I have forever seen it like this. Ferry had a massive insurance policy. If the solo stuff wasn't going well, he had Roxy Music to fall back on. There is a seperate issue here also. Outwith the band and any subsequent members of same, there is the brand name "Roxy Music". It is a hugely attractive name for any band. Rio Music or Odeon Music or Ritzy Music would not have imposed upon us all in the same way as "Roxy Music" did. Martin Fry latched on to Ferry's idea in more ways than one. Was A.B.C. not another cinema chain?

so many have "latched on to Ferry's idea". Rod the broad is an example, not to mention many others. Bryan is still ahead of his time.

I agree that after the 2001 tour would have been the time to nail a new album. They guys were in good form as musicians/singers, I am sure the camaraderie and feel good factor within the band was great and the respect and profile was high within the music media.

J.O'B.


totally agree john. so why didn't it happen? without wishing to dig up the whole sorry (sorry, because we will now never know what direction the band would have taken after 18 years away) saga, you are perhaps best-placed to advise..
i for one remain intrigued. everything was in place and they were back, riding on the crest of a wave. a missed opportunity for a final hurrah, in my opinion..

regards

Gaz

I heard that a promoter offered them loadsa money to reform for a 50 date tour in 2001 and they accepted. But it was never a proper reforming.

They did have a promoter who guaranteed them (BF, PM, AM) a sizable reward for the 2001 tour. And it was a great success.

But straight-away after the 2001 tour was over, BF set to work on completing Frantic which came out the next spring; he also toured heavily to support Frantic in 2002 through early 2003 (it was at the end of the Frantic tour in March 2003 that he first developed a serious throat problem affecting his voice.)

Roxy then started to tour again over the next several years, which prompted the studio recording work of 2005-06. But for whatever reason, when it gets time to really commit to Roxy, BF pulls back and finds some other solo project to take precedence. Thus we got, Dylanesque, and Olympia, and TJA and whatever the next BF album is called.

BF can continue to release solo albums that generate a bit of record business buzz, but only modest sales. If he wants to get back into the game big time and compete on a on level comparable with the new Bowie album (93,000 cds sold in Britain alone in one week - topping the album charts) he can only do it with a new Roxy Music album. That is something that, so far, he has not chosen to do. Many people believe that he never will. I don't see it happening any time in the immediate future, but I don't think it is impossible, simply because a new Roxy album represents an opportunity to make some sizable (although not huge) money and also promote the Roxy catalog yet one more time.

But looming above all of this speculation is BF's health, and his recent heart surgery (last October) makes one wonder how long he can keep doing any type of public tours and extensive private gigging. I hope he stays healthy for a long time to come, but it's hard to ignore the ticking of the clock...

Mes amis, fellow dilettantes,ageing hipsters and other ne'er-do-wells,

Although this debate is forever interesting, I can't help but feel that sometimes we are talking about the development of an ATM rather than the evolution of a great artist.

I am quite sure that our hero has done what he wanted because that's what great artists do and that commercial considerations have always been secondary. Had it all been about the wonga he wouldn't have had to consult McKinsey to figure out that Roxy was the thing.

When it comes to comparisons with other musicians, of course there is an element of competition in every field and as we move inextricably closer to the last fandango one can feel a bit of an urge for one last dash for cash but when it comes to Geordie's favourite son, I am sure that his overwhelming desire is to produce great music with collaborators of his choosing.TJA is a concrete testimony to this. If moolah was the be all and end all, he'd never have gone the Jazz route. Thank God he did because he gave us a fabulous album that is so damn cool I can't stop playing it!

Naturally, when you've had a career as long and as prodigious as Ferry's everybody will have their favourite part but for me I can't think of anybody that's ploughed a more creative furrow when it comes to modern music - Bowie included.

Regards,
Windswept

" I know for a fact that the Roxy reformation for Manifesto began before The Bride Stripped Bare was released".

It would be interesting to know exactly when RM decided to get back together and to hear the facts then.

The original version of "TBSB" (featuring "Four Letter Love" and "Broken Wings") was intended to be released in April 1978.

Polydor were reportedly unhappy with the finished album and deemed it not good enough (which must have been a first time rejection for a BF/RM recording), probably there was more to it than that, considering the musical climate at the time, and how well it would do.

What BF did exactly, apart from the obvious song changes and tracklisting, is unknown but the record was eventually released in September 1978, after both the first two single releases had failed catastrophically.

Considering the original release date, and BF's sloth like methods of working, I would presume that the recordings for TBSB started at the very latest in late 1977. All 3 key members of RM would have been in the process of making solo albums at this time.

So I doubt if the Roxy re-union, which was first reported in the music papers in August 1978, would have been initiated before the negative views and subsequent reviews from the record label and critics.
BF knew it was a dud, his pride had been hurt, the musical climate had changed and that is why he reformed Roxy...Fact!

BF is clearly an artist, and he takes great pride in his stature as such. But he is also a business man who has long enjoyed (and long sought) the worldly pleasures that come from being successful and making money. If he wrote a biography entitled "The Art of the Deal" it could be a really interesting and revealing book. After all he introduced himself to Pop Stardom with the evocative intro line "Make Me A Deal..." (and which he later said was in reference to his lawyer/solicitor working out terms with EG Records and Management.)

For me, I find the "business" of Bryan Ferry not to be in opposition to his artistry, but an essential component of it.

The connection between TBSB and the reformation of Roxy after a long hiatus definitely poses significant questions. I have no direct knowledge of what transpired in the summer and fall of 1978 that ignited the spark for what became the 1979 album Manifesto. But the album is clearly a melding of two very different sensibilities (characterized as "East Side" and West Side") and reflecting two approaches to recording.

The "West Side" is a direct (and imaginative) extension of Roxy as they were in '72-'75. The "East Side" is much harder to reconcile with old school Roxy and there is scant evidence of TGPT playing much of role in these recordings. And of course TBSB was BF's first musical outing without TGPT.

Perhaps, as JO'B relates, the commercial failure of TBSB is not really germane in terms of the origins of Roxy's reformation. But the story then becomes all the more interesting, especially because BF abandons his solo career and doesn't release another album under his own name until B&G in 1985. I don't know if Mr Rifff is correct in his analysis but, to me, nothing he states seems outlandish or implausible.

BF very much used/needed the Roxy Music brand name after 1978, but that is what it was, using the Roxy name (the band never reformed), TGPT was quickly discarded and AM and PM had their roles diminished to the point of being the "session" musicians on avalon. Apart from the players now revealed to have played on manifesto, Neil Hubbard I'm pretty sure played on it and the Brecker brothers have also been mentioned (probably cry,cry,cry) which would mean AM's sax duties were diluted even then. Watching the Apollo dvd it is evident that there is something positive there which plainly wasn't there in 2011. Any new Roxy album would have been BF, AM,PM,TGPT and BE but with the legion of other players evident in BF's later output so anyone expecting a Roxy album like the old days would be disappointed. Wasn't the spat between BF and AM in 1976?

If nobody else is going to stick their head above the parapet on this one then I guess I will have to.

The simple answer is that this group of musicians should have done whatever they wanted and if they decided to follow the cash then fair enough. However, they should have been more honest about it and re-branded themselves rather than using the Roxy Music tag which was, up until then, synonymous with innovative and cutting edge music. Instead they chose to cash in on the name, seriously diluting the legacy in the process.

Apart from 3 or 4 tracks on Manifesto there is nothing wrong with any of the stuff on the last 3 albums. I like it and play it a lot, but to me, and I imagine to most of us who lived through those heady early days and got into the first five albums as they were released, then it simply is not Roxy Music The Roxy Music project came to a natural end with Siren and things should have been left that way.