Hallo Spaceboy: The Rebirth of David Bowie

by Dave Thompson

By 1987, David Bowie was at a creative, critical, and commercial low. His most recent album was dismissed by the music press, his latest tour written off as a disaster. Fifteen years after becoming the most colourfully controversial superstar in recent rock history, Bowie was seen as a spent force.Almost twenty years later, Bowie has re-established himself at the very peak of his profession in one of the most extraordinary comebacks in rock history. His 1995 release of the critically-astonishing 1:Outside album has been followed by equally groundbreaking efforts. He is a content family man, married to super-model Iman, and one of the richest musicians in the world.While most biographies on Bowie still focus on his early years, Hallo The Rebirth of David Bowie is the first to chronicle the comeback in detail. Drawing upon exclusive interviews with fans, colleagues and associates, it is also the long-gestating follow-up to Dave Thompson’s Moonage Daydream (1987), widely hailed among the best David Bowie biographies.

Genres: Music, Biography

380 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

English author Dave Thompson has spent his entire working life writing biographies of other people, but is notoriously reluctant to write one for himself. Unlike the subjects of some of his best known books, he was neither raised by ferrets nor stolen from gypsies. He has never appeared on reality TV (although he did reach the semi finals of a UK pop quiz when he was sixteen), plays no musical instruments and he can’t dance, either.

However, he has written well over one hundred books in a career that is almost as old as U2’s… whom he saw in a club when they first moved to London, and memorably described as “okay, but they’ll never get any place.” Similar pronouncements published on the future prospects of Simply Red, Pearl Jam and Wang Chung (oh, and Curiosity Killed The Cat as well) probably explain why he has never been anointed a Pop Culture Nostradamus. Although the fact that he was around to pronounce gloomily on them in the first place might determine why he was recently described as “a veteran music journalist.”

Raised on rock, powered by punk, and still convinced that “American Pie” was written by Fanny Farmer and is best played with Meatloaf, Thompson lists his five favorite artists as old and obscure; his favorite album is whispered quietly and he would like to see Richard and Linda Thompson’s “I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight” installed as the go-to song for the sad, sappy ending for every medical drama on TV.

Kurt Cobain, Phil Collins, Alice Cooper, Joan Jett, David Bowie, John Travolta, Eric Clapton, Jackson Browne, Bob Marley, Roger Waters and the guy who sang that song in the jelly commercial are numbered among the myriad artists about whom Thompson has written books; he has contributed to the magazines Rolling Stone, Alternative Press, Mojo and Melody Maker; and he makes regular guest appearances on WXPN’s Highs in the Seventies show.

Reviews

[Alex Storer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since our Starman's untimely passing, I don't doubt that there will be a flurry of updated books and biographies. With most available David Bowie books, you'll find they focus on the height on his fame in the 1970s and early 80s, so what appealed to me about Hallo Spaceboy was that it picks up in the late 1980s (as a follow-up to the same author's previous biography, Moorage Daydream) finding Bowie at a career low-point and a creatively dry period in 1987. As its title suggests, this book charts Bowie's gradual revival and the creative rebirth which followed through the 1990s and beyond.

Granted, like many such publications, this book pulls together generally reliable information from interviews, music magazines and other biographies, but barring the odd schoolboy error (everybody knows it's Nile Rodgers, not Niles, and that Bowie's first big screen role was The Man Who Fell to Earth), its clearly written by somebody with a passion for all of Bowie's work and these later years in particular. Thompson doesn't dwell on rumours or sensationalism, focusing on assembling a factual and well-researched chronology– clearly striving to make this a readable biography, rather than littering the pages with references.

Hallo Spaceboy is also nicely illustrated; mono fan photographs of live concerts and off-stage appearances along with scans of concert tickets or posters adorn many of the text pages, whilst there are a couple of lengthy colour sections. Open almost any Bowie book, and you're often met with the same set of photos. So what makes this book visually refreshing, is a great set of lesser-seen shots (mostly courtesy of French photographer Philippe Auliac) from all of Bowie's tours from 1988 to one of his final stage appearances in 2005. Great full-page colour shots from the Sound and Vision and Outside tours as well as his Heathen and Reality shows are among the highlights.

Originally published in 2006, Hallo Spaceboy ends with the author writing in an optimistic frame of mind, in regards to Bowie's future output, regardless of the artist's silence at the time. Of course, we all had to wait several more years before that incredible, unexpected revival in 2013.

Hallo Spaceboy does build up a detailed insight into David Bowie's creative rebirth, providing an in-depth analysis of the making of each of his albums from 1987's Never Let Me Down, up to 2003's Reality. It makes you want to play the albums and every now and then divulges a nugget of information that makes you appreciate Bowie's wonderful legacy of work, just that little bit more.

While I grew up knowing Bowie's music, it wasn't until 1993 that I became a fan. Bowie's music in the 90s had the same effect on me that Ziggy Stardust did on his fans in the 70s – his music inspired me unlike anything else and became a soundtrack to life. So for fans of my generation, who do hold his later work in equal regard to his early material, this is the book to get.

[Tom Schulte · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is actually Dave Thompson’s second volume in a continuing enlightening and detailed look at the life and career of über-artist David Bowie. The first volume, Moonage Daydream, closed with 1987 when Bowie’s career was at one of its nadirs. This book covers the next two decades up to 2006, showing the successes and missteps of a protean genius who shows a remarkable ability to recreate himself. Some of the surprising moves made by Bowie during this fertile period is playing to the techno masses (“Pallas Athena”), being the most challenging as Tin Machine, funding his future with “Bowie Bonds” and more. Surprising moves, sure, but not all would agree they were all successes or even wise. In an insightful work that is honest and not hagiographical, Thompson fairly assesses what went right and what went wrong with Bowie’s moves.

In a comprehensive review of this period of Bowie’s career, one near constant thread is the hot and cold creative relationship with guitarist Reeves Gabrels. Through the lens of Gabrel’s interaction with Bowie we learn a lot about Bowie’s creative process and his at times distant approach even to his closest collaborators. Closing on a better point in Bowie’s career than Moonage Daydream did, almost twenty years later Bowie has re-established himself at a new peak after another extraordinary comeback. Included in this book is the darkly astonishing 1.Outside, insights into his private life as a contented family man married to super-model Iman, and a running close examination of the relative strengths and weaknesses of The Berlin Trilogy of Low, “Heroes” and Lodger. (Often, this important series of releases is dispensed with superficially and categorically.)

Along with suggestions for further reading, this book features an extensive discography of career studio albums, live releases and details of recording sessions. Surprisingly, though, it is not indexed.

[My review that ran, among other places, on ink19.com]

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

A noble effort, but comes across too often as a mere survey of contemporary articles and interviews rather than a true retrospective of his post '87 career. Plenty of interesting bits and it is cool to get something so focused on the underrated later era of Bowie's work; just wish it had delved a little deeper.

[Simon Pride]

Gave up after a couple of chapters because I realized it was about one of the many periods of his career in which I have zero interest

[J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely superb in its exploration of Bowie's recent history. What I especially liked was Thompson's refusal to delve into dunked and innuendo, instead sticking exclusively to published interviews. Plus, the tangential bands mentioned throughout are amazing, and have filled out more than one new playlist on my computer.

[Tyler Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book provides a very good glimpse at Bowie's career since Tin Machine. Very interesting and informative.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I heart David Bowie.