Mon, Nov 28, 2011 page13

• Planet Pop

  • Agencies
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  There’s a starman waiting in the sky, David Bowie sang. But he need wait in the sky no longer: plans have been announced this weekend for the first full-scale musical based on the songs of the totemic British performer. A futuristic fantasy called Heroes: The Musical will tell the story of Major Tom, as well as the starman and a “young dude” called David and will have its world premiere in March at the IndigO2 venue, inside London’s former Millennium Dome.

  Bowie, who is one of Britain’s most successful songwriters, rarely gives permission for his songs to be used and has never allowed them to be used in this way before. “We could not really believe it when they gave us permission,” said Deep Singh, who wrote the musical. “His people had warned us that it was very unlikely that he would be interested and that he had been asked many times before.”

  Singh, a former screenwriter, believes that Bowie gave consent because he emphasized that his story was not a nostalgic recreation of the 1970s but was set in the future and aimed to show the timeless relevance of Bowie’s lyrics. Other recent shows featuring the hit songs from the back catalogue of bands such as Queen, Abba, and Madness have all had West End success by offering audiences a chance to wallow in memories of their youth.

  

  David Bowie takes the stage during his A Reality Tour in 2004.

  Photo: Bloomberg

  “We did not want Mr Bowie to think it was going to be a tribute show, and that seems to have had an effect,” Singh added. He is putting the show together for one major showcase performance in the spring in aid of arts and community charities. If the performance is a critical success, he hopes that Bowie, who lives in New York, will grant it a longer life.

  “Mr Bowie’s representatives have been incredibly supportive when we have asked them for things and yet hands-off in terms of letting us get on with the project,” said Singh.

  The villains of Singh’s story are the patrolling Diamond Dogs and the “ruthless Smart Simon” who has created, and now controls, a dystopian empire set in an indeterminate future. Heroes will use a cast of more than 30 performers accompanied by a live band and will feature around 20 songs, including Heroes, The Man Who Sold The World, The Jean Genie and Let’s Dance.

  The director and choreographer of the show is Matthew Gould, who has worked as resident director on West End shows including Les Miserables and Cats.

  Occupy Wall Street has a benefit album planned with Jackson Browne, Third Eye Blind, Crosby & Nash, Devo, Lucinda Williams and even some of those drummers who kept an incessant beat at Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park.

  Participants in the protest movement said Wednesday that Occupy This Album, which will be available sometime this winter, will also feature DJ Logic, Ladytron, Warren Haynes, Toots and the Maytals, Mike Limbaud, Aeroplane Pageant, Yo La Tengo and others.

  Activist filmmaker Michael Moore is also planning to sing.

  Jason Samel, a musician who is putting together the disc, said the goal is to raise between US$1 million and US$2 million to help fuel the movement that is protesting income disparity.

  Money raised will go through the nonprofit Alliance for Global Justice.

  The Occupy Wall Street album will be available in digital form first, with plans for a physical CD still unclear.

  Amnesty International also announced Wednesday that it will put on sale in January a 75-song set of Bob Dylan covers by various artists to benefit the human rights organization.

  Italian record stores are not exactly rushing to stock up on a new album of love songs written by former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, but the irrepressible lyricist apparently has no plans to stop.

  “This is a hobby for him and he is not giving it up. He is a passionate, romantic person. He writes love songs and he’s good at it,” Mariano Apicella, the Neapolitan crooner who sings the billionaire’s lyrics, said.

  “He exudes passion. Not everyone can do that,” said Apicella, a long-time friend of Berlusconi’s and frequent guest at the 75-year-old’s famously flamboyant dinner parties at luxury villas in Sardinia, Rome and Milan.

  Berlusconi started out as a cruise-ship singer and has often boasted of his ability to enthrall listeners with his syrupy tones. A long-time fan of Neapolitan songs, he branched out with a daring samba track on his latest disc.

  The album — Berlusconi and Apicella’s fourth collaboration — features cringe-worthy lyrics such as: “Stay, and leave me your heart” and “I run my hands down your sides, because it’s you. I adore you and I already miss you.”

  The album True Love came out on the day Berlusconi stepped down as premier on Nov. 13 but — except for media attention — there has been little interest in the warbling of a premier who bowed out with his popularity at record lows.
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