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In what might be the best news of the week, legendary English art-rockers Roxy Music have announced their first tour in 11 years (and their first shows on American soil in 19 years) to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their self-titled debut album in 1972. The band, composed of their core quartet of singer Bryan Ferry, guitarist Phil Manzanera, oboist/saxophonist Andy MacKay and drummer Paul Thompson, are set to play the American Airlines Center on Friday, Sept. 23, with special guest St. Vincent.
To celebrate our giddiness, here are seven reasons we’re stoked to see Roxy Music FINALLY play DFW.
1. This Is Set to be Roxy Music’s First-Ever Show in Dallas
The last time Roxy Music played a show in the U.S. was during the George W. Bush administration. The last time Roxy Music played a show in Texas was during the Ford administration – at the 1,500-capacity Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin. They have never played in Dallas.
2. Tickets Are Actually Reasonably Priced
At the time of writing, most tickets for the show range between $86 and $199 (including fees), with only seats in the first 10 rows going for the $300+ range. Compare that with prices for Genesis’ recent reunion tour, which typically started at around $150 and topped out at around $500, not including fees. Given Phil Collins’ recent announcement that this last outing ended up being Genesis’ last, it’s not unreasonable to assume that these upcoming shows will likely be DFW’s last chance to see Roxy Music.
3. Bryan Ferry, Phil Manzanera, Andy MacKay and Paul Thompson
While Bryan Ferry is a fairly regular visitor to North Texas on his solo endeavors, opportunities to see the band’s other members have been practically nonexistent. Other than Manzanera, none partake in many touring/side projects these days, and Manzanera no longer tours with David Gilmour, so seeing the majority of Roxy Music in the flesh is a rarity in itself, let alone all together.
4. The Likely Presence of Eddie Jobson, Chris Spedding and Neil Jason
While their participation in the tour has yet to be officially confirmed, alongside the band’s core four is likely to be a trio of veteran musicians who have spent decades both in and around the Roxy Music firmament. During the band’s most recent one-off reunion at the ceremony for their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019, they were supported by keyboardist/violinist Eddie Jobson, guitarist Chris Spedding and bassist Neil Jason. Jason, for one, was essential to the band’s swan song album Avalon in 1982, performing on most of the album’s tracks and accompanying the band on what would end up being their final tour pre-reunions. Outside of Roxy, Jason has played bass for Paul McCartney, Billy Joel, Cyndi Lauper, Dire Straits and others. Ferry invited Jason into his solo band in 2019, so his presence on the Roxy 50 tour is almost assured.
Chris Spedding has spent most of his career as a session player, contributing lead guitar parts to records by Harry Nilsson (“Jump Into The Fire”), Tom Waits (Rain Dogs), Jack Bruce (Songs For a Tailor), Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of War of the Worlds and many others, with Ferry bringing him into the fold for solo projects in 2016.
Outside of his work with King Crimson and UK, Eddie Jobson initially joined Roxy Music in 1973 upon the departure of founding keyboardist/sonic manipulator Brian Eno and remained a member up until their first, brief disbandment in 1976. Jobson’s wily violin is most on display powering the cacophonous outro of “Out of the Blue,” a solo he replicated more than 40 years later at the band’s Rock Hall induction
5. The Catalog
If you’re familiar with Roxy Music’s body of work, you need no motivation to see the band in concert. The songs speak for themselves. However, newcomers only familiar with “Love is the Drug,” “More Than This,” or the title track to Avalon, will be discovering a colorful musical world filled with intellectual stimulation, sexual thrills and very nice suits. From the band’s early days as an oblique contribution to the English glam rock scene alongside the likes of David Bowie, T-Rex and The Sweet, to the band’s slick, proto-new wave excursions of the late ’70s and early ’80s, Roxy Music never stagnated, never repeated themselves musically and always stood out thanks to Ferry’s magnificent warble and the band’s ability to absolutely warp any predisposition to be normal. Deep tracks to discover include “Prairie Rose” (the band’s ode to Texas), “In Every Dream Home a Heartache” (thank you Harry Styles, for bringing this one to a new generation), and arguably the band’s runner-up masterpiece “Mother of Pearl.”
6. “More Than This”
Yes, this song alone is worth the ticket price. In the 40 years since Roxy Music said goodbye with Avalon, “More Than This” has grown into what feels like the apex of all of what the band was capable of accomplishing or ever strived to accomplish. While it has retroactively turned into the band’s biggest ‘hit’ in the U.S. through extensive use in commercials and film (including this masterpiece of a scene from Lost in Translation) the song effectively served as Roxy Music’s farewell with the words “It was fun, for a while, there was no way of knowing, like a dream in the night, who can say where we’re going?” The song even takes an extra two minutes after Ferry has concluded singing in order to admire its own perfection, the years spent building toward that moment and the perfection of the musical aesthetic that only Roxy Music could achieve.
7. St. Vincent
Do we really need to elaborate? Annie Clark gets the arena treatment in her hometown opening for a band that essentially walked so she could run. There is no more elegant way to pass the musical baton than having St. Vincent opening for Roxy Music in Dallas.
Presale for Roxy Music’s Dallas show is happening now (Code: ROXY50) with general on-sale starting Monday, April 4 at 10am CDT.
