Studying the Starman:
Strange Fascination? A Symposium on David Bowie
University of Limerick, October 2012
In October 2012, academics and fans from around the world gathered at the University of Limerick, Ireland, for what is believed to have been the first academic symposium dedicated entirely to David Bowie — Strange Fascination? — examining his career across music, art and film.
Coley presented a paper on his Bowie radio documentary work for Radio New Zealand - and recorded Vox pop content with conference delegates throughout the event.
Ian chapman, 2008, S. Coley
New Zealand had two representatives at the conference. One of those academics was Ian Chapman, then Senior Lecturer in Contemporary Music at the University of Otago, whose specialist area is music iconography. Bowie had been the subject of both his Masters thesis and his PhD — completed in 2012 — an iconographical study of Bowie's album covers from 1967 to 1980.
Coley recorded Chapman's experience of the conference for Radio New Zealand. That audio diary, broadcast on RNZ Music in November 2012, is available via the player above or at this link. Chapman has authored several books on Bowie and developed Bowie-focused teaching within Otago's Performing Arts programme. He and Coley worked on two more Bowie documentaries for Radio New Zealand, both broadcast in 2023.
Let's Dance backing vocalist Frank Simms outside the Power Station studio — welcoming guests to the conference.
Frank Simms provided backing vocals on Bowie's 1983 album Let's Dance, recorded at the Power Station in New York under the production of Nile Rodgers. This short clip was filmed with Frank after an on-location audio interview conducted outside the studio.
The Power Station, West 44th Street in Manhattan, was one of the most significant recording environments of the era. Built inside a former Consolidated Edison power plant, its vast live room and distinctive natural reverb made it the studio of choice for some of the most commercially successful records of the late seventies and eighties. Bowie returned to it repeatedly throughout the Eighties.
Let's Dance was famously completed there in just 17 days in late 1982. The sessions, financed entirely by Bowie, were co-produced with Nile Rodgers, who gave Bowie a cleaner, more direct sound than anything else in his catalogue, before or since.
A great deal of Scary Monsters et al. (1980) and Never Let Me Down (1987) were completed at the Power Station, - but Let’s Dance was the only Bowie album fully recorded and completed there. The mixing for the Queen collaboration Under Pressure (1981) was completed there, and the overdubbing and mixing for Dancing in the Street (1985). Ashes to Ashes (1980) was also partially recorded at the studio (alongside sessions at Good Earth in London).
CONTRIBUTORS & RELATED
Conference: Strange Fascination? A Symposium on David Bowie, University of Limerick, October 2012
Paper presented on Bowie related radio documentary work
Audio recorded / produced for Radio New Zealand (RNZ Music)
Presenter - Ian Chapman