Between 1972 and their first break-up in 1976 (and then again following their 1979 reunion), Roxy Music were arguably the most exciting, ambitious and vivacious bans in the land - a core four piece of vocalist Bryan Ferry, guitarist Phil Manzanera, horn player Andy Mackay and drummer Phil Thompson (but also featuring, at different times, Brian Eno and Eddie Jobson) who emerged during 1972’s long, hot summer of glam rock, but who could never be readily pigeonholed. The greatest records they made became, in turn, some of the greatest records of the age. ‘Virginia Plain,’ ‘Pyjamarama,’ ‘Street Life,’ ‘All I Want Is You,’ ‘Love is the Drug,’ ‘Trash’ and ‘Dance Away’ were the hits, but even the deepest cuts on the band’s first five albums became anthems for a generation. Roxy were no ordinary band in other ways, too, as Ferry, Manzanera, Mackay and Eno all embarked upon solo careers - which, between them, were responsible for a complex catalogue of songs that stretches from the ballads of the 1930s to the electronica of the distant future, from Wagner’s Valkyries to David Bowie’s Low. This book encompasses all of that, documenting the histories of both band and band members, while analysing and detailing every album and single released by the Roxy family throughout the decade.
AUTHOR: Dave Thompson is author of over 150 books, including the autobiographies of Sylvain Sylvain (New York Dolls), Walter Lure (the Heartbreakers), Motown legends Eddie and Brian Holland and Judy Dyble (Fairport Convention). His other books include biographies of David Bowie, Hawkwind, Roger Waters, Robert Plant, Sparks, John’s Children, Jeff Beck and Kurt Cobain; among his most recent publications are The Grunge Diaries 1990-1994, I Feel Love and Rozz Williams in his Own Words and Beyond (all 2021). Thompson’s writing has also appeared in Mojo, Record Collector, Rolling Stone, Melody Maker, Q, Alternative Press and Goldmine. He lives in Delaware, USA.
