“By day they worked on the official record. At night they taped an entirely different record, without the knowledge or approval of the label”: The story of Roxy Music’s Phil Manzanera, Quiet Sun and their sly posthumous album

Phil Manzanera performs live with Roxy Music on one of two nights at the Empire Pool, Wembley, London, 17th and 18th October 1975. (Photo by Michael Putland/Getty Images).

In 1974, on the back of Roxy Music’s success, guitarist Phil Manzanera was invited to make his debut solo album. While he was recording that record, 1975’s Diamond Head, he reformed previous band Quiet Sun to make their own debut, Mainstream, during studio downtime. With the announcement of Mainstream’s remixed and remastered return in September 2026, Prog looks back on Manzanera’s 26-day slog to complete both works.

They say if you want something done, ask a busy person to do it. In the mid-70s Phil Manzanera had his hands full with Roxy Music, but he’d been upping the avant-garde ante with Nico on her mercurial, bleak essay The End, as well as locking horns with John Cale on Fear.