Velvet Goldmine was a minor hit by David Bowie in the early seventies. It is also the title of a new movie starring Ewan McGregor, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Christian Bale. Glamrock has been sadly overlooked and neglected by the musicindustry for almost 25 years. Like a black sheep of disgrace no one wanted to admit ever existed. Todd Hanyes' "Velvet Goldmine" breaks the ice and brings back the days of glitz and glamour.

Jonathan Rhys Meyers stars as glamrock soloartist Brian Slade, the man who starts the glamrock revolution at an appearance on Top of the Pops. Slade is a an androgyneos fashionable David-Bowie-inspired figure with a taste for Dorian-Gray-decadence. "Velvet Goldmine" describes this enigmatic rockicon's typical rise, fall andhomosexual relationship with a punk from Detroit, Curt Wild (Ewan McGregor). Wild certainly do deserve his name, it is impossible to not compare McGregor's role to Iggy Pop.

Slade and Wild are bonded by passion and sexual tension, together they try to match and modify every myth of rock ´n roll. Their hard living and decadent behaviour consumes on the relationship and Slade suddenly disappear when a careermove turned out to be a major disaster. Ten years later a British journalist, Arthur Stuart (Christian Bale), tries to disperce the fog of the former glamgods disappearence. Stuart was a part of the glamrock movement as a teenager and the work on the article brings back reflections and memories long forgotten.

"Velvet Goldmine" captures the flash but also the flesh of the early glamrock. Haynes has put the focus on the revolt. Underneath the mascara, eyeliners and lipstick, was a reaction to the then musical climate which did nothing but shoot the weekend in the head. "Velvet Goldmine" emphasizes the sexual revolution, the gender-bender movement and breaking down of traditional roles. Unfortunately Haynes has given this aspect a bit too much exposure. There were heterosexual glamrockers, quite a few actually. The story is fictional however and doesn't have to outline the truth. Almost every character in the movie is orgy-oriented, eager to try everything within drugs and sex. Shouldn't rock ´n roll be included? Shouldn't that be sex, drugs AND rock ´n roll? Eventhough "Velvet Goldmine" contains lot of songs, the music is ordered to a back-up role. The focus is on the love between two men, a relation which is beautiful but has very little to do with glamrock and could take place in any context.

David Bowie didn't let Haynes use his Ziggy Stardust reportoire, therefore plenty of the music are recently written (Pulp, Shudder to Think and Grant Lee Buffalo). The New music manages to create the moods but nothing can challenge the real thing. Glamrock is a sky of twinkling stars, the ones responsible could have compiled a better roster.

All in all "Velvet Goldmine" is a magical moment. It captures the birth and early years of glamrock. At the end of 1973 all the young dudes, mystery girls and children of the revolution experienced a personality crisis. The 48 crash on desolation boulevard caused fatal damage to an outrageous genre. Too much teenage rampage too soon? Probably but the rebellion still lives in the heart of the young.