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John Blake is re-releasing a book about touring with "the great man and the legend" David Bowie next week.
Life on Tour with Bowie by former Bowie band member Sean Mayes, was originally published in 2000 by Independent Music Press, which John Blake acquired, becoming Music Press Books in 2015. John Blake holds World rights to the title.
The book is described as a "unique and candid account of life on tour with a true icon" and shares the "amazing experience" of life on a sell-out world tour with Bowie.
The musician died after an 18 month battle with cancer on Sunday (10th January).
Late author Mayes, who died in 1995, was the keyboard and piano player in a band called Fumble, but was later recruited as a band member by Bowie for his Low/ Heroes tour in 1978. Fumble initially met Bowie when they were asked to support him on the US leg of his Ziggy Stardust Tour in 1973, which led to Mayes and Bowie becoming friends.
Mayes' tour diary documents what the book's editor describes as "a pretty intense gig for Sean", since the band, lead by Carlos Alomar, "had hardly any prep time". It offers "a blow by blow record of how it felt to be part of a real rock circus, from rehearsals in Dallas through shows across the US, UK, Europe, Australasia and Japan to recording in London and Switzerland".
Pitched as a "slice of history", the book also features "exclusive candid tour photographs" from the author's personal archive, as well as a "full chronology from this most iconic of tours", which gives it an "immediacy and authenticity unrivalled by any of the slew of unauthorized biographies on him," a spokesperson for John Blake said.
An extract from the book reads: “When David sat down later, he tucked one leg up under him and I noticed that the sole of his shoes was as clean as the day he’d bought it. OK, maybe the shoes were new, but it struck me that he hardly ever sets foot in the street. It’s all hotel, limousines, sterilized airports – the life I was about to lead. I shivered, feeling poised at the top of a rollercoaster about to sweep across the world.”
Life on Tour with Bowie will publish on 21st January 2016 in paperback, priced £7.99.