Roxy Music onstage at the O2 London October 14th 2022

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ANDY MACKAY musician, composer and founder member of ROXY MUSIC

 

Roxy Music are an English Rock Band formed in 1971 when Bryan Ferry and bass player Graham Simpson - friends and band mates from Newcastle - met Andy and, shortly after, Andy’s friend, experimental musician Brian Eno. Within a few months they auditioned for a guitarist and drummer and through the mysteries and further fortunes of fate, found Phil Manzanera and Paul Thompson.

The band played extensively around London from the summer of 1971, having changed their name from “Roxy” to “Roxy Music”. They were spotted by legendary DJ John Peel playing support to Genesis in Croydon and did a live session for broadcast on his “Sounds of the 70s” radio show. They signed for management with EG in early 1972 and started recording the first album shortly afterwards, which was released to great critical and popular success on Island Records. A single, “Virginia Plain” was recorded later that year and gave them their first top ten hit. Overnight the .art school rockers became also pop stars and went on to become one of the most musically innovative and influential bands of the decade .

Roxy Music continued to tour and record throughout the 70s with a succession of hit albums and singles. After their eighth studio album, “Avalon”, a classic, platinum album on both sides of the Atlantic, the band stopped touring in 1983. They re-formed for live shows in 2001 and performed throughout the early 2000s. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019, where they performed a short set.

In 2022 Roxy Music celebrated their 50th anniversary with a tour of North America and the UK playing venues such as Madison Square Garden, The Forum in Los Angeles and London’s O2 Arena. All four original Roxy members were onboard as well as some of the great musicians who had played with them over the year . The tour was a huge popular and critical success, perhaps surprising some with the energy, commitment and profound sense of enjoying playing together.

The various band members continue to be very active in many different musical spheres and remain friends. A new instrumental project from Andy and Phil Manzanera - AM/PM is released in October 2023.

Over the years Andy recorded solo albums and other projects for TV and films well as playing sessions for many great musicians including the various Roxy members. He also wrote a book on electronic music, studied theology and finished the 3Psalms project, a work between genres, rock, classical, electronic sacred and secular which stands to sum up his lifetime interests. The 3Psalms premiered at London’s South Bank Arts centre in November 2018.

In July 2023 one of these projects, the TV musical drama Rock Follies, which was aired in twelve episodes 1976/77, was relaunched as a stage musical premiering at Chichester Festival Theatre where it was received with wild enthusiasm and great reviews. A transfer to the West End is eagerly awaited.

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