I nearly agree with all of Ian's points but had to reach out for the Glayva on the musicianship issue, for which I thank him. (Isn't democracy great!). Nobody could replace Paul, Phil or Andy in any Roxy Music scenario, and I would also suggest Mr. Newmark is on a very good price for the job, rather than an hourly rate. I'm generally pleased with the set list, as far as a B.F. tour goes but havn't, as yet, splashed out on tickets. If it were Roxy, I'd be travelling to a couple of places. Delighted though, that once again, it is a long set list despite his, and our, recent scare.
Am I the only one noticing that many of the tracks, especially the one's re-surrected, or not played live for many a tour, might be included to highlight young Ollie's undoubted outstanding musicanship? Seems to me there are a lot of guitar driven tracks in there.

Same visuals mixed up in a slightly different way from Roxy tour - images from Sentimental fool popping up on Boys and Girls . Exactly the same for Same old scene - which, along with quite a few of these songs was played in the Roxy shows... Hardly any Olympia - which I would have thought was the reason for calling this tour " The Olympia tour" !!! Perhaps it may change as this weirdly booked grab a random venue while you can "tour" develops .... but, even if this happens the Aarhus set list is a shocking yawn.... it even seems to have cheapened and spoiled the wonderful memories from earlier in the year.

Hmmm. I hadn't realized that the recent BF concert visuals drew so heavily on the recent Roxy Tour. I had noted that some of the Roxy songs played by BF (like "Same Old Scene" and "Bitter Sweet") were tracks featured in Jan/Feb that hadn't been heard for a long time otherwise. But I was REALLY surprised to see Andy's signature tune "Tara" trotted out for the first time ever at a BF solo show. Wow.

With BF it's all about CONTROL and in solo concerts, no what what tunes are played, he's in control in a way that he isn't when Roxy perform. So it seems like the Olympia Tour can be thought of as Roxy Lite without the pesky presence of Phil and Andy and TGPT...

Here's the basic trade-off that BF is making: By going solo he's in creative control and (once the back-up band is paid for their work) he reaps the (presumed) financial rewards of a (presumed) successful tour. But the tour venues are smaller and the take per concert is generally smaller than what Roxy can command. So there is the financial trade-off: Smaller more numerous solo gigs in contrast to more lucrative Roxy gigs where the proceeds are relatively diluted.

Back to my so-called life,
DC

He did tara on the dylanesque tour with Ian Dixon doing Andy's parts, as JO'B pointed out at the time the first time it was performed with none of the original performers playing (including Alan Spenner obviously).

Bryan has performed public live shows either solo or with Roxy every calender year since 1999 except 2009.

Roxy did Tara during the 2001 tour and that was its first performance since 1983.
It was part of Bryan's protracted 'Frantic' tour in 2002,2003,2004.
Roxy did it in 2005 and 2006.
It was part of Bryan's Dylanesque tour in 2007-8
Roxy did it at the festivals in 2010
Roxy did it on their 2011 tour
and now it is part of the Olympia tour 2011.

As Ashley points out, during the BF solo tours none of the musician's form the recorded version that appears on the Avalon album are on stage when this is done live so it is almost like a 'tribute act' on stage for 4 minutes.

Original recording:
Alan Spenner Bass
Andy Mackay Saxophone
Bryan Ferry Keyboards

J.O'B.

Never get tired of hearing Tara. I think back to the times when I was lucky enough enough (witnessed it twice) to see Andy, Lucy and Colin interact on the 2001 tour. Every time I watch it on the Apollo D.V.D., a wee tear comes to the eye. Often wondered if it was titled in respect of being the last song off the last album, Tara (Goodbye) a-la, Tara at the end of the 2001 and 2011 gigs (Goodbye) or in respect of Tara Ferry. Too many Tara's!.