Viva! Roxy Music, the brilliant live album, was issued in
late 1976 after it was announced that Roxy was on hiatus. Phil Manzanera went
through about a dozen properly recorded concerts and cherry picked the best
tracks - not the most obvious, not the big hits, but the ones he thought best
represented Roxy Music in concert. Then he assembled the songs and added some
judicious instrumental overdubs - bits of Andy's sax playing here and there
when mics hadn't picked everything up, some of his own guitar playing, tidying
up wayward notes. Not much was needed as Roxy live was a well honed machine.
Five of the tracks
came from the Newcastle show in late 1974, including all of the second side of
the album. Two tracks - "Pyjamarama" and "Chance Meeting"
are from Glasgow in 1973 on the first tour with Eddie Jobson, and "Both
Ends Burning" is the sole track from Wembley in October 1975. Another Wembley song - "For Your Pleasure" was issued on
the b side of the "Both Ends Burning" single.
Now, a few years ago
the complete Newcastle show leaked out the internet. Lovely soundboard
recording, the whole show, no overdubs, the band on fire and a terrific audience. And when that happened I pondered the
whereabouts of Glasgow Apollo 1973 and Wembley Empire Pool 1975.
Well, just recently I became aware of a full soundboard recording of Wembley 17/10/75. It's
superb! The whole show, except it's oddly missing "For Your Pleasure", but
a bit of nifty CoolEditing later and I've reinserted "FYP" from the
single. It was a little bit tricky as "FYP" sgeues straight into
Manzanera's "Diamond Head" - and as this faded in on the soundboard I
nicked the join from the radio broadcast of a US show from March 1976. There's
a slight dip in quality but it's only over a few seconds so it's not really
obvious.
One of the
interesting things about this gig is that it actually preceded the release of Siren, but they still perform most of
the new album anyway. Siren's release
had been delayed slightly due to the printing of the cover so I guess that the
tour was planned to follow the originallly scheduled release date…
Anyway, the gig opens
with "Sentimental Fool" and then current single "Love Is The
Drug". The band is tight, Ferry is on form, the Sirens adding some screechy
backing vocals, and it's all good. Some surprises - "Strictly Confidential"
is performed for the first time since the Eno days (and dropped again after the
two Wembley shows apparently) and "A Really Good Time" makes a rare
appearance too - it's beautifully performed, so I don't know why it didn't
feature much. A cracking "Virginia Plain" ends the main set, though
the audience are a bit weak at the end - "what's her name?" sings Ferry,
expecting the whole crowd to chant back "Virginia Plain" but there's
just a few voices at this point rather than usual bellow. Perhaps it's a quirk
of the soundboard, although the crowd seems loud enough between songs.
"Both Ends Burning" is interesting too, as you can clearly hear what
overdubs were added to the official Viva!
version. Mainly Andy beefing up his saxophone intro, though some of Ferry's
vocal excesses may also have been sorted out.
The encore is a
stomping medley of "Re-Make/Re'Model" / "Do The Strand" /
"Editions Of You" and back into "Strand" again, then a
further encore of another rarely played song "The Thrill Of It All" -
this one rocks like mad, and is brilliant live so again it's a little baffling
that it didn't get played often. A final encore of "A Hard Rain's A Gonna
Fall" is a little surprising as it's a Ferry solo track, not a Roxy song,
and it's perhaps a little cheeky to end a Roxy show with it.
Mid-set Ferry takes a short break (I expect he went off for a clean shirt, plus a fine cognac and a cigarette, lit for him by some beautiful girl) while
Manzanera's "Diamond Head" was played, followed by "Wild
Weekend" from Mackay's Eddie Riff
album. Usually Ferry returned to the stage to take on "The 'In'
Crowd" which kind of completes a little segment of Roxy solo tracks, but on
this show "A Really Good Time" is slotted in before "The 'In'
Crowd" where it doesn't actually fit terribly well. Oh well. However
"The 'In' Crowd" is fantastic, arguably the best track performed at
this show. Everyone having a real blast, Ferry shouting out the lyrics
breathlessly, the Sirens wailing away, Manzanera delivering a storming solo.
Tremendous stuff.
Now all we need is
the complete Glasgow Apollo 1973 show and I'll be delighted!
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