Mon Dieu,
We need to get him home soon before anything else happens!
Marcus Price and Anderson & Sheppard would never approve but their was a shop in Newcastle called 'City Stylist' that was a little dicey that he once frequented so maybe our hero isn't infallible after all?
Regards,
Windswept

Below was emailed to Oxford Scientific Film who are in pre-production of a fashion and music documentary about Roxy's 70s influence in post-war Britain:

Roxy’s fashion influence has certainly spread beyond the shores of the UK…

As a naive sixteen year old, I attended my first Roxy gig at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion in April 1975 bedecked in the obligatory Sydney beach-side teenage boy uniform of flared jeans and Hawaiian shirt.

However, when Bryan Ferry sashayed to centre stage wearing a white tux, red cummerbund and satin striped black trousers, I was hooked forever more.

The 1940’s matinee idol imagery and croon set against an electronic wall of sound foretold a future that I wanted to be part of.

It wasn’t just fashion - it was a lifestyle.

Roxy previewed a fashion guise as early as 1973 that would be adopted by the New Romantics some seven years later: an amalgam of decades - and even centuries. This was exemplified at the April 1975 concert by the sax player sporting a fashion hybrid of 1950s Teddy boy and 1870s riverboat-card-sharp, but his quiff and sideburns were courtesy of Star Trek.

Indeed, all styles served here…

In 1975 Sydney was not the cosmopolitan city that it is today. Nevertheless, at that mid-seventies concert an impossibly tall model wearing grey jodhpurs, knee-high boots and cropped leather jacket with matching black leather military cap stole the floor as she confidently marched to her front-row seat whilst playfully teasing a riding whip. The cheap tuxedoed Ferry clones stopped smelling their lapel roses and wished they were her beau…

Ferry and his stylist Antony Price knew that 20th Century cinema provided bravura imagery and that’s why they adopted iconic uniforms such as Elvis’ Blue Hawaii G.I. outfit, Bogart’s tux in Casablanca or Valentino’s Blood and Sand matador. The later was much maligned by critics and was a bold move that easily leant itself to buffoonery.

A rarely mentioned look that worked a treat was the red blousy confederate shirt complete with grey military pants adopted during Roxy’s 1976 US southern States tour. Ferry’s moustache topped off his tribute to Rhett Butler’s Gone with the Wind.

I attempted my own fashion homage to El Ferrari when he toured Australia in 1977 and had a white suit tailor-made; even providing Ferry photos to the Sydney CBD tailor. However, the copy of Ferry’s Let’s Stick Together suit was second-rate. Nevertheless, it didn’t stop me from hiring a 1964 Rolls Royce (previously used by The Beatles) and persuading my trench-coated friend to open the door as I stepped out to an underwhelmed Hordern Pavilion crowd. They had hoped for their hero – but I can still hear the moans of disappointment to this day…

I wish that camera phones existed in ’77…

Cher Zarathustra,
What a brilliant piece!
It's interesting to contemplate rock's post war influence on style and vice versa.
For my part, being an even more aged hipster, I took my first style leads from the early Beatles and Stones looks that were such an integral part of the Mod era. Back then the influence that UK musicians had over style was all encompassing. Certainly the NME held more sway than Vogue and whatever Cathy McGowan wore on Friday night's 'Ready Steady Go' would be de-rigour for every Mod female the next week.
The clothes were such an integral part of the music. I remember seeing The Stones at Stockton's ABC in '64 and being so impressed by their look. Brian Jones was a real dandy and Mick and Keith had got that sharp but slightly disheveled Modernist/Beatnik look down just right. I saw the effect it had on the girls and thought this is the way to go.
All progressed well until probably '69 when music started to loose its influence over style. Ironically nobody typified the change more than the Stones when they stepped out for their Hyde Park gig with Jagger sporting a dress. That together with many bands adopting extreme bohemian looks broke the link between music and style and a hiatus developed were it seemed to be deemed unimportant to dress for your audience. A band that I loved at the turn of that decade was 'Free'. Musically they were brilliant but visually their style influence probably had its biggest impact on refuge collectors .Over the years that followed, it was really mainly left to black musicians to keep music's sartorial end up . The only real exception being our beloved Roxy who burst on the scene in '72 like something out of 'Back To The Future'.
My own first encounter with them was somewhat coincidental.
When I stumbled along to Redcar Jazz Club on that fateful night in summer '72, it certainly wasn't to see Roxy Music. It was purely because the venue, known locally as 'The Coatham', featured good bands on Sundays and my friends either went there or to 'The Kirk'.
Although I'd seen Ferry a few years earlier when he was in a Newcastle Mod band called 'The Gas Board', I'd no clue that he was in Roxy and I certainly hadn't heard their first album. In fact I think it was only released a couple of weeks after the gig.
That said, their sound and their stage presence was a sure fire indicator that they would single handily relight the fuse between music and style.Their sartorial aesthetic was strong from the get go and although it wasn't easy to look cool at 'The Coatham' (basically you got to play on a stage in front of a dirty curtain to a maximum of 200 ne'er-do-wells) from the moment they struck up we were all completely transported to Roxy world.
From a personal perspective, although it was more the look that Ferry adopted for his solo work that had the biggest influence on my own style there can be no denying that it was Roxy images designed by Antony Price and adopted by the band for their subsequent tours that had the massive fashion influence and which put glamour and style back into British rock in a most welcome way.
After that first tour, things started to move fast and by the time I next encountered them at Newcastle's City Hall in March '73, the male impersonators had started to appear in the audience and the girls had started to vamp it up!
Although I was way too cool for any of this impersonator malarky, I will plead guilty to one peace of over adoration. In '72 or '73 I spotted our hero in Sunderland's very salubrious Annabels sporting a fabulous printed velvet jacket. The next week, I went to see my style advisor and good friend Marcus Price in his Newcastle store and described the item. Marcus, an absolute master of the sartorial had said item in my sweaty palms within two weeks and I wore it until it dropped off my back. But never in Annabels lest I bump into the our hero sporting his version!
Back to the gigs, the most embarrassing and funny moment for me was during a 'Flesh & Blood' show that I took in when I was living in Scotland. The band played at Glasgow's Apollo and one over excited white suited impersonator (I trust it wasn't you Zarathustra) tried to mount the stage and dance with our hero who looked suitably horrified!
Anyway, great days then and it was certainly more fun going to see the extremely cool Marcus to buy my music influenced gear than it is visiting the Euro brats in Zegna!
Regards,
Windswept.

Monsieur Windswept,

I saw this and immediately thought of you.......................


http://therakeonline.com/arbiter-mens-s ... rettyPhoto

...........it has your name on it. (on a finely hand stitched silk label)

My Dear friend Windswept2,

I think you're quoting BF when he described in his younger days buying clothes from "City Style" as it was "a bit downmarket and tacky" - I paraphrase - but BF was making his point about liking expensive glamorous styles as well as the rougher element. My point is, the shop chain was not "City Style" or "City Stylist", it was called "City Stylish."

I remember the Sunderland branch well, you were guaranteed electric shocks as you walked past the velvet hot pants and nylon smocks, but were guaranteed a love-bite from any lass in that ensemble who shopped there.

Pedantry award in the post!!!!??

Forgot to add, as I write I am wearing pale blue suede Doc Marten loafers, charcoal grey Jasper Conran jeans, and a Camel denim shirt. I get away with murder at work 'cos I'm the boss!

But my finest hours, and fondest memories, were getting a local guy (Paul Ford) in Sunderland, who ran a small establishment called "Roxie," to make me copies of BF's sharkskin suits in much cheaper material, like glazed cotton and/or chintz, they only lasted about 3-6 months but I had them all, pale blue, silver-grey, deep red, etc. and felt like the king of Annabels!

Cher rendez-vous,
Brilliant!
You may well be correct, the shop could have been named "City Stylish".
Windswept's own preference was always for Newcastle's 'Marcus Price'. That guy was just so cool and the stuff he used to get in was unbelievable — even by London standards.
A significant proportion of Windswept's ill-gotten gains was spent in his beautiful shop. Much to the chagrin of one Dave Donnagie, the proprietor of Sunderland's 'West One' boutique, who considered those that shopped with Marcus a traitor to his cause.
There is however a very loose Ferry connection in all of this as soon to be Eurythmic and Bryan collaborator, Dave Stewart, used to hang out there and was a good friend of Donnagie's shop manager, Neil Johnson,
Interestingly enough, Mr & Mrs Windswept last saw Neil Johnson and his beautiful wife at Roxy's FYP Sydney show in 2011. They came to the pre-show cocktail dressed as Ferry & Jerry.
Happily they ditched their costumes before the gig. That would have been just too embarrassing, even by Geordie standards!
Windswept's pleased your tailor made you the king of Annabel's, he used to love that joint.
a bien tôt,
Windswept

[quote="Windswept2
Cher rendez-vous,

Windswept's own preference was always for Newcastle's 'Marcus Price'. That guy was just so cool and the stuff he used to get in was unbelievable — even by London standards.
A significant proportion of Windswept's ill-gotten gains was spent in his beautiful shop. Much to the chagrin of one Dave Donnagie, the proprietor of Sunderland's 'West One' boutique, who considered those that shopped with Marcus a traitor to his cause.
Windswept[/quote]

Dear Windswept2,

Marcus Price's place was way ahead of it's time, and well out of my price-range, but West One was just about within it most of the time and was my first port of call when I became a full-time wage earner. I spent half of my salary there every month for about 5 years; I was devastated when it closed, must have been about 10 years ago now, as my eldest lad had taken on the fashion mantle and used to go there.

Thanks for bringing back some names and memories.