Nile Rodgers: Music saved my life ... and David Bowie's too
The Chic star, 72, made the comments while guest curating a display for the new David Bowie Centre, which features personal correspondence between the two musicians.
Speaking about their friendship, Rodgers said: 'My creative life with Bowie provided the greatest success of his incredible career, but our friendship was just as rewarding. Our bond was built on a love of the music that had both made and saved our lives.'
The centre, put together by the V&A Museum, will feature a bespoke Peter Hall suit worn by Bowie during the Serious Moonlight tour and chosen for display by Rodgers.
It will also showcase photographs of Bowie, Rodgers and the guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan recording Bowie's hit song Let's Dance in New York.
Rodgers produced Let's Dance and the 1983 album of the same name, as well as the 1993 album Black Tie White Noise, with personal correspondence on display relating to the latter.
Costumes worn during Bowie's Ziggy Stardust period, and those worn by other musicians including Sir Elton John and PJ Harvey, will also be on display.
The centre will open within the museum's new East Storehouse in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, in Stratford, east London, on Sept 13.
The Last Dinner Party, the Brit Award-winning indie rock band, have also curated part of the exhibition, describing Bowie as a 'constant source of inspiration to us'.
Their items include Bowie's elaborate handwritten lyrics for his song Win, and notes and set lists for his 1976 Isolar tour.
The band said: 'David Bowie continues to inspire generations of artists like us to stand up for ourselves.
'It was such a thrill to explore Bowie's archive and see first hand the process that went into his world-building and how he created a sense of community and belonging for those that felt like outcasts or alienated – something that's really important to us in our work too.'
Access to the David Bowie Centre will be free, with tickets released nearer its opening.
The David Bowie archive, which boasts more than 90,000 items, was acquired by the V&A with the help of the David Bowie Estate, the Blavatnik Family Foundation and Warner Music Group.
The centre will be spread across three zones which will include curated displays, audio visual installations and quieter study areas, allowing visitors to view the Bowie archive on their own, from musical instruments to stage models.
Small displays will tell the stories behind the singer's albums and also look at his multidimensional creative approach, including unrealised projects, collaborations and influences.
The East Storehouse opened at the end of May, and features the Order An Object initiative, where visitors can pre-book to see an item from its entire collection.
The V&A will also open the V&A East Museum, in an area named East Bank, in spring 2026.
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34 minutes ago
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42 minutes ago
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The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Songwriters ‘missing millions in royalties from more than 100,000 UK gigs'
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In the music industry this growing pot of income at PRS is referred to as the 'black box' and the agency is facing legal action about how it ultimately ends out distributing this money. The case is proceeding at the high court, and there is an alternative dispute resolution meeting scheduled for 25 September. The scale of the problem is evident in documents on the PRS website where it maintains a list of 'concerts available for distribution' – displaying entries of artists, dates and the venue they played - dating back to 2022. That list now tops 106,000 performances where money has been collected but not distributed, with almost three-quarters relating to pop gigs in mostly grassroots venues. Artists on the list are mostly not big names but it does include Ronan Keating, The Jesus and Mary Chain, 10cc, Aled Jones, Alien Ant Farm and All Our Yesterdays. Venues include a number of O2 sponsored Academy sites, the Jazz Cafe and Ronnie Scott's in London, Durham Cathedral, York Barbican and Leicester Racecourse. PRS does not reveal how much income is in the so-called black box, which it refers to as the 'unclaimed pot', however the Guardian has seen a document that showed that for the single year of 2019 it amounted to £2.7m. The agency redistributes unclaimed money to the market after three years using its own formula, which some in the industry believe is not fair for smaller artists and acts. 'One of my members described [it] as a reverse Robin Hood,' said Mark Davyd, the founder and chief executive of the Music Venue Trust, which represents grassroots venues, speaking at a culture select committee session in May. '[PRS] comes in and takes 100% of the songwriter royalty on just about every show, it is unable to distribute it, and it ends up in what is colloquially known as the black box – it is a fund that cannot be distributed.' On its website, PRS has an article about the importance of submitting setlists after live shows in order to receive royalties. However, two of the acts interviewed – You Me At Six and Peaness – appear on the spreadsheet of unallocated royalties for gigs played. Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion PRS said that it goes to great lengths to try to match the music performed with the writers, including recently piloting a tool that automatically turns photos of handwritten setlists – which are a common submission – into readable text. 'PRS dedicates significant resources to match live performances to works, and ensure songwriters and composers receive the royalties they are due,' said a spokesperson for PRS. 'We have a team whose primary job is to manually research setlist details. In addition, we provide and widely promote our online tool, designed to make it easy for members or their representatives to report setlists for any performances of their works We also send staff to festivals and events to collect setlist in person. While it is true there is a contractual obligation on venues and promoters to provide setlists, we also work hard fill in as many gaps as we can.' Last year, Dave Rowntree of Blur started a legal action against PRS, alleging it is in violation of UK and EU competition rules over how it distributes 'black box' income. The lawsuit claims that PRS handles this income in a way that benefits music publishers more than songwriters. PRS has said Rowntree's claims are 'factually incorrect and fundamentally misrepresent our policies and operations'. Last month, the two sides attended a hearing at the Competition Appeal Tribunal, which is in the process of determining whether or not Rowntree's case will be certified as a class action. In June, PRS said it paid out a record £1.02bn to rights holders last year, up 8% on 2023, beating its five-year plan to top £1bn by 2026. PRS represents the rights of more than 180,000 music industry members, covering more than 45m musical works, collecting and paying royalties when tracks are played in public, broadcast, downloaded, streamed or performed live in the UK and around the world.
