I’ve recently discovered the Roxy Music live bootleg “City Hall, Newcastle 1974” which is an absolute corker, parts of it ended up in slightly more polished form on their official live album “Viva!” two years later but overall this is a much better set.
Listening to early Roxy live performances it always strikes me how a group of (mostly) art school boys whose music relied so heavily on arty effects and highbrow concepts like post-modern artifice (and had a lead singer who wore a tuxedo!) could also rock out like a turbo-charged rocket hurtling towards a crash landing on Mars. Most “art-rock” bands leaned too heavily on the former but Roxy managed to find the perfect balance between the two, they made music you could write an essay about and jump up and down to. They don’t just raise the roof with these they burn down the whole damn building.
Download: Virginia Plain (live) – Roxy Music (mp3)
Download: Do The Strand (live) – Roxy Music (mp3)
Download: Editions Of You (live) – Roxy Music (mp3)
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I must grab it – Out of the Blue from Vive is one of my fave pieces..Paul Thompson’s on fire for that track..
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Thanks for this (and the site in general) – there’s a wonderful Youtube clip of them doing ‘Psalm’ on Rockpalast which I recommend if you haven’t seen it
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Always puzzled me,why, post ‘prog monster rock Vs punk/synth wars’ of 76-80 why Roxy got dumped but Bowie was accepted (granted breaking up, reforming,Manifesto & Flesh & Blood,dancefloor /easy listening mode may have played a part) but prior they rocked fast & hard w/ artsy edge (John Foxx era Ultravox! anyone? Magazine? ) had a suave clothes horse for a front man (important in the new Ro phase) & plainly didn’t do triple disc concept space albums..in fact the most you could accuse them of at the time was sexism because of LP covers (rightly so tho’ my early teen self would disagree!)
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Bloody hellfire all that bollox & I didn’t say thanks, so er, thanks!
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Thanks for the link – “Viva” is my favourite Roxy LP, though for years (thanks to inability to decipher lyrics, and ignorance about ewcastle) it was “Eskimos have what?!”
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Anwe, I think it may have been down to the fact that when punk hit Roxy had just released the very commercial ‘Siren’ album and Bryan was living the international jet-set rock star life with Jerry Hall in LA so he was seen as part of the problem* while Bowie was, you know, off in Berlin being interesting and difficult.
*Julie Burchill called him “a worthless human being” and I remember a review of ‘The Bride Stripped Bare’ in Record Mirror attacking the album – and Ferry – for being too smooth and out of touch.
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Always thought Bob Harris was very rude when introducing their first Old Grey Whistle Test appearance. Great band in their first period – and they were regularly in the charts and on TOTP, which was fantastic for me as a teenage schoolboy. ‘Love is the Drug’ played at the youth club disco! You can keep pap like ‘Fool for Love’ though…
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I was lucky to find Michael Bracewell’s book “Re-make / Re-model” in a secondhand bookshop: subtitled ‘Art, Pop, Fashion and the making of Roxy Music 1953-1972’ it told me a great deal about exactly that.
Grab it if you see it.
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My favourite band, ever.
Thanks, Lee.
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I have the Bracewell book, it’s great. Reminded me a lot of my own art school days.
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