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Roxy Music music biography continued...

early 70s by art school graduate Bryan Ferry (vocals and keyboards) who joined with Phil Manzanera (guitars), Andy Mackay (saxophone and oboe) Paul Thompson (drums and percussion) and Brian Eno (synthesizer and "treatments"). Signed by EG Management, the band released their self-titled debut album off Island records in June 1972. To garner more attention to their album, the band decided to record and release a single called "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 and the album reached #1 on the UK album chart in late 1972. After the next album, 1973's For Your Pleasure, Brian Eno left the band over creative differences with Ferry, even as the album became another sensation in Britain. The band finally came to the attention of fans in the United States with 1973's Stranded, which produced the Top Ten 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," which finally made the group sensations at home and abroad.



Roxy Music continued to tour relentlessly to back up its albums, including 1980's Flesh + Blood, but Ferry and friends went their separate ways in1983. Ferry, Manzanera, Mackay, and Thompson re-formed in 2001 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the band and toured extensively. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked the group #98 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, confirming what fans of the group had known for some time.