Stockholm 2nd September 2002 - Tue 3rd Sep
The Frantic tour resumed tonight in Stockholm with the Bryan Ferry band taking time off during the month of August. After a show at Virgin Records' birthday party in Germany on Saturday, Bryan and the band revealed a new set from what had been performed at the summer festival shows earlier in the year. Bryan opened the show on piano with a stripped down version of 'The Only Face' from his Mamouna album. The piano vocal performance was accompanied with Lucy Wilkins in a similar arrangement to that of his last solo tour in 2000. Bryan & Lucy were joined on stage by Colin Good who took over the piano chair for the Bob Dylan song Don't Think Twice It's All Right. Chris Spedding (acoustic guitar) & Julia Thronton (harp) join the stage for the the next two songs 'Falling In Love Again' & Carrickfergus. The band grows in numbers song by song through 'Smoke Gets In Your Eyes' and during an instrumental, Ferry leaves the stage and returns with the full band and ups the pace with a rousing version of Roxy Music's 'Country Life' opener 'The Thrill Of It All driven by powerhouse drummer The Great Paul Thompson. The new album 'Frantic' continues the show with a shortened version of 'It's All Over Now Baby Blue' leaving out the last verse and 'Cruel' being performed live for the first time. 'My Only Love', 'Both Ends Burning' & 'Tara' revisit the earlier part of the tour and last years Roxy tour before another new addition to the set 'Limbo' adds more width to the set. Bryan takes his place at the piano for an ethereal version of 1985s 'Boys & Girls' with some excellent drumming from Paul Thompson. The top ten hit from the same album 'Slave To Love' continues a run of hits through 'Jealous Guy', 'Love Is The Drug' and closing the show with 'Do The Strand' The band return to the stage for an extended version of Let's Stick Together, but the biggest surprise of the show was the first live performance of the Ferry/Eno track 'I Thought'. This choice of songs from the 200+ songs in the Ferry/Roxy reportoire represent the breadth a depth of Ferry's work. The plaintive ode to 1940s cinema stars through '30s Jazz standards, glam rock anthems, silky polished pop, rock work outs & self defined cover versions, everything you could expect from one of the most diverse artists of his time. Last years Roxy tour opened with a bang with all the band rocking it right from the off right through until the end of the show when the band walked off one by one stripping the band down to a single piano note echoing into the distance. This show was like that in reverse with the stage being augmented by musicians song by song until full steam ahead, oh the thrill of it all.