I understood that Marshall does not intend to ever publish an update to his book. I have contacted him with the proposal to turn his book into a website but never got a reply. Maybe more people should bug him with that idea

Indeed the pictures in the book are poorly reproduced (B&W and some very pixelated), they often don't do the sleeves themselves any right. Production costs of course. Stefan (Bassman) uses small pictures, like I do on my site. That's the problem of having started a website in the 90s. In those early days limited bandwidth was very much an issue!

My idea was to first try to compile a plain list in text format covering ALL singles in Bowie's career. Like Maarten wrote, most of us have no clue how many editions of the 80s singles do exist. I have started to enter some singles but unfortunately the idea doesn't seem to have caught on. E.g.

http://www.illustrated-db-discography.n ... .php?t=110
http://www.illustrated-db-discography.n ... .php?t=109

Even those two entries show that the discography at Bassman's is far from complete, hence it's very useful to just start an inventory of what is available. Once we have a reasonably complete list we can start searching for pictures of sleeves and labels.

clearly an online version is the way to go if you're looking to provide a comprehensive list. that way every time a variation is unearthed it can be added with minimal fuss. also due to screen resolution it won't be the end of the world if a hi-res scan can't be obtained and a quick fix switch is simple if a better version can be located down the line.

having said that a well presented book that catalogues the picture sleeves in crisp, clear, accurately depicted images would be something to return to in the way nick pegg's book works. i'd prefer to see the book in a similar size to that too rather than the A4 look of marshall jarman's. i'm probably dreaming as it would require a wealthy benefactor to produce to a deserving standard and would probably have a limited audience in this download generation and would thus likely have to be priced quite high. needless to say the japanese have produced similar books on specific genres and artists and the quality is invariably top notch, if the images are often miniscule.

horrified as i am to say it, reference books have had their day in the sun to a certain degree.

i'll always keep an atlas in the house but for a project such at this, the images could be stored online and enlarged in a a way that a book simply couldn't do. Also, to do the images justice whilst having a book complete would be very, very expensive, very repetitive and very heavy.

At a minimum you'd want high quality, life size images and then you'd be looking at two pages per release.

To put a foot in both camps it might be an idea is to have a website but with each page containing a numbered pdf of the webpage in book format.

Covers could be created and, should anyone choose to, copies could be printed and even bound.

I know i've spiral bound a number of websites in the past for reference.

Does anyone have ane idea what the fair use policy would be regarding the copyright owners of the images?

To take it to its natural conclusion, a version could easily be sold through a company such a Gopher Publishing that sell that huge two-volume Bowie book.

I know this is getting ahead a bit but it would be an exciting project.

As long as there was limited copy other than details such as release date, country, cat# etc it would just be a matter of sourcing the images.

That could be done by creating a list of every known pressing and distributing it through this board and perhaps other collectors to see who has what.

Collate that info, divvy up the scanning so we don't tread on each other's toes and then format and publish. The punishing work will be the research and creation of the list.

A starting point would be the Marshall Jarman book to produce a draft list and then that could be built up until it was deemed complete.

Personally i'd love to find a book like that online in a printable format. A4 would be the most sensible as it is at everyone's fingertips.

Front cover and a-side label on one side, back cover and b-side on the other.

Gatefolds and poster sleeves would need to be shrunk but that's okay.

If we get a shift on we could present the the first copy to the subject for his 65th birthday!

Just my thoughts.

Christian

These are some great ideas that have come through. I would like to see both a new updated book and also an online companion. For me when I am sorting through my singles I find it alot simpler if I have Marshall's book at hand and not having to click forwards and backwards from a laptop.

For the hard copy version these are some issues that would need to be looked at....

1. Cost
2. Quality control
3. Publisher
4. People involved
5. Information

Some friends I have who are involved in the publishing industry told me once that to do a high quality publication which Bowie's 7" singles fully deserve you would be looking at around $30,000 US to cover it all properly. You would then need 10 people willing to part with equal shares to get the project off the ground and at least 2 years of production. This would also include quarterly meetings to discuss progress as most of the interaction could be done online.

Lots to think about but I am happy to be one of those ten people.

You have to be kidding!?
e-bay link

A copy went fairly recently for £100+, I have put my copy up for sale as it just encourages me to spend more money.

So all you want in this section is "NON UK" SINGLES/COVERS. Is this right?
if so what about the US singles.

I have some foreign singles that I could scan and upload.

cheers

MIk

no, this section is for records not included in marshall jarman's book which covers worldwide singles up to 1980. thus, as one example, morris' recently posted italian laughing gnome single does not qualify as it's in the book.

www.bowie-singles.co.uk will eventually include ALL 7" singles from around the world in high quality scans with every known label/sleeve variation covered. no reason to compete with such a comprehensive site as chas', so this section of the forum is just to record recent discoveries not covered by marshall's book.

SO after having a quick look I can do some Australian singles which I have...

Mik

Australian singles that aren't in the Jarman book?