Setlist: Re-make/Re-model, Street Life, Ladytron, While My Heart Is Still Beating,
If There Is Something, Out Of The Blue, A Song For Europe, My Only Love,
Oh Yeah, Both Ends Burning, Tara, Avalon, More Than This, Mother Of Pearl,
Jealous Guy, Editions Of You, Virginia Plain
Encores: Love Is The Drug, Do The Strand,
For Your Pleasure |
There
was a sense of nervous anticipation in the the hall of the Point
Depot, Dublin before the opening
concert of the Roxy Music 2001 reunion tour. Would they still be able
to cut it? We needn't have worried...
As the lights dimmed, the familiar sound of the opening bars of Re-make/Re-model
rang out as the huge curtain moved back from right to left revealing
the band. There
is a striking backdrop with myriad projected images and a very impressive
lighting rig.
But centre stage was empty. Where was Bryan Ferry? He was high up on
the left of stage playing the piano, something he did on a number of
songs throughout the evening. I took this to be a coded message that
this was Roxy Music returning as a ensemble band, and not simply as
Ferry's backing group.
Ferry began in a silver lurex
jacket, switching to both white and black tuxedos later in the evening.
There was a powerful start to the concert with Street Life, and a thunderous
version of Ladytron following the opening number. After Street Life,
Ferry uttered the words we had waited so long to hear - 'Great to see
you all again, this is Roxy Music' - I positively shivered. After a
very beautiful rendition of While My Heart Is Still Beating came a great
version of 'If There Is Something' the combination of Lucy Wilkins'
violin and Manzanera and Spedding's twangy guitars making the song a
hoedown feel, whilst
a thunderous version of Out Of The Blue gave Wilkins the perfect showcase
for her virtuosity - a real highlight when contrasted with the exquisite
opening Colin Good conjured up for 'A Song For Europe'. Andy Mackay
was a revalation, having looked a little nervous and static at the Top
Of The Pops recording, he was note-perfect in an assured performance
throughout the Dublin concert. The years just rolled away...
'My Only Love' provided Chris Spedding with an opportunity to strut
his stuff, creating an extended bluesy guitar solo, before Manzanera
and Mackay stood shoulder to shoulder with him as the song built to
a crescendo. 'Oh Yeah' followed as a obvious crowd-pleaser, before the
band crashed into a storming rendition of 'Both Ends Burning' brightened
by the combination of Spedding's bottleneck blues guitar solo and Ferry's
harmonica, which was a nice diversion from what were generally fairly
faithful renditions of the original songs.
For me, the showstopper was Andy's terrific extended version of 'Tara'
from the 'Avalon' album, his beautiful oboe playing interlaced with
Lucy's violin really gave me a tear in my eye. A slightly unconvincing
version of Avalon followed, with stunning backing singer Sarah Brown,
in a fantastic salmon pink Antony Price dress, choosing to deviate from
the traditional Yannick Etienne inspired vocal.
As the opening bars of 'More Than This' rang out the faithful raced
to the front to dance, albeit the song sounded a little unconvincing
to me. Ferry handled the upper register vocal well, and was in exceptional
form, both vocally and in his stagecraft throughout the concert. To
me, there is litle doubt that experiences on his solo tour last year
have done much to regenerate him as an artist. Even this early in the
tour, he was superb. The stagecraft goes almost without saying. I'm
immensely impressed by Phil Manzanera too. His whole demeanour is one
of confidence and relaxation, and his playing was tight and inventive.
He looks like a guy who feels he is back in his rightful place. The
interplay with Spedding still needs work, but at this stage of the tour,
there is plenty of time for this to develop.
Mother of Pearl was up next, Ferry word-perfect in a charismatic display,
as the attention was drawn more and more to centre stage. Jealous Guy
has seemed a little cliched to me in recent years, but driven along
by star of the show Paul Thompson (just check out his incredible work
on Ladytron) the song took on a whole new aspect. Editions of You and
Virginia Plain were rocket fuelled, Ferry stepping over to the keyboard
for his customary solo during the former, and conducting the crowd for
the latter, before the band left the stage, and the chanting began.
The Dublin crowd was a little slow to get going, as though they couldn't
believe it was actually happening, but by the end there was bedlam.
After a couple of minutes band lynchpin bassist Zev Katz strode over
to strap on his guitar, and we were off again with traditional show
closers 'Love Is The Drug' and 'Do The Strand' getting a supercharged
treatment from this rocky band. We were well entertained for an hour
and a half, but the biggest surprise of all was still to come. Ferry
teased the crowd for a while before the drum intro to 'For Your Pleasure'
began. There was an audible intake of breath, and that was just from
me! What a surprise. As the song came to an end with its 'Tara Tara'
refrain, each player in turn took a bow and then their leave of the
stage until appropriately only The Great Paul Thompson remained. Sublime.
This was a much better opening gig than I had dared to imagine, with
everyone playing their part, and little of the rustiness and unfamiliarity
I anticipated, and I wonder what will happen when this band really gets
into their stride, and starts to improvise. Thompson is the keystone,
and the others clearly take confidence from his assured playing. I've
really tried not to use hyperbole in this review, wary that I might
be setting the band up for a fall, but this really was a cracking start
to the tour. Thank you Dublin!
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