After the summer festivals, it's the autumn tours - and nostalgia looms ever larger in the long list of things for ageing music fans to do, writes Michael Taylor.

In October, Roxy Music’s 50th-anniversary tour comes to the North West with a concert at the AO Arena in Manchester, the latest stop on a tour that has taken in major American cities for finishing off at London’s O2 Arena.

Half a century though, which gives you some idea of the age of Bryan Ferry and Phil Manzanera and the levels of fitness they’ll have to hit to keep going as glam rock septuagenarians.

Reading the reviews of their American gigs it’s clear that they put an incredible show on.

For me, I’ve really started to appreciate Roxy Music’s contribution to my own musical journey much later. I remember liking them in the late 1970s, but I’d be lying if I said I was a fan. They were in the wrong tribe and aimed at kids older than me.

But my own musical sweet spot, new wave, electronica, new romantics and then what we now call 1980s’ sophistipop, owes the hugest debt to Roxy Music.

Quite rightly, when they were finally inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame in 2019 by Simon Le Bon and John Taylor of Duran Duran they were described as ‘a psychedelic Sinatra crooning pop-art poetry over driving drums.’

Everything about their 1972 album, simply called Roxy Music, oozed modern glamour and sophistication. Every single one that followed didn’t feature the band on the cover at all, but highly stylised depictions of beautiful women.

It’s not that they didn’t have their own distinctive sharp image. Look at the photos of Bryan Ferry in leopard print, or Brian Eno with his one-piece catsuit. Along with David Bowie, they were one of the first bands to really pull together the whole package of how they projected themselves and how such details mattered.

But the album they’re re-releasing and promoting around this tour however isn’t one of their artfully glamorous ones, but probably Alan Partridge’s favourite, The Best of Roxy Music.

Fans therefore will be treated to the range of some of More Than This, Love is the Drug and Virginia Plain and a smattering of some of Ferry’s solo hits like Jealous Guy.

I remain fascinated by Bryan Ferry in particular. A working-class Geordie, he was encouraged by his mum to pursue

his talent for art and moved to Art School in London, where he met his bandmates. But he doesn’t fetishise or romanticise his upbringing.

Almost everything I learn about him reveals something surprising and enigmatic, including some of the tragedy and heartbreak of his life.

He turned down Don’t You Forget About Me, gifting Simple Minds a global hit in the film Breakfast Club.

He always looks effortlessly well turned out, well groomed and looks like he lives in a sharp suit, or even a tuxedo.

I was also delighted that he thinks the best use of a Roxy song in a film is More Than This in Lost in Translation, and the best cover of any of his songs is Love is The Drug by Grace Jones. Both are the right answers.

You can listen to Michael Taylor and Neil Summers on Music Therapy on Tameside Radio 103.6FM on Sunday evenings from 9pm to 11pm. Click here to subscribe and catch up on previous shows.

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