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Beat Instrumental MAY 1973 - by Staff Writers

BRYAN FERRY ON THE SWIFT RISE OF ROXY

Bryan Ferry has got a very substantial ego. And it's a good thing for British and American music fans that he has because without it we would never have witnessed the advent of Roxy Music - a real, no nonsense 20th Century figment of Bryan's ego and imagination.

It's a figment that rock critics have watched become a reality with pens poised to slam the glossy theatrics of this utterly electrically-orientated band since its swift rise to fame just two years ago.

They've been waiting to slam them on almost any score because, for many, Roxy's rise was too fast and almost too self-assured. Last year a critic wrote: "Roxy could be a good band if they can manage to get it on".

UNIT

Bad luck for the critics and good news for the fans is that Roxy have really got it on. Their new album - released last month - represents an incredible advance on the first and their stage act has become tighter than tight thanks to both U.K. and American tours that have forged Roxy into a rocking unit of the first order.

It's not been easy on them, however. They've really had to work for their share of success and though Bryan Ferry was happy about the progress when I spoke to him recently, he was also bearing those shadow marks beneath the eyes that tell the tale of much work and little sleep.

A former art student/teacher from Washington, County Durham, he was the creative force in terms of the visual, musical and lyrical aspects of the band.

After playing with a local band called The Gas Board,and getting a degree in Fine Arts from Newcastle University, Bryan moved to London in 1968 with the express purpose of forming a successful group.

After a series of rehearsals and time spent in pulling the members of the band - Andy McKay, Phil Manzanera, Eno and Paul Thompson - together, they made a tape and sent it, among others, to Richard Wiliams of Whistle Test fame.

He wrote an article about them which led to John Peel 'discovering' Roxy and featuring them on his Sounds Of The '70s radio programme.

At that time - mid-1971 - the band were centred in Kensington and doing "amateurish" gigs around London. Andy McKay was playing synthesiser, which he later gave up for saxophone and Eno was doing tape effects and vocal harmonies from the P.A. control desk at the back of the hall.

SCREAM

"It was a scream, really," recalls Bryan, "because Eno would be talking to a member of the audience, you know, telling him what kind of a P.A. and mixer we were using, and then he'd have to break off and sing a few harmonies into the desk mike, which would then come out from on stage."

Even at that point in time then, Roxy were doing things differently - a style which has since become their very own.

The name of Roxy Music came about with the start of the band, the line-up of which, apart from the departure of bass guitarist Rick Kenton who has been replaced by John Porter, has remained the same since.

"I sat down and wrote out a list of the names of all the cinemas I could remember," said Bryan. "I hit on Roxy Music because films and cinemas have always been great favourites with me and the word 'Roxy' seemed to combine so well both the glamorous and the sordid aspects of the whole thing."

It's certainly the glamour thing that has taken precedence during Roxy's career to date as anyone who has seen them on their current British tour will testify.

VISUALS

It's a trend that began with Bryan designing the luscious covers for both albums, and has developed to the point where the band's hairdressers are given a credit on the sleeve notes and each individual member has his own designer working on stage clothes for him.

"We're all fairly theatrical people anyway," said Bryan, "with the possible exception of Paul, the drummer, who worked in a Jarrow shipyard before seeing our advert and joining the band after one audition.

"We are definitely geared to visuals. There's no question of just slavishly following the glam rock trend, because we've always wanted to look good, right from the beginning.

"Besides which, we feel that dressing-up lends a sense of occasion to a gig and, though we might be into more bizarre kinds of costumes, it's all part of the entertainment value of Roxy which we feel is very important."

The new album, complex though it may sound, took only two weeks to make at the Air London studios, a fact which Bryan is happy about because it shows that the music is a much more spontaneous and vital thing than the clothes.

"We take care of course," he said, "but we also like to be spontaneous because it makes for greater highs within the music. There maybe a couple of small mistakes in the first takes for some tracks, but these are more than made for, I think, by the live sound and that sort of vital feel that first takes tend to have."

CULT

There's nothing on the album that can't be done on stage too - except, of course, for any phasing that might occur. And the light show that accompanies them on each gig gives them a lot of extra visual appeal.

With all this going for them, Roxy obviously have more than, say, a straightforward, denim-clad blues band, to offer.

"Yes, it's an incredible thing," said Bryan. "When we first started, we developed something of a cult following, principally among young heads I suppose, but now we do a concert hall and Andy McKay, who normally gets to see more of the audience than I do, says that we've got the young glamour freaks at the front, older, more musically critical guys in the middle and real fifth-generation music heads at the back of the hall. We seem to be able to cross the whole spectrum and provide something for everybody, which is nice."

Roxy are not after getting just one hit sound, and this could well be the clue to their ability to cross the spectrum of musical appeal.

"I take my musical influences from everywhere," said Bryan, "and though I may have been likened to a latter day Lou Reed, I do like to treat each number as a completely separate entity. That's the way the whole band thinks,and I'm sure that that's where our real strength lies - in our ability to play all styles of music. It's an ephemeral kind of thing with oomph if you like."

Their other strength lies now in the gruelling series of gigs they've undertaken since the first album was issued. Commented Bryan: "I think that our advance has been as better musicians and better performers, too.

"At first I guess we were pretty green, you know, lost on stage if something came unplugged, but it's the whole being on the road thing that has pulled us together professionally speaking.

"That's not to say that it hasn't created pressures - you can't live and work in such close and pressured proximity without some kind of tension developing somewhere - but what this period has been for us is one of paying our dues. We just happen to have done it a different way to most bands, that's all."

Doing things differently, it seems, has become a way of life for Roxy Music.

The band's line-up and equipment is as follows: Paul Thompson, drums. Rogers kit with Premier kit for studio work.

John Porter, bass. Fender Precision through Fender Bassman amp and cabinet.

Phil Manzanera, guitar. Gibson Firebird, ex-Jimi Hendrix Fender Stratocaster through Fender Twin Reverb. Has just started experimenting with Hi-Wat amp through a JBL cabinet.

Andy McKay, reeds. Selmer alto and tenor saxophones, and rare Chinese alto, plastic Grafton Ornette Coleman sax and oboe all "bugged" and put through a Fender Pro Reverb.

Eno, electrics (for want of a better word!). VCS3 synthesiser (with modifications), two Revox tape recorders and a cassette player, all of which go through a Hi-Wat stack.

Bryan Ferry, keyboards and guitar. Hohner Pianet, Mellotron 400, Farfisa single-manual organ through a Fender Twin Reverb. Hagstrom guitar through a Fender Twin Reverb.

P.A. - Kelsey Morris comprising fifty-two horns and eight bass bins, various mikes and Phase Linear amps.