Ageing Hipsters,
As this excellent site reminds us it is just forty short years ago today that those inimitable lyrics; "Make me a deal and make it straight..." first washed over the airwaves and I thought it would be fun to know where the illustrious luminaries of this forum where when they first heard Bryan lay down the challenge?
For my part, I'd taken in their gig at "Redcar Jazz Club" - it had sold me and I'd bought the album. That said, I'm very sure that they didn't play "Virginia Plain".
The first time I can remember hearing it was in Sunderland's "Annabel's" night club when a DJ who had phenomenal taste in music, the late great John Hawker, spun it for the first time. I can remember discussing it with John - we were completely blown away and to this day I can remember the reaction from the crowd - everybody was struck dumb and it quickly became a huge dance floor filler.
Can any of you dilettantes out there remember where you where?
Regards, Windswept

Good question Windswept2,

Gee, reading your post took me back to where I was then.
I was in my mid-teens & in high-school (literally) 40 yrs. ago, and didn't hear of Roxy Music until a few years later, somewhere around '75-'77.

I was into The Beatles, Zeppelin, Uriah Heep, Foghat, Deep Purple, Aphrodite's Child, etc.

A friend put on Siren, and I was hooked, line & sinker when
Love Is The Drug came on. Since then, I always eagerly
awaited their next album.

'Course, I played Siren endlessly for Gloria, still do.

Had a dream I met Bryan at an airport, then years later
I met him, his manager David Enthoven, and David Williams
on the Mamouna tour in Montreal & Toronto.

Roxy inspired me to make music 'cos like Bryan, I'm a
sentimental fool.

I was a very young lad, barely into junior school. But this was a crucial time. We all watched top of the pops in those days. Very rarely, a breakthrough act happened, and we'd all talk about them. After vp, we spoke about roxy. I remember thinking the music was exactly what i wanted to hear. The appearance of those blokes too left an indelible imprint. I think starman/bowie also did the trick. Then we also spoke a lot about the mael brothers after they debuted this town ain't big enough.... And a bit later the sex pistols. And siouxsie. Wow, that was a pretty amazing decade...

Although I'd fallen under the Roxy spell via their initial OGWTest appearance a few months earlier, the Top of the Pops VP performance was seismic, I watched it with the rest of my family and they were all gobsmacked. The lads looked and sounded amazing and I just remember trying to memorise every precious joyous second; I was beaming for days afterwards.

Windswept 2 - I was too young to get into Annabel's at the time, but I loved that club and have so many happy memories of it and DJ John, especially his James Brown segment, which always had the place jumping. I can imagine the effect hearing VP in there must have had, you lucky guy!! I haven't lived in the area for a long time and I'm so sad to hear John's passed on . I remember some years ago the Sunderland Echo did a feature on him, similar to the title of this thread.

Dear Rendezvous,
Great to hear from a fellow "Annabel's" member.
The Roxy connection with the club maybe greater than you think.
Back in the day, Ferry was a frequent visitor. He would often pop in when he came back from London.
In fact, I was lucky enough to be invited to his "Dylanesque" after party in Paris and I spent a few minutes chatting to him (if you haven't met him, I can tell you, he is absolutely charming) and we talked about Annabel's and Harker. He (Ferry) still loves the north-east and so does his son, Isaac. Furthermore, he remembers everything and loves to chuckle about it!
Anyway, Harker was a fabulous DJ and like you, I moved away from the NE (in my case 36 years ago) and I was absolutely gutted to hear that he had passed. He was so innovative and eclectic in his musical taste. His taste ranged from "Ramsey Lewis" to "The Supremes" and he would play everything worthwhile so much in advance of the others. I used to love going to that place and the full routine would be Monday, Wednesday and Fridays at Annabel's. Saturday at Redcar's "Top Deck" and Sunday at "Kirk Levington Country Club". On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I'd stay in and wash my hair - great days!
Regards, Windswept

That's a great post Windswept2, really made me smile, thanks. Sadly, I've never met Bryan, but I knew he used to frequent Annabels as an ex-boss of mine told me about seeing him in there, even describing what Bryan was wearing (e.g. a velvet jacket with tiny flowers printed on it).

I met TGPT in Annabels in 1980, a few months before F+B came out, I asked him about it and he said "Ah I'm not on it, Bryan doesn't want me on it." Of course I felt lousy, and he obviously realised that, he was a very nice guy and so gracious.

It's amazing that you mentioned Ramsey Lewis - I was going out with a girl in 1972 whose older sister was married to a cool cockney guy and he introduced me to Ramsey Lewis via the just-released "Wade in the Water."

All the best.

In the sixties, at home when my dad was on leave from the Royal Navy I'd listen to, or rather hear, Richard Wagner and Buddy Rich and Johnny Ray and when at my Nan's it would be Jim Reeves. Of course there were the Beatles, the Stones and Dylan on the radio and I suppose I also liked a bit of TRex. But then my friend Paul's older brother, Phil came home with a something he said was the future and I still remember CPL 593H and growing potatoes by the score. I was hooked. Then a little later we'd dance and the Grammar School disco and then scream out the reply to "What's her name?" Maybe it was the play on words maybe it was the music it was all so new to a 12 year old
But that was 1972.
I've seen Roxy Music just five times: once in Southampton and during the "Manifesto" at the hammersmith Odeon tour with the Tourists (with Annie Lennox) as the support band and then in Frejus in the South of France, Turin and in Milan, with the new King Crimson as the support band, and to think Bryan Ferry once auditioned for them and wordsmith Pete Sinfield also did the wording on the cover of the first Roxy album.
I've still got the tickets and the programmes somewhere or other to prove it.
My favourite album is probably "For your pleasure" closely followed by "Country Life" and "Manifesto". As far as solo albums go "In your mind", "The Bride stripped bare" and "Dylanesque" are all in my pantheon.

I was 7 years old and had ambitions to be a fire engine driver, had an imaginary friend called Davy, wore Tom And Jerry pyjamas, watched Joe 90 on TV and was in bed by 8 o'clock every night so I am sure Virginia Plain would have gone over my head if I saw it on TV.

Having said that one of my elder sisters was a big Roxy fan and I am sure I would have heard Virginia Plain seepeing through the walls of my bedroom in between Donny Osmond and T-Rex while I was reading the Beano with a torch under my quilt

J.O'B.

...while I was reading the Beano with a torch under my quilt...

A quilt? How posh! I was still making do with blankets and, on a good day, an eiderdown!

In August 1972 I was preparing to go to "big school" and everything was footie; music was only just starting to register on my radar, which may explain, but not excuse, my early allegiance to Slade and (for reasons I've never understood) the Jackson 5. How's that for a stylistic mash-up?!

Can't recall if I first heard Roxy on the radio when Pyjamarama was in the charts or, just prior to that, via one of those K-Tel compilations (mine was titled Believe In Music) which included VP. Either way, I know I liked the sound because it was just so different and I thought Phil's image (i.e. the bug-eye glasses etc.) was really cool!

Roxy have remained my abiding passion in rock (notwithstanding my defection to jazz 25 years or so ago because 80s & 90s rock just didn't measure up...) while other bands were no more than a passing interest. The only other bands to spend more time on my radar than off it since 1972 are Free & The Faces (but then who remembers the silver & bronze medal winners for long?).

When I said quilt I really meant 'my granny's old coat' I am one of 7 children and my dad was a coal miner so 'the continental quilt' was not an option for the O'Brien's then.

J.O'B.