Bryan Ferry takes to the stage at Manchester's AO Arena looking as suave and sophisticated as ever. He’s not in bad shape for a man just a few short years from becoming an octogenarian.
Ferry is back in Manchester with his veteran bandmates to mark the 50 years that have passed since the release of their astonishing self-titled debut album. It is their first tour in 10 years and feels a lifetime away from their visit to the Stretford Hardrock - now a decaying former B&Q - in the heyday of glam rock, more than half a century ago.
It is a sobering thought for anyone feeling the cold passing of time to consider that their last studio album, Avalon, was released a full 40 years ago.
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The songs don’t show their age but perhaps lyrics such as ‘The standard of living, is rising daily’ (In Every Dream Home A Heartache) tell a different story. Not in a post-lockdown, North West, it’s not, Bry.
Avalon was the ultimate expression of the smooth, polished, radio-friendly Roxy, the sound they gradually moved towards with their later output, and which would also become a signature of their singer’s A-lister solo career.
But it is with an unrefined blast of the brash art rock of Remake / Remodel, the song that launched their debut album, that they kick off tonight’s performance. It’s a dizzying blur of wailing saxophones, discordant piano riffs, jagged guitars and bleeping analogue synths.
It almost bursts with its myriad of eccentric hooks. Once a means for a bunch of art school glamour boys to demand the attention of the music-buying public, tonight it becomes an explosive vehicle for Roxy Music to announce to a packed AO Arena that there’s life in the old dogs yet.
It sounds almost as fresh as it must have done when these odd-looking curiosities first emerged from County Durham clad in an eclectic mix of glitter, eye-liner, leather, leopard print and lamé. From those early years core figures Phil Manzanera (guitar), Andy Mackay (sax and oboe) and Paul Thompson (drums) are back in harness with their famous frontman.
Early synth pioneer Brian Eno, absent since a disagreement with Ferry in 1973, remains so. There are three other tunes from their debut long player to savour - the crowd-pleasing Virginia Plain, the offbeat grooves of Ladytron - possibly tonight’s standout - and If There Is Something, the latter kicking in with a kooky country twang before spiralling into a whirl of deep repetitive, melodic trauma.
It raises the goosebumps and has the crowd on their feet. But it is not all about their debut.
Across 20 songs there is a thorough meander through the back catalogue, although fan favourite Stranded - their first UK Number One album - is entirely neglected. From Country Life comes Out of the Blue, while Siren’s Love is the Drug is another highlight.
It has been a few years since Mr Ferry, as some might feel is befitting of a man of his years, ditched the leather and leopard skin, and adopted the image of the whiskey-on-the-rocks crooner, all black suit and loose-necked white shirt, as the rough edges were ironed out of their music on the road to Avalon.
After an explosive start the concert mutates into a showcase of the platinum, penthouse rock of late-period Roxy, and a run of songs from Flesh and Blood and Avalon itself. It is a chance to admire the song craftsmanship and elite grade musicianship of gazillion-selling blue chip chart titans (ably assisted by nine session musicians, including three keyboard players).
Dance Away, More Than This, Avalon and cover of Jealous Guy come from their commercial peak and the audience gleefully starts to shake its stuff. But for those of us who like our pop with a bit of fizz in its belly, it’s a delight to discover that there are a few more early rough diamonds to help bring the show to its culmination.
Their second LP, For Your Pleasure, was once described by Morrissey as the “one truly great British album”.
From it we are treated to the stabbing piano riff and sleazy glam thump of Editions of You.
And Do The Strand, the slightly more mature and slicker younger brother of Remake/ Remodel, brings things to a triumphant climax, driven - and has been the entire performance - by MacKay’s demented, hypnotic sax.
Not bad for a 76-year-old pair of lungs. Get your Rox off indeed, the pleasure was all ours.
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The secret cake outlet shop with cut-price caterpillar cakes, brownies, flapjacks and all sorts
