Hi True2Life,

Just my thoughts about your excellent comments

I don't think that the lack of awareness of Roxy among a younger audience has been helped by the apparent lack of interest in reissuing the back catalogue. Try mentioning to anyone under the age of 30 that you are a fan of Roxy Music and you will encounter blank looks - I have tried it! Apart from the excellent reissue of the first album, albeit which took forever to appear while the accompanying book was completed, nothing has materialised for many years from the vaults. A deluxe FYP has been promised but not appeared. What of the remaining albums and VIVA? They could do with a springclean and polish whilst Ferry is still an actively touring musician and out there working.

I often wonder exactly why the music of the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Wonder etc keeps it's appeal for younger people. Of course it's due to the quality and timelessness of their music, but then this applies to Roxy as well. Recently I heard of a 30 something professional footballer naming his son Hendrix after Jimi, so the awareness of the great man has filtered down to younger people. Why not Roxy I ask?

A selection of archive shows from the major tours being released, either as physical product or downloads, would be a positive start. I'm assuming both that they actually still exist and are not in an unreleasable decayed state? But does anyone have the inclination to work on this? Bryan tours and any work on the archive would need to be fitted in around it. It's doubtful he would delegate it.

I agree with you entirely about this. It's common knowledge that at least one of the 1975 Siren Wembley Empire Pool gigs was filmed. A great tour and we're all waiting for something at some stage. The delays in releasing this type of material doesn't make sense. As younger people aren't that interested, to put it bluntly original Roxy fans are aging and won't live forever. After all, dead people can't buy things

I think it is somewhere in David Buckley's excellent Roxy/Ferry biography that he mentions loving the final three albums but almost with a different part of his brain from the first five, as though they were the work of two different bands. You could argue they were in fact the work of 3 different bands, splitting the 2 albums with Eno and the 3 post-Eno ones.

I think I would argue that there were 4 different bands - Eno, post Eno, post Eddie Jobson (Manifesto) and then post TGPT with Neil Hubbard etc. The live line-ups have been even more varied. As a guitar player myself I've always taken a interest in this area and have wondered why Phil has sometimes need two guitarists in support.

We all have our favourite Roxy phases just as much as our favourite Bowie ones. Personally I love the Flesh + Blood album (I realise this puts me in a small and select group here) but I love FYP and Stranded too.

Re F&B - on side one My Only Love is an excellent track, as could have been Flesh and Blood had Phil played on it (like the live versions). On side two No Strange Delight and Running Wild are decent tracks, but I never felt comfortable with the album as TGPT had gone, session musicians were used and Roxy were doing covers

Oh I forgot to say what a supremely gifted musician Eddie Jobson is. His contribution to Roxy often gets overlooked, probably due to the fall out of him replacing Eno. OK he nicked a few of Phil's guitar parts, but I can forgive him for that

Hipsters,
Regarding Roger & true2life’s comments about awareness amongst the young, W2 thinks it’s worth remembering that BF/Roxy’s music is quite sophisticated and if Windswept’s own sons are anything to go by, they didn’t really get into it until their 30s.
Prior to this, their tastes were quite pedestrian. One of them even liked ‘Cold Play’ for God’s sake so, there is light at the end of the tunnel!
Salutations,
W2

I think the biggest obstacle to the much more solid legacy and familiarity enjoyed by other artists has been the way in which Roxy (but in this connection for Roxy, read BF) has played rather fast and loose with the audience. It's long since been a vehicle to be used by BF as and when it (commercially) suits him and that simply doesn't engage people. It's a crying shame that outside the generation that grew up with the band they are slipping into obscurity.

I recall reading at one point that BF was engaged in a various artists Roxy covers album in Studio One which, depending on the performers involved, could have given the Roxy 'brand' a valuable shot in the arm. Assuming that was true, as with so many things it seems to have come to nothing and has probably missed its window of opportunity.

Hipsters,
UKRichard makes some good points but it is fair to say that Roxy’s legacy is probably proportionate to their historic popularity.
All things fade to an extent - The Beatles, Hendrix, Wonder,Palmer, Sinatra et all.
Indeed, it could be argued that it is only BF that has kept the whole thing alive.
BF probably regards Roxy as one of his creations and it is his to do with as he likes.
A sentiment that W2 would heartily agree with because if Bryan wasn’t playing their songs today, who would be ?
Salutations,
Windswept

The dream of Roxy as an existing band is gone. And there is no way back, sorry to say. Bryan administrates the Roxy legacy with a (very talented) cover band - at the age of (almost) 75. Like it or not - myself, I will see him in summer.

When I read the news that Roxy would reunite in 2001 I was completely dismayed because I thought Roxy was history. In the following years I saw them twice. And I think every fan expected them to do at least one more album. But they didn't. To read that the band had been in the studio incl. Brian Eno and didn't manage to release one single track of this session was incomprehensible.

Why, Bryan? Do you think that your solo music is way better than anything Roxy did or was planning to do? That's something I'll never understand. I feel sad about this missed chance although I am happy that BF (and all Roxy colleagues) is/are still alive and hope to get a good show in July - but in any case I'd prefer a Roxy concert.

Yup

Chers amis,
Comment allez-vous?

I think it was the great pianoman who pondered on what we can expect of our hero. Well, first of all the live record from 1974 and the concerts. I am content and happy as long BF continues touring with his excellent band; I would be even happier if the orchestra went along this time. The great W2;s opinion that RM is BF;s creation has my full support. !Viva Roxy Nova!
I am afraid that a record with new material is to ask for too much at this stage. How about a box set of BF;s solo material?

D´ailleurs, au revoir Grand Bretagne... Ce soir je vais surement jouer A song for Europe!
Bonne soirée à tous!

The abiding impression I have is there's far more nostalgia for collections of RM's ("seminal") recordings than there is for BF's. Churning things like this out endlessly is done according to the law of diminishing returns - both commercially and the interests of even the most completist fan. For unequivocal evidence, look no further than The Best of Bryan Ferry. I think there'd have to be lots of previously unreleased material to make something like that a remotely viable proposition, and that seems highly unlikely.

Whilst we can forget any notion of new Roxy material, I'd like to think BF has at least one further album of 'new' material in him, if he can break from the never ending tour long enough to do it.

I will be buying the BF Royal Albert Hall offering. I couldn't get to the Birmingham gig and also as I've said before everything around that period had a certain "Roxyness", including the first two BF albums.

I can't understand the delay on getting material from the Roxy 2011 tour out - us older fans won't be around forever Bryan!