❚ THE MAN WHO DEFINED COOL in the glitzy 70s — the decade that style forgot — was Bryan Ferry, who from Tuesday revives English art-rock gods Roxy Music — for a seven-date UK arena tour, Jan 25-Feb 7, ending at the O2. This will be a hair-tingling reunion of the original line-up of Ferry, Andy Mackay, Phil Manzanera and Paul Thompson…
A propos last year’s Olympia, “his best album in two decades” with Kate Moss as the cover, and this Roxy tour, there’s a long, discursive, fan-moist interview with Ferry, “the sultan of suave”, at The Quietus. Ferry has a niggle — “Unless you have a top twenty record, Tesco won’t stock you” — but is pleased that owning your own studio “means you end up doing things that others wouldn’t be bothered to do. For instance, having three bass players on a track (You Can Dance), which people think is a bit mad. But it sounds great; it’s a great big machine. Like the great leader James Brown always had two drummers, and when I saw him he had two bassists as well. He supported me, believe it or not, at a gig at the Natural History Museum”.
➢➢ Shapers of the 80s ➣➣ 