Bryan Ferry
b. 26 September 1945, Washington, Tyne & Wear, England. Ferry began his musical career in local group the Banshees, following which he enrolled at Newcastle-Upon-Tyne University where he formed R&B group the Gas Board, whose ranks included Graham Simpson and John Porter. After studying Fine Art under Richard Hamilton, Ferry briefly worked as a teacher before forming the celebrated Roxy Music. During their rise to fame, he plotted a parallel solo career, beginning in 1973 with THESE FOOLISH THINGS, an album of favourite cover versions. At the time, the notion of recording an album of rock standards was both innovative and nostalgic. Ferry recorded half an album of faithful imitations, leaving the other half to more adventurous arrangements. Some of the highlights included a revival of Ketty Lester's obscure Rivers Of Salt, a jaunty reading of Elvis Presley's Baby I Don't Care and a remarkable hit version of Bob Dylan's A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall. The album received mixed reviews but effectively paved the way for similar works including David Bowie's PIN-UPS and John Lennon's ROCK ‘N’ ROLL. Ferry continued the cover game with ANOTHER TIME, ANOTHER PLACE, which was generally less impressive than its predecessor. Two stylish pre-rock numbers that worked well were Smoke Gets In Your Eyes and Funny How Time Slips Away. A gutsy revival of Dobie Gray's The In Crowd brought another UK Top 20 hit. By 1976, Ferry had switched to R&B covers on LET'S STICK TOGETHER which, in addition to the hit Wilbert Harrison title track, featured a rousing re-run of the Everly Brothers’ The Price Of Love. It was not until 1977 that Ferry finally wrote an album's worth of songs for a solo work. IN YOUR MIND spawned a couple of minor hits with This Is Tomorrow and Tokyo Joe. That same spring, Ferry appeared on the soundtrack of ALL THIS AND WORLD WAR II singing the Beatles’ She's Leaving Home’. The following year, he retired to Montreux to complete the highly accomplished THE BRIDE STRIPPED BARE. Introspective and revelatory, the album documented his sense of rejection following the loss of his jet-setting girlfriend, model Jerry Hall. The splendid Sign Of The Times presented a Dadaist vision of life as total bleakness: ‘We live, we die . . . we know not why’. The track Can't Let Go, written at a time when he considered giving up music, maintained the dark mood. It was another seven years before Ferry recorded solo again. In the meantime, he married society heiress Lucy Helmore, abandoning his lounge lizard image in the process. The 1985 comeback BOYS AND GIRLS was stylistically similar to his work with Roxy Music and included the hits Slave To Love and Don't Stop The Dance. After a further two-year break, Ferry collaborated with guitarist Johnny Marr on The Right Stuff (adapted from the Smiths’ instrumental, Money Changes Everything). The album BETE NOIRE was a notable hit indicating that Ferry's muse was still very much alive, even though his solo work continues to be eclipsed by the best of Roxy Music.