Information AboutBryan Ferry |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT BRYAN FERRY | |
| 1945 births | |
| living people | |
| alumni of newcastle university | |
| english actors | |
| english male singers | |
| english songwriters | |
| anglo-scots | |
| roxy music members | |
Bryan Ferry (born 26 September 1945 in Washington , Tyne And Wear ) is a British Singer , Musician and Songwriter , famed for his suave visual and vocal style, who came to public prominence in the 1970s as lead vocalist with Roxy Music . He is also noted for his alternative highly successful solo career. BIOGRAPHY Born into a working-class family, Ferry studied fine art at the University Of Newcastle Upon Tyne before becoming a pottery teacher in London , all the while aiming for a career in music. He formed Roxy Music with a group of friends and acquaintances, initially just Graham Simpson who, like Ferry, had been part of a band called The Gas Board. The Roxy Music line-up expanded to include Andy Mackay and his acquaintance Brian Eno , who owned tape recorders and played Andy Mackay's synthesiser. Other early members included a timpanist and ex-Nice guitarist David O'List, who were replaced respectively by Paul Thompson and Phil Manzanera before the band recorded its first album. (Early Peel sessions for UK radio station Radio 1 feature O'List's playing.) Roxy Music's first hit, "Virginia Plain", just missed topping the charts, and they followed up with several hit singles and albums, with Ferry as vocalist and occasional instrumentalist (he taught himself Piano in his mid-twenties) and Eno contributing Synthesiser backing. On a personal level, Bryan Ferry was known to date very beautiful women, who often appeared as cover models on the Roxy Music albums. Ferry dated singer and model Amanda Lear , who was photographed with a black jaguar on the cover of the "For Your Pleasure" album. She later went on to date and create music with David Bowie. For many years, Bryan Ferry has collaborated with fashion designer Antony Price for clothing and image consultations. Price is famous for his London shop on King's Road. He created suits recognized for their elegance throughout the world, and gained fame when celebrities and rock stars dressed in his designs. By 1973 (see 1973 In Music ), Ferry had launched a parallel solo career, specialising in cover versions of old standards on albums such as '' These Foolish Things ''. Eno soon left Roxy Music, leaving Ferry its undisputed leader. Ferry then began a relationship with model Jerry Hall , and Roxy's success waned as his solo career took off. Hall appears in several of Ferry's music videos, including "Let's Stick Together" and "The Price of Love." Ferry first met Hall when she posed for the Roxy Music album cover for "Siren," which was photographed in Wales during the Summer of 1975. Jerry Hall's autobiography ("Tall Tales") describes the photo session, and she elaborates on how the blue body paint she wore to look like a mythical siren would not wash off. Hall says that Ferry took her back to his house to help her remove the blue paint. Her stay at Ferry's Holland Park (London) home, following the album cover photo shoot, marked the start of their doomed affair. Hall and Ferry eventually moved in together, sharing homes in London and in the ritzy Bel Air section of L.A. It was while Ferry was away on tour that Hall began a simultaneous affair with Mick Jagger. To this day, Ferry rarely speaks about Hall, but fans often speculate that his song "Kiss and Tell" from the Bete Noire album was Ferry's response to Hall's tell-all book about their relationship. Ferry often refuses to discuss his feelings about Hall or talk about their romantic history during interviews. Bryan Ferry's solo album '' The Bride Stripped Bare '' contains references to his break-up with Hall, who left him for Mick Jagger in late 1977. After this album failed to catapult his solo career, Ferry decided to reunite with Roxy Music to record new material. Notably Ferry's Roxy Music bandmembers, particularly Paul Thompson , Phil Manzanera and Eddie Jobson took part in recording his subsequent solo material. After a couple of years as a solo artist, he re-formed the band and took them to new heights, the pinnacle of their success being their only UK number one hit, " Jealous Guy ", released in tribute to John Lennon - ironically, the only one of their singles not written by Ferry. Ferry eventually settled down to married life with Lucy Helmore , and they had four sons, including huntsman and political activist Otis Ferry and infamous man-about-town Isaac Ferry . Bryan Ferry continued to record, and released albums that reached the UK top 10, such as Boys And Girls in 1985 (a number one album in Britain), '' Taxi '' in 1993 , and '' As Time Goes By '' in 1999 , a collection of 1930s standards. He even teamed up again with Brian Eno for '' Mamouna '' in 1994 (collaborating with Robin Trower on guitar and as producer), and its long-awaited follow-up ''Frantic'' in 2002 , which mixed Ferry originals with covers - something that Ferry hadn't attempted on a solo album since ''The Bride Stripped Bare'' 14 years before. After lengthy ("debilitating") tours like the gruelling schedule used to promote the Avalon album in 1983 , Ferry was rather reluctant to return to life on the road; however, a change of management persuaded him to try touring again in 1988 to belatedly promote the previous year's Bête Noire release; he spoke enthusiastically about the experience and repeated it for Mamouna in 1994 / 1995 . In 1999 Bryan Ferry appeared with . Following his split from Lucy, British newspapers photographed Ferry with Katie Turner, naming her as his new "girlfriend." Ferry and Katie Turner met while she worked as one of the dancers during Roxy Music's concert tour in 2001. Katie is also featured on the DVD of the 2001 Hammersmith Odeon Show and has appeared with Bryan Ferry on several TV appearances to promote the 'Frantic' album. Katie also appeared in the live show during the 'Frantic' 2002 tour. After their break-up, Ferry had a relationship with Lady Emily Compton, a society beauty. Ferry and his family experienced a big scare in December of 2000, when his British Airways flight from London's Gatwick Airport to Kenya was disrupted in a hijack attempt. A man named Paul Mukonyi burst into the cockpit of the Boeing 747 flying to Nairobi. As three crew fought to restrain Mukonyi, 27, a mental patient from Kenya, the jet plunged downward about 10,000 feet. But disaster was averted when pilots recovered the aircraft and all passengers landed safely. In 2004 , he starred in the short film The Porter . Also in that year, guitarist David Williams was involved in some recording sessions for Ferry. In 2005 , it was confirmed that Roxy Music (Ferry, Mackay, Manzanera, and Thompson) would be performing further shows at that year's Isle Of Wight festival and that they would also be recording a further album of new and original songs, with no indication of when such a project would reach completion. Ferry's most recent appearance was in "Breakfast on Pluto", Neil Jordan's 2005 movie starring Cillian Murphy as a young Irish transvestite who goes to London in the glam 1970s to find his mother. Ferry, appearing in a bit part as Mr. Silky String, plays a suave but creepy john who picks up the sexually ambiguous young man and, after a short conversation, attempts to strangle him in the front seat of his car. DISCOGRAPHY Studio albums # '' These Foolish Things '' (October 1973, UK #5) # ''Another Time, Another Place'' (July 1974, UK #4) # '' Let's Stick Together '' (September 1976, UK #19, US #160) # '' In Your Mind '' (February 1977, UK #5, US #126) # '' The Bride Stripped Bare '' (April 1978, UK #13, US #159) # '' Boys And Girls '' (May 1985, UK #1, US #63) # '' Bête Noire '' (October 1987, UK #9, US #63) # '' Taxi '' ( 13 April 1993 , UK #2, US #79) # '' Mamouna '' ( 20 September 1994 , UK #11, US #94) # '' As Time Goes By '' ( 15 October 1999 , UK #16, US #199) # '' Frantic '' ( 18 May 2002 , UK #6, US #189) Compilations
Singles 1970s:
1980s:
1990s:
2000s:
BIBLIOGRAPHY
SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
|
|
|