I BLEW UP YOUR BODY...BUT YOU BLEW MY MIND!

I know you've immediately said to yourself "Aha, the pivotal line from 'Every Dream Home A Heartache', Roxy Music's paean to an inflatable doll". Last Thursday night at the fabulous La Riviera nightclub in the company of the lovely Viv and her husband David (they too went to The Stones and Tom), our week of 'classic rock' reached its climax with a steaming performance from Bryan Ferry. It was a brilliant, if flawed, 2 hour show that left Roxy Music devotees (i.e. moi) well satisfied but perhaps Bryan Ferrari fans less so.

La Riviera - complete with palm trees!

A couple of punters with a man size G&T

During the Roxy years, Ferry quite reasonably never performed his solo material. As a soloist, the separation no longer exists, and given he pretty much wrote all of Roxy's music then it seems logical that he now sings whatever he wants. There's no sign of Manzanera, Mackay or Thompson in the eight-piece band, but quite frankly, it's debatable whether their input would have lifted the bar any higher; Bryan clearly has no problem putting together a crack outfit (a la Tom last week). The suave one outdoes Jeff Beck when it comes to femme fatales; apart from Jodie Scantlebury and Bobbie Gordon, the regulation stunning backing singers, Ferry's band also features Cherisse Osei, a thunderous Amazonian drummer, and the very sultry Jorja Chalmers on sax, clarinet and keyboards; renowned for being surrounded by beauties, Bryan has outdone himself this time.

Jodie, Bobbie & El Ferrari

Jorja - sax appeal

As already mentioned, this is very much a trip down Roxy Music memory lane. The great man swaggers onstage in what appears to be a tuxedo made from grandma's lounge fabric as the band open with 'Re-Make/Re-Model'. By the end of the first song the dickie is undone and the chicas in the audience are blissfully swaying to 'Kiss And Tell'.

Where did he get that jacket!

There's a great cover of JJ Cale's 'Same Old Blues' before 'Slave To Love' gets every pelvis in the house gyrating - the man and the music reek sex appeal. The chorus of 'Oh Yeah' is the signal for the crowd to enter sing-along mode - "there's a band playing on the radio, with a rhythm of rhyming guitar"....magic, and he ends the set with a few real biggies, 'Both Ends Nurning', 'Love Is The Drug' and 'Virginia Plain'. The encore is brilliant as 'Let's Stick Together' segues into 'Editions Of You' before bringing the curtain down with 'Jealous Guy'.

So how was it flawed? Quite simply, the sound itself was dreadful, not the band but the acoustics of the venue and the sound mix. Powerful is not an adjective synonymous with Bryan Ferry's singing, if anything he's the antithesis of it - sensual, suave, smooth. Sadly, his vocals were too often drowned, not a problem for anyone familiar with the Roxy canon but problematic for those less so. It didn't detract from the night for me, but Dulcinea, although enjoying the show, struggled with it. Dulcinea, Viv and David begged to differ, but for me, it was the high point of the three concerts we've seen over the last week or so - only Bryan Ferry got me to sing along with him!

Footnote: You can, of course, tell fro the images that Don L again ventured out without his trusty Canon SLR!

Here's what Bryan Ferrari played:

Re-Make/Re-Model
Kiss And Tell
Ladytron
Same Old Blues
Slave To Love
If There Is Something
Stronger Through The Years
Oh Yeah
Tara
Take A Chance With Me
Reason Or Rhyme
More Than This
Avalon
In Every Dream Home A Heartache
Casanova
Both ends Burning
Love Is The Drug
Virginia Plain
Encore:
Let's Stick Together
Editions Of You
Jealous Guy