Due for release in October 2016, ‘David Bowie: Behind The Curtain’ is a rare, exclusive, intimate, and very candid look at David Bowie during the rise of the Thin White Duke, his Isolar tour, and numerous larger-than-life stories along the way.
You can pre-order the book on Amazon.
The story behind the book
In 1975, rock ‘n roll photographer Andrew Kent landed the gig of a lifetime. He had been entrusted by Bowie to document, with unfettered access, anything and everything Bowie and his entourage encountered for the next two years. Backstage, on stage, private parties, birthday parties, limos, quiet hotel moments, dressing rooms, Berlin, Paris, New York, London, Helsinki, Moscow.
Also along during the Station to Station tour was an 18 year old Rolling Stone reporter researching a cover story on Bowie named Cameron Crowe. In 1976 Bowie took Iggy Pop, his manager Pat Gibbons, his personal secretary Coco, and Kent on an impromptu excursion by train to the Soviet Union. A mistake on the schedule at the train station caused the group to miss their return train to Helsinki leading the press to run frenzied headlines reading, “David Bowie Missing in Soviet Union!”.
“I was very lucky to meet David Bowie when I did. I met him almost nine months before I ended up working with him,” he recalls. “Cameron Crowe didn’t drive so I had to go back to the studio and pick them up at two in the morning. We went back to Bowie’s place in Stone Canyon Bel Air. And the rest is history.”
During a grueling tour schedule, Bowie and Kent made time for cultural stops along the way, just as you would imagine of the genteel and intellectual Bowie. While the rest of the world tried to figure out just what to call Bowie, Kent instead found it easier just to talk with him.
Kent’s portraits have the ease of intimacy, while still capturing some of the most striking images of Bowie there have ever been. From crossing the Atlantic, to getting lost behind the Iron Curtain in the 70’s, to private moments backstage when Bowie the superstar and perfectionist would apply his own makeup. David Bowie aboard the Italian ship Michaelangelo in New York Harbor – with the rest of his tour flying out days later, Bowie decided to take a slow boat across the Atlantic with only his assistant, Coco.
With his unprecedented access, Kent created a one-of-a-kind travelogue, capturing the unique and spectacular life of one of the most iconic musicians in rock ‘n roll history.
Collector’s edition box
A limited edition of 100, each Collector’s Edition box is hand made by artisan craftsmen in Chicago; the box itself is solid Birdseye maple with ebony splining and lined with luxurious black leather. The box lid is numbered and engraved with a precision laser.
Once opened, the box lid and base convert into a simple, but elegant, coffee table display for the book. But the trick is opening the box…which is locked, but has no apparent keyhole. The only way to open it is by using the “key” – a separate piece of wood (carved by hand) with magnetic inlays that correspond to magnets hidden inside the lid. Simple, but complex, with a secret or two… much like Bowie himself.
The Collector’s Edition is limited to 100 numbered pieces each including an 11 x 14 signed and numbered, handmade silver gelatin print by Andrew Kent, a signed and numbered book, and the numbered box. It sells for $1,500 and can be pre-ordered here.
Images from the book
- After touring relentlessly for years, Bowie never managed to come home to play in England. This promotional shot from behind in a vest made the cover of New Music Express in 1976. The heading read “BOWIE’S BACK.”
- On the day Bowie arrived in Helsinki the headlines in all the Scandinavian press screamed, “BOWIE LOST IN RUSSIA.” Luckily that was not the case. During a two week hiatus in the tour, Bowie invited photographer Andrew Kent to join him, Iggy Pop, and acting manager Pat Gibbons on a trip to Moscow from Zurich. Normally driver Tony Masia would bring Bowie wherever he needed in the black limo, but Masia was sent on ahead to meet them in Helsinki. After only seven hours in Moscow the group headed back to catch up with the tour in Helsinki. No one knows how this mishap occurred, but in Helsinki the train schedule was wrong. It took an entire extra day for Bowie and the group to make it to Helsinki. Meanwhile tour publicist Barbara le Witt had corralled the Scandinavian press to meet their train. And Bowie wasn’t there. The next day they arrived at the appointed time and Bowie had a smoke outside of his limousine. The press (seen in the background of the hotel lobby) was relieved to discover that Bowie had been found.
- David Bowie aboard the Italian ship Michaelangelo in New York Harbor. With the rest of his tour flying out days later, Bowie decided to take a slow boat across the Atlantic with only his assistant, Coco.
- David Bowie smokes a cigar after having caviar of Moscow’s Metropole Hotel for his seven-hour visit in summer 1976. Due to a timetable error, the Scandinavian press camped out a day too early at his next stop in Helsinki to meet Bowie’s train. This innocent little detour lead to a panic in Scandinavia as word spread that Bowie had gone missing in Russia.
- On the last day of the European tour in summer of 1976, Bowie put on his own make up in Paris’ L’Hotel. Bowie toured that year in support of Station to Station, his record in the persona of “The Thin White Duke.” Of all the personal and revealing photographs of the young singer, this is the most candid and striking.