Roxy Music. So underrated

[prowla]

I like a bit of Roxy Music and even have a box-set of their albums.

I do have some negatives though:

• I could do without some of the over-affected singing - he's got a great voice which stands up on its own.
• I just plain do not like Virginia Plain (and we used to play it in a band I was in).
• I'm not a fan of Jealous Guy either, but I guess it made him a load of money! 🙂

I saw Bryan Ferry at Hammersmith Apollo (I think it was called the Apollo) some years ago; I parked at Westfield, so that puts it after 2008.

One or two of his old mates were in the band and it might've been Guy Pratt on bass; there were a couple of dancers on a raised platform at the back.

It was a rather good show.

[SICbass]

43 minutes ago, Beedster said:

 

Gary Tibbs' bass line on Trash makes me fall in love with bass again every time I hear it, nothing special technically but perfect for the track, what bass is all about 👍

 

 

And I love the fact that, even through telephone speakers it sounds sooo like a pbass.

[SICbass]

2 minutes ago, prowla said:

I like a bit of Roxy Music and even have a box-set of their albums.

I do have some negatives though:

• I could do without some of the over-affected singing - he's got a great voice which stands up on its own.
• I just plain do not like Virginia Plain (and we used to play it in a band I was in).
• I'm not a fan of Jealous Guy either, but I guess it made him a load of money! 🙂

I saw Bryan Ferry at Hammersmith Apollo (I think it was called the Apollo) some years ago; I parked at Westfield, so that puts it after 2008.

One or two of his old mates were in the band and it might've been Guy Pratt on bass; there were a couple of dancers on a raised platform at the back.

It was a rather good show.

My older brother went to see Roxy Music play in a club either in Liverpool or Birkenhead in the early 70s for 64p.

[prowla]

9 minutes ago, SICbass said:

My older brother went to see Roxy Music play in a club either in Liverpool or Birkenhead in the early 70s for 64p.

I can beat that - my ticket was free!
(It was some promotion, but I don't remember which company.)

[casapete]

28 minutes ago, prowla said:

One or two of his old mates were in the band and it might've been Guy Pratt on bass; there were a couple of dancers on a raised platform at the back.

It was a rather good show.

Guy Pratt has appeared on many of Bryan Ferry’s albums over the years, along with ace guitarist

Chris Spedding who started working with Bryan early on in his solo career. He also toured with Roxy. 

[mikebass456]

Currently reading "The Thrill of it All" - the story of Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music. 

Am only a Greatest Hits CD deep into them, but still enjoying finding out more about them.......

Only paid £4 for the book - apparently it's worth about £50! 

[prowla]

Just now, casapete said:

Guy Pratt has appeared on many of Bryan Ferry’s albums over the years, along with ace guitarist

Chris Spedding who started working with Bryan early on in his solo career. He also toured with Roxy. 

I think it was Chris Spedding on guitar and maybe Roxy's drummer.

[Beedster]

1 hour ago, SICbass said:

And I love the fact that, even through telephone speakers it sounds sooo like a pbass.

 

I love the fact that he gets so much video real estate in that clip, especially when you consider he was the 20-year old newbie in a pretty established band with some pretty serious musicians. Having said that, IIRC even given his youth he'd already done stints with Vibrators and Adam and the Ants, so some decent experience.

 

But man, the first time I heard that bassline I was hooked for life, so tight, present, and insistent. Beautiful work 👍 

[spongebob]

 

Gary looks pretty cool here too….love this ‘later’ track, always dug the driving bass. 

[BassBiscuit]

1 hour ago, prowla said:

I think it was Chris Spedding on guitar and maybe Roxy's drummer.

Paul Thompson...?

[spongebob]

4 minutes ago, spongebob said:

 

Gary looks pretty cool here too….love this ‘later’ track, always dug the driving bass. 

Quoting myself here…..just looked at the Wiki album write up, and the album has about 3 bassists! Says Phil Manzanera played bass on this! Don’t know why Gary isn’t on the whole album. 
 

Don’t know what he’s doing now? 

[chriswareham]

Bit of a coincidence, as I came across this thread while having Roxy Music on in the background. A bit indifferent to their early, glammy stuff but "Manifesto", "Flesh and Blood" and "Avalon" are fantastic. They laid the groundwork for bands like Japan, early Talk Talk and Duran Duran (stop sniggering, at their best they were brilliant purveyors of pop perfection). The bass playing on some of those tracks is sublime, often the melodic focus of the music along with atmospheric synths and the guitar adding an understated rhythmic acommpaniment.

Edited 11 hours ago by chriswareham

[petebassist]

On 14/04/2023 at 21:22, Frank Blank said:

The bass playing on most of their albums is great but on Bête Noire (actually a Bryan Ferry solo album) it's sublime.

 

I was a huge fan up until Siren (1975), their absolute peak imho.

Thanks for this recommendation - just listening to the album, amazing.

I have an Ibanez SRH-500F fretless, which has slightly raised action to tame the mwah, and it's a bit woody, so might look at getting a pedal to get near this tone.

 

[SICbass]

5 minutes ago, petebassist said:

Thanks for this recommendation - just listening to the album, amazing.

I have an Ibanez SRH-500F fretless, which has slightly raised action to tame the mwah, and it's a bit woody, so might look at getting a pedal to get near this tone.

 

Tame the mwah? That’s interesting. I always thought that the accepted wisdom was “the mwah the merrier”.

[petebassist]

6 minutes ago, SICbass said:

Tame the mwah? That’s interesting. I always thought that the accepted wisdom was “the mwah the merrier”.

It would be for this 80's sound definitely - I play mainly folk rock, and I switch between my upright bass and the Ibanez, so the woodier faster decay on the notes fits better with the higher action and keeps it in line with the upright tones.

 

Edited 3 hours ago by petebassist

[SICbass]

10 minutes ago, petebassist said:

It would be for this 80's sound definitely - I play mainly folk rock, and I switch between my upright bass and the Ibanez, so the woodier faster decay on the notes fits better with the higher action and keeps it in line with the upright tones.

 

👍 makes total sense 

[Misdee]

When I listen to Alan Spenner on those late '70's /early '80's  Roxy albums I can hear  Bernard Edwards' influence in some of his playing. You can can tell he's definitely been listening to Bernard and other prominent bass players of that time and incorporated some of it into his own style. 

 

I'd love to know if he's using rounds or flats (or both) on his bass. It sounds more like flatwounds to me, but it could be very dead roundwounds. Whichever it is, the sound  Spenner gets with his Wal bass on those records really punches through the mix and you could hear it clearly even on AM radio. In that respect he reminds me of John McVie with Fleetwood Mac during that era, who managed the same trick using an Alembic with flats on it.

[diskwave]

Roxy was never underrated. Everyone knew they were different, original, groundbreaking and just brilliant. I liked to think of them as Genesis's bubble gum sibling.

[silverfoxnik]

Great to see this thread spring back to life.. 

 

I'm a lifelong Roxy fan; Virginia Plain was the first 7" single I bought back in 1972..

 

Watching them performing it on Top of the Pops was as mind blowing to me as an 12 year old kid as seeing Bowie performing Starman on the show that same year! 

 

Their influence can't be overstated enough IMHO ; they were a driving force in bringing the glamour back into rock & roll at that time, influenced countless other influential bands/artists like Bowie, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Japan, Duran Duran etc, etc.. And in Ferry and Eno, the had two stunningly original artists and songwriters... 

 

My personal preference will always be for their first, brilliantly original run of albums made with the original lineup, as opposed to the late 70s, early 80s sound they morphed into when Ferry brought in different group of technically better (maybe?), but less interesting musicians.. 

 

In terms of their bass players, Graham Simpson, John Gustafson and John Whetton resonate most with me in terms of their playing styles, bass lines and sound.

 

(... weird how their surnames all end in 'on'??) 

 

And JG was a really significant bass player in the development of the first Wal Pro Bass model back in the mid-70s. 

 

Awesome! 

[EssentialTension]

14 minutes ago, Misdee said:

When I listen to Alan Spenner on those late '70's /early '80's  Roxy albums I can hear  Bernard Edwards' influence in some of his playing. ...

I've seen a programme 'The Story of Roxy Music' (or a similar title) where Nile Rogers says that he and Bernard Edwards were big Roxy Music fans.

[Misdee]

21 minutes ago, EssentialTension said:

I've seen a programme 'The Story of Roxy Music' (or a similar title) where Nile Rogers says that he and Bernard Edwards were big Roxy Music fans.

I remember seeing Nile Rogers, might have been that same documentary, saying that seeing Roxy on British TV in costume with their female backing singers was what gave him the idea for how he would present Chic.

 

There's some footage somewhere on.  YouTube of Alan Spenner playing his Wal bass with Kokomo at the 1979 Gay Pride bash and they are knocking out a version of We Are Family by Sister Sledge. Alan can even be seen doing a bit of slapping at certain points. All with a lit fag hanging out of his mouth. Very cool. 

Edited 2 hours ago by Misdee

[diskwave]

1 hour ago, silverfoxnik said:

I'm a lifelong Roxy fan; Virginia Plain was the first 7" single I bought back in 1972..

 

Watching them performing it on Top of the Pops was as mind blowing to me as an 12 year old kid as seeing Bowie performing Starman on the show that same year! 

Here too.  I could not beleive how unusual and ctachy it was even tho it didn't really go anywhere...It really took me aback and along with Starman kick started my interest in music and wanting to become a musician.

[mikebass456]

First Roxy/Bryan Ferry single I bought was This Is Tomorrow, although we already had Virginia Plain on a compilation album of Golden Greats issued by McVities biscuits (it was even in golden yellow vinyl, I seem to remember!)