There’s an exhibition on at the Tate Liverpool at the moment called Glam! The Performance of Style which looks interesting. Part of the show is a 1977 documentary called Roxette about young Roxy Music fans in Manchester getting dressed up to go see the band live. The whole movie is 30 minutes long and looks utterly fab judging by this short clip which makes me really want to see the entire thing (wish they’d used a different song though, don’t they know I posted “Beauty Queen” just last week!) I’d love to make it to Liverpool to see the show too but doubt if that’s on the cards.
I’ve been on a lot of photo shoots and they’re usually very enjoyable, but it can also be bloody hard work getting the shot right. Never done anything like these though, the last model I shot was a bloke. Sigh.
Not had anything by Dame David here for a while and this is a corker. This clip from TOTP was thought to have been lost for years, one of the many tapes that the BBC wiped, and hadn’t been seen since it was first broadcast in 1973. Then last year the cameraman came forward with a copy he’d had made at the time, not realizing that it was the only one in existence — “I just couldn’t believe that I was the only one with it. I just thought you wouldn’t be mad enough to wipe a tape like that” he said. Makes you wonder what else has been lost.
One year some naughty boy played this over our school tannoy system on the last day of term, and it still reminds me of the pure joy of running out of the school playground on that day to the freedom of the summer holidays. The girls up on stage look like they’re having the time of their lives too, just watching them gives me a big smile.
Everyone was doing that “grabbing the belt buckle, leaning back and forwards” dance at time because of this, and I used to think it was some proper Teddy Boy move but I think it’s just called “The Mud Roadie Dance” which is rather disappointing.
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.
The sentimental musings of an ageing expat in words, music, and pictures. Mp3 files are up for a limited time so drink them while they're hot.
Contact me: lee at londonlee dot com
