Roxy Music

AO Arena, Manchester - 12th October 2022

When Bryan Ferry announces that the band are playing this tour to celebrate fifty years of being together, he's not being entirely honest. It may be fifty years since the band released their first record and fifty-one since they first formed, but over that half-century Roxy Music probably haven't been together for more than fifteen years. They ceased to exist as a functioning outfit in 1983, haven't released an album in forty years and haven't played live since 2011. Not that anybody here cares; the massive 21,000 capacity Manchester Arena is packed to the rafters and there is a palpable air of excitement. This is a rare event; an iconic band are unexpectedly in town, are all still alive, and as it's pretty certain there won't be any sixtieth anniversary shows, this will be the last time any of them will get to see their heroes in action. It's unusual for us not to be amongst the oldest people at gigs these days, but here we are pretty much the youngest; Roxy Music inspire loyalty and it's a good bet that most the fans here have been with them for most, if not all, of those fifty years.

We don't do big venues very often and it's a shock just how large this arena is. The front three rows would fill most indie venues and it's a strange feeling. It helps to show how Roxy Music are very much a band of two halves: their smooth jazz lounge persona is ideally suited for corporate events and exploitation, yet at the same time these are the same experimental, intelligent and challenging musicians who inspired much of the music we have loved over the years. The former very much repels us: huge venues with front row VIP tickets costing over £600 where you are presented with a non-fungible token instead of actually meeting the band in person. General seating tickets selling at £110. It doesn't sit easily with us, but when Roxy walk on to the stage and Ferry says, "Hello there," emotions just spill over. We'll take the other side of the band and embrace them as the vibrant, innovative weirdos who challenged the very concept of pop music. The made-up freaks who inspired a whole generation of punks and wrote some of the most addictive and alarming songs of the 1970s.

Roxy Music were always ahead of their time. Phil Manzanera is one of the guitar greats and he plays magnificently, pushing boundaries, breaking up melodies and dragging songs into arenas they were never meant to see. He can play nice and he can play dirty, just like saxophonist and oboist Andy Mackay. When they want to the duo can make the sweetest sounds that are the epitome of cool, yet both of them have a nasty streak that makes them want to break cool apart and stomp on the pieces. Much of Roxy's early output wouldn't be out of place in 1979 rather than 1973; they were heralds of post-punk experimentation and though they opted to smooth away their rough edges in the 1980s, there is still more detail in their music than most bands produce in a lifetime. They are exquisite musicians and it is wonderful to see the terrible twins on stage once again with Ferry and drummer Paul Thompson.

The set consists of twenty songs and lasts around two hours and twenty minutes. The setlist is pretty bloody good, taking in songs from across their career, though sadly neglecting Stranded. No 'Street Life' or 'Mother Of Pearl' then, and also absent is the magnificent early single 'Pyjamarama'. We would have slipped these in and dropped some of the six songs that featured from Avalon, but on the whole it would be harsh to be picky. There are three tracks from Roxy Music, three from Flesh and Blood, two from Country Life and one each from Manifesto and Siren. Most of the hits are there, but it is fitting that the band open their set with 'Re-Make/Re-Model' and close it with 'Do The Strand', both statement pieces from a musicians with their own ideas. In the same manner the smooth numbers are countered with the oddness of 'The Bogus Man', 'In Every Dream A Heartache' and 'If There Is Something' where Mackay is particularly fantastic.

Ferry himself is the same as always, the picture of cool and easiness. He chats, blows kisses and makes sure he acknowledges the audience both to the right and left as well as in front of him. His voice is still holding true and he genuinely seems to be enjoying himself on stage. Indeed, Manzanera spends most of the gig with a huge grin on his face and revels in throwing the odd axeman pose. They really do appear to be having the time of their lives which really begs the question of why have they left it so long before getting together again? Of course, the four core member of the group are insufficient to reproduce the sound Roxy capture on their records and there are six additional musicians as well as three well-choreographed backing singers. The volume is far from excessive but the sound is decent and the subtleties in the music are not lost.

The audience remain seated until the fourteenth song, 'More Than This' after which they remain standing and dancing as the set builds up to its climax. 'Love Is The Drug' is greeted with wild enthusiasm, but it is 'Virginia Plain' that sees the roof lifted and the band revel in the acclaim. The strangeness of this situation is unnerving. We are cheering a performance of a record we bought fifty years earlier and it still seems as fresh, inventive and just as bloody wonderful as it did when we were just children. It underlines the effect Roxy Music have had on our lives; they were one of the bands who showed us that we could be different, who showed us that it was alright to walk your own path, create your own boundaries and ignore convention. It doesn't feel like nostalgia, it feels life-affirming.

Set List: Re-Make/Re-Model, Out of the Blue, The Bogus Man, Ladytron, While My Heart Is Still Beating, Oh Yeah, If There Is Something, In Every Dream Home A Heartache, Tara, The Main Thing, My Only Love, To Turn You On, Dance Away, More Than This, Avalon, Love Is the Drug, Editions of You, Virginia Plain, Jealous Guy, Do the Strand.

 

Thanks to Tony Hiscox for the photos.