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Bowie General > BLA5 - Sold out in under 30 minutes??

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MythicalkingDonatedPosted at 2021-03-09 14:17:46(162 wks ago) (Bowie General / BLA5 - Sold out in under 30 minutes??)


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As it doesn't look as though the BLA series is going to deliver the killer live compilation I was hoping for I decided to put together my own imagining of what it might look like.  

I guess that we will all have opinions about what would make up the ideal 95-99 finale package so no doubt my tentative selections will prompt some debate.

Disc 1      
1. The Supermen        
(Capitol Theatre, Port Chester NY 14 Oct 97)
2. Joe The Lion
(St Louis 11 Oct 95)
3. Nite Flights
(St Louis 11 Oct 95)
4. Telling Lies        
(Rockpalast Festival 22 Jun 96)
5. Baby Universal
(Rockpalast Festival 22 Jun 96)
6. Jump They Say
(Rockpalast Festival 22 Jun 96)
7. Lust For Life
(Rockpalast Festival 22 Jun 96)
8. Always Crashing In The Same Car
(Radio City Music Hall NY 15 Oct 97)
9. Panic In Detroit
(Radio City Music Hall NY 15 Oct 97)
10. My Death (        
(Radio City Music Hall NY 15 Oct 97)
11. Queen Bitch
(Madison Square Gardens NYC 9 Jan 97) (
12. Waiting For The Man
(Madison Square Gardens NYC 9 Jan 97)
13. White Light White Heat
(Madison Square Gardens NYC 9 Jan 97)
14. Ashes To Ashes
(The Astoria, London 2 Dec 99)
15. Cracked Actor
(The Astoria, London 2 Dec 99)
16. Stay
(The Astoria, London 2 Dec 99)

Disc 2

1. Band Introductions
(Paradiso Amsterdam 10 Jun 97)
2. I'm Deranged
(Paradiso Amsterdam 10 Jun 97)
3. Pallas Athena
(Paradiso Amsterdam 10 Jun 97)
4. V2-Schneider
(Paradiso Amsterdam 10 Jun 97)
5. Dead Man Walking
(Paradiso Amsterdam 10 Jun 97)
6. O Superman
(Paradiso Amsterdam 10 Jun 97)
7. The Last Thing You Should Do
(Paradiso Amsterdam 10 Jun 97)
8. Is It Any Wonder
(Paradiso Amsterdam 10 Jun 97)
9. Scary Monsters
(SLIMs Radio Show 9 Sep 97)
10. Aladdin Sane
(Bridge School Benefit 20 Oct 96)
11. Heroes
(Bridge School Benefit 19 Oct 96)
12. Let's Dance
(Bridge School Benefit 19 Oct 96)
13. My Death
(Manhattan Center (18 Sep 95)


Last edited by Mythicalking on 2021-03-11 10:26:51


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fishybootsPosted at 2021-03-11 01:06:29(162 wks ago) (Bowie General / BLA5 - Sold out in under 30 minutes??)


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NICE!!

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neilwilkesPosted at 2021-03-11 10:03:02(162 wks ago) (Bowie General / BLA5 - Sold out in under 30 minutes??)


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That's a really eclectic selection there.
This looks like fun, so let's all have a go?
What are the rules - this is a hypothetical compilation covering the entire BLA period then, so includes the NIN tour, the Outside tour, the Earthling tour & the Small Clubs tour for Hours.

Maximum of 2CD's, so a grand total of 160 minutes at the very most.
Should make for the equivalent of a single show in Dublin!!

I'll be off to do my compilation then - this is fun!

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MythicalkingDonatedPosted at 2021-03-11 10:55:43(162 wks ago) (Bowie General / BLA5 - Sold out in under 30 minutes??)


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I'm really looking forward to seeing what you come up with Neil!

In the meantime the artwork for my compilation (which I have now completed) is available at https://mega.nz/file/IvxgHQRD#GYTW_WQZE00TM9eBP6ZGs1hOe8dO4DnKDSZAyti-q9M

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homebrewPosted at 2021-03-11 14:17:14(162 wks ago) (Bowie General / BLA5 - Sold out in under 30 minutes??)


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Keep in mind that the BLA releases are now official releases therefore the songs on them could not be included.


""I don't begrudge any artist for finding an audience"
- David Bowie abt. 1987
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neilwilkesPosted at 2021-03-12 09:26:26(162 wks ago) (Bowie General / BLA5 - Sold out in under 30 minutes??)


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homebrew wrote:

Keep in mind that the BLA releases are now official releases therefore the songs on them could not be included.

Nah - I am not having that!
We have to be allowed to include stuff that Parlophone managed to get out there, albeit in tiny numbers - I thought this was for fun, not for torrenting!

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MythicalkingDonatedPosted at 2021-03-12 09:50:43(162 wks ago) (Bowie General / BLA5 - Sold out in under 30 minutes??)


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I agree Neil.  

As you say this is just a fun exercise NOT intended as a pre-cursor to developing a new torrent.

I see it more as a "Bullseye" moment for those who compiled the BLA releases, ie. "look at what you could have won!"

(For the uninitiated: Bullseye was a UK darts-based gameshow where host Jim Bowen would reveal to unsuccessful contestants the star prize that they had just missed out on)

Last edited by Mythicalking on 2021-03-12 10:32:53


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neilwilkesPosted at 2021-03-15 10:25:03(162 wks ago) (Bowie General / BLA5 - Sold out in under 30 minutes??)


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It's harder than it seems.
Hopefully will finish later today

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bowie48Posted at 2021-03-16 17:31:21(161 wks ago) (Bowie General / BLA5 - Sold out in under 30 minutes??)


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But not for sale (BLA5), as I and may others found out.

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bowiebingoPosted at 2021-03-17 15:44:20(161 wks ago) (Bowie General / BLA5 - Sold out in under 30 minutes??)


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BLA6 has just been announced - Kit-Kat Club, NY

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LjohnfoxxPosted at 2021-03-20 23:50:01(161 wks ago) (Bowie General / BLA5 - Sold out in under 30 minutes??)


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bowiebingo wrote:

BLA6 has just been announced - Kit-Kat Club, NY

Yeah, that only took 4 minutes to sell out.

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MythicalkingDonatedPosted at 2021-03-21 09:42:03(161 wks ago) (Bowie General / BLA5 - Sold out in under 30 minutes??)


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Feel free to shoot me down but to my mind there are only two positives to the Brilliant Live Adventures extravaganza:

i)The idea which was in itself brilliant because it shone a light on a much under-appreciated period in Bowie’s touring career when he had a truly great touring band and a renewed energy and excitement in his live performance, and,

ii) BLA#4 (Look At The Moon) which I openly concede was a truly superb release.  

But that’s it for me.

Where did it all go wrong?  

• Parlophone were no doubt a tad unsure about demand for the forthcoming 90s box set given Bowie’s relative lack of commercial success during the 90s.  The limited edition BLA releases have been a good way to test the waters in terms of demand and to whip up additional interest.  It made good business sense but it was done so shabbily.

• The selections across the BLA set are completely out of kilter.  The Bowie Tour Stats Guide logs 112 gigs in the Outside (95/96) Tour with 47 different songs played, just under 100 gigs for the Earthling Tour with 50 different songs played and just 26 Hours Tour gigs with 20 songs played.  Those stats suggest that the 6 releases should have included one 95 gig, one 96 gig, two 97 gigs, one 99 gig and a rarities compilation to cap things off.  

• We didn't get that and things ended up with 2 largely overlapping Hours tour releases (when we’d already had the broadly similar VH1 Storytellers set in 2009) at the expense of loads of key tracks from 95-97 which are not represented on any of the other BLA releases.

• Apart from Look At The Moon much of what we did get was either short-change (both No Trendy Rechauffe and Ouvrez Le Chein should have been 2CD complete concerts), a re-hash of stuff that was already in the public domain through streaming sources, i.e. Liveandwell.com and Something In The Air, or superfluous (The Kit Kat Club).

• The marketing campaign and sales arrangements have played right into the hands of profiteers at the expense of genuine Bowie fans – so most of us will either have to give up on collecting the full set or re-mortgage our homes to afford copies on the open market.

Given all of that why has BLA still sold out?

• Well we Bowie fans are a devoted lot.  Any group of fans who are prepared to shell out on a re-release of a 50 year old album with no additional tracks purely because it has been re-mastered and issued under a name that Bowie purportedly originally considered using for it (TMWSTW/Metrobolist) are clearly a bit special (or an easy touch).

• For some fans this was a first chance to hear live material from this period - not everyone will own or know where to download bootlegs from this period (shockingly there must be some poor devils who are living in ignorance of the existence of Bowie Station!).

• There will be quite a number of people who are completists in terms Bowie releases and simply have to have copies of all of the BLA product to complete their collections.

• Profiteers recognised all of the above and knew that as limited editions these releases are a sure cert commodity.  Some have no interest in Bowie or his music but have callously milked the opportunity to double/triple/quadruple their money at the expense of real fans.

So what next?

• We’ll need to see what turns up in the forthcoming 90’s box set but I’m not holding my breath for anything that redresses any of the shortcomings from BLA and it doesn’t look as though any of the BLA releases are likely to get a wider release any time soon.

• The whole BLA experience suggests that those who are currently overseeing the Bowie catalogue are lacklustre, lazy and at best completely out of touch with the late great man’s fan base or at worst just couldn’t give a monkey’s – to quote the man himself “strung out on heaven's high hitting an all time low”.

Last edited by Mythicalking on 2021-03-21 17:26:07


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bowiebingoPosted at 2021-03-21 10:42:27(161 wks ago) (Bowie General / BLA5 - Sold out in under 30 minutes??)


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It would be interesting to know how many were sold.  It's not going to be in high five figures any more, that's for sure: but 5,000?  10,000?  1,000?

IMHO, if Parlophone were to repeat this exercise (and frankly, why wouldn't they), it would be better if the limit were time-based, rather than pre-determined finite pressings.  So put each release on pre-release sale for, say, two weeks, then just press up the volume committed.  Would keep everyone happy, remove the need for eBay speculators (albeit, who knows how many of those there were - and also whether they weren't also Bowie fans) and still keep some income for the label.

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neilwilkesPosted at 2021-03-21 12:05:34(161 wks ago) (Bowie General / BLA5 - Sold out in under 30 minutes??)


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bowiebingo wrote:

It would be interesting to know how many were sold.  It's not going to be in high five figures any more, that's for sure: but 5,000?  10,000?  1,000?IMHO, if Parlophone were to repeat this exercise (and frankly, why wouldn't they), it would be better if the limit were time-based, rather than pre-determined finite pressings.  So put each release on pre-release sale for, say, two weeks, then just press up the volume committed.  Would keep everyone happy, remove the need for eBay speculators (albeit, who knows how many of those there were - and also whether they weren't also Bowie fans) and still keep some income for the label.

Exactly correct.
As for the numbers,, I have the figure 3,000 for each of CD & Vinyl in my mind, but cannot recall where that came from. It is supposedly a strictly limited 'one run only' release.
A scalpers paradise.

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PorrohmanDonatedPosted at 2021-03-21 17:09:35(161 wks ago) (Bowie General / BLA5 - Sold out in under 30 minutes??)


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I have been on Qobuz and found that some BLA albums are now available to download in cd quality.  Ouvrez Le Chien £15.49, No Trendy Réchauffé £16.99.
To check I added them to my 'basket' and they appeared there.
I suppose the rest will appear at some point.

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NikePosted at 2021-03-30 03:14:04(160 wks ago) (Bowie General / BLA5 - Sold out in under 30 minutes??)


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6000 cd + 4000 lp.

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neilwilkesPosted at 2021-04-02 11:44:39(159 wks ago) (Bowie General / BLA5 - Sold out in under 30 minutes??)


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Nike wrote:

6000 cd + 4000 lp.

Interesting. I wonder if this is per territory, or in total?
Considering a couple of these were never available before, even on bootleg, and that 2 had only ever been on bootleg before, that's a really small number if the global total.

Parlophone - or whatever bunch of geniuses were behind the campaign - have now really shot themselves in the head with this one. At first, we were all assured this was a strictly one-run only release, I know a lot of fans ended up paying well over the odds to ebay scalpers to complete their sets who will now never believe another 'Limited Edition' statement from the label ever again.

It's not the repressing that bothers me though - it's the outrageous 180 about-face turnaround that does that. If they had only pressed a limited number in the first place & not stated 'strictly one run only' on announcement then a repress if they underestimated numbers is fine. It's the lies that bother me. You cannot - must not - make statements like 'strictly one run only' and then do a reverse ferret just because you rightly got a shitstorm of bad publicity over this. Don't defend the indefensible - the statement of 'strictly one run only' almost certainly helped initial quantities to sell out so quickly but the reversal now makes that look like a marketing lie told on purpose to boost sales. After all, if it was only ever intended to be 'strictly one run only', then someone please tell me why the vinyl stampers still exist?

They have also created a secondary market too - the price of 'original pressings' will skyrocket.

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100PCBPosted at 2021-04-02 15:32:43(159 wks ago) (Bowie General / BLA5 - Sold out in under 30 minutes??)


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They might as well re-press the cream Mother single, and anything else that sold out quickly.

What next Artists will need to play another gig for those that never got tickets? The internet mobs are running the world now.  Still, at least I can use the ladies toilets without being called a pervert now  :warn

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bowiebingoPosted at 2021-04-02 21:01:08(159 wks ago) (Bowie General / BLA5 - Sold out in under 30 minutes??)


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Maybe time to get real.

IMHO, 6k on CD and 4k on Emperor's old clothes sounds pretty decent from here.  We're talking about a dead artist who, from a marketing point of view, had been pretty moribund since 1983.  Sure his return and then death created quite a kerfuffle, but won't have engendered any new fans to any significant extent.  A significant number fewer are still around every year...

And then the content - a box of live albums from three tours that appealed plenty to the afficianados, but alienated passing fans.  It's a nice touch, therefore, to reward those of us who've stuck with the man this far, but how many of us are there?  Parlophone clearly weren't sure, as it's apparent from stock still on sale long after that the last two RSD discs didn't sell as well as expected.

Anyone remember the textbook marketing of Wispa when it was launched?  Huge advertising, celebrity endorsements, but then way too little stock sent out to the shops (for a pre-Christmas launch).  Why?  To create bulging order books that could then be shown around to any doubting Thomases to emphasise that it's really really popular (when all that was really happening was trying to address the hype).

So the initial launch of a fairly low-key series, got huge publicity for a) selling a cardboard box for twelve quid and b) not making enough availability.  Caught your attention?  Good.  Want to buy one now?  Great.  Some of us have long enough memories (i.e. six months) that recall endless bitching and whinging from members here, who are now bemoaning that they haven't managed to get hold of every disc or the box.  Thought you weren't interested in the first place!!

So now Parlophone have created demand, and also have a better idea of how many they're likely to sell (which is signficantly more than if they'd just launched it gently).  It's a marketing team doing its job well - generating interest and demand to sell more product, and what's more, to a clearly declining market.

Don't like it?  Vote with your feet and don't buy the bloody thing - and particularly stop whinging if you didn't want it in the first place and are now just feeling a teeny bit left out.  Happy with it - fantastic: celebrate some new Bowie product, which is all we wanted all along.

I'm well happy with five new CDs (OK, I didn't need another liveandwell.com).  I was irritated by having to keep hitting refresh for the last two releases, but I also accept that it was some professionals doing their job as well as they could.  Well done Parlophone - you've generated interest and demand where virtually none existed!

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interplayDonatedPosted at 2021-04-02 22:21:18(159 wks ago) (Bowie General / BLA5 - Sold out in under 30 minutes??)


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I need another liveandwell.com

And i had the first one.

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