It was all a cunning stunt to kick start Bryan' s solo career. He did it in 2001 with the Roxy reunion and he tried it again,but this time it didn't work !

Could be? He did do the Frantic stuff straight after the RM reunion. Then the Dylan effort came on the back of or around the time of the RM sessions.

So, if your theory is correct, there will be more RM activity or rumored activity for Bryan's next solo work whatever that may be?

I am not that bothered about any new RM album as F&B & Avalon were BF albums anyway in my opinion. RM finished sometime during the making of Manifesto. I just want them to play some dates, that's all really.

May well be a cunning stunt done in the best possible taste....

I still reckon most of the material in those rm sessions has not been seen yet, not part of Olympia. John?

Also, I reckon the death knell for the rm output is commercial arithmetic....my hypothesis:

Most money is made on touring (?) and bf has optimised the balance of rm gigging/ bf picnic gigs/ bf corporate gigs. Money made from new material output gets ever less, and I bet there is an equation which tells bf he should output recorded material as BF, albeit at lower volume ( rather than share it 3 ways...I reckon that gets nowt or little) vs RM.

Sounds cynical, I know...and sad it's so impacted by dosh considerations....given that bf is a multi multi millionaire

Well the above deduction I have made is from facts that are plain to see and don't come from any assummed inside info.

I don't know a thing about the Roxy album other than what we already know is that they got together and recorded some stuff. I worked at Studio one for 2 months earlier this year and I never asked a single thing about it.

J.O'B.

BF is certainly not a poor man and he certainly enjoys the posh lifestyle, but exactly how much of a "multi-millionaire" he is not all that certain.

Yes he's had considerable commercial success over the years, but he's had his flops (Olympia, Mamouna) and he he never cracked the US Market and even in Europe he and Roxy never had a lot of Mega-Hits. Financially he's certainly not in the league of Bowie, or Sting, or Clapton, (and forget about Elton or Mick or Paul...). And I wonder if he actually trails Eno (wouldn't you like to have a producer piece of U2's The Joshua Tree, or a chunk of Coldplay's last two albums?)

I used to think that commercial factors would lead BF to embrace a new Roxy album, but he seems to have found alternatives to such a path (a lot of Corporate Gigs can apparently pay a lot of bills and keep a young wife happy...)

His decision to play but four concert gigs this summer (with the real band including TGPT) is interesting in that he can't be enough to generate a huge amount of revenue, but it nonetheless incurs considerable operational expenses (like paying the band!) that can't be spread over a multitude of gigs.

Maybe something interesting will transpire in the fall, or maybe (as is more likely) things will still be in limbo as the clock keeps ticking and we all get older... Oh what a cheery thought!

Sure he trails eno, and Bowie by a long way....but ive seen estimates putting him at 30-50m. Sterling. And those estimates were pre his renaissance. he owns most of little bognor too, buying up more adjacent property from atgb period onwards. Unless that's remortgaged ...and I doubt that... The asset value of that mega prime piece of Sussex alone is well into 8 figures. I've also seen a contract for one of his picnic gigs. You'd be surprised how lucrative these can be, especially when you consider how canny he is regarding the costs of his touring band. The man is no financial slouch.

Certainly BF is not in straitened financial conditions, but I doubt that his divorce didn't come without some financial pain. And his real estate holdings are substantial, but that too incurs a property tax obligation of no small size not to mention upkeep, etc.

Anyway, he makes/owns plenty more than I do (!), so he can take comfort in that...

I've seen the 30 to 50 million but that was prior to the divorce. I also read that Lucy got £12million.
I wonder how well off the others are? Especially Paul with no writing royalties?

..and the 30-50 was before the renewed gigging and this decades activity. so, netting off the divorce, i reckon its probably still in that range...ie multi multi millions. the others won't be in the same league (fewer song writing credits, negligible income from gigs, most of which would've been derived from their share of rm gigs). my guess: phil and andy are very comfortable, but not big 8 figure territory, and paul is modestly off. relevant? only perhaps insofar as it might shed some light on some of the decisions and actions re recording, branding, gigging etc...and why some people put up with others, despite occasional friction.

Thanks JO'B for your initial post on the RM IX/Olympia discussion.

My own view is that the Roxy sessions actually went quite well - quotes from Paul, Eno and Phil seem to support this.

My reading between the lines is that AM particularly and PM probably wanted to try and start from scratch and BF wanted them to complete some of his half finished stuff - hence Andy's quote.

This also may explain why AM and PM appear on a few Olympia tracks.

BF probably went into the sessions with one view and AM and PM with the opposite - it didn't work out.

That's a shame really as I think it left a bad taste in the mouth and we won't see Roxy live again