Titletrack of Zaine Griff's first album ASHES AND DIAMONDS - recorded autumn 1979 with producer Tony Visconti and released in 1980.
Zaine had got a record deal, because he had a lot of success with his concert on the famous festival on the Isle of Wight, in 1979. In Zaine's band there were 'big' names: Warren Cann of Ultravox, the new wave band that was already beginning to be famous by that time, and also Hans Zimmer - by then known as one of the people behind the huge Buggles hit "Video Killed the Radio Star", and 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 this album 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 wi
th Zaine. Several lyrics tell things about 'secret pleasures' and it's not difficult to see and hear a lot of clues that point in a direction of a real cooperation. And what is sure and can be proven is that Bowie asked Zaine and his band to rerecord with him three famous Bowie-songs in very differ
ent 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 big hit that autumn 1979. The new (and very different) version of Panic In Detroit was added to the CD of Bowie's ne
xt 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 rerecorded 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-clone or imitator. Zaine hardly ow
ned any Bowie records and beside that Bowie never works together 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 w
ith 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 l
ot 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 Z
ealand 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. On others he was then playing bass-guitar. On the a
lbum Misfits from The Kinks Zaine played bass-guitar. The album Ashes And Diamonds should have been the start of a new famous artist, but due to problems with record contracts, frauding management companies and a lack of real promotion by his record company Zaine's music career ended to soon - afte
r the second aldum Figures and release of the single/12" vinyl Swing - the latter only released in Holland. However Zaine's albums are still looked upon as little diamonds in the history of pop music and especially in the beginning of the thrilling eighties, the period in which a lot of very good m
usic was made.

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