Norman Ball

There are some who speculate David Bowie himself may have either approved of the leak of Toy or is so engaged in his post-iconic, house-husbandly duties that he hasn’t had a chance to look up from piles of dirty dishes to comment. In a recent Mojo article, David Buckley offers the possibility that Bowie’s “then record label, Virgin, had a listen and didn't consider an album featuring 11 retreads of obscure tracks to be the right sort of new product at a time when Bowie was still having hit singles.“ Obviously the silence is open to myriad interpretations. However now that, in the words of Torrent Freak, “Toy is out of the box and never going back,“ should officialdom’s imprimatur matter?