil Young albums, and Beth Orton’s Comfort of Strangers.

Yours, for three quid all in, Guv.

Job’s a good ‘un.

Sleaford Mods have dropped a ‘dark version’ of their video for The Good Life.

It is Halloween, after all.

Christ, this was bloody awful. The oh so enthusiastic handclaps ten seconds in should have served as a warning sign. This isn’t really a live album, is it?

I could have tolerated the post-production feel if the songs stood up. But they were shit. I bailed on track five - quite an achievement.

⭐

Blimey - Adrian Sherwood has been busy once again with another new release: The Collapse of Everything.

He’s one of those artists that I never know where to really start. The back catalogue is so vast and diverse. Sometimes it’s just best to dive in at random.

The Collapse of Everything is a little more structured. Tango Dub would be a clumsy, yet accurate, description.

Yer man certainly knows how to build up and sequence a track. It reminded me very much of the ACE Ozrics in places.

It sounds like a full on orchestra has been hired at Abbey Road as part of the production. Betcha it was more like a home bedroom DIY effort.

I’d love to see a film that has The Collapse of Everything as the soundtrack.

Maybe just turn on the news and mute the telly?

Another changing of the seasons, another selection of new music from Cleaners from Venus.

Hurrah!

Mr Mule has dropped on Bandcamp the Neverland for Now EP - four tracks, all with a a DIY ethos as you would expect.

Start your own revolution and cut out the middle man, etc.

Mule has been particularly prolific in recent years. Did someone say LEGACY? As long as he’s coming up with the goods, I don’t really mind.

The lead track from the EP is a dreamy affair, complete with Mule’s signature backwards vocals bolted on at the end. The unmistakable jingle jangle chords carry the song.

There’s a breezy summer feel - unlike the Lilli Bolero summer album, that sounded more like autumn.

Mule World is always a little mixed up.

Elsewhere across the release and there are local references ahoy. Track 4 is even called Return to Wivenhoe, a subject we all find hard to address.

“When the tide is high, and the mist is low, I will return to Wivenhoe.”

Expect a Christmas drop soon.

For once a foreign language album I can appreciate. The tightness of the beats and the production elevate above the lyrics. I bailed at the end of the album, rather than continue with all the mixes. The strength of the originals was enough to satisfy me. A decent working soundtrack.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐

I streamed Bark Psychosis' Hex album this afternoon. There was a cheapo copy going on ebay for £6. Anything between £15-£20 is the usual asking price.

The idea was to give it a play through to see if it was as outstanding as I once remembered. It was, and it wasn’t.

It’s an exceptional piece of music of which the term post-rock - whatever that might mean - was made for. What makes it all the more remarkable is that this was very much an unknown musical direction back in 1994.

The disappointment wasn’t in the music, but in me. I must have rinsed this on a home recording cassette for six months or so around 1994. Yet I didn’t recognise one single piece of music throughout the playback this afternoon.

I’m not sure if this is a good or bad thing.

Hex has clearly left a memory on me as being something of interest. I wouldn’t have set up an ebay search otherwise.

But it fails to pass the Old Grey Whistle Test. You won’t get too many window cleaners whistling along to some of the dark passages that unfold as the album stretches out in front of you.

Three tracks in and I had decided that this was worth £6. It’s probably worth £10 tbh.

And then BLOODY HELL. I clicked through on ebay, only to find that the CD had been sold.

Buy now, ask later, etc.