Bryan Ferry Attempting U.S. Comeback

Spending years away from touring in the United States, Bryan Ferry is planning a comeback, according to a recent profile in Billboard. The Roxy Music songwriter released a new solo album, Olympia, in April and did a handful of performances around the United States to support it. About his small tour, Ferry told the magazine: “They've been really terrific audiences, great reaction. I'm very pleased. The American audience is really into music, they appreciate all the solos and the nuances of the show. We're talking about coming back in March and doing all the places we missed.”

Even after going solo for several years, Ferry is still associated with Roxy Music and, at his live performances, includes some of his older material. He said: “We do songs from the first two albums from '72, '73 and throughout the whole Roxy career. It's strange having so much material to choose from. It makes it difficult to pick the songs to do in a show. But you try to get a balance between the hits people know and the more off the wall songs that we like to play.”

So, why didn’t he tour this side of the pond for many years? He explained his absence to Billboard: “People say 'aren't you fed up with it?' I say not at all. I love making music. I neglected touring in America for quite a while. One of the reasons was because it was too expensive. I don't play stadiums and it's very hard to make ends meet if you've got 30 people on the road with you. I'm doing like an arena show in theaters so it's quite expensive but I love doing it. I could go out with a trio but I really wouldn't particularly want to.”

Ferry revealed that he has an art background, and because of it, he equates music – or at least the physical product – with it. He mentioned: “I lived through my eyes a lot but I was also a huge music fan from an earlier age. Music seemed to mean so much more in those days. Maybe more than today. You had to save up to buy a single even and you'd listen to it endlessly. It was a different process where you were physically involved, touching and holding this piece of music, reading it and looking at the artwork endlessly. Visual things have been a huge part of my career, doing all the album covers, it was fun for me. We're having a show in L.A. of the Kate Moss images we did for the album sleeve.”