Not sure what section of the forum I should put this in but hey ho, I stuck it in here.

I was swimming on Saturday with the bairn and heard some music piped through the sport centre’s music system. It was’ Independent Love Song’ by Scarlet.

I saw them support Bryan Ferry in 1995 when that song was out as a single and they released their album ‘Naked’ around that time.
I saw them at about 4 or 5 shows at that time and really got into them and bought the album.

I was wondering as a thread here if anyone had got into a band after seeing them support Bryan or Roxy?

J.O’B.

Like you I saw them at Bryan's Manchester gig and I too bought the album. Got into The Tourists a wee bit after they supported Roxy in 79.

I saw scarlet at Hull in February 1995 which is their home city, a dj on one of the local radio stations said at the time "This time next year Bryan Ferry will be supporting them".

Can't really recall any band I really got into, even though many were entertaining enough for me to download all their stuff from spotify (only to delete it after a few weeks), eg Handclappers. I'm sure this thread may further trigger the memory.
However, there were quite a few bands I already liked who then supported RM or BF: Mari Wilson, Martha+Muffins, Cockney Rebel, (& many more, if only I could remember them ). Oh dear, ageing hipsterism strikes again......

Original Mirrors!
(if I remember correctly, supporting the F&B tour),
not bad at all, bought both of their albums!


And a lot of praise goes to the young, solo artist from Denmark
who supported Bryan in April 2007....
she performed solo, in front of an impatient BF crowd, but got the applause at the end she deserved!

My favourites have been Martina Sobara at the Shepherds Bush Empire in 2003 supporting BF and the Sadistic Mika Band at Wembley Arena in 1975 supporting RM. Martina only made one solo album which I bought at the time and still listen to, a great voice. I also found SMB on cd and have been playing that a few times recently.
There have been many more, let's not forget Leo Sayer on the Stranded tour.

MB

I saw Roxy on the Manifesto tour at the Palladium in New York in March of 1979. The opening act was a band from Boston called The Atlantics. They had one album on ABC and couple of self produced singles. It was straight ahead guitar driven Power Pop. I became a fan, bought the album, which suffered from indiffernet production and saw them a few times in New York and Boston in clubs. They were huge in Boston, but never caught on nationally. Their album, Big City rock remains unreleased on CD but a couple of cds of demos and singles ave been released.

Good stuff. I read a host of Power Pop blogs and they are considered legendary within the genre.

I must be just too hard to please because I can't ever remember being bowled over by a support act at a Roxy or BF gig. Even those who had had a bit of chart success (e.g. Martha & The Muffins in '80 and, if I remember correctly, Mari Wilson in '82) didn't linger long in the memory.

Maybe they're carefully selected, so that there's no remote risk of them stealing the show? As headliners, you wouldn't want the support band called back for an encore, I'm guessing!

A couple of my mates still chuckle over the night when an unknown band named Queen blew headliners Mott The Hoople off the stage (somewhere exotic like the Southend Kursaal! lol), much to the very obvious displeasure of Ian Hunter!

I've just finished reading a biography of Lynyrd Skynyrd, whose early gigs included playing second or third on the bill at medium size venues (i.e. huge by UK standards: 10-20,000 in a speedway or stock car stadium...); more than one headliner took to the stage to find that 50-75% of the crowd had come to see Skynyrd then gone home!

I enjoyed the Smoke Fairies on the Dylanesque tour, and they're probably the only support act I've carried on following. I'm seeing them live (again) next Monday.