"For your pleasure in our present state,
Part false, part true, like anything...
We present ourselves."
- 'For Your Pleasure,' Roxy Music
Lydia wanted to get me the ticket for Christmas and despite my protests (because of the price!) insisted that she had to get it for me. Her argument was very persuasive and went along the lines of, "I know it's Capitalist bullshit to charge that much but you have raved about Roxy from the very first day I met you, you've never seen them in concert before and it's about time you did. Just don't and go cop off with some Eno-crazed, cocktail-sipping Glam Slut whilst you're there because I know what they're all like!"
Leading up to the gig I found myself wondering whether it would be an incredible evening of sleazy art glam or a set made up principally of their greatest hits, with even some of Bryan Ferry's solo stuff possibly thrown in. Fortunately, it was emphatically of the former and I got to hear Roxy play songs that I never thought they would play live again in a million years.
Arriving nice and early at my seat just to the upper left of the stage, I was thrilled at the amount of leopard print that was sprinkled around the venue, and the knowing looks of recognition between those so elegantly clad also warmed the cockles of my glittering heart. With Bryan Ferry's attention to detail, I also anticipated being introduced to a couple of interesting support acts...this part of the evening was an enormous let down however. There was nothing wrong in the acts themselves but boy were they not for me!
As 9pm approached, however, it was time for the Main Event, and my heart leapt as the house lights went down and the strains of 'India' filled the room. The band then took to the stage and opened with an absolutely pulsating 'The Main Thing'. Freed from its crisp, polished sheen of the 80s production on the Avalon album, the song was immense, and almost out-Sueded Suede in its sleaze and sultriness. The stage was also literally awash with performers...ranging from backing singers to burlesque dancers and the opening was everything that I had hoped a Roxy gig would be... and the following 'Street Life' was magical as Ferry vamped:
"Come on with me cruising down the street,
Who knows what you'll see, who you might meet!
This brave new world's not like yesterday,
It can take you higher than the milky way!
Street Life, Street Life,
What a Life!"
The absolute highlight for me, though, other than the wondrous 'The Main Thing', was the distinctly Kurt Weill-esque, German cabaret inspired 'Bitter Sweet', which stomped along and alienated and confused the audience members who had come along for the hits with its strange time signature. The song was backed by exotic burlesque dancers, and featured an incredible film on the backdrop, which mixed Weimar cabaret images with moving pictures that looked like they'd been painted by George Grosz and Hieronymus Bosch.
This was followed by 'Sentimental Fool', which again was an absolute delight and it was brilliant to hear this weird, challenging music being played ahead of absolute tosh like 'Let's Stick Together', which is what I feared the set would be mostly comprised of.
As the night drew on, the experimental side of Roxy took a back seat as the likes of 'Jealous Guy', 'Like a Hurricane' and 'Love is the Drug' took centre stage. The set finished on a monumental high for me personally, as my favourite Roxy song, 'For Your Pleasure', brought the gig to its climax, each player leaving the stage as the song drew to its close and which was reduced to a simple icy piano refrain at the very end.
All in all it was a fabulous evening. Bryan Ferry's voice, which has never been the strongest in truth, was quite weak in places but the power of the whole prevented that from being too much of a problem. His backing singers' voices soared like eagles when necessary, and we had oboe solos, clarinet solos, sax solos, and huge helpings of divine decadence! The visuals were in fact a complete representation of Glam sensibility, and mixed high art with low brow to stunning effect.
It was truly glorious to finally get to see Roxy in concert, and even better to see them perform such an eclectic suite of songs. For me Roxy were all about innovation and weirdness, especially during Brian Eno's time with the band, and their first five albums (Roxy Music, For Your Pleasure, Stranded, Country Life, and Siren) are pretty much masterpieces, and they were arguably as influential as Bowie during their peak. And my fine lady who got me the ticket as a wonderful Christmas gift had no need to worry about me getting pounced on and copping off with some Eno-crazed, cocktail-sipping Glam Slut whilst I was there, for although there were a great many of them stalking the venue looking for prey, and although I am certainly not the kind who would Kiss and Tell, they could see from the deep look in my eyes that it would have been a waste of their time as my heart already belonged to a bewitching Siren of the night for whom, in my eyes, there is simply no competition...
Viva Roxy!
Roxy Music 2011 Tour Teaser:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNPd8k5wLwU
Roxy Music - The Main Thing (Live 2011)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R883ZDHpQCk
Roxy Music - Bitter Sweet (Live 2011)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Iub2EBeS8o
"Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary."
- Cecil Beaton
