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Next David Bowie era box confirmed as ‘Brilliant Adventure 1992-2001’

It will be released this year

By Paul Sinclair

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113

David Bowie / Brilliant Adventure 1992-2001

Due for release “this fall” a statement confirms

Warner Music Group have confirmed that the next David Bowie ‘era’ box set will be released in the autumn of 2021 and will be called Brilliant Adventure [1992-2001].

The news was almost a footnote in a statement issued on Thursday about a new deal with the David Bowie Estate, which sees Warners acquire the rights to David’s later output, which was previously controlled by Sony.

Warners already had the rights to output from 1968 to 1999 (Hours being the last studio album) but now they add the material he released from 2000-2016, including the albums Heathen (2002), Reality (2003), The Next Day (2013) and Blackstar (2016). In other words, everything is under one roof.

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As we know, Warners have reissued an enormous amount of Bowie material in recent years – particularly since his death – including the so-called ‘era’ box sets such as Five Years (2015) , Who Can I Be Now (2016), A New Career in a New Town (2017) and Loving The Alien (2018). Much of this was said to be part of a plan that David approved in his last year or two of his life (the label are “guided by Bowie’s vision for his catalog” to use the official terminology).

Warners choose not to release another era box in 2019, preferring to concentrate on the 50th anniversary of the Space Oddity album (and single). So they put out various vinyl box sets featuring unheard demos and the Conversation Piece CD package with an expectation of returning to the big boxes in 2020, only to find they were unable to so due to the global pandemic and production and supply-chain issues.

But after two years away, the label have confirmed it is now happening in 2021. To quote the statement “The fifth Era box, Brilliant Adventure (1992 – 2001), is slated for release this fall, with details to come”.

We know that the image at the top of this page is the front cover, since an ‘animated tease’ of it has appeared on Bowie social channels yesterday.

The years in parenthesis confirm that Tin Machine will form no part of Brilliant Adventure and so the five studio albums included will be Black Tie White Noise (1993), The Buddha of Suburbia (1993), Outside (1995), Earthling (1997) and Hours (1999).

This new deal means that Warners can now continue the era boxes into the last two decades of Bowie’s life. What would you like to see in Brilliant Adventure (1992-2001)? Leave a comment.

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113 Comments

113 thoughts on “Next David Bowie era box confirmed as ‘Brilliant Adventure 1992-2001’”

    1. YES, that’s exactly what I thought the first time I saw the listing on Amazon.

      I realize this material is more “rare” then the previous box sets’ material, but it’s not a significantly larger set afa actual vinyl (i paid right around $200-$225 for Who can I Be Now, A New Career…, and, Loving The Alien. Those contained, respectively, 13, 13 and 15 lps. Brilliant Adventure contains 18 lps. I could see it being priced a bit more highly than the prior sets…but almost DOUBLING THE COST?!?) so I can’t escape the feeling we are being milked…seems intended just as much for Resale market as for real Bowie fans. It’ll be $1000 a few
      Months from now.

      Thanks, Warner. You’re doing a bang-up job.

  2. I really can’t wait to get my hands on the vinyl of Buddha and BTWN. It would be nice if the record company would announce the tracklist for this though – if they’re calling it Brilliant Adventures then they must have had it in the works since BLA a long while back. I’m guessing no live material this time to accommodate the lengthy studio albums.
    And I suspect it has been pressed and ready to go for a long while, so why keep the release date a secret?
    Not bothered about Tin Machine – for me Bowie’s talent was all about mixing art and pop, not bare bones grunge which was done much better by many other bands.

  3. Always thought Hours suffered from poor production, and would have been up there with Heathen had it been recorded under Visconti. I’m up for a remix or even re-recording. Think they did a stellar job with NLMD.
    I find BTWN a very busy album, very overproduced. Loved the raw funk of the title track (should have been a duet with his old mate Luther), and Jump they Say!. Night flights is a great recording. Shame Scott Walker turned down the opportunity to record with Bowie and Eno. Otherwise, love Earthling and Outside. No so much the remixes, but great albums indeed. Be great to get these on remastered vinyl.

  4. This the one I’ve been waiting for. Am happy enough to finally get BTWN, Buddha and Outside on vinyl. Any extra material will be purely bonus! I’d love to see 90’s Bowie get some reappraisal. Controversially – I think it’s some of his most creative work.
    Having been a victim of the Brilliant Live Adventures fiasco I’d almost given up hope of seeing this, but I can see now how they might have been designed* as companion boxsets – so not really expecting any live stuff. With no expectations beyond the thousand remixes of Hallo Spaceboy, Hearts Filthy Lesson and I’m Afraid of Americans, am confident this will be worth the long wait!
    (* albeit shambolically released)

  5. (I might be the only person visiting this site who thinks TMII is a brilliant album. Except for ‘Stateside.’ That stinks. I’ll continue to keep this horrible secret to myself.)

  6. Live wise, only the 50th birthday concert or the BBC recording would be of any interest, so soon after the BLA releases. On that subject, I would dream of the angerly expected second batch of BLA to be packaged the same way than the era box sets and released on the same day than the BA [1992-2001] (and with a bundle deal!).

    If any of the era album gets to be re-visited, I would hope for BTWN, by Nile Rodgers himself. I wouldn’t really care if this would be the result of some Bowie’s dissatisfaction of not; I just love the idea of Nile Rodgers remixing BTWN.

    Toy should indeed be released in the next/6th era box set, as many pointed out.
    But I’m in for any Leon Sessions material instead!

    A good Dance 2 type of album would just pick one of each era singles to maintain listenability, and preferably in versions not available before on either CD or vinyl, to make both formats (CD box set and LP box set) attractive. Club Bowie was released in 2003 and compiles remixes dating from 2002 and 2003… So I don’t expect any of it to be featured on BA [1992-2001].

    Regarding Re:Call5 and a hypothetical Dance 2, it is a pity that the box set starts at the 1992 mark, as this will rule out any mix from Fame 90 and the re-release of Sound & Vision in 1991. At least we can expect Real Cool World to be featured in some way.

    1. Nile Rogers has remastered BTWN for the set but it is not a remix.
      Hours has been remixed.
      Toy definitely fits in with 2001 but no certainty that it will be here or in a stand alone Toy box set.
      Highly unlikely Leon will be featured.

  7. This is going to be a rough box to put together, I think, because we more or less already got it. There was a great box that expanded Outside, Earthling, and …Hours, along with both Heathen and Reality to 2-disc sets, and there was also a 2-CD/DVD set of Black Tie/White Noise, so the only album from the era with no previous expanded version is Buddha of Suburbia.

    This might be the box where they have to break some of the “rules” to make it worth the purchase for some people. Yes, as far as I know, those version are out of print, but they aren’t that difficult to find, and many collectors are going to already have those versions.

    The Leon Sessions will attract some people, but what I’ve heard of them, they aren’t exactly a lost classic, and not not something people are likely to listen to more than once (some people may not make it through the first trip).

    Toy would definitely be an incentive, but as most people have pointed out, it really fits in with the Heathen era, and since several of those tracks were released as b-sides, they might still not have reverted as part of the rights deal.

    The 50th anniversary concert would probably be the one piece oflive material that would really draw people in–even the ones sick of live albums. It’s possible–considering that Bowie was also an excellent business man–that the rights may have been taken care of at the time of the concert, and they’ve just been sitting on the release for awhile. Or maybe they used the time between installments to iron those issues out. It would definitely be a gold star if they have it.

    The Club Bowie EP (for better or worse) was also a part of this era. Maybe an expanded version of that will make up a Dance 2 disc. I don’t think having EVERY mix is going to be a selling point, because there are so many from this decade (and some of them are pretty dire, or just longer/shorter versions of other remixes).

    I don’t remember Bowie expressing dissatisfaction with any of these albums, so the justification for doing a Black Tie/White Noise 2021 or …hours 2021 isn’t really there like it was for Never Let Me Down. It would kind of put the lie to “Bowie’s vision before his death.”

    So maybe this is the point where they really need to think about opening the vaults and putting some “unreleased but intended for this time period” material on this. Commercially, this was not a peak time period, so if they’ve been saving that material (along with the Rhino bonuses. etc.) for a separate release of their own, using some of the material from this era would not likely have a huge effect on that project.

    My prediction (probably wrong):

    Black Tie/White Noise
    The Buddha of Suburbia
    1 Outside
    Earthling
    50th Concert Celebration (2-discs)
    …hours
    Re:call 5 (2 discs?)
    Club Bowie Expanded or Dance 2
    Unvaulted (unreleased outtakes, finished demos, etc.)

    1. As much as I like the idea of some kind of ClubBowie as a follow up to Dance, that compilation was from 2003. So that one would be for the next box.
      All other thoughts: agree 100%!

  8. I didn’t follow this period of Bowie’s career very deeply but I will pick up this box set as a semi-completist. Bowie, the undisputed master of musical reinvention, performed with utter integrity throughout his entire career so I really should check out his final musical statements. Of all the musical luminaries who have died in the last 10 years, Bowie is the one whom I miss the most. The glam period, the Berlin trilogy, the blue eyed soul period, the post new wave era and everything before and after – consistently groundbreaking and influential every one of them. He was above categories. Now it is all simply Bowie music. I’m also hoping there are plans for a musical docudrama – but it has to be much, much better than the horrid Queen, Motley Crue and Elton John films. The film about Joy Division was really good IMO.

    Anyway, I’m looking forward to this upcoming box set.

  9. For me its nearly impossible to be on time for black friday/ pre Christmas period .L.T.Allien was out 12 October 2018 and was for pre order since july of the same year . Even if they start the pre orders this or next week they cant make it for late November and if they think they can i m sure that they will postpone it for another couple of weeks ,the same happed with many single and double albums this year .But we are talking about 12 cds/16 vinyl here . I dont want to see another disaster for my beloved artist again .ANCIANT and BLA were not a century ago and were not released with that time pressure.

  10. Like most, I’m hoping for a Gouster type inclusion with ‘Toy’, that has to be the best ‘box bait’. I can’t see the Madison Square Garden recording be included for rights reasons alone. This is an interesting era for sure, as it contains, IMO, some of Bowie’s best, represented by ‘1. Outside …’ and ‘Earthling’, and perhaps his dullest sounding record, ‘Hours’. I hope this box isn’t weighed down by remixes, because most really do not hold up well. I’m pretty sure Nile Rodgers mentioned he was working on ‘Black Tie White Noise’ some time back, so I expect we’ll see that across two discs. As for the cover, I just which they had remained consistent and kept to a photograph from the era.

    1. Everyone keeps talking about wanting Toy to be in this box, but that would certainly be better bundled with the next box as that will be the box that includes Heathen, which was the release that ended up being made in lieu of Toy.

  11. Since these era boxes have been defined as including material released at the time of the original releases, and not including later reissue bonus tracks – I’m not sure if the contents of the 5 bonus discs on these albums in the other box containing them would be in this or not, because I’m not sure if those items were previously-unreleased when that box came out (which would mean they don’t appear here) or if those items were b-sides and remixes issued at the time of the original albums?

  13. I am very excited about this set having come late to appreciating Bowie other than greatest hits and a few cassettes over the years. Indulging in these box sets to date and seeing songs in context has been a revelation as have live albums. I have deliberately held off buying or even listening to the records in this forthcoming box for a long time so that I can discover them fresh. And then they will be played to death and I will appreciate this genius career in graduated steps and I am happy to do the same with the last too. I won’t listen on steaming for a while. An enforced abstinence to then sink into the newly mastered vinyls. Very happy here

  15. Hi everyone!
    I’ve never really understood why nobody seems to like earthling?
    I was in my early twenties when it came out (yes,I was too young to have lived the glam and 70s era,but as a teenager I loved his 80s) and I remember loving how daring and adventurous the whole project was,I was starting my career as a Dj and although I never really loved jungle and dnb,I was in awe of Bowie taking such a risk.
    I loved everything starting with the Adam f remix cd single (the first thing I found here in Spain) to the hallo space boy remixes (that have aged really bad) the cover I thought was genius and the NIN tour…
    It all made me admire him so much for not repeating himself endlessly like other did (and still so)
    In fact Earthling was the album that made go from ocasional fan to super fanatic

    1. I agree with you about Earthling! It may be influenced by the trendy garage/jungle of the time which some people have a hard time getting past, but the record as a whole is for me his last great LP. Every song on there is loaded with hooks, the vocals are still part of his last peak imo (deterioration started with Hours) and the visual concept is a reminder of his origins (Ziggy haircut/UK imagery). Not quite as good as Outside, but more commercial – and those two are up there with the 70s output for me.
      Also I love the Bowie self portrait, though I don’t care for the fade to graphics – it looks a bit cheap and rushed.
      I don’t think they should have used that BA title though – too many bad memories.

      2. Big Earthling fan here too. I was disappointed with Black Tie White Noise and got back on the train with Outside. I eagerly awaited Bowie’s next record and purchased Earthling on the day it was released. Of course the majority of reviews slated it – particularly in the UK. But to my ears it was a return to excellence and a renewal of Bowie’s ‘classic’ songwriting. The live shows of this period were by far the best I had seen, first seeing him in 83. The Earthing songs like “Battle For Britain” took on new dimensions in a live setting, and older songs like “Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)” were re-energized. “The Jean Genie” was stripped back to it’s blues origins and “The Man Who Sold The World” was marvelous with a trip hop redux.

        1. Yes – I’m with you about Outside & Earthling. I came back to Bowie with Outside too. Other interesting acts took his place in the 80s and his music was generally boring. It’s a real shame that these two great albums have been restricted to expensive limited edition vinyl editions for so long when the same old LPs and comps get rereleased over and over again – they need to be more easily available – the material deserves it.

    2. Earthling is truly amazing record (also live it’s absolutely great) . And Hours is a superb next one. I still adore these records and I simply can’t understand why they are bubbling under in the lists of fans. Oh you little wonder you!!

    3. I think some of this has to do with which Bowie is the Bowie you found first. I had a conversation with one of my friends recently about this with Paul McCartney. Her mom was a big Wings fan, so that was her first real experience of McCartney outside the Beatles. Mine was Flowers in the Dirt, so our “first” McCartney was vastly different from each other, and we agreed that Flowers in the Dirt probably set the bar a little too high, while the Wings stuff her mom liked may have set it a little low.

      I more or less know of Bowie in the 80s, but just from the radio. By time I was actually buying my own music, he was more or less on a break, off with Tin Machine, which never made much of an impact on me at the time. I sort of got into Black Tie/White Noise, but MY first real (as in, “my first REAL experience with”) Bowie was 1. Outside and then Earthling. So those defined my image and impression of Bowie’s sound. That was MY Bowie, so that’s kind of the standard by which I judge everything else he did, much like Flowers in the Dirt is my measuring stick for McCartney. I now love Bowie as a whole, but even now, the two albums that make the most impression on me from his catalog are those two.

      In Doctor Who fandom, it’s generally accepted that your first Doctor is “your Doctor.” Basically the same concept.

  16. Everyody here seems to be enthusiastic, and that’s a good thing. But for me, these records don’t stand a chance compared to the albums released during his imperial phase. All these albums are fine, but never really outstanding. I haven’t listened to Hours for a long time, but last time I checked, I found it extremely boring. I’m not really ready to spend a fortune for this boxset. Will it include all the remixes of the Black tie white Noise/Outside/Earthlings era ? I hope not !

    1. His imperial phase is imperial for a reason. But just because they don’t match that doesn’t mean that some of the albums aren’t really good. I think Black Tie White Noise, Outside and Buddha of Suburbia are all excellent and have that spirit of adventure found in the 1970s albums even if they don’t quite reach those heights.

    2. I for one is really happy with this boxset. i’ve been waiting for this one for years. All the albums have been out of print for year on vinyl. The cost of soursing earthling alone is half of the cost of the boxset.

  17. Like Dylan he could not draw or paint. Horrible cover. Its like having to hear David Hockney sing.
    Taking a picture from each era was a good call so why change now?

    1. Changes? That’s certainly not something you’d associate Bowie with ;-)

      Nah, I like it. I’d say it suits this period a lot better than the Mullet King pic on the last one.

    2. I agree, dreadful cover, I wouldn’t mind, the drawing itself, but the fade on the right to cut it out is amateur. Let’s hope the do it properly for the release.

    3. Actually Dylan is a very gifted artist. I’ve visited his exhibition, although that featured mostly work from the recent years, so I guess he improved his technique quite a bit since “Self Portrait”.

  18. Never got into Tin Machine (and I really really tried) so I am glad this is skipping those albums. I hope they do a Tin Machine special for those that would like such a thing.

    I’ll get this box even though I have the albums on vinyl already. I’m really hoping for some interesting extras and a nice book (the books so far have been very good). It will also be nice to have Buddha on vinyl – a great album that seems to have slipped under most people’s radar.

    I really like Hours but I guess a remix would be interesting just for the contrast.
    Actually I have ended up preferring the remixed versions of Station to Station. Lodger and Never Let Me Down to the originals so, as much as I like Hours as it stands, a remix might be even better.

    Yes. I’ll definitely be jumping on this one.

    P.S. I echo those that would like to see Five Years reissued (I have the CD but didn’t pick up the vinyl – have regretted it ever since).

  19. This will probably my favourite bowie box set release, and likely the only one I will buy. Buddhas of Suburbia is one of his best albums, and at least most people who heard it seem to love it. ‘hours…’ I didn’t like at all, but after listening to the live versions on BLA, I got into it. First I thought ‘one or two songs are ok’, and I went all the way to ‘every single song is amazing and this is one of his best albums’.
    BTWN is great too and quite varied. I particularly like the slightly weird and underrated title track.
    Outside I learned to appreciate too after hearing the live versions. But probably prefer the live versions to the studio ones.
    Never got into eathling, despite the fact I like drum and bass and techno, and love the single ‘little wonder’. The problem is that they wanted to add guitars as well to the drum and bass unslaught and it all become a bit too much noise.

  20. I would love to hear the supposed BTWN and Earthling versions of ‘Bring Me the Disco King.’ Buddha/Outside/Earthling are among my favourite albums, and thus to see them printed on vinyl would be wonderful. Given the years, some of the Outside Outtakes (‘Leon’ sessions) could be included – something I would really enjoy.
    I am quite sorry that there is no Tin Machine box set scheduled for release. Reeves Gabrels has stated on numerous occasions how much stuff there is from those sessions that never got released, such as the genesis of the track Outside (then called ‘Now’). On the topic of Reeves, it is fairly well documented that he was not happy with the final mix of Hours, and that the original version was ‘rougher’, a la Diamond Dogs. Perhaps that could be included on the new box set?
    BLA was, in my opinion, a pretty good release. Ouvrez le Chein and No Trendy Rechauffe are great live albums, worth a listen. However, it does bother me that they were released on limited pressing. Looking online, the total cost is around £400, which is unjustifiable to me. It would be nice to see the individual albums up for sale (in the manner that they are on streaming services), but that may not happen for quite a while.
    One way or another, this is one that I’m convinced is worth investing in. Given that his 90s albums have very few physical records circulating (and those that are tend to be pretty expensive), it will be a nice way for fans to add to their record collections. I’m usually a little wary of the box sets, purely because I own a fair few of the records that they appear on (buying them would be for the new additions), but I can totally get behind this.

  21. (although I wasn’t collecting them) I do hope that WB pick up the 7″ picture discs – the decision to stop the series is bizarre to say the least – and I do feel for the fans who were buying them. Possibly more annoying than the BLA fiasco.

      1. Also, the Tin Machine stuff is mostly awful, so I think a good decision to keep it separate from Bowie’s body of work. Maybe a separate boxset would obviously give people the option to buy it without forcing it into ,and tainting, the Bowie boxes. I bought the TM2 limited silver vinyl reissue last year, so I wonder why that was released if there are supposedly all these legal wrangles. Doesn’t square up.

    3. Because they are David Bowie boxsets, not Tin Machine boxsets. Like if Sting albums were part of a Police boxset. Two totally different things. So it’s right that they don’t mix the two.
      Maybe a stand alone Tin Machine boxset will be released one day, but I would not hold my breath.

      1. Although other members of TM are keen to compartmentalise that part of David’s career, it should not be overlooked that the first Tin Machine album was ‘reintegrated’ into David’s catalogue long ago, it appeared in the 2007 Japanese mini-LP reissues for instance. And my own day-of-release CD of Oy Vey Baby still has the sticker on the front proudly proclaiming ‘David Bowie [large letters] at his explosive best‘.

        It was always a strange duck though. Go back to that 1989 Q interview and David was really keen on the project, but in a few years he was telling every interviewer and his cat that he was too popular at that time, had too big an audience and just wanted his fans to go away – I remember reading one of those ‘reinventing the past’ interviews and thinking, well, you could have just not released a record, instead of making us shell out for a product to make us go away.

        Regarding a repress of Five Years, if it does happen it does not look it will be any time soon. This and the next 2 year’s DB schedule seems occupied, and making the final ‘era’ box, let alone a TM box, complete against a much-more-desirable-generally box for fans’ money seems unlikely. Hence the reason I shelled out over a grand for one from a certain site of the web last year, Covid playing hell with the Christmas releases freeing up the funds to do so [an extravagance, but I did get it for £500 less than he had it listed for by asking nicely].

  23. How about a separate box set of Bowie’s soundtrack recordings? I was at a screening of Absolute Beginners at the BFI last week and in an interview with director Julien Temple after the film, it was revealed that there will be a Bowie season at the BFI in January 2022.

  24. Paul, what a way to respond to my email to you/SDE earlier this week! This is excellent news. It represents a period of his back catalogue I’m not so familiar with. Let’s Dance was my first LP so I’m a child/young adult of the 80’s and quite liked the 80’s output, although NLMD was weak. Tin Machine was confusing, and to be honest still is. I’ve never been so conflicted over an album before … how can you love and hate something in equal measures? Whilst I somehow missed TM2 and OVB I was back on board for Black Tie White Noise, which was a wonderful listen, and whilst hasn’t necessarily aged well, in my opinion still is. However this is where I subconsciously got off the train until The Next Day.
    1992/93 saw the emergence of some great British and indie music which was where my head was at, and I didn’t get and still don’t Drum and Bass, but “hardcore” dance music of whatever genre has never been my thing. This wonderful artist subsequently slipped from my world in terms of new product. I now have a cd version of Buddha and love it. Following the (not so) BLA announcement I have listened to Outside, Earthling and Hours and have to say I wish I hadn’t missed out on these releases at the time. This is an absolute must for me (on record, at whatever cost).
    All I need now is an official announcement that there will be a (not so) BLA re-release so I can get me a version of the Kit Kat Klub performance and a box for my records … I know, its a shonky approach but I want it to nicely sit within my career spanning purchases. I guess the plan would be to tie this onto the back end of the BA release, as I assume there will be limited live content in it, as a way to ensure all represses get sold. I just hope they have the sense to let those of us who registered earlier this year have some kind of priority access to those releases we missed out on.

    All I need now is an announcement as to what the Prince SDE will be this year. I believe you indicated it would be Diamonds and Pearls in your predictions piece.

    And finally, as others have indicated it is going to be an expensive end of the year with the Screamadelica box set, Demodelica, Let It Be and Marvel MCU releases already on order, but bring it on. I can’t wait!!

    And finally. finally keep up the good work.

  25. This era was loaded with B’sides, mixes and other stuff. We’ll see if they include everything or just snippets.
    In addition, I don’t think there were any live albums in this era [but I’m not a super fan… so maybe there was] except in the Brilliant Live Adventures series.

    1. I don’t think they’ll include live albums but there was Storytellers,Glastonbury 2000 and Live At The BBC.
      The content will be the 5 core albums,2 discs of Recall/Dance,an Hours remix,possibly Toy and 1 other.That’s 10 titles at most and because some of the albums will have to be spread over 2lps they won’t go more than this because the vinyl count would be too high.
      That being said this is the least commercial decade covered so far and also one entirely from the CD era so I think they may have to add some pretty big box bait to move those CD sets.

    2. Yeah, I feel that the Brilliant Live Adventures box kinda negates the need for a live album in this box. Hopefully (one can cross fingers) some of the unreleased stuff from Outside gets some sort of a release, as well as the older mix for …hours.

  27. I will definitely buy era box #5 as I love the first 4 era boxed sets. I’ve been hoping for a long time that Warners re-presses FIVE YEARS. I have the CD set, but the vinyl box has been out of print for at least 4 years. The CD set is now out of print, too, but the FIVE YEARS vinyl box is the more rare and expensive of the 2 physical sets.

  28. Wow. I love the career boxes but had almost given up hope for this fifth set. Really looking forward to this since it will include two albums I’m not familiar with (Black Tie, White Noise and The Buddha of Suburbia). I’ve got the 10 CD box they did a couple of years ago so wondering what bonus material they’ll use for this set. Hopefully not too many duplicates.

  30. I think I paid about 50 quid for the Berlin era box, I paid about 90 for the 80’s box as the price never really went down so I hope the price of this is not outside the realm of reality! Everything is going up at the moment.

    Content wise, it has to be worth it, decent Recall disc(s), something live, MSG 50 , may seal the deal for me.

    All good albums apart from “Hours” which was a dud for me.

    Paradise for me would be a stack of stuff from the “Outside” sessions but I’m guessing that’s not happening here!

  31. I’m relieved by this. I was beginning to think it wouldn’t come out before I retired and didn’t have the money for more Bowie boxsets!

    I’ll admit to being a little disappointed that the Tin Machine era isn’t included, but then I suppose the Dame himself didn’t really regard it as part of “his” output…

  32. For usual fans who got all the albums sometimes in special editions (Black Tie with remixes ans dvd or hours with lenticular cover …) the must have last months were the brilliant adventures live cds or vinyls even hard to get. I have my box completed so i ‘ll pas this set

  34. Looking forward to this one.

    Hopefully the great but often overlooked ‘Buddha of Suburbia’ album will at last get some due recognition as part of this set.

  35. Very excited that this has finally been confirmed… it was staring to head towards Seeds of Love SDE territory, delay-wise, with all of the uncertainty.

    This era is special to me. These were the records that were being released when I was a little kid discovering Bowie in the 90’s… Outside was the first new album that came out after I became a fan, and I still can’t get over how brave, ambitious, risky, original and wonderful it is. It blew my rapidly-expanding little mind. It may well be my favourite.

    The others are all fantastic, and are always a joy to rediscover after some time apart. Bowie was firing on all cylinders creatively during this period – he cared, he was pushing himself, he was full of fire & inspiration and was trying to win people over again for the first time in decades. It was a special time and I knew I was secretly onto something good with this genius that nobody seemed to care about anymore, none of the bands that kids my age at the time were into came close to this. He’s been with me ever since, so this box will mean a lot. It’s really quite poignant to see it all being gathered together like this… all these years later.

    Contents-wise, I can only echo what several here have already stated. The Leon Suites (and any further Outside material) take serious precedence, though. I truly hope they include them and even a further live set from the period instead of putting it off indefinitely for a separate release. Toy would be good, and a possible reimagining. It will be great to hear the earlier titles spruced up a little and I hope that the remasters are handled well. The Birthday Concert would indeed be a welcome edition. I love that more and more people are discovering the treasures of Bowie’s 90’s work as the years pass, something this box will go even further in facilitating.

    Overall, I’m chuffed. The image not being a photograph (as with all previous instalments in the series) may play minor havoc with my OCD but the image is still striking and appropriate. Hoping it’s not going to break the bank, but I’m really looking forward to this one.

  36. I notice on their social post that they say the catalogue from 2000 – 2016 won’t come under Warner’s until 2023
    So perhaps we have another years wait until Heathen to Blackstar are released as a final box.

    1. “Good Authority” would be a great title for the final set! Similarly good authorities insisted there would be a 50th Anniversary Hunky Dory this year too…

      1. Hunky Dory will be pushed back to spring next year, I reckon. Technically it will still be a 50th anniversary set as the album came out in late ’71. We’ve all had birthday parties delayed by a couple of months…

  39. All the material from this era will benefit from a good remaster ,BTWN and Hours particularly . I can’t imagine the price for this box ,especially the vinyl . Hope for a good accompanied book. Cant wait for this. R.E.M,Garbage, ,Floyd ,Beatles,Radiohead,Doors and now the Bowie box. Very strong year ending.

  40. Take a good look at the cover artwork. Anyone recall when Bowie made this charcoal self portrait available as a free download on the internet? …That’s right, when he turned 50… No one seems to have seriously considered the 50th Birthday Concert at MSG is a distinct possibility for this boxset? Thematically it slots right in… Agreed, the rights permissions would be a minefield, but of all the contributing artists still alive, Corgan, Robert Smith, Frank Black, Grohl & Co, Sonic Youth et al…. who would realistically object to being immortalised as part of the Bowie Legacy by not granting permission? My money is on the Birthday Bash getting up…

    2. Agreed, the rights permissions would be a minefield, but of all the contributing artists still alive…. who would realistically object to being immortalised as part of the Bowie Legacy by not granting permission? 

      I’m sure they’d all jump at the chance. Provided the money was right.

      1. The rights are a minefield unless they were potentially dealt with at the time. Just because nothing has been released before doesn’t mean there weren’t releases signed at the time “just in case,” because Bowie was also a pretty damned good business man. It would have been a good base to have covered in advance just in case.

    3. Seems the Birthday bash didn’t get up…

      Full version of the BBC 2000 show over two cds, Buddha, 3cd RE:CALL 5 (39 non-album / alternative version / b-sides and soundtrack songs) and TOY (single CD) + Box set book, 84 pages in the CD box and 128 in the vinyl set.

  41. “Much of this was said to be part of a plan that David approved in his last year or two of his life”…..

    This reminds me of parts of Only Fools and Horses where Del, in an effort to get Rodney to do whatever the hell Del comes up with would always talk about their Mother’s deathbed wishes. “On her deathbed, Mum said…….”. As Rodney often remarked… “Blimey, Mum didn’t ‘alf say a lot on her deathbed”

    Warners can do whatever they want and probably will claim it was part of the vision that David wanted as he neared the end….

  42. Excellent news! However I’ll wait and see what’s in it before buying the vinyl box though, it’d need to be good as I’m otherwise going to wait until they split the box next year and buy the studio albums separately!

  43. As a Bowie fan since 1972,and seeing the enormous amount of releases [legal and not] since his passing any new product is received gratefully by me…i’m happy hope you’re happy too [i’ve even forgiven them [almost] for the ‘Brilliant Live Adventures’ shenanigans of recent times]
    ‘Toy’ and ‘Outside’ version 1[the version rejected by the record label] must be included though….

    1. I’ll forgive the estate once I have a copy of Kit Kat Club in my hands. No word on when the re-press of BLA will happen, but I can get a “Limited Edition Bowie Stylophone” and a groovy totebag to go with it! Joy! (The merch is becoming more and more ridiculous.)

  45. My best-guess for the title was only one letter out in the end. I always figured it was to be called ‘Brilliant Adventures’ as the live albums appeared to have been hived off to a separate release, where the word ‘Live’ was inserted (in a different colour) between those two words.

    Quite like the cover image, and agree with Punk Anderson that ‘Hello Spaceboy’ would be appropriate given the look.

    Looking forward to this. The last album he made under his own name that I bought was, for decades, ‘Never let me Down, so all of these will be new to me. No Tin Machine (thankfully: I bought TM1 on release, after reading a glowing review in Q magazine (they’d interviewed him, so obviously all critical appraisal went out of the window). Hopefully no live stuff, either; there’s already enough in the previous four boxes, and it would avoid having yet another version of ‘Rebel Rebel’.

    Fingers crossed that everything is the same presentation-wise, and the pricing stays in line with previous sets.

    1. Yes – I’m happy they’ve skipped Tin Machine too. I bought the limited silver vinyl of TM2 last year during lockdown and thought I’d listen again with an open mind and in a spirit of re-evaluation. Sadly it didn’t change my mind, but I gave it a chance. I’d be happy if they released TM1 as a coloured vinyl again, which I’d get in the interests of completism – but I don’t think they’d get much action in future, which would be good for their asset value at least if unplayed. Still stoked about this box set though – now the question is when will they be available for order? Could be a pricey October with the Let it Be and Kid Amnesia vinyl sets as well.
      I signed up for the BLA communications as well, with them suggesting more being produced but heard nothing since. Wonder if this will impact on their plans with that.
      Great week for Bowie product news – I couldn’t resist it and bought the limited edition Bowie Stylophone from the Bowie site the other day.

      1. Yes ‘Buddha …’ is an overlooked classic and ‘Outside’ is mostly great too if you can get on board with (or ignore) the concept, which is a tad pretentious. Of course it was also significant in marking his first reunion with Eno since the Berlin years. These two albums I think will be doing the heavy lifting with this set but I’m keen to see what other stuff is included say with The Re-call disc. I think this period represents another case of Bowie trying on then current music trends to appear relevant (e.g. Drum N’ Bass on Earthling) with varying degrees of success – thus leaving himself open a bit to ridicule at the time from the music press. I think he then settled down from ‘Heathen’ onwards to just making great music again on his own terms. With the rights issues now sorted I’m really looking forward to the Era 6 boxset.
        And I can’t wait for my Bowie Stylophone to come on Monday. I stand by my decision to buy one. I used to have and play a Stylophone as a small child so I guess there’s a degree of nostalgia with it – looking forward to cranking one up again ( although the rest of my household I’m sure will feel differently).

    2. Tonight is awful save the first two tracks and Blue Jean which are great. It’s an odd choice to cite as the last good album. Never Let Me Down is far better in comparison.

      1. Agreed – Tonight is mostly embarrassing – I think it’s safe to argue that Bowie’s 80s post Let’s Dance left a lot to be desired album wise. I include NLMD in that. A few great singles though such as This is Not America, Absolute Beginners. I bought the Loving the Alien boxset as a completist gesture and gave it another chance, but it didn’t change my mind – in fact mostly reinforced my existing opinion. I think the 90s was when he started to find his mojo again, so this Era 5 box should be way more interesting.

        1. I think both albums (‘Tonight’ and ‘NLMD’) are pretty awful, but after 30+ years, I do find myself regularly throwing ‘NLMD’ on the stereo and hoping it has improved with age. And…I’m always disappointed. ‘Tonight,’ however, has maintained it’s status as my least played canon album.

  47. Well, Toy, first and foremost. The ultimate version with planned bells and whistles, full production and all songs included to set it apart from the (very good indeed) bootleg. 1992-2001 is a tantalizing title, implying that the 2001 bit could be Toy, slated for that year. It could, of course, point to the inclusion of his great cover of ‘Nature Boy’, but fingers crossed, eh.
    The Leon Suites, as many as are in existence, would be great as well, but I really don’t see that happening until some expanded Outside version turns up.
    One of the albums would be due some sort of remix or rethink, looking back, and I could see it being both the slightly dated sounding Black Tie White Noise and the rather muted Hours. Knowing that Reeves Gabrels was heavily involved here, I suspect it’s the latter, and I’m hoping he revisits some of the soundtrack stuff from Omikron. All the b-sides from this period are intriguing, more than a lot of the album itself, I’d say. There haven’t been many outtakes in these boxes – damn, how did ‘Some Are’ never appear in the third one? – but some could appear as part of an Hours reimagining.
    Live albums – well the Sound + Vision tour is clearly not in here and might appear as some RSD release instead. I certainly don’t expect any of the fine albums from the hopelessly handled Brilliant Live Adventures campaign (and by the way, why would the label use a title that reminds everyone of one the most epic release screw-ups in recent time? Just call it Hallo Spaceboy and make it easy on yourselves), though as LiveAndWell was an actual release at the time, it might be the one that makes the cut. Same with Glastonbury, as it’s such a recent release. But I’d expect BBC Theatre in there, the limited edition album recorded two days after Glasto 2000. Apparently his voice was shot on that day and some songs broke down completely, but what ended up on the album was fantastic. And the impossible dream? An Outside set that finally includes the first tracks with Nine Inch Nails.
    And as for remixes – well, we can probably all agree that not everything that ended up on Dance in the previous box was great, but it was still well curated and made listenable by only having one version of each track. The cd singles and compilations of the era, with five or six versions in a row of every single, are unlistenable. Follow Dance with another, equally well-picked compilation of mixes and I’ll pretty happy.
    This is such a great period in his career. I’ve really been looking forward to this one. Even through the ridiculous waiting games we had to endure for a couple of years … and yeah, having paid a decent sum for for the first four, I do feel a bit entitled – at least to know if the whole thing’s going to continue.
    The last two were 11 cd’s. The conservative bid would be …

    • Black Tie White Noise
    • The Buddha of Suburbia
    • Outside
    • Earthling
    • “Dance 2”
    • Hours
    • Hours, re-imagined
    • BBC Theatre
    • Toy
    • Re:call 5 – two discs

    1. I’d love a full live gig from the Outside tour including NIN and er the other band which I’m a huge fan of but won’t type it here lol. There are a various bootlegs on Amazon of all places but an official complete release would be much appreciated. I guess the problem is different artist, different labels and with Bowie and Trent swapping tracks, covering each others tunes on that tour is a licencing nightmare.

    2. I think that’s about right too, but i’d guess at a 2 disc recall and a separate Tao Jones EP, possibly expanded out to the complete drum and bass set from Amsterdam. I’m pretty certain the BBC set will be included, ideally complete taking it up to 11 discs.

  49. Excellent news! I’d seriously given up on this for this year and had a slight concern they were abandoning the whole series as with the picture discs. The artwork looks great. Interesting – if uneven- period for me. BOS soundtrack great – Earthling and Hours not so much, but with Bowie always interesting and a smattering of great tracks. Also great they’ve got the rights to the rest so the whole project can be completed with Blackstar – I’m looking forward to that set more now as his final four albums are way better than these 90s ones IMHO.
    Lets hope the price isn’t too high for the vinyl set as we’ve been through a period of rampant boxset inflation, and that they keep the uniformity and don’t mess with the packaging, making it different to the first four vinyl sets. Otherwise you’ve made my weekend Paul!

    1. I don’t expect too much live content (as this has been covered in the recent similarly titled live box/fiasco) – lots of B-sides and so on from this era though, so I’d have thought Recall would be 2CD/3LP this time. We’ve already had the 10CD (“1995-2003”) box set in 2007 which covered three of these albums, each with a bonus disc – will they duplicate much of that material?

  51. For a moment there I thought it was going to be a huuuge box (you might want to read that first sentence again…). An ‘alternate Outside’ made up of the Leon sessions, or whatever that leaked version was called, is a must, surely… or will they keep that for a bigger Outside archive box down the line? One assumes none of the live releases/empty box fiasco will be included…

    2. Toy is (or at least was) apparently scheduled for it’s own 3CD/6LP Toy box next year, so I’d have thought it is unlikely to appear (and also because these era boxes were not originally intended for unreleased material – but they seem to change the rules for each release!).

      1. What ‘rules’ are these?? I thought it was only people who posted in forums who imagined there were ‘rules’ because they assumed every box set would follow an identical format… ;-)

        1. The generally accepted self-evident ‘rule’ is that these ‘era’ boxes would not include content not released in the original era. So Rykodisc bonus tracks have been largely absent, for example. The Re:Call discs would soak up odds and sods. Exceptions are normally album-based projects like The Gouster, the remix of Lodger, the 2018 version of Never Let Me Down etc. So ‘Toy’ would work as an exception for the new box, but I’m not expecting to get Outside sessions for example.

      2. The whole “Toy is scheduled in” is based on a web site that, for a very brief moment, put up a blank page saying a 3-CD version of Toy was on the cards, we an EAN number that doesn’t come up in ANY searches of the EAN database. So weird how people are convinced it’s real. I guess it could happen, but Toy better fits and box-bait.

  53. Kiss Destroyer 45th anniversary 4cd SDE with Steven Wilson Mix, demos and rarities, live show from 76. And the whole Kiss Army kit and kaboodle… shout it out loud.
    I am emotionally distant from the Bowie Estate since the live adventures disaster…. sorry. The completists in me will get this, of course but my heart is growing colder… peace.

    1. The Kiss boxset is something else, isn’t it? Steve Wilson surround mix! I’m sure Paul will highlight it next week. The only trouble is that at the time I’m writing this it’s a Kissonline exclusive. Surely it’ll get a general release?

    2. I agree with you regarding your completist comment—I may also get this sooner or later, but it’s where the era boxes become less interesting to me. On other hand, your mention about the Kiss Destroyer deluxe is an absolute thrill. That one gets higher priority than this era of DB.

  54. I’m delighted that this has finally been announced, and will enable me to acquire the only five vinyl albums in Bowie’s ‘standard’ discography that I don’t have. Tin Machine was never going to be a fit for this box as Bowie made a big point of separating that output from his solo work (and that’s before you get to the miriad of problems negotiating with Gabrels and the Sales).
    It’ll be interesting to see what live album is included considering how recent the BLA releases are. I don’t know enough about the studio albums to know if any would benefit from a full remix/reworking. The Re:call album will also be interesting, as I believe there were loads of remixes of his 90s output issued at the time.
    Regardless of the final make up of the box, I’m looking forward to it

    1. You have just reminded me I have to pick up the first Tin Machine album totally forgot about that period. I had the first album on cassette if memory serves but was the second album any good?

      1. The second one is so uneven it beggars belief. It has ‘Sorry’, sung by Hunt Sales, possibly the worst song on any Bowie album, right before ‘Goodbye Mr Ed’, a 24 carat classic. Approach with caution, but there are some gems on there. And the polar opposite.

      2. I quite enjoyed it, but I’m not what you’d call a ‘hardcore’ Bowie fan like some. The MOV reissue last year was welcomed by most, and I think the silver vinyl one is still available in some places

      4. TMII has some of the best Bowie of the 90s (You Belong In Rock’n’Roll, Goodbye Mr Ed, Baby Universal), and some of the worst. But if you’re interested in Bowie at all, it’s worth the time.

        As for this set, wow. I’d given up hope of it too. Not sure about the artwork (it’ll be stored side-on anyway, so doesn’t really matter!), and I do have a lot of material from this period already.

        I’d buy them all again, as along as something “new” is included, be that the Leon sessions or the official Toy. The last box had two Live concerts, but not sure if this one will have any.

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