With Roxy Music setting out on their first tour in more than a decade—and Bryan Ferry with a new solo EP, Love Letters, just out—we thought it a good time to catch up with Ferry.
From left: Phil Manzanera, Bryan Ferry, Andy Mackay , Brian Eno, Rik Kenton, and Paul Thompson of Roxy Music.: You and Roxy Music were pioneers in something that’s now almost commonplace: the notion of a band or an artist fusing music and art and fashion and style.
No, I wasn’t fired, but I don’t think the head teacher approved. It’s normal studio practice to listen to music while making art, and when I was teaching I encouraged music being played in the background. We played all sorts of music, mainly pop.Roxy was one of the very first bands to truly channel and own the visual presentation of your music, from the photography and graphic design of your album covers to the rather outré fashions you performed in.
On stage we fell into a look that, like the music, wasn’t one particular style, but rather an eclectic mixture. Antony Price was the principal architect of this, but was later joined by some other designers, including the artist Carol McNicoll, who created some weird and wonderful costumes for Brian Eno. It’s interesting to note that the worlds of art, music, and fashion were all distant from each other at that time.