"There was real energy: it felt new. With such an interesting line-up of sounds, our aim was to be different. So many possibilities were touched on. We reflected any number of inspirations, of fascinating worlds - we could take it any number of ways." After Eno's exit, Ferry's soulful lyricism came further to the fore, through the grandiose yet groovy Stranded, Country Life and Siren, spawning such sublime hits as Street Life, All I Want Is You and Love Is The Drug.
Roxy, with each member hugely prolific and busy, then took a three-year break. Ferry's solo career was simultaneously flourishing. Albums such as These Foolish Things, Another Time, Another Place, In Your Mind, and his own favourite, The Bride Stripped Bare, revealed his unrivalled ability to remake and remodel classic songs while still exploring fresh territory with his own writing.
"Unconscious in Versailles. Press play begin." ("Hiroshima")
In 1979, Roxy Music returned, streamlined and suited-up, the perfect modernist nouveau-disco project, balancing European and American flavours on Manifesto and its chart-topping follow-up Flesh And Blood. Songs like Dance Away, Angel Eyes, Oh Yeah and Over You embedded their glacial cool into the international consciousness, and their poignant version of John Lennon's Jealous Guy gave the band their first U.K. number one. "If the earlier phase was my favourite, there's a certain beauty in that later work - more accessible, less angular. And we had to keep changing: we didn't want a one-dimensional career."
In 1982 Avalon, the final Roxy Music album, dreamily evocative, honed the art of suggestion and nuance. Such sensuous use of textures and mood-setting magic was to preoccupy Bryan Ferry through his subsequent solo recordings: Boys And Girls (another U.K. number one), Bete Noire, Taxi and Mamouna. 1999's As Time Goes By explored the wit and passion underlying the spirit of songwriting's most sophisticated era; classic songs to be studied and subverted by the man who, across three decades, has been named - to his wry amusement - "the godfather of style" and "the coolest living Englishman" more times than Casablanca has been misquoted.
Roxy's legacy was to infiltrate and improve numerous musical genres: some obviously, some subtly - from new romantics to prog-rockers, from dance to trance, they've been hailed as visionary. Radiohead, Moby, Suede and Pulp are just some of the recent big-hitters to acclaim their aesthetic. There was also the attitude, classical yet eclectic, primarily exuded by Ferry, which quietly informed aspiring stars that a well-chosen whisper could be more effective than yet another scream. Roxy brought a lick of Gatsby to pop's gateau, did the strand and charmed with psalms, were both a really good time and bittersweet. They understood and embodied the thrill of it all, knew that it takes a certain graceful wisdom to be a sentimental fool for love.
"LOOKING for new gods/ Looking for new blood/ Looking for you…" ("I Thought")
Protection - we do a lot of it these days. Sun cream for our skin, sunglasses for our eyes, condoms for you know where - but do you remember to protect your hearing?
Click to find all the information you need to look after your hearing now so you can enjoy music for years to come
The Raft has discovered The CarbonNeutral Company
They help business, government and individuals to tackle their contribution to climate change. In addition to forestry projects, their work includes carbon emissions reduction, renewable energy and biomass schemes, as well as carbon management and risk consulting
The Bete Noire Tour
