The first Bowieland party proved to be a roaring success with many people asking when the next one was before this one had barely ended. It started properly at 2000hrs due to several people arriving late! (although had been in progression since 1900hrs).

Began the proceedings with the intro from Peter & The Wolf, "Are you sitting comfortably? Then I shall begin", before breaking into a rousing "Ode to Joy" (well, what else!) and then a non-stop Bowiethon. The first hour was mainly taken in with music and people getting a drink and meeting friends they hadn't seen for a while, or meeting new friends. The buffet was served about 2115hrs and was by all accounts very tasty indeed (including fresh salmon - Graham, the Red Lion owner tells me the chef had great fun carving an Aladdin Sane lightning streak into the back of it!). I never actually got around to having any myself.....

There were a few people who had travelled in from around the country who weren't big fans but had come for the social aspect and to support the charities. I guess they deserve a big round of applause for listening to non-stop Bowie for 6 hours without complaining! Fans themselves had travelled far and wide including two from France and Germany. The Red Lion had a full hotel that night!

Raffle tickets were sold by the dozen raking in a tidy sum for the charities. I'd printed my own because I wanted to have a Bowie theme, not just the usual boring cloakroom tickets. So instead of shouting out "green number 12" it was far more interesting with the Bowie ones, shouting: "Diamond Dogs number 49" or "Hours number 86" etc. We had loads of prizes for the raffle including many CD's and posters donated by Bowienet, many thanks to everyone who donated prizes and congratulations to all the lucky winners! The first raffle to be drawn was for the Mick Rock signed edition of Blood & Glitter and the Ziggy print. Dave Battrick of Showcase Editions presented the prize to lucky winner Corinne Wells, although unfortunately the actual prize itself wasn't quite ready due to a late fabric shipment from Italy. Dave assured Corinne her prize would be shipped to her upon completion. He had brought with him a sample of the book and framed print so she could atleast see what she had won! The second and only other prize in this raffle was a Roseland Poster from 2000 signed by Rex Ray, the designer. This was beautifully framed and generously donated to the raffle by Martyn Alcott. The lucky winner was Sarah Cassie.

I'd used 4 different albums for the main raffle tickets and a Ziggy picture for the Blood & Glitter raffle.
Click here to see pictures of the raffle tickets.

Craig kept us well entertained with music, mixing the old with the new, the obscure with the obvious.

Jean Genie's John Mainwaring came along, performing a short but excellent acoustic set for us, including two songs he'd never performed before! He was given rousing applause and was commended by some people there who weren't really Bowie fans, they had simply come along for the social aspect and to help raise money for charity. Bowieland hopes to post up some gig information for Jean Genie soon.
Thanks John for that (and the champagne!)

John's set consisted of:

Seven
Survive
Space Oddity
Rock 'n' Roll With Me
Five Years

A short while after John's fabulous performance we drew the main raffle, which lasted sometime due to the amount of prizes to be won. With over 30 prizes a lot of people went home with something nice. Thanks to everyone who donated prizes and to everyone who bought tickets!

The quiz seemed to be a bit too hard for many of you, thanks and congratulations to those who did take part. It was Nick Faris who won with a great 33/37 correct. Well done Nick! Sorry to Dave the Owl whose obvious abundant intake of alcohol had left him incomprehensible and somewhat slightly dazed, but Bowie did NOT sing of 'electric tomatoes' in Heroes!

Special thanks to Craig who did a fantastic job as DJ. A bit of witty banter here and there and an excellent selection of songs. As Corinne went to collect her 'Blood & Glitter' prize he cleverly mixed in the line "all you've got to do is win". Craig also collated the Top 5 Songs voted for during the evening (one of which included 'The Laughing Gnome'. We weren't quite sure whether this was serious - we think people were having a laugh! See the photo of us all dancing to it!). He got people up dancing while he played the top 5 out. The number one song was 'Bewlay Brothers'. Nice choice guys! Wish David would pick this one when he does a gig.

The top 5 actually consisted of (in descending order):

5. Ziggy Stardust
4. Station to Station
3. The Laughing Gnome
2. Life On Mars?
1. Bewlay Brothers

This was followed by a great finale including 'Aladdin Sane' (especially for me, being my ultimate fave), 'Wild is the Wind', the smoochy number of the evening where the romantics got up and danced and then to end the night 'Rock n Roll Suicide' where we all joined hands in a circle and swayed and sang together......

"Gimme your hands"

The party officially ended just after 0100hrs although many did not turn in until well into the morning. I retired about 0300hrs but the remaining few went to bed at around 0515hrs after taking an early morning stroll around Atherstone!

Photos are up now. Dog sponsorship informationcan be obtained directly from the NCDL or email Bowieland here if you prefer.

And finally, thanks to everyone who came and made it happen. You're wonderful!

For details & information about the next Bowieland party or simply to
register your interest email: party@bowieland.net.

Watch this space for updates!