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Roxy Music are an English art rock group formed in November 1970 by Bryan Ferry, who became the group's lead vocalist and chief songwriter, and bassist Graham Simpson. The other members are Phil Manzanera (guitar), Andy Mackay (saxophone and oboe) and Paul Thompson (drums and percussion). Former members include Brian Eno (synthesizer and "treatments"), and Eddie Jobson (synthesizer and violin). Although the band took a break from group activities in 1983, they reunited for a concert tour in 2001, and have toured together intermittently since that time.

Roxy Music attained popular and critical success in the UK, Europe and Australia during the 1970s and early 1980s, beginning with their debut album, Roxy Music (1972). The band was highly influential, as leading proponents of the more experimental, musically sophisticated element of glam, as well as a significant influence on early English punk music. They also provided a model for many New Wave acts and the experimental electronic groups of the early 1980s. The group is distinguished by their visual and musical sophistication and their preoccupation with style and glamour. Ferry and co-founding member Eno have also had influential solo careers, the latter becoming one of the most significant record producers and collaborators of the late 20th century.

Rolling Stone magazine ranked Roxy Music #98 on its "The Immortals – 100 The Greatest Artists of All Time" list.

A new studio album, which would have been their ninth, began recording in 2005. It would have been Roxy's first record with Brian Eno since 1973, who wrote two songs for it as well as played keyboards. However, Bryan Ferry eventually confirmed that material from these sessions would be released as a Ferry solo album, with Eno playing on "a couple of tracks," and that he doesn't think they'll record as Roxy Music again. Subsequently, this was confirmed by the announcement of a solo Bryan Ferry album, entitled Olympia.

In November 1970, Bryan Ferry, who had recently lost his job teaching ceramics at a girls school for holding impromptu record listening sessions, advertised for a keyboard player to collaborate with him and Graham Simpson, a bass player he knew from his Newcastle art college band, The Gas Board, and with whom he collaborated on his first songs. In early 1970 Ferry had auditioned as lead singer for King Crimson, who were seeking a replacement for departed vocalist Greg Lake. Although Robert Fripp and Pete Sinfield decided that Ferry's voice was unsuitable for King Crimson's material, they were impressed with his talent and helped the fledgling Roxy Music to obtain a contract with E.G. Records.

Andy Mackay replied to Ferry's advertisement, not as a keyboard player but a saxophonist and oboist, though he did have a VCS3 synthesizer. Mackay had already met Brian Eno during university days, as both were interested in avant-garde and electronic music. Although Eno was a non-musician, he could operate a synthesizer and owned a Revox reel-to-reel tape machine, so Mackay convinced him to join the band as a technical adviser. Before long Eno was a member of the group. When Dexter Lloyd, a classically-trained timpanist, left the band an advertisement was placed in Melody Maker magazine saying "wonder drummer wanted for an avant rock group". Paul Thompson responded to the advertisement and joined the band in June, 1971. The group's name was partly an homage to the titles of old cinemas and dance halls, and partly a pun on the word rock. Ferry had named the band Roxy originally, but after learning of an American band with the same name he changed the name to Roxy Music.

In October 1971 Roxy advertised in the periodical Melody Maker seeking the "Perfect Guitarist" and Phil Manzanera was one of about twenty players who auditioned. Manzanera, the son of an English father and a Colombian mother, had spent a considerable amount of time in South America and Cuba as a child and although he did not have the same art school background as Ferry, Mackay and Eno, he was perhaps the most proficient member of the band, with an interest in a wide variety of music. Manzanera also knew other well-known musicians, such as David Gilmour, who was a friend of his older brother, and Soft Machine's Robert Wyatt. However, Manazanera would not initially make the band as a guitarist; the successful applicant was David O'List, former guitarist with The Nice. The group was impressed enough with Manzanera that he was invited to become Roxy Music's roadie, an offer which he accepted.

The band's fortunes were greatly increased by the support of Melody Maker journalist Richard Williams and broadcaster John Peel. Williams became an enthusiastic fan after meeting Ferry and being given a demonstration tape during mid-1971, and wrote the first major article on the band, featured on Melody Maker's "Horizons" page in the 7 August 1971 edition. This line-up of Roxy Music (Ferry/Mackay/Eno/Simpson/Thompson/O'List) recorded a BBC session shortly thereafter.

In early February 1972, guitarist O'List quit the group abruptly after an altercation with Paul Thompson which took place at their audition for David Enthoven of EG Management. When O'List didn't show for the next rehearsal, Manzanera was asked to come along, on the pretext of becoming the band's sound mixer. When he arrived he was invited to play guitar and quickly realised that it was an informal audition. Unbeknownst to the rest of the group, Manzanera had learned their entire repertoire and as a result, he was immediately hired as O'List's permanent replacement, joining on 14 February 1972. Two weeks later Roxy Music contracted with EG Management.

With this team, EG Management financed the recording of the tracks for their first album, Roxy Music, recorded in March–April 1972 and produced by King Crimson lyricist Peter Sinfield. Both the album and its famous cover artwork were apparently completed before the group signed with Island Records. A&R staffer Tim Clark records that although he argued strongly that Island should contract them, company boss Chris Blackwell at first seemed unimpressed and Clark assumed he was not interested. A few days later however, Clark and Enthoven were standing in the hallway of the Island offices examining cover images for the album when Blackwell walked past, glanced at the artwork and said "Looks great! Have we got them signed yet?" The band signed with Island Records a few days later. The LP was released in June to good reviews and became a major success, reaching #10 on the UK album chart in September 1972.

During the latter half of 1971 bassist Graham Simpson became increasingly withdrawn and uncommunicative, which led to his leaving the band almost immediately after the recording of the debut album. He was replaced by Rik Kenton.

To garner more attention to their album, Roxy Music decided to record and release a single. Their debut single was "Virginia Plain", which scored #4 in the British charts. The band's eclectic visual image, captured in their debut performance on the BBC's Top of the Pops, became a cornerstone for the glam trend in the UK; the TOTP video of "Virginia Plain" was later parodied by the British comedy series Big Train. The single caused a renewed interest in the album. Soon after "Virginia Plain", Rik Kenton departed the band, which would never again have a permanent bass player. John Porter, John Gustafson, John Wetton, Gary Tibbs and Alan Spenner among others would fill the revolving role.

The next album, For Your Pleasure was released in March 1973. It marked the beginning of the band's long, successful collaboration with producer Chris Thomas , who worked on all of the group's classic albums and singles in the 1970s. The album was promoted with the non-album single "Pyjamarama", but no album track was released as a single. At the time, Ferry was dating French model Amanda Lear, who was photographed with a black jaguar for the cover of For Your Pleasure (Ferry appears on the back cover as a dapper chauffeur standing in front of a limousine). For this album, John Porter (credited as a guest) played bass, while Sal Maida played bass for subsequent live shows.

Soon after recording For Your Pleasure, Brian Eno left Roxy Music amidst increasing differences with Ferry about the management of the group. The other members of the band are reported to have shared some of Eno's concerns about Ferry's dominance, but they elected to remain in the group. As well, Johnny Gustafson became the band's permanent bass player for the next three studio albums, but not always for live shows; though he toured with Roxy on certain dates in 1973 and 1975, other live Roxy bassists of this period (1973–1976) included Sal Madia, John Wetton and Rick Wills.

Eno, meanwhile, was replaced by 19-year-old multi-instrumentalist Eddie Jobson, formerly of progressive rockers Curved Air, who played keyboards and electric violin. Although some fans lamented the loss of the experimental attitude and camp aesthetic that Eno had brought to the band, the classically-trained Jobson was an accomplished musician. His arrival reinvigorated the group, with his keyboard expertise freeing Ferry from his keyboard duties on stage, as well as lending greater refinement to the group's studio recordings. His dazzling electric violin skills added an exciting new dimension to the band's sound, as showcased on the song "Out of the Blue". Eno himself later acknowledged the quality of the two albums that followed his departure, Stranded (1973) and Country Life (1974), and they are widely regarded as being among the most original and consistent British rock music albums of the period. Rolling Stone referred to the albums as marking "the zenith of contemporary British art rock".

The songs on these albums also cemented Ferry's persona as the epitome of the suave, jaded Euro-sophisticate. Although this persona undoubtedly began as a deliberately ironic device, during the mid-1970s it seemed to merge with Ferry's real life, as the working-class miner's son from the north of England became an international rock star, an icon of male style who had love affairs with many beautiful women, among them Playboy playmate Marilyn Cole (who appeared on the cover of the Stranded album) and fashion models Amanda Lear (who would later date David Bowie) and Jerry Hall (who later became the common-law wife of Mick Jagger).

On the first two Roxy albums, all songs were written solely by Bryan Ferry. Beginning with Stranded, Mackay and Manzanera began to co-write some material. Gradually, their songwriting and musicianship became more integrated into the band's sound, although Ferry remained the dominant songwriter; throughout their career, all but one of Roxy's singles were written either wholly or jointly by Ferry. (However, Manzanera, Mackay and Thompson did individually write a few of the band's B-sides). Stranded was released in November 1973, and produced the top-10 single "Street Life".

The fourth album, Country Life, was released in 1974, and was the first Roxy Music album to enter the U.S. Top 40, albeit at #37. Country Life was met with widespread critical acclaim, with Rolling Stone referring to it "as if Ferry ran a cabaret for psychotics, featuring chanteurs in a state of shock". Their fifth album, Siren, contained their only U.S. hit, "Love Is the Drug". (Ferry said the song came to him while kicking the leaves during a walk through Hyde Park.) At this time Ferry was involved in a relationship with Texas-born supermodel Jerry Hall. Ferry's paean to Hall, "Prairie Rose", directly inspired the Talking Heads song "The Big Country" and was later covered by the Scottish rock group Big Country as a B-side to their single "East of Eden" in 1984. Hall is also featured on the cover of the Siren LP and in the video for Ferry's 1976 international solo success, a cover of Wilbert Harrison's "Let's Stick Together".

After the concert tours in support of Siren in 1976, Roxy Music disbanded. Their live album Viva! was released in August 1976. During this time Ferry released two solo records on which Manzanera and Thompson performed, and Manzanera reunited with Eno on the critically acclaimed one-off 801 Live album.

Roxy Music reunited during 1978 to record a new album, Manifesto, but with a reshuffled cast. Jobson was not present, and was reportedly not contacted for the reunion. (At that time, Jobson was touring and recording with his own band UK.) The sleeve of Manifesto explicitly identifies the revived Roxy Music line-up as a septet of Ferry, Manzanera, Mackay, Thompson, and new members Gary Tibbs (bass), Alan Spenner (bass) and Paul Carrack (keyboards) However, these newest three members were downgraded to session musician status (as opposed to full band members) on all subsequent releases.

Three singles were spun off from Manifesto, including the major UK hits "Angel Eyes" (UK #2), and "Dance Away" (UK #5). Both these tracks are significantly different from the album versions, as "Dance Away" was remixed for single release, and "Angel Eyes" was entirely re-recorded.

After the tour and before the recording of the next album, Flesh + Blood (1980), Thompson broke his thumb in a motorcycle mishap and took a leave from the band. Soon after, he left permanently.

At this point, Ferry, Mackay and Manzanera became the only permanent members of Roxy Music, and were supplemented by a variety of session players over the next few years (including Tibbs, Spenner, Carrack, Andy Newmark and Neil Hubbard.) The trio's 1980 album Flesh + Blood became a huge commercial success in their homeland, as the album went to #1 on the UK charts, and spun off three UK hits: "Oh Yeah" (UK #5), "Over You" (UK #5), and "Same Old Scene" (UK #12).

However, the changed cast reflected a distinct change in Roxy's musical style. Gone were the unpredictable elements of the group's sound, giving way to smoother musical arrangements. Rolling Stone panned Manifesto ("Roxy Music has not gone disco. Roxy Music has not particularly gone anywhere else either") as well as Flesh + Blood ("such a shockingly bad Roxy Music record that it provokes a certain fascination"), while other sources praised the reunion. Melody Maker said, of Manifesto, "...reservations aside, this may be the first such return bout ever attempted with any degree of genuine success: a technical knockout against the odds."

In 1981, Roxy Music recorded the non-album single "Jealous Guy". A cover of a song written and originally recorded by John Lennon, Roxy Music recorded "Jealous Guy" as a tribute to Lennon after his 1980 death. The song topped the UK charts for two weeks in March 1981, becoming the band's only #1 single.

Later, with more sombre and carefully sculpted soundscapes, the band's eighth—and final—studio album, Avalon (1982), was a major commercial success and restored the group's critical reputation[20] and contained the successful single "More Than This". The trio (augmented by session players) toured extensively until 1983, when Bryan Ferry dissolved the band and band members devoted themselves full time to solo careers

Orpheum Theater
Boston, Mass. U.S.A.
March 31, 1979

Roxy Music is:
Bryan Ferry- vocals and keyboards
Phil Manzanera- guitar
David Skinner- piano
Andy Mackay- sax and oboe
Gary Tibbs- bass
Paul Thompson- drums

01. stage introduction :33
02. manifesto 5:29
03. trash 2:51
04. a song for Europe 6:57
05. still falls the rain 4:32
06. mother of pearl 6:49
07. out of the blue 5:18
08. ain't that so 5:58
09. stronger through the years > ladytron 13:51
10. in every dream home a heartache 7:46
11. Casanova 3:47
12. love is the drug 4:02
13. editions of you 3:44
14. remake, remodel 4:12
15. encore break comments (Mark Parenteau and Tracy Roach) 1:17
16. Virginia Plain 3:12
17. do the strand 4:02 (previously 3:45)
18. radio announcer closing credits 1:43