Roxy Music enter the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with a sublime, career-capping, 20-minute set

Roxy Music                           Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony 

                                                                                                Barclays Centre, New York

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For Roxy Music everything happened fast. They went from their first gig to Top Of The Pops in nine months. Their eight studio albums arrived in two flurries (1972-75 and 1979-82). 

And this performance, possibly their last ever, was all over in 20 minutes.

It had been eight years since Roxy played together, ten since they shelved a comeback album. Bryan Ferry’s solo career, now 45 years long, suits him like a tuxedo. 

It had been eight years since Roxy Music played together, ten since they shelved a comeback album. Bryan Ferry’s solo career, now 45 years long, suits him like a tuxedo

It had been eight years since Roxy Music played together, ten since they shelved a comeback album. Bryan Ferry’s solo career, now 45 years long, suits him like a tuxedo

But when the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame beckons, most bands bury their musical differences.

Ferry brought along Roxy’s other two linchpins, the guitarist Phil Manzanera and oboist Andy Mackay. The original drummer, Paul Thompson, was kept away by arthritis. The original synth player, Brian Eno, has kept his distance for decades.

Asked if the reunion might lead to a tour, Mackay said maybe, while Ferry demurred. So the Hall of Fame loomed as the last hurrah for a trailblazing band who influenced everyone from Talking Heads to Chic.

Rock was never really Roxy's thing. All those accusations have been levelled at the Hall of Fame, but it answered them with this year's inductees including Harry Styles (above)

Rock was never really Roxy’s thing. All those accusations have been levelled at the Hall of Fame, but it answered them with this year’s inductees including Harry Styles (above) 

It was an unlikely place for them to end up. Rock was never really Roxy’s thing – too macho, too regimented, too American. All those accusations have been levelled at the Hall of Fame, but it answered them with this year’s inductees: two strong women and five idiosyncratic British bands.

The women were Janet Jackson, who made a stirring speech, and Stevie Nicks, who broke off from Fleetwood Mac’s tour to perform. As she dominated duets with Don Henley and Harry Styles, you could see why Nicks was the first woman to enter the Hall of Fame twice.

The ceremony unfolded like a miniature festival. Nicks gave way to Radiohead, represented by Ed O’Brien and Philip Selway, bearing speeches rather than instruments. 

Stevie Nicks (above), who broke off from Fleetwood Mac’s tour to perform, dominates duets with Don Henley and Harry Styles. Nicks was the first woman to enter the Hall of Fame twice

Stevie Nicks (above), who broke off from Fleetwood Mac’s tour to perform, dominates duets with Don Henley and Harry Styles. Nicks was the first woman to enter the Hall of Fame twice 

They were as lucid as David Byrne was in introducing them. Later, there were sets from The Cure (beguiling), The Zombies (endearing) and Def Leppard (barnstorming).

The big draw, though, was the Roxy reunion, introduced by Simon Le Bon and John Taylor from Duran Duran, both lifelong fans. Roxy’s ‘journey’, Le Bon declared, had been ‘piloted by the open-heart surgery that was Bryan Ferry’s lyric-writing’. 

As metaphors go, this was a platter of mezze.

Ferry’s reply largely consisted of thanking his many bass players, but the music spoke louder than his words. Roxy approached the task like Queen at Live Aid, compressing an entire career into 20 minutes. 

Had they watched Bohemian Rhapsody on the plane?

Ferry is no Mercury, of course. But Roxy’s oeuvre is so rich, and their playing so adept, that these three tall men, all pensioners now, remain a riveting spectacle.

IT’S A FACT

Bryan Ferry revealed this year that the eye patch he wore singing Love Is The Drug on TV was no fashion item: he’d walked into a door. 

They opened, bravely, with In Every Dream Home A Heartache, having evidently decided that America was finally ready for a stylised hymn to an inflatable lover. It was deliciously sinister, with Ferry having fun and Mackay’s sax adding a shimmer of sadness.

The surprises kept coming. Ferry’s trusty crowd-pleasers – Virginia Plain, Do The Strand, Jealous Guy – were supplanted by the twisting virtuosity of Out Of The Blue, the knowing strut of Love Is The Drug and the silky sensuality of More Than This.

In 15 minutes, art had given way to soul. Avalon, abbreviated, was still sublime, as Manzanera’s guitar gently wept and Tawatha Agee’s backing vocal touched the sky. They finished with an effervescent Editions Of You.

Time, surely, for one last tour.

 

THIS WEEK’S CD RELEASES

By Adam Woods

 

The Chemical Brothers                            No Geography                            Out Fri

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The big beasts of Nineties dance music have no particular reason ever to go away, raising the possibility of pensionable superstar DJs in not too many years’ time. The mood here is a back-to-basics one, canning the star guests and focusing on floor-shaking grooves and sampled refrains. Norwegian singer Aurora lends a human face to several songs, including pretty closer Catch Me I’m Falling

The big beasts of Nineties dance music have no particular reason ever to go away, raising the possibility of pensionable superstar DJs in not too many years’ time. The mood here is a back-to-basics one, canning the star guests and focusing on floor-shaking grooves and sampled refrains. Norwegian singer Aurora lends a human face to several songs, including pretty closer Catch Me I’m Falling

 

Billie Eilish             When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?          Out now

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Los Angeles newcomer Billie Eilish, 17, devotes her debut to exploration of ‘sleep paralysis, night terrors, nightmares, lucid dreams’ and other cute things. Songs like Bury A Friend and All The Good Girls Go To Hell come in on a sticky tide of spooky whispering, disturbing sound effects and – though not always – intriguing tunes, made at home with brother Finneas

Los Angeles newcomer Billie Eilish, 17, devotes her debut to exploration of ‘sleep paralysis, night terrors, nightmares, lucid dreams’ and other cute things. Songs like Bury A Friend and All The Good Girls Go To Hell come in on a sticky tide of spooky whispering, disturbing sound effects and – though not always – intriguing tunes, made at home with brother Finneas

 

Glen Hansard                                     This Wild Willing                                   Out Fri

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Glen Hansard, sometime frontman of Dublin heroes The Frames, tends to brandish an acoustic guitar and a soulful tale. But his fourth solo album kicks off with a drum machine, bass guitar, strings and ominous, sotto voce vocal. More familiar ingredients progressively creep in but there’s a stormy, folky darkness about This Wild Willing that ultimately thoroughly suits him

Glen Hansard, sometime frontman of Dublin heroes The Frames, tends to brandish an acoustic guitar and a soulful tale. But his fourth solo album kicks off with a drum machine, bass guitar, strings and ominous, sotto voce vocal. More familiar ingredients progressively creep in but there’s a stormy, folky darkness about This Wild Willing that ultimately thoroughly suits him

 

Weyes Blood                                       Titanic Rising                                     Out now 

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Californian Natalie Mering, who records as Weyes Blood, classifies Titanic Rising as ‘The Kinks meet WWII’ and, not much less vaguely, as some kind of middle-point between Detroit rocker Bob Seger and Enya. What that all means in practice is lush, Seventies singer-songwriter pop with plenty of rather lovely, drifting-in-space ballads that contemplate our sorry human state without getting too upset about it

Californian Natalie Mering, who records as Weyes Blood, classifies Titanic Rising as ‘The Kinks meet WWII’ and, not much less vaguely, as some kind of middle-point between Detroit rocker Bob Seger and Enya. What that all means in practice is lush, Seventies singer-songwriter pop with plenty of rather lovely, drifting-in-space ballads that contemplate our sorry human state without getting too upset about it

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