Roxy Music
Roxy Music was always greater than the sum of its parts and as a unit they sounded magnificent, majestic even
Colm O Hare
One thing was clear from the start. This reunion would be no mere trawl through the greatest hits and radio favourites. In fact, the bulk of the set consisted of material from the five albums Roxy released between '72, and '75. (Even Brian Eno was present -in spirit at least, as his Music For Airports wafted through the P.A before curtain up.)
Suave and debonair as ever, Ferry's voice, a fragile beast at times, sounded even better than it did on a BBC TV special transmitted hours before tonight's show. But Roxy Music was always greater than the sum of its parts and as a unit they sounded magnificent, majestic even. Phil Manzanera's taut metallic guitar lines and Andy Mackay's meandering sax and oboe dominated, with special mention to Chris 'Motorbiking' Spedding who provided a solo highlight on 'My Only Love'.
Understandably the big hits went down the best with the Saturday night crowd; highlights were a rarely performed 'More Than This', 'Avalon' and the gorgeously soaring 'Oh Yeah', while John Lennon's, 'Jealous Guy' was a poignant highlight. Even better were earlier Roxy creations like 'If There Is Something', 'Out Of The Blue', and 'A Song For Europe' which have grown in stature over the years. It was all over too soon and the encores included 'Love is The Drug', 'Do The Strand' and a surprising finale in 'For Your Pleasure'.
Re-made and re-modelled they may be but this trip back to the future was well worth the wait.
©Hot Press 2011. Why be a member? | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy