Roundup of News from a World without David Bowie

With the world still shocked by the death of David Bowie on Sunday, there’s plenty to report on the aftermath.

1. It was liver cancer, apparently.
2. Here’s how newspapers and publications around the world broke the news of Bowie’s death.
3. No surprise here: sales of Bowie’s music haves skyrocketed. Streams are up 2,700%.  More here. Could this result in Bowie’s first-ever #1 album in America?
4. Bowie’s last album, Blackstar, was created as his own requiem.
5. There were at least 100 million Facebook interactions about Bowie in the 12 hours following the announcement of his death.
6. Here’s a BBC interview with Bowie on the topic of getting old.
7. Bowie’s ex-wife, Angie, is a contestant on Celebrity Big Brother so she was isolated from the news. Then they told her on live TV. It’s heartbreaking.
8. Fifty songs to take you through Bowie’s career.
9. Fifteen surprising facts about Bowie.
10. Fourteen great bits of Bowie memorabilia.
11. Fans have flocked to Bowie’s home in New York…
12. …and at his home in Brixton.
13. Scottish nationalists are trolling Bowie’s memory and his fans. Assholes.
14. Bowie’s wife, Iman, on what it was like to be married to him.
15. How the birth of Bowie’s daughter changed his life.
16. An examination of Bowie’s impact on the charts.
17. A selection of Bowie’s TV interviews.
18. Here’s Conan O’Brien’s Bowie highlight reel.
19. 60 Minutes has made some unseen interview footage available.
20. A bit of history: When Bowie was arrested during a march in Rochester, New York.
21. An interesting reflection on the song “Kooks.”
22. Bowie once took MTV to task for not playing enough African-American artists.
23. Bowie was in talks to appear in the Guardians of the Galaxy sequel.
24. A look back on Bowie’s theatrical career.

I did over a dozen interviews on Bowie yesterday. Here’s one of them.

Finally, here’s a sample of the kind of email fans have been sending me.

Hey Alan,

Thought I’d share this with you. Unlike you, I never got to meet David Bowie, but I did have a pretty cool experience at a concert of his many years ago.

I saw David Bowie perform in Toronto on the “Sound and Vision tour” at the old CNE Grandstand, on July 4, 1990. I had just turned 18. My friend and I travelled from Kitchener to Toronto for this show, only to end up with seats in the front row of the stands that were far crappier than we had expected. 

To make a long story short: our view was blocked by many people, including a VERY large security guard. Well, don’t ask me how I found the guts to do this, but I politely asked this hulking guy if he would move just a bit, and he very apologetically stood aside. Cool. All was well.

Well, who came lumbering up to us about five minutes later but Mr Gigantic Security Dude. He introduced himself as Bubba (and no, I am not making up that name), and said “Hey, man, I feel bad about blocking your view earlier. You want to come up to the front of the stage with me?”

Yes, Mr Bubba. Yes I would.

So I saw the rest of the show from…maybe thirty feet away from David Bowie. Not a bad way to spend an evening.

My school chum now lives far away in China. The stadium is long gone, and now David Bowie is gone, too. But that memory of a music legend in his prime? That one’s mine forever.

Thanks,

A.