Roxy had a massive following in Liverpool in the seventies. Liverpool was a place never afraid to start fashions or to be out of sync with the rest of the country and Roxy played their part.
Great stuff that mate.....really enjoyed it. Brought back some distant memories.
We've talked in the arl arse thread about the different styles of music.
I was brought up on Black music and I think like our Dads, Uncles and older brothers and sisters before us, this was down to the multi cultural influences in Liverpool and the access to American music brought into the City by our sea faring families.
So when reggae took hold and the skinheads started I was in my element.
Having older brothers and sisters who were into their clothes and music in a big way I was at the right age and in the right city to get into it in a big way.
Even as a kid I was dragged along to Browns or the Mad Russian by my brothers with a couple of suit lengths under their arms and measured for a smart Italian style suit for Christmas. So I was primed, ready and willing to explore all styles and influences.
The great thing back then was even though we all still had the same love of Black music, we didn't mock anything that we could relate to. Once again it was that acceptance of new things that somehow set the city apart. Especially from the local mill towns with ideas above their station.
I might be wrong, but I think it was Nicky Alt who said the difference with us and Manchester was that they looked out at us and we looked out to sea and the rest of the world.
I got into Roxy in the early 70s to go along with the heavy interest in Bowie, Kraftwerk and David Byrne. As you’ve already said, the charts had been dire for years and we needed something to call our own.
It certainly wasn’t Roxy’s fashion style that attracted me as at that time they looked like some Circus freak show glam rock fusion band. It was their music alone that got to me.
I saved up and bought their first Album; Roxy Music and everything they’ve ever done since.
I never managed to see them play in Liverpool for reasons I won’t bore anyone with here, so I was gutted when they split. I managed to see Ferry a few times but never Roxy until the early 80s.
As far as clothes were concerned it was Bowie more than Ferry. When Young Americans came out I used to trawl the 2nd hand shops looking for original 1940s and 1950s suits.
When Roxy changed their image I bought an American army officers suit for £2 from Antwacky’s
in Mathew Street, when it was all run down warehouses. To go with the hand made Church brogues I’d got for 20p in the help the aged shop.
The drain pipe look and the haircuts were something that you could see in town on a Friday and Sat. Along with all the James Dean and Ferry haircuts.
This fitted in with the way Roxy Music/Bryan Ferry concerts were. All kinds of weird and wonderful styles.
The thing I noticed over the years is the diversity of age groups at Roxy/Ferry concerts. They were all there and all dressed in the weird and wonderful of their choosing.
I can remember a gang of us going down to London for a game against West Ham in the late 70s early 80s and loads of them were still punks. We stayed out all night so we could get down to Portobello Rd market and have first pick of all the gear.
One lad got a Paul Smith suit for £5. I managed to get a pair of original 1950s kecks and a reefer jacket for a couple of quid. My other mate who was cultivating some kind of weird French Bohemian look bought a mohair jumper about 6 sizes too big for him for next to nothing.
Wearing that gear to the games certainly went down well, especially as he started wearing a full face ski mask and fingerless gloves to go with his big jumper.
The same lad went to Wembley in a dinner suit!
The desert wellies were still to make an appearance at that point. As was the influence of Echo and all the other Liverpool bands, but that’s another story.
