On the final night of their first American tour in over two decades, art rock pioneers Roxy Music started at the beginning. They appeared on stage at The Forum in Los Angeles and launched straight into “Re-Make/Re-Model”, the eclectic, experimental song that opened their self-titled debut album in 1972. Behind them, towering screens showed the band as they looked soon after forming in London a year earlier, in all their youthful glam glory: Rakish frontman Bryan Ferry in tiger print, with cheekbones that could cut glass. Synthesizer wizard Brian Eno with his long blonde mullet, looking like Riff-Raff in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
This reunion tour, which arrives in the UK for Glasgow, Manchester and London shows in October, is timed to mark the 50th anniversary of that first Roxy record. While Eno is not present, having moved on to his own projects as early as 1973, the intervening half-century has not wearied the remaining band members or diminished their sense of style. Guitarist Phil Manzanera, who looks eerily like John McEnroe dressed as John Waters, snatches the limelight on several occasions with his string of blistering guitar solos, notably the squalling climax of 1972’s “Ladytron”.
