Bryan Ferry
Bryan Ferry is an English singer and musician. He became known as the frontman of the band Roxy Music and also launched a solo career.
Born to a working-class family, Ferry studied fine art and taught at a secondary school before pursuing a career in music. In 1970 he began to assemble Roxy Music with a group of friends and acquaintances in London, and took the role of lead singer and main songwriter. The band achieved immediate international success with the release of their self-titled debut album in 1972, containing a rich multitude of sounds, which reflected Ferry's interest in exploring different genres of music. Their second album, For Your Pleasure, further cultivated the band's unique sound and visual image that would establish Ferry as a leading cultural icon over the next decade.
Ferry began a parallel solo career by releasing These Foolish Things, which popularized the concept of a contemporary musician releasing an album covering standard songs and was a drastic departure from his ongoing work with Roxy Music. This was followed by a second album, Another Time, Another Place. Roxy Music released a trilogy of albums, Stranded, Country Life and Siren, which broadened the band's appeal internationally and saw Ferry take greater interest in the role of a live performer, reinventing himself in stage costumes ranging from gaucho to military uniforms. In 1983, following the release of their best-selling album Avalon the previous year, Ferry disbanded Roxy Music to concentrate on his solo career, with his next album, 1985's Boys and Girls, reaching No. 1 in the UK and featuring the hit singles "Slave to Love" and "Don't Stop the Dance", while the next two albums Bête Noire and Taxi both went Top 10 in the UK.
As well as being a prolific songwriter, Ferry has recorded many cover versions, including standards from the Great American Songbook, and Dylanesque, an album of Bob Dylan covers. Including his work with Roxy Music, Ferry has sold over 30 million albums worldwide. In 2019, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Roxy Music.
Early life
Ferry was born in Washington, County Durham, son of Mary Ann and Frederick Charles Ferry. His parents were working-class: his father was a farm labourer who also looked after pit ponies. He attended Washington Grammar-Technical School on Spout Lane from 1957.As a child he had a job as a paperboy and bought jazz magazines with his earnings. He attended Durham University for one year before pursuing fine art at Newcastle University from 1964 to 1968, under Richard Hamilton for one year, and some of his paintings were displayed at the Tate Gallery in 1970. His contemporaries included Tim Head and Nick de Ville. During this period, Ferry was a member of the bands the Banshees, City Blues, and the Gas Board, the latter of which featured his university classmates Graham Simpson and John Porter. He then moved to London in 1968 and taught art and pottery at Holland Park School while pursuing a career in music.
Career
Roxy Music (1970–1983)
Ferry formed Roxy Music with a group of friends and acquaintances, beginning with bassist Graham Simpson, an art school classmate, in November 1970. The line-up was expanded to include saxophonist/oboist Andy Mackay and Brian Eno, an acquaintance who owned tape recorders and played Mackay's synthesiser. Other early members included timpanist Dexter Lloyd and ex-Nice guitarist David O'List, though by the time the band recorded their first album, the line-up had settled as Ferry, Simpson, Mackay, Eno, drummer Paul Thompson and guitarist Phil Manzanera. Around late 1970/early 1971, Ferry auditioned for King Crimson, who were seeking a new singer and bassist to replace Gordon Haskell. Although his voice was deemed not right for Crimson, band members Robert Fripp and Peter Sinfield were still impressed with Ferry and quickly developed a friendship with him that would lead to Roxy Music being signed to Crimson's management company E.G. and Sinfield producing their first album and its subsequent non-album single "Virginia Plain".Released on 16 June 1972, Roxy Music's self-titled debut album reached no. 10 on the UK album charts and immediately established the band's presence in the British music scene. By the time the album was released Simpson had departed and the band would undergo several changes of bassist for the next few years. Later that summer the band appeared on the television show Top of the Pops for the first time, performing their first hit single, "Virginia Plain", marking one of the first electronic music performances on a mainstream television show. The first two Roxy Music albums were written solely by Ferry; the debut contained a pastiche of musical styles, representing Ferry's wide-ranging interests, while the second album, For Your Pleasure, pursued a darker, more determined mood.
Ferry met women's fashion designer Antony Price at a party in Holland Park in 1972, and later that year enlisted him alongside other friends including Nick de Ville to create the cover for Roxy Music's debut album. Featuring model Kari-Ann Moller splayed on the floor in a dress designed by Price, the cover image captivated the attention of the general public and according to writer Richard Williams was, "nothing less than a challenge, bold and direct, to the prevailing complacency." Ferry would continue art-directing each Roxy Music album cover to follow.
Ferry began a parallel solo career in 1973, performing cover versions of old standards on his debut studio album These Foolish Things and his second album Another Time, Another Place, both of which reached the UK top 5. The latter featured on its cover an image of Ferry posing by a pool in a white dinner jacket, a persona which Rolling Stone dubbed "dandy of the bizarre". Ferry's interest in the Great American Songbook represented a stark departure from Roxy Music, and the success of these two albums created a template which would be followed later by other artists including Joni Mitchell, Rod Stewart and Bob Dylan. Embarking on his first solo tour in support of these albums, in 1973 Ferry was notably denied his request for a show at the Royal Albert Hall due to a ban on rock concerts before ultimately being granted his first performance a year later, in December 1974. Ferry's debut at the Royal Albert Hall was recorded and later released as Live at the Royal Albert Hall, 1974 in 2020. Contemporary reviews of this period of Ferry's live performances noted his "actor's instinct for understatement" and praised his novelty and command on stage, concluding "to be Bryan Ferry in 1974 was like being Bob Dylan in 1965, Clark Gable in 1939, and Oscar Wilde in 1895."
Between 1972 and 1974, Ferry's creative output was prolific, as he released a total of six studio albums between his solo career and Roxy Music. The third Roxy Music album, Stranded, saw the departure of Brian Eno and the recruitment by Ferry of violinist and keyboardist Eddie Jobson, a contributor to Ferry's first solo album. Stranded became Roxy Music's first UK no. 1 album, dominating the charts for four months, and its supporting world tour saw Ferry wear a white dinner jacket and move out from behind the keyboard to take centre stage. The Rake notes, "the suit became the lynchpin of his onstage persona, buoyed by iconic, ostentatious tailoring by the likes of Anthony Price." After the concert tour in support of their fifth studio album, Siren, Roxy Music temporarily disbanded in 1976, though some Roxy members - Paul Thompson, Phil Manzanera, Eddie Jobson and bassists John Gustafson, John Wetton and Rick Wills - took part in the recording of Ferry's subsequent solo material. He released three solo albums during this period, Let's Stick Together, In Your Mind and The Bride Stripped Bare, all of which charted in the UK top 20.
Disappointed by the lukewarm response to The Bride Stripped Bare, Ferry reformed Roxy Music at the end of 1978 to record tracks for what would become their sixth studio album, Manifesto, which was released in early 1979 and reached no. 7 in the UK album charts. By now, Roxy Music was a core quartet of Ferry, Mackay, Thompson and Manzanera, and then a core trio following Thompson's departure at the end of 1979, augmented by a wide array of other musicians in the studio and on stage, some drawn from Ferry's solo output. 1980's Flesh + Blood album reached no. 1 in the UK album charts, two years before the group's final studio release Avalon in 1982, which also reached no. 1 in the UK album charts. In-between these two albums, the band also achieved their first and only UK no. 1 single, "Jealous Guy", released in 1981 as a posthumous tribute to its author, John Lennon, who had been murdered two months earlier. It was the only one of their singles not to be written or co-written by Ferry. After lengthy tours to promote the Avalon album, Ferry disbanded Roxy Music in 1983 and continued as a solo artist.
Solo years (1984–2001)
Resuming his solo career, Ferry's sixth solo album, Boys and Girls, reached no. 1 in the UK in June 1985, and was his first and only solo studio album to top the chart. Boys and Girls remained in the UK chart for 44 weeks and its lead single, "Slave to Love", reached the UK top ten. In July 1985, Ferry performed at the London Live Aid show, accompanied by Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour. Ferry and Gilmour also worked together on the song "Is Your Love Strong Enough?" for the soundtrack of the 1985 film Legend, while Ferry contributed the song "Help Me" to the film The Fly the following year.After the Avalon promotional tours, Ferry was reluctant to return to touring; a change of management persuaded him to resume touring in 1988 to promote the previous year's Bête Noire. Following the tour, Ferry teamed again with Brian Eno for Mamouna. The album took more than five years to produce, and was created under the working title Horoscope. During production, Ferry simultaneously recorded and released a covers album, Taxi, in 1993, his eighth solo studio album, which peaked at no. 2 on the UK charts. Mamouna was released in 1994, peaking at no. 11 on the UK charts. In 1996, Ferry performed the song "Dance with Life" for the Phenomenon soundtrack, written by Bernie Taupin and Martin Page.
In 1999, Ferry released his tenth solo studio album, As Time Goes By, consisting of cover versions of 1930s songs. The album peaked at no. 16 in the UK charts and was nominated for a Grammy Award.