I've just heard the whole of the fantastic Newcastle City Hall concert from October 28th 1974, and It does make me wonder why 'Viva' was never released as a double album from this fantastic night! One hopes that perhaps a box set of live material from this period, or any period for that matter will see the light of day! Something as a companion piece to 'Viva' and certainly something much better than 'Heart Still Beating'.

Regards,

LondonPubs.

Yes, indeed, LondonPubs!

It was suggested that there would be 40th anniversary boxed sets for the Roxy studio albums (rather overdue, as we're almost at the 40th birthday of Country Life and none of these boxes have yet appeared!), but a similar one could be done for Viva!

It could include double CDs of each of the three Viva! shows in their entirety, plus a DVD of the Wembley '75 show, which was filmed, but never released.

We live in hope...

Exactly Smudge,


Some of these box sets they do these days are very good, like the three Nick Drake albums!
But yes there always seems to be talk on these projects, which always suggest these things are planned ahead more in advance than we think. The BBC sessions for example probably doesn't warrant an album in it's own right due to the short running time on such a release, hopefully that will come as an extra on the 'Roxy Music' re-release.
2016 will be the forty fifth anniversary and perhaps deluxe editions of the first five albums, which could also include live content would be most welcome. We can only hope!

Sadly, this thread serves as a reminder of how little has been done for Roxy Music fans over the past 3-4 years.

Whatever happened to the supposed deluxe editions of the Roxy albums??? And what about all the live recordings that could be made available in legitimate (non-bootleg) editions???

BF loves to go on the road with his "Roxy Lite" band and play a bunch of Roxy tunes. But meanwhile REAL Roxy recordings languish in limbo, Sigh.

Apart from the box set two years ago there's been no release of any kind since 'Roxy Music Live' in 2003.
The fortieth anniversary is now getting on for four years, and the dvd and live album seems to have been shelved! I don't know why they leave things so long.
I saw Adam Ant at the Hammersmith Apollo in April for the thirty fifth anniversary performance of his first album 'Dirk Wears White Sox', and already the dvd has been edited and will be out by Christmas.

The two nights in Newcastle October 1974 were Roxy's live zenith. The band was at the height of it's musical powers in the rock stakes and Bryan's voice has never sounded stronger. This should be their next live release, even as part of a package.

I remember reading this a while back, but refresh my memory. What was the set list for Newcastle Oct 74?

I saw them in Feb 75 with basically the same band except Wetton was on bass. They were a tight & powerful ensemble, no question. Country Life era Roxy was the pinnacle in terms of live performance...

I think you'll find that Wetton was on bass in October 74. I saw them in April 75 in Sydney and I think the set list was identical to the Newcastle gig. The reviews were sensational with some Sydney music journos saying it was the best they'd heard. Unfortunately, the UK stage set didn't make it down under.

Roxy Music - City Hall, Newcastle, England, 28-10-74

01 - Prairie Rose
02 - Beauty Queen
03 - Mother Of Pearl
04 - Out Of The Blue
05 - A Song For Europe
06 - Three And Nine
07 - If It Takes All Night
08 - In Every Dreamhome A Heartache
09 - If There Is Something
10 - All I Want Is You
11 - The Bogus Man
12 - Street Life
13 - Virginia Plain
14 - Editions Of You
15 - Re-make/Re-model
16 - Do The Strand

Our disappointment on here about the lack of Roxy archive releases on here makes me wonder who if anyone within the Roxy "camp" (if there still is such a thing) is taking an interest in being curator of the back catalogue. Any archive Queen releases are sanctioned and agreed upon by Brian May and Roger Taylor following Freddie's death and John Deacon's retirement.

Presumably nothing Roxy gets released without Bryan's involvement and approval, but with his ongoing touring and recording I doubt he has much interest in going back to Roxy stuff.

We know from J O'B's comments previously that much time and effort went into preparing deluxe reissues of the early albums but that record company re-organisations scuppered their planned release. So is that it for the reissues? Lots of work done but no end product. What a shame, shame, shame.