28th April, 2022 — Today marks the 50th anniversary of the release of David Bowie’s STARMAN, the first single from THE RISE AND FALL OF ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS. To celebrate, Parlophone Records is proud to announce release details for two very special vinyl releases to mark the album’s Golden Jubilee.

On 17th June, 2022, 50 years and one day after the original U.K. release date, THE RISE AND FALL OF ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS will be issued as a limited edition 50th anniversary half speed mastered LP and a picture disc, featuring the same master and a replica promotional poster for the album.

This new pressing of THE RISE AND FALL OF ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS was cut on a customised late Neumann VMS80 lathe with fully recapped electronics from 192kHz restored masters of the original Trident Studios master tapes, with no additional processing on transfer. The half speed was cut by John Webber at AIR Studios.

THE RISE AND FALL OF ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS is the breakthrough album that catapulted David Bowie into the international spotlight. Over the past 50 years it has remained a touchstone record, growing in stature with each passing year. It is now ingrained in popular culture, its undeniable influence spanning musicians from Arcade Fire to Lady Gaga, to Harry Styles’s androgynous fashion sense to Noel Fielding’s shirts on The Great British Bake-Off to Ziggy make-up challenges on Tik-Tok.

David Bowie laid to rest the Ziggy Stardust persona in July 1973 at his infamous last show with the Spiders From Mars at London’s Hammersmith Odeon, but Ziggy’s impact reverberates to this day.

it'll be interesting to see which "master tapes" are used. will it be the "US" or "UK" master with their known differences? does "restored" mean they've digitally repaired drop outs and other signs of age? does "no additional processing" mean that nothing was done aside from the "restoration" (e.g. no EQ, no compression)? will it offer anything over the very well received 40th vinyl issue that claimed to be AAA?

sad they've persisted with picture discs, which goes against the attempt to market this as an audiophile release.

the less said about that risible list of ZS's influence on contemporary "culture" the better.

Just the one needed, scrap the pic disc and do something like Ryko did, using the best quality vinyl, the rice paper protective sleeves and just generally put some thought in to it. I know they want to make plenty of money by having the two versions, but if that's all it's about then they may as well make 50 versions, seeing as it's 50 years old.

I agree with Matt that'll be interesting to see which version of the master they use.

I do think, attempting to correctly interpret the press release, that'll it be the first Trident master that included Starman (so 3rd master all up) - so the one sent to US for worldwide distribution - and not the 4th revised UK master that included the single mix of Starman.

Surely not unaware that many hanker for the UK RCA version of the album, if it was that version (with Starman single mix) a song and dance would be made. I've lodged a question on this topic to official FB page.

What seems to be good is that the digital source is a very high-res transfer - the higher-res transfers allow more bits (or values) for the high frequencies as they trail off - the fades are much more natural - and this gives it, the "breath of life".

In standard (CD) res the high frequencies, as they fade, lose definition as they comes closer to "on/off" values - hi-res overcomes this.

Also, though not cut at half speed, the pic disc uses the same hi-res source. For a modern-day pic disc, that's about as good as one can expect.

Downside of the two discs as presented in the release - the inner still uses low-res inferior reproductions, even though hi-res images are available.

--------------------------------------------

I would have liked to have seen a 3LP set - each representing the master in its 3 stages - 1st with the 4 removed tracks and original running order, the 2nd with Round and Round, and the 3rd with the actual album as released.

Who writes this shit? I mean, seriously...

It would be of some interest perhaps if Parlophone or whoever released the original running order of the album, akin to 'The Gouster'

Dec 15th 1971

Side One:
Five Years / Soul Love / Moonage Daydream / Round and Round / Port of Amsterdam

Side Two:
Hang Onto Yourself / Ziggy Stardust / He's a Goldmine / Holy Holy / Star / Lady Stardust

A recording by "The last band on earth" as David mentioned in his soon-to-be-heard on Radio 4 interview, during this interview David confirms the presence of a number of the above, later dropped tracks, though by the time of this interview he'd replaced 'Round and Round' with 'Starman' - 'Bombers' was also considered.


.

the celebrations actually started https://youtu.be/_vDtxWEaaC0

On davidbowie.com website, now you can find new alternative "ZIGGY" at the top of "MENU"!

https://www.youtube.com/w ... c39uFmVQB4

No mention of a physical release, or have I missed something?
Surely the powers that be wouldn't miss another chance to get us all to buy this film / soundtrack all over again?

Yeah, a blu-ray would be nice.

i'm confident physical formats will follow the cinema release.

I thought a Divine Symmetry-style boxset with material from the Ziggy album would be announced first, but apparently that's not going to happen.

Well, who'd have believed it....

Waiting In The Sky (rubbish title)

Dear Mr. Gravedigger (aka Parlophone)

I of course meant different / original takes of the tracks listed, not a bunch of re-runs.

We've all got those Silly boy blues now, thanks to you!