ZAINE GRIFF - Ashes and Diamonds - now in iTunes Store! video free download

Titletrack of Zaine Griff's first album ASHES AND DIAMONDS - recorded autumn 1979 with producer Tony Visconti and released in 1980.

NEWS UPDATE: ZAINE'S THIRD ALBUM "CHILD WHO WANTS THE MOON" and the digital rereleases of his first albums ASHES AND DIAMONDS and FIGVRES can be downloaded worldwide. Also the CD's with lyrics in booklet can now be ordered.

A LIMITED EDITION of Zaine's first albums WITH BONUS SONGS will be out in Japan, okt 2012

All news and links to Zaine's music on zainegriff .co. uk and zainegriff . com

Zaine had got a record deal, after series of successful gigs in the London venues and especially with his concert on the famous festival on the Isle of Wight, in 1979. In Zaine's band were 'big' names: Warren Cann of Ultravox, and also Hans Zimmer - one of the people behind the huge Buggles hit "Video Killed the Radio Star", a few years later a millionaire by making tunes for TV commercials. Hans Zimmer later also joined Zaine's band in live tours and played synthesizers and made arrangements for Zaine's second album Figures. Since the nineties of the past century Hans Zimmer is the worlds most famous movie soundtrack composer. He composes all the music for most the famous movies like Lion King, Pirates Of The Caribbeans, Da Vinci Code and over 100 other famous movies. Zimmer won an oscar twice for his soundtracks.

During the recording of Ashes And Diamonds David Bowie attended the studio, that is certain and also confirmed. Nothing is certain about what Bowie did there exactly, but in the music as well as the lyrics Bowie's influence can be heard. There are a lot of rumours about a possible cooperation of Bowie with Zaine. Several lyrics tell things about 'secret pleasures' and it's not difficult to see and hear a lot of clues that point to a real cooperation. What is sure and can be proven is that Bowie asked Zaine and his band to re-record with him three famous Bowie-songs in very different versions: Space Oddity, Rebel Rebel and Panic In Detroit - I think in the same studio in London. The new (acoustic) version of Space Oddity was released immediately and became a nr 1 hit that autumn 1979. The new (and very different) version of Panic In Detroit was added to the CD of Bowie's next album Scary Monsters (which was recorded some months later) and again it was added as bonussong to Bowie's Heathen album in 2001 - this time WITH credits for Zaine. The new version of Rebel Rebel never appeared...or...was it the new slower Rebel Rebel on the bonusdisc of Bowie's album Reality in 2003? Maybe in a re-recorded version. It's all possible!

It was Tony Visconti who introduced Zaine to Bowie (as is written in a wellknown Bowie biography) and Bowie was very amazed to see Zaine. "It's like I looked in the mirror", he said. But Zaine was not a Bowie imitator. Zaine hardly owned any Bowie records and beside that everyone knows Bowie never coöperates with imitators. And it's clear there must have been chemistry between them. There might even have been plans for a Tin Machine alike project, because Bowie was fed up with his career and wanted to stop. He was broke after the divorce with Angie and the debts his manager had made at record company RCA. In any case: whatever is true or not, Bowie's influence on Zaine should not be overestimated. It's true, Zaine's albums are an absolute must-have for any Bowie fan, but as said before, Zaine is quite a character of his own, with a lot of experience in music. (And when listening to the new version of Panic In Detroit that Bowie recorded with Zaine - the voice and the way of singing sounds more like Zaine than like Bowie himself!) Before Zaine ever made his own first single, he had already played from his sixteenth in the New Zealand band Human Instinct - which was there as famous and important in the seventies as Deep Purple was in Europe. On three albums of the Human Instinct Zaine played, contributed songs written by himself and also sang the vocals on several songs. The album Ashes And Diamonds was the start of Zaine's solo career. His second album, the legendary FIGVRES shows people like Kate Bush, Hans Zimmer and Yukihiro Takahashi - all working with Zaine. In 2011 Zaine's third album CHILD WHO WANTS THE MOON was released and a fourth album is being recorded and expected later in 2012.

Copyright music owned by ZG Music.

Published with permission of Zaine Griff and ZG Music.

information copyright: Zaine International Bureau - Holland.