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Beat Instrumental OCTOBER 1972 - by Steve Turner

NOW WE'VE GOT SCI-FI ROCK BY: ROXY MUSIC

Roxy Music. Suddenly, or so it seems, we've been issued with the main course of the next decade's music. Those of us in our twenties grew up believing that The Beatles and Dylan would never grow old like Elvis or Sinatra and could hardly stretch our imaginations to conceive what the 'next wave' would be like. Would they be bald? Would they wear space suits? Shoot rayguns?

During 1972 we in Britain had our imaginations partly satisfied. Along came Bowie... Bolan... Cooper... and Roxy Music. Also along came a new generation of record buyers and concert goers - the kids that started school when we left.

Now, Roxy Music don't exactly hire their stage gear from NASA but you could say they're well on their way. The image put over both by their stage appearance and their music is one of the future. Sci-fi rock 'n' roll. Bryan Ferry, Roxy's lead singer and songwriter, sees their music as drawing both from the landmarks of rock 'n'roll and the best of ultra-modern electronics. Much of their strength lies in their ability to function as a 'bridge' in this way. Audiences aren't quite ready for rock shows presented by motionless computers and still want the basic visual and emotional qualities that go to make up what we term 'rock 'n'roll'.

In fact, Ferry isn't too keen on the experimental rock bands that have preceded Roxy because of their failure to present their music as 'interesting'. "I don't think Soft Machine were interesting enough. Pink Floyd were more interesting but still feel a little short. When we formed Roxy Music we actually thought our music would be more experimental than it has been up to now. I certainly think we're capable. We're the most ideas-orientated band around." Ferry thinks that the more success the band gain the more freedom they will have to continue their experimentation.

It's not surprising that Roxy are an ideas-orientated band. Out of the six members, three are graduates and one turned down the opportunity to study at university. Out of the graduates, Ferry studied fine art, Andy Mackay studied English and Music and Eno spent most of his fine art course building musical machines. The combined force of the educations are evident in Roxy Music. The emphasis on the visual side of the band is very much the brainchild of Bryan Ferry who also designed the excellent album cover. He claims to have been interested in this side of a band since his days at the University of Newcastle.

"It's rather sad for us," he commented after I asked him for his opinion on what the press have termed 'glam-rock'. "I can see why the thing has come about. It's a reaction against what was going on on stage before. The performers were no different from the audience. I've always thought that if you're going to present yourself on stage you should dress up. Even with my college band, Gas Board, we wore bobby-sox suits with our initials on the pockets! Of course, the layman can't tell the difference between Gary Glitter and Roxy Music!"

Because of his training as an artist, Ferry is able to see why Roxy have been drawn into the David Bowie-Lou Reed clique in people's minds. Both Reed and Bowie are very tied into the world of pop-art and owe very little to the established rock world. The New York artist, Andy Warhol, hangs over them both like an ever-present father figure. Ferry was taught by Richard Hamilton, the artist, who could be seen as our own Andy Warhol! "They called him 'the father of British pop-art'," explained Ferry. Another connection between Ferry and the Warhol set is that his room-mate at college went to work in the artist's 'factory' where his famous screen prints are produced.

Comparisons have been made between Ferry's voice and that of Lou Reed. He doesn't feel, however, that this has ever been a conscious move on his part. In fact, he doesn't own a single Velvets' album. He first heard of the band in 1966 when he was studying art, as they were one of the 'cult bands' enthused over by young artists and would-be artists. "To me they were just a band... called The Velvet Underground. I liked the fact that it was all city music and highly personalised. I think Lou Reed's a very soulful character." Ferry spotted Reed back-stage at a recent David Bowie concert which Roxy opened. He admitted that he'd have liked to have engaged him in conversation but also admitted that he wouldn't have known where to start. As it was, Reed stood in the shadows on Bowie's success - a position that Ferry feels is very undeserving for such a great songwriter.

LOUD, DRAB & BORING

The concept of Roxy Music was made a necessity by the surplus of loud, drab and boring 'progressive' or 'underground' bands that were pervading the scene. Coming directly after an epidemic of supergroups where greats from sinking bands made last-minute attempts to salvage their successes, Roxy Music came from nowhere and no-group. "The thing about our band," explained Ferry, "is that we're all completely new to the scene. For each of us it's our first recorded effort. I think we're a different type of person to the normal group member in that we've been involved in completely different things over the past six years instead of spending it all gigging on the road."

In actual fact their time was well-spent as each of the group members were involved in some activity which has now been directly channelled into the band. Apparently they've been on the receiving end of a few remarks directed at their supposed lack of professional experience. "People think that to be a success you've got to have served your apprenticeship on the road," said Ferry. "That's complete bogus."

The idea for the band came to Bryan Ferry in the winter of 1970 when he began work on a set of his songs with bassist Graham Simpson. Simpson left Roxy after working on the album and was replaced by twenty-three-year-old Rick Kenton. They were later joined by Andy Mackay and Eno. Rehearsals began in a derelict house loaned to them in Kensington and went on for over a year. They wanted a name that had a fifties touch to it and after jotting down all those old picture house names... Ritz, Regal, Essoldo... they came up with Roxy and then... Roxy Music! I asked Ferry how he equated the use of fifties trivia with what he himself described as "spacey... futuristic dress". "Did you ever see any of those fifties sci-fi films?" he asked. "It's more like that."

At the end of 1971 Roxy played a few clubs and also produced a demo-tape of the songs. A month later they were offered a recording contract with Island and in March they went into Command Studios to record it. When it was released in mid-1972 the album received enthusiastic ravings from all of the music press. Concerts followed, their debut being at the Great Western Express Festival, and some press reports suggested that the band got a better response from the Rainbow Crowd than David Bowie when they played there with him during August.

Ferry's reason for switching from fine art to music was that music had become far more vital than art. He didn't see the possibility of moving a person through such a spectrum of moods with art but he began to see this possibility in music. "Art is not as vital as music," he said. "I suppose it's the last ten years or so but music has certainly become the most vital art form. Maybe it's always been the most seductive medium because of the physical aspect. It's the combination of the mental and the physical."

When these ideas had been formed and thought through, Ferry employed them as the basis for Roxy Music. He's always been a fan of Tamla-Motown artists because of their great demand on the dancing aspect... the movement. Smokey Robinson was one of these artists who was able to combine a high standard of lyrics with this 'body music' and revealed the possibility for this as an art form. "I wanted Roxy to be a band that was creatively rewarding. I wanted it to be forward-looking, new and different. I wanted it to be intelligent and not to be stilted in any way. I also wanted it to have a great body as well as a mind thing. Something people could dance and move to."

PHYSICAL SOUNDS

He feels that a lot of negro music is purely physical and doesn't put any demands on the mind at all. This is not what he's into. He sees the lyrical content of his songs as being equally as important. "Every song is a little kind of play," he said. "There is a strong idea behind every song." He'd recently had the pleasure of receiving a letter from someone who'd described his lyrics as being like the numbers on a paint-by-numbers art board. He, as the listener, had been able to complete the mental picture with the aid of Ferry's guide.

Whether Roxy Music contains the elements of the future direction of British rock music remains to be seen. Bryan Ferry is very reluctant to comment on the possibility. As it is, the band seem to contain the best elements of rock 'n' roll, show biz and electronics. Borrowing from both the future and the past, they are creating the present.