Rocktrospectiva: David Bowie's Breakthrough "Hallo Spaceboy (Pet Shop Boys Remix) Turns 30

Released on 19 February 1996 "Hallo Spaceboy was a song by the English musician David Bowie from his 20th studio album, Outside. It originated as an instrumental by Reeves Gabrels called "Moondust", which Bowie and Brian Eno stripped down and used to form the final track. An industrial rock and electronica track influenced by artists such as Nine Inch Nails, the song featured synthesisers, loops and distorted guitar lines. The lyrics were influenced by the sound poet and painter Brion Gysin, and contained images of apocalypse and continued the androgynous lyrics of former Bowie songs such as "Rebel Rebel" and "Boys Keep Swinging".

It was the third and final single from Outside in February 1996, "Hallo Spaceboy" was remixed by the Pet Shop Boys, who added a disco sound and lyrics referencing the Major Tom character from Bowie's "Space Oddity". The single reached number 12 in the UK and charted in other European countries. Its accompanying music video, directed by David Mallet, mixes shots of both Bowie and Pet Shop Boys with footage of science fiction clips, atomic bomb testing footage and television advertising clips. Both versions of "Hallo Spaceboy" have been positively received and have appeared on lists of Bowie's best songs. Bowie performed "Hallo Spaceboy" frequently on his concert tours, recordings from which have appeared on live albums.

Written by David Bowie and Brian Eno, "Hallo Spaceboy" developed from an ambient instrumental piece written by the guitarist Reeves Gabrels called "Moondust". Initial work on the track began during a recording session at Mountain Studios in Montreux in 1994, shortly after the main sessions for the Leon project concluded. Bowie's biographers Nicholas Pegg and Chris O'Leary point to the influence of the poet and artist Brion Gysin, who developed a cut-up technique with William S. Burroughs that Bowie had, on several occasions, utilised for song lyrics. During the recording, Bowie spoke "If I fall, moondust will cover me", reportedly Gysin's final words before his death in 1986. Work halted on the track following the session, as Bowie believed "there wasn't anything special going on with that piece".

The track resurfaced on 17 January 1995 during the Outside sessions in New York City at The Hit Factory. Eno wrote in his diary that it was "stripped down to almost nothing [before] I wrote some lightning chords and space and suddenly, miraculously, we had something." The final track featured Bowie, Eno, Gabrels, Carlos Alomar (guitar), Yossi Fine (bass), Mike Garson (piano) and Joey Baron (drums). After finishing the song, Bowie said, "I adore that track. In my mind, it was like Jim Morrison meets industrial. When I heard it back, I thought, 'Fuck me. It's like metal Doors.' It's an extraordinary sound." Gabrels later expressed disappointment in not receiving a co-writing credit for the song.

Commentators have characterised "Hallo Spaceboy" as industrial rock and electronica. Pegg describes the song as "a hardcore maelstrom of sci-fi noise, hypnotic high-speed drumming and an insistent, speaker-hopping four-note guitar riff". The song's influences range from the Pixies and Pornography-era Cure to Nine Inch Nails and the Smashing Pumpkins; Bowie reportedly stated that he was aiming for a Nine Inch Nails-type sound. Featuring synthesisers, loops and distorted guitar lines, a few reviewers compared the song's sound to Bowie's 1974 album Diamond Dogs and his work with the rock band Tin Machine. The author Dave Thompson argued that the song would not have felt out of place as a bonus track on that album. Lyrically, Pegg states that "Hallo Spaceboy" captures the "millennial angst" of the Outside album and continues the androgynous lyrics of songs such as "Rebel Rebel" (1974) and "Boys Keep Swinging" (1979) with the line "Do you like girls or boys? / It's confusing these days". Some of the words and ideals, such as "chaos", "dust" and "hallo", and visions of a science fiction apocalypse were recycled from Tin Machine's "Baby Universal" (1991).

The album Outside was released on 5 September 1995, with "Hallo Spaceboy" sequenced as the sixth track. The song was a mainstay on Bowie's 1995 Outside Tour, and was often played with Nine Inch Nails and later as the closing track. Bowie intended "Hallo Spaceboy" to be his next single after "Strangers When We Meet". 

Believing the original version of "Hallo Spaceboy" was unlikely to be commercial sucessful, Bowie commissioned Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys to remix the song for release as the third single from Outside. As a lifelong Bowie fan, Tennant agreed and remixed the track at Mayfair Studios in London between 11–15 December 1995. Tennant replaced the song's anger with electronics and added Pet Shop Boys' signature backing vocals to the track. Since the original contained only a single verse, and a lyric featuring feelings of alienation, Tennant and his bandmate Chris Lowe added lyrical fragments from Bowie's 1969 song "Space Oddity", using a Gysin-style cut-up technique to create a second verse: "Ground to Major, bye bye Tom / dead the circuit, countdown's wrong / Planet Earth is control on?" O'Leary argues that the additions turned the song's cry of "this chaos is killing me" into a plea from an astronaut "strung out in heaven".

Bowie initially expressed reservation about the additions when Tennant told him during a telephone conversation, but later agreed that they worked well. Bowie rerecorded his lead vocal so the single became a duet with Tennant. Tennant told NME in a 1997 interview that he and Lowe, working alongside Bowie, had completed what Tennant called the "Major Tom trilogy", in reference to the fictional astronaut who first appeared in "Space Oddity" and later appeared in "Ashes to Ashes" (1980). Tennant explained, "I said to Bowie, 'It's like Major Tom is in one of those Russian spaceships they can't afford to bring down,' and he said, 'Oh wow, is that where he is?'" Compared to the original version, the remix features a disco edge.

The single was finally released on 19 February 1996, through several formats, including a 7" single through BMG/RCA, a CD single through Arista/RCA and a 12" promo in the US through Virgin. The CD single was packaged with a reissue of "The Hearts Filthy Lesson" and live renditions of "Under Pressure" (1981) and "Moonage Daydream" (1972). The single was a success across Europe, reaching number 12 in the UK, becoming Bowie's highest charting single since "Jump They Say" (1993). The remixed "Hallo Spaceboy" topped the singles chart in Latvia, further charting in Australia (36), Austria (37), Belgium Flanders (48) and Wallonia (30), Finland (8), Germany (59), Ireland (21), the Netherlands Top 40 and Single Top 100 (24 and 33, respectively), Scotland (10) and Sweden (12).

The music video for "Hallo Spaceboy" was directed by Bowie's longtime director David Mallet. Bowie performed the song with Pet Shop Boys at the Brit Awards on 19 February 1996, and again on Top of the Pops on 1 March. According to O'Leary, Bowie "thrashed around" during these performances while Tennant sang calmly.

Both versions of "Hallo Spaceboy" have received positive reviews from music critics and biographers. Discussing the original, the biographer Marc Spitz called it Bowie's "most convincing rocker" since "Rebel Rebel", and David Buckley said the track is "quite daring, with a hard, industrial menace and a great use of dynamics". Reviewing the Pet Shop Boys remix, Simon Price from Melody Maker said that "this sounds like the Pet Shop Boys without anything you could call a chorus. The bit where Bowie's gin-and-lemon voice mixes with Neil Tennant's Amaretto Disaronno on the line Do you like girls or boys? It's confusing these days... is one to hoist aloft around the room on a red velvet cushion, though." Mojo magazine's Mark Paytress opined that adding Pet Shop Boys was a "masterstroke"

In Memoriam: Legendary Actor "Robert Duvall" Dies Aged 95

Robert Duvall, the veteran actor who had a string of roles in classic US films including Apocalypse Now, The Godfather, MASH and To Kill a Mockingbird, has died aged 95.

 

“Bob passed away peacefully at home, surrounded by love and comfort,” wrote his wife, Luciana Duvall, in a message on Facebook.

 

“To the world, he was an Academy Award-winning actor, a director, a storyteller. To me, he was simply everything. His passion for his craft was matched only by his deep love for characters, a great meal, and holding court. For each of his many roles, Bob gave everything to his characters and to the truth of the human spirit they represented. In doing so, he leaves something lasting and unforgettable to us all.”

Duvall was perhaps best known for his role as the cavalry-hatted Kilgore in Apocalypse Now, released in 1979, which yielded two of the most frequently quoted lines of dialogue in cinema history – "Charlie don't surf!" and "I love the smell of napalm in the morning". But he also made an immense impact as consigliere Tom Hagen in The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, the reclusive Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird at the start of his career, and many supporting and character roles throughout the ensuing decades. He was nominated seven times for an Oscar, winning once, for best actor in 1984 for Tender Mercies as a country-music singer trying to overcome alcoholism.

Born in San Diego, California in 1931, the son of a naval officer, he studied drama at college in St Louis, Missouri, and briefly joined the army. In 1955 he enrolled at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York (alongside James Caan, Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman), sharing flats with Hackman and Hoffman. Duvall worked steadily in TV and theatre, including an award-winning role in a 1965 production of Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge, directed by Ulu Grosbard, and won his first film role as the mysterious Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird, released in 1962

Further small roles in Bullitt (1968) and True Grit (1969) consolidated his reputation, but it was his role in MASH – as the self-important Frank Burns, who is repeatedly mocked by Donald Sutherland’s Hawkeye and Elliott Gould's Trapper John – that brought him to wider attention. Having appeared in Francis Ford Coppola’s feminist road movie The Rain People (1969), Duvall cemented his connection with the Hollywood new wave with the lead role in George Lucas’ 1970 debut feature, the dystopian sci-fi parable THX 1138; Tom Hagen in the first two Godfather films (he would ultimately not be cast in the third due to salary demands); and Kilgore in Apocalypse Now, in a role initially intended for Hackman.

Duvall also continued to appear in more mainstream films, including the second world war thriller The Eagle Has Landed (1976), news-media satire Network (1976), and baseball drama The Natural (1984). He made his directorial debut in 1983 with Angelo, My Love, a semi-improvised drama about a Romani street kid in New York. Despite his Oscar for Tender Mercies, lead roles rarely came his way, but he was a commanding supporting presence throughout the 80s and 90s, appearing in a wide range of films: the Dennis Hopper-directed gang thriller Colors, the Tom Cruise stock car blockbuster Days of Thunder (1990), and the Margaret Atwood adaptation The Handmaid’s Tale (1990).

In 1992, he returned to TV to play Stalin in an award-winning HBO series directed by Ivan Passer. Another lead role came his way in 1997, in his second directorial effort, The Apostle, in which he plays a preacher who kills his wife’s lover. He received his third best actor Oscar nomination for the role.

Duvall would direct two more films – Assassination Tango in 2002, in which he displayed his real-life talent for the Argentinian dance style, and the western Wild Horses in 2015. He continued to appear in a wide variety of films, from Hollywood thrillers such as The Gingerbread Man and Gone in 60 Seconds, to left-field dramas such as We Own the Night and The Road. A longtime interest in football (the “association” kind) led to roles in low-budget Scottish drama A Shot at Glory (opposite Ally McCoist) in 2000, and the comedy Kicking and Screaming (2005) with Will Ferrell.

Duvall continued working steadily through the 2010s, achieving another Oscar nomination for best supporting actor in 2015 for The Judge, becoming at the time the oldest male actor ever nominated.

Duvall was married four times: to Barbara Benjamin from 1964-81, to Gail Youngs (1982-86), to Sharon Brophy (1991-95), and to Luciana Pedraza, who he married in 2005. He had no children.

New Music: Sweet Relief

            

Howling Bells have today released their acclaimed new album, "Strange Life", via Nude Records. The UK-based Australian band’s first LP in 12 years, its release is accompanied by a new video for album single "Sweet Relief". The trio, comprising Juanita Stein (vocals, guitar), Joel Stein (guitar) and Glenn Moule (drums). They subsequently embark on a full UK headline tour in March and April. 

 

New Music: I Danced With Another Love In My Dream

           

Brigitte Calls Me Baby has shared new single "I Danced With Another Love in My Dream," the track is off their forthcoming album Irreversible, the song started with us attempting to write something happy, but somehow found its way to being about infidelity, shares vocalist Wes Leavins. We played a few different versions live and in the end decided to lean into the bright and shiny side of it, and it turned into a song where those adulterous thoughts are carried out in a dream scenario. The cool video was directed by Alec Basse.

New Music: Heart Attack

           

The rising indie artist Thunder Jackson makes his bold return with an exuberant new single "Heart Attack"written and produced with Taylor Johnson (Flaming Lips, Samantha Crain). Born out of the natural chemistry he shares with frequent collaborator Johnson, Jackson says of the track: “When it was time to get back in the studio after Hello Stranger, we struck gold with ‘Heart Attack.’ A rough demo I had sitting on my hard drive opened up into the world you hear now. It was the perfect push-and-pull to find the sound. The video was filmed during Thunder Jackson's Hello Stranger Tour 2025 in the USA, UK, Germany and Austria.

New Music: Dirty Tech

           

Kim Gordon has released her new single, "Dirty Tech", the second preview of her upcoming album "Play Me."  The track follows the release of previous single "Not Today", and sees Kim Gordon explore the power struggle between humans and robots, which is reflected in an video directed by Moni Haworth. Speaking on the concept in greater detail, Gordon explains: "I was kind of musing about, is my next boss going to be an AI chatbot? We're the first ones whose lights are going to go out—not the tech billionaires. It's so abstract that people can't comprehend."

Rocktrospectiva: The Brilliant "Stripped" Turns 40

Released on 10 February 1986 "Stripped" was a song by the English electronic band Depeche Mode. It was released as the lead single from their fifth studio album Black Celebration. Written by the band's lead songwriter Martin Gore, "Stripped" incorporated various samples into the song; most notably, the sound of an idling car engine. It was the band's sixth consecutive single to enter the UK Top 20, peaking at number 15. Elsewhere, it peaked at No. 4 in Germany and reached the top 10 in Finland, Sweden and Switzerland. 

The recording for "Stripped" began the first week of November 1985 at Westside Studios in London. According to Alan Wilder, it was one of the few songs that was "easy" to record. As with their previous albums, Depeche Mode incorporated samples into their songs, which the band always created in-house. Gore's demo of "Stripped" incorporated the sound of an idling motorcycle; the album version instead sampled singer Dave Gahan's idling Porsche 911. They also included the sound of a bottle rocket in the song, as they were recording "Stripped" on Guy Fawkes Night, 5 November. To get the sound of the fireworks, they launched the rockets horizontally so that several microphones, set up in sequence, could capture the sound of the firework fizzing by. Final mixing for the song took place at Hansa Studios in early 1986.

While making the album, Andy Fletcher said that "the idea of 'Stripped' is to get away from technology and civilisation for a day and get back to basics in the country. It's about two people stripping down to their bare emotions. In the video we're seen demolishing a car and taking a TV apart... it's a bit, er, symbolic." Dave Gahan explained that "it's not about sex. It's to do with having nothing except yourself. The people in the song could strip off if they wanted to though."

For B-sides, the band deliberately wanted to move away from just doing "simple extended version[s]" of their singles, instead opting to include "experimental" tracks "Black Day" and "Breathing in Fumes", which were based off of album tracks "Black Celebration" and "Stripped", respectively. Also included as a B-side was "But Not Tonight", which the band's US label, Sire Records, included on the soundtrack to the movie Modern Girls (1986), in part because it was "the only optimistic and slightly upbeat track from the Black Celebration recording sessions."

In 1987, Gore said that "Stripped" was his favorite Depeche Mode song to date.

The band and label's hopes for the single were high, with Gahan saying that the song "excites me. It feels powerful to sing. The chorus is rousing and mob-like which I can get off on," and they were disappointed when it only made it to number 15 in the UK. In a 1998 interview, Gore said that the single marked a turning point for the band, saying "since the Black Celebration album we've started getting things right, and 'Stripped' is one of the best atmospheres we've ever captured."

In the US, label Sire Records decided that B-side "But Not Tonight" was a better choice for their American audience, and so "Stripped" was not released as a single in that country. Martin Gore expressed his frustration with the American release in the 2007 documentary The Songs Aren't Good Enough, There Aren't Any Singles and It'll Never Get Played on the Radio, saying, "The worst thing, though, about 'Stripped' was the Americans, who somehow decided to not release it at all and to put out the B-side, 'But Not Tonight,' because they got it into some dodgy film. For "Stripped", we took nine days mixing and God knows how long recording, and, you know, 'But Not Tonight' I think we did in about three hours. And the Americans in their wisdom decided to release that instead." Wilder echoed this sentiment, saying "I don't pretend to understand it but whenever we 'deliver' a product, they want something different that 'suits their market'," indicating a strained relationship between the band and their US label.

The music video for "Stripped" was directed by Peter Care and was filmed outside Hansa Studios in Berlin. A music video was also shot for "But Not Tonight", directed by Tamra Davis. The video, in which the band appeared bored while miming playing their instruments in a nameless film studio, was not released until the video collection The Videos 86–98+ (2002) was made available, leading to many fans not even knowing the video existed until 2002.

Track listings

7": Mute / 7Bong10 (UK)

    1. Stripped 

    2. But Not Tonight 

12": Mute / 12Bong10 (UK)

    1. Stripped (Highland Mix)

    2. But Not Tonight (Extended Remix)

    3. Breathing in Fumes

    4. Fly on the Windscreen (Quiet Mix)

    5. Black Day

CD: Mute / CDBong10 (UK)

    1. Stripped

    2. But Not Tonight

    3. Stripped (Highland Mix)

    4. But Not Tonight (Extended Remix)

    5. Breathing in Fumes

    6. Fly on the Windscreen (Quiet Mix)

    7. Black Day

The CD single was released in 1991 as part of the singles box set compilations.

7": Sire / 7-28564 (US)

    1. But Not Tonight

    2. Stripped 

12": Sire / 0-20578 (US)

    1. But Not Tonight (Extended Mix)

    2. Breathing in Fumes

    3. Stripped (Highland Mix)

    4. Black Day

New Music: God's Lonely Man

            

Anna Calvi is releasing a new EP, Is This All There Is?, on March 20 via Domino. The record features collaborations with Laurie Anderson, Iggy Pop, and Matt Berninger. The first single for the project is "God's Lonely Man" alongside the legend Iggy Pop and a video directed by Luigi Calabrese. Is This All There Is? is the first in a trilogy of records exploring identity and romance. The EP was inspired by Calvi’s transformed outlook after becoming a parent. “Having a child was so transformative it made me consider the possibility that everything in life could potentially shift, and that is scary but incredibly freeing,” she said in a press release. “I didn’t want to take anything for granted any more. I want to exist in the best way for my child. I wanted to ask the most basic human question—is this all there is?”

 

In Memoriam: 3 Doors Down's Singer "Brad Arnold" Dies Aged 47

The lead singer and songwriter of 3 Doors Down, Brad Arnold, has died after a battle with cancer, the rock band announced on X. He was 47. "He will be deeply missed and forever remembered," the band said in a statement on Saturday.

The band is best known for 2000s rock hits like Kryptonite, Here Without You, When I'm Gone, and Loser.

In May 2025, Arnold announced that he was ill, and had received a diagnosis of stage 4 clear cell renal carcinoma, a type of kidney cancer, which had metastasised into his lung. I have no fear, I really sincerely am not scared of it at all," the frontman said, adding that he was disappointed that the band would have to cancel an upcoming tour. "I'd love for you to lift me up in prayer every chance you get," he said.

In its statement, 3 Doors Down said that, as a founding member, vocalist, and original drummer, "Brad helped redefine mainstream rock music, blending post-grunge accessibility with emotionally direct song writing and lyrical themes that resonated with everyday listeners".

The original band was formed in Mississippi in the mid-1990s. Another founding member of the original trio, Matt Roberts, died in 2016 at the age of 38. Arnold wrote Kryptonite, the band's breakout 2000 hit, "in his math class when he was just 15 years old", the statement continued.

Those closest to Arnold will "remember not only his talent, but his warmth, humility, faith, and deep love for his family and friends", it said. He is survived by his wife, Jennifer.

The band was regularly heard on rock and pop radio throughout the 2000s and 2010s. They have won three Billboard Music Awards. Their debut album The Better Life was the 11th biggest-selling album of the year in their home country.

Arnold had spoken openly about hit battle with alcoholism and his recovery, having been sober since 2016. "I used to think it was a way to calm myself prior to a show or to chase loneliness," he told Charleston.com in 2023.

New Music: Who Says

           

New York post punk/darkwave/synthpop/shoegaze artist Jasmine Golestaneh aka Tempers, has dropped her new single "Who Says." The track is taken from her upcoming new album "Delusion", due to be released on April 24 via fear of luxury. Co-produced with Jorge Elbrecht, the ten-track album is described as a journey of healing and emotional navigation. Commenting on the single, Golestaneh shares: “It’s about idealized love falling apart and celebrating emotional independence. It’s also the sound of someone convincing themselves they don’t need what they long for.” Directed by Fabiànne Thérèse Gstöttenmayr, the track’s music video feels like a pretty apt visual for the music with its introduction to the artist as a “hybrid creature” you might expect to find crouched behind the Winkie’s dumpster. It’s a pretty goofy concept that both eerily captures the feeling of stepping into an unloving relationship and lets the costume designers go wild