The Press is a fickle friend, if it is ever a friend at all...

One thing I found of note was the list of possible questions re The Jazz Age that were kindly provided to the interviewer. Although rarely aired publicly, this type of thing is very common in the Mass Media where interviewers frequently know almost nothing about the people they are supposed to chat up, but it does lead to a sameness inculcating various interviews.

Huge thanks to Roxy for the time and effort taken to scan and post this! (Especially if, as I suspect, The Times' website requires a subscription...)

I have to say that I can quite understand why BF might get a bit prickly on occasions with the press... With a new(ish) album and a tour to promote, I think he could be forgiven for expecting a journalist from a broadsheet to conduct a more upmarket interview than was the case attempted at times here.

Human nature being what it is, I'm sure the readers of The Sun or the Daily Star would have taken great interest in the state of a celebrity marriage or the occasional colourful escapades of the offspring, but that's presumably why those papers weren't invited and The Times was.

I think BF was commendably restrained in the circumstances; if The Times' journalist isn't suitably grateful for the much-sought-after Royal Albert Hall pass, I'll happily take it and the responsibility for writing the review afterwards!

Thanks Smudge! The website does indeed require a subscription and only gave the first paragraph as a teaser. I done that old fashioned thing of going out to buy the paper version

I was surprised as I have read previous articles where female journalists tend to do quite well with Mr Ferry and he has been more relaxed over the past few years.

Maybe they both had a bad day!!

Bryan was obviously going through the mill so hats off to him for doing the interview. I am sure that he had other things on his mind at that time.

Some of the questions were very down market but I admire her for rejecting the "suggested" questions and I did like some of them, in particular whether Bryan considered himself to be cool. Of course his response should have been that it would not be cool to answer that question.

I also laughed at her "can't-quite-be-bothered-but-we-are-going-to-sing-a-ballad-anyway" description. That just about captures the Roxy style in as simple a phrase as I have ever read or heard. A bit like the cool guy at the night club acting all nonchalant and disinterested!

I also like all of the clothing that Bryan was modelling. I didn't think that I liked LV much but had never looked at it properly before now as it is far too rich for my pocket - but this stuff looks very cool (there's that word again) on Bryan - though not sure that I could do it justice. That said, I am in the market for a sharp white shirt just now, but at £720 a pop I will have to pass on LV's version.

The interviewer (Ms. Polly Vernon if you please...) certainly had some sense of BF prior to the interview and her phrasing "can't-quite-be-bothered-but-we-are-going-to-sing-a-ballad-anyway" was spot on.

But for some reason she got all in a snit about having to wait for His Eminence (excuse me, Our Hero) and having to suffer the indignity of being handed a list of prepackaged questions.

I thought her question to him about being Cool was perfectly OK. After all, BF did have a big hit with The In Crowd and Roxy was all about being something other than ordinary. But clearly BF was not in a happy place and he had no interest in trying to exude his patented charm and play along with what she wanted to chat about. And once the interview started going downhill it really turned into a mess.

In the later part of the printed article she simply starts dragging out all kinds of stuff from the clip files that serve no other purpose than to highlight less than flattering parts of BF's past. And the photo of BF with Lucy was IMHO included for no other reason than to get a cheap laugh from an embarrassing and a bizarre hairdo.

They say that any publicity is good publicity, and maybe that's true. But this could be a telling counter example to that truism. However, in the end BF offered her tix to the Royal Albert Hall gig and she ended the interview on a seemingly upbeat note. So maybe it wasn't all so bad. Who knows how the world of media promotion actually works? Perhaps this article will in fact help spur the sales of any remaining tickets for the Fall UK Tour... The world is a funny place...

Lucy was wearing a fancy dress costume and wig in that photograph and I imagine was dressed as Marie Antionette.

You're right. Lucy was definitely flaunting some kind of Marie A. get up. In the post-Lady Gaga world it's fairly ho-hum I suppose, but nonetheless it looks less than flattering and rather ridiculous IMHO.

Elegantly Ageing Hipsters,
My feeling having read Ms.Polly Vernon's lacklustre piece was one of overriding boredom tinged with a touch of anger at the missed opportunity.
For me, it is always a complete put off when one of Fleet Street's worst (if indeed she's ever clacked down that prestigious rue) tries to turn an interview into an endorsement of their own limited intellect.
She has to mention the Jazz age Q&A as an attempt to undermine her journalistic independence rather than the courtesy that it doubtless was towards scribes that may know precious little about that particular music form.
From there on in, the piece consists of a serious of snide remarks and stupidities. I mean, what sort of question is it to ask somebody "Do you think your cool?". Frankly it's just insulting, irrelevant and designed to provoke. She reminds me the kid who whipped his mini into a parking space in front of a Rolls telling the driver; "You have to be really cool to do that". The Rolls driver powered his car into the mini, crushing it against the wall and said "you've got to be ....ing rich to do that". Perhaps Ms.Vernon would have got the point if somebody had dropped something on her mini?
Seriously, how can anybody, who clearly knows little — if anything — about music set out to interview an eminent modern musician with zero preparation and hope to turn it into an expose of his private life?
It's just pathetic.
Her attempt to discuss style falls equally flat because she clearly knows as little about that subject.
Frankly, shame on The Sunday Times for employing her. Couldn't they have sent somebody who knew a great deal about music and style? Then we could have read an intriguing and informative interview. Instead of something that wouldn't pass muster in "Hello".
Regards,
Windswept
Ps. Does anybody know what's likely to be on the new album? Now that would have been an interesting question? Perhaps Ms.Vernon can go back and ask....

This doesn't answer what is on the new album but who may be on the credits...............................Tweeted by Niles Rogers yesterday.

"I just cut 5 new joints w Bryan Ferry today - It was a great session - Music is LIFE!"