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Bryan Ferry Concert Review

De Montfort Hall, Leicester, 1977

by Paul Huddlestone

Leicester Mercury, 4 February 1977

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For Leicester rock fans it was one hour 12 minutes of the Ferry best at De Montfort Hall last night. The music, strong and potent came from 12 musicians led by the one and only - the very one and only - Bryan Ferry.
Ferry, the guiding force behind the futuristic Roxy Music (some say he is Roxy Music) is now the superstar solo performer as well. And the the former Newcastle teacher handles the role as if to the manner born.
From the moment he lurched onto the scene, shoulders dipping and beezing hard through a harmonica, the show was Ferry's and Ferry was the show.

Whether he was singing the involved pieces that were so much a part of Roxy's menacing appeal, or elaborating on other peoples hits that he has now made his own, Ferry was undeniably king.

An individual in a business geared to artists conforming to demand, Ferry has made his ark by being different - successfully so. He has capitalised not only on the quirkiness of his musical style, but on his image too.
His stage movements would put Frankenstein in the Nureyev class and there's as much perverse anarchism in his taste for clothes as there is rocker's blood in his veins. Last night there was no sci-fi get-up, U.S.Army uniform, or Errol Flynn moustache. The idol of millions was dressed in a dated grey suit with black shoes and grey patterned tie. He wore his hair like Hitler and looked like a scruffy office clerk who couldn't get the 60's out of his mind.

Musically there was a mixed bag of Roxy material, favourite hits - you should have heard the roar for Hard Rain - and stuff from the new solo album due out next week. Numbers we heard included You Go To My Head, Could It Happen To Me (from Siren) Tracks Of My Tears and the romping version of It's My Party.

Predictably too it was the hits that burned up the energy. For the inevitable encore the band attempted to launch the hall roof into Victoria Park with The Price Of Love.Mostly though Ferry's control on the structure of his music was total. Only now and again did people like Chris Spedding get the chance to let rip.

For the record the line-up also included ex-Family player John Wetton, Phil Manzanera and Paul Thompson from Roxy, three from Kokomo, a three-man brass section and Ann Odell on keyboards.