“We are the dead dreamsWe take the blameTake us to the edge of timeTake us to the edge of timeWe are the fabulous loversI’m a blind man and she’s my eyes“
David Bowie, New Angels Of Promise, 1999
Marking 25 years since David Bowie’s final album of the 20th century – and, as it would turn out, his last for Virgin Records – a timely throwback to a photographic feature I was tasked with collating for the launch issue of a spotters’ spin-off, the brand new MOJO Collections quarterly magazine in Winter 2000.
The premise was a simple one. Call up a posse of photographers and ask them to submit a piccie (for free, cheekily) from their illustrious archives and get them to talk about it.
Ten did, one refused (“They need it,” Anton Corbin told me of the others in his typical no-nonsense Dutch way, ironically the only person I contacted who’d shot me himself four years prior).
We called the feature Well Hung and didn’t even mention The Man Who Fell To Earth, because kicking off the feature on page 99 – preceding a cache of old photos depicting the likes of Marianne Faithfull (Gered Mankowitz), Morrissey (Jill Furmanovsky) and Tricky (Dennis Morris) – was Tim Bret-Day’s incendiary image of the man born David Robert Jones in January 1947.
This was part of the promotional shoot for David Bowie’s half-speed Horlicks album ‘hours…’, the cover of which saw a promising angel-like figure cradling what appeared to be the Thin White Dame’s mid nineties Outside / Earthling era iteration, albeit with the Prodigy-esque spiked barnet appearing in slightly dodgy wig form.
Onwards and upwards then. What follows is the original interview segment with TBD as published, followed by his additional comments provided in November 2024.
David Bowie 1999 by Tim Bret-Day
“I don’t consider myself a music photographer really, I’m a fashion photographer. The Bowie thing came about because he’d seen pictures I’d done of Geri Halliwell and David Beckham in magazines, and the three of them share the same management company in London.
We had a day at the Big Sky Studios in Ladbroke Grove, with pyrotechnics and everything. “He’s a comic genius, really funny. He was open to suggestions and had some input – though not as much as he’d say! We came up with a few different concepts, all with a religious motif.
This image is the strongest, as it symbolises the crucifixion. We shot Bowie and then made a dummy of him and set the whole thing alight. Lee Stewart did the rest in post-production. It’s the whole thing of burning the old – that was then, but this is what I’m doing now. Deep down, he doesn’t particularly want to talk about the past or hear his old records. He’s not interested in anything prior to what he’s doing today. I think that’s the best thing about him.”
Tim Bret-Day’s break with Bowie, which included the ‘hours…’ LP cover, has led to major commissions from Stephen Gately, B*Witched and Louise. Always one for keeping busy, in the last month alone he’s shot the IKEA campaign, fashion mag Tank, Helena Christensen and Agent Provocateur at Dorothy Perkins. He’s currently in the studio with Roni Size.
2024 BONUS BEATS
“‘Not as much as he would say’ got me a lot of stick, I seem to remember, seeing as the album cover was completely his idea? Still, water under the bridge and all that. Yes, he was extremely funny and his views on the internet are well documented in the Paxman interview.
The ‘hours…’ front sleeve is actually a composite of Coco [Schwab, Bowie’s long-term PA] cradling David in her arms, and vice versa; a simple head swap in Photoshop. The finished version is a combination of the two. Everything was constructed with polaroids on a very well made set. Very little retouch.
I wasn’t a fan of the artwork and I believe the artist didn’t see the images until after the cover had been done. I prefer the simpler more religious imagery, but what do I know? He was extremely kind and endearing, all the crew loved him. That’s a good sign.”
Tim Bret-Day was talking to Steve Pafford
