Late night TV was a big thing for me growing up in Toronto in the early eighties. It was an era where cable was still in it's early days and TV channels numbered in the low double digits, but there was a daring and sometimes startling creativity in terms of the late night programming that was shown between midnight and seven am. That was a time slot where normal rules didn't apply, where you could see and hear things that would never be shown at any other point in the day. I was mostly interested in music shows, but there were also a lot of interesting movies and interview programs as well, and I found some pretty cool stuff staying up late to channel surf.
Channel 47 had some very cool music shows during the late night hours, and programs like Flipside played clips of bands from Top of The Pops and The Old Grey Whistle Test which weren't shown anywhere else, so there was a certain feeling of exclusivity to what you were seeing. Around the same time Global TV had a series of shows that featured first person footage of a drive through Toronto while smooth jazz played in the background. There was something eerily hypnotic about being a passenger as they rode around aimlessly through the night. I suppose the vague drowsiness that comes with late night viewing contributed to it's appeal, but I always found it kind of soothing.
There were any number of other treasures that could be found on TV in the wee hours, but of all of them the absolute best place for late night TV in the early eighties was channel 57, otherwise known as CITY TV. CITY was (and still is) an innovative television station out of Toronto producing a lot of their own content geared towards music and fashion, including classic programming like The New Music and Fashion TV which would eventually gain international syndication, setting a broadcasting aesthetic that would continue to be copied around the world to this day. There was something about CITY that was clever and funky and cool, and it definitely had more edge than any other channel on the air at the time.
I expect if you were to ask anybody from Toronto about CITY programming in the eighties they'd probably mention Toronto Rocks, which was an afternoon video show hosted by a local DJ named John Majhor. It was a great show in the early days of the music video revolution and I have very fond memories of it, but there was also another video show on CITY around the same time called City Limits, and City Limits was really pretty awesome. Hosted by Christopher Ward and running from midnight to six in the morning, City Limits was a lot more daring in what it would show, playing goth, punk, and metal videos that weren't getting played anywhere else at the time. I remember the very first time I saw the "Dear Prudence" video by Siouxsie and the Banshees on City Limits, being spellbound by Siouxsie, Steven Severin, Robert Smith and Budgie prowling through Venice. Something awakened in me that night, and I'm truly grateful for late night programming that allowed me to find that something.
In addition to all of their music programming, CITY also showed movies pretty much around the clock, billing them all as "Great Movies" regardless of whether they were blockbusters, flops, or cult favorites. The very first time I ever saw The Hunger was on CITY, and over the years I saw Subway, 9 and a Half Weeks, Videodrome, and tons of other films I can't even begin to remember, all presented without any edits or cuts to their original theatrical form. I'll admit, there was a lot of crap that doesn't mean anything to me now, but overall it was a good introduction to some of the less popular classics of that era and a nice introduction to film as a whole.
One of the films that I watched a bunch of times on CITY was Times Square, and it appealed to me for a number of reasons, not the least of which was that it first introduced me to Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music. I remember the first time I saw it was long after everybody else in my family had gone to bed, and I switched channels just as it was starting. I'm going to assume here that all of you are familiar with Times Square and the story of the Sleez Sisters, and I'm also going to assume that you know the opening scene where Robin Johnson's character is walking through the streets of New York while the credits roll. I should point out here that if you aren't already familiar with Times Square you should totally track down a copy and check it out, it's a slice of early eighties New Wave/Teen Angst cinema that's well worth investigating for a variety of reasons not the least of which is a great performance by Tim Curry as a radio DJ. Anyway, I sat there watching the scene unfold listening to an echoing bass line playing and I soon found myself closing my eyes so I could focus on the song, thinking about how much I enjoyed that bass line and the tight rhythm it kept with the drums.
After a moment the vocals began, this impossibly smooth voice, sultry and sexy singing "Nothing lasts forever...", and from that point on I was hooked. During the credit roll at the end of the movie I learned that the song was called "Same Old Scene" by Roxy Music, and though I didn't know it at the time, Bryan Ferry was the man behind the sexy voice. It was kind of a moment for me, and it inspired me to find out more about Roxy Music so I could hear more of this impossibly awesome voice.
With a little bit of digging I was able to find a copy of "Avalon" on cassette at the library. I also heard a few more songs on the radio, and between all of that I had enough to build up an idea of the band in my head. I liked what I heard, there was a certain elegance to what they did, something kind of sophisticated that I appreciated, though admittedly a little melodramatic and over the top compared to most of the other stuff I was listening to at the time. Roxy Music had a sense of style to what they were doing that other bands just didn't seem to have and that style appealed to me. Shortly after I discovered Times Square, they released a live EP called "The High Road" that featured a cover of Like a Hurricane and it proved to be a pretty big hit for them. The Roxy Music version of Like a Hurricane is totally epic, filled with swooping grandeur and drama, and admittedly it's way over the top, but as stated that was kind of Roxy Music's stock in trade and I was okay with that.
A few years later I started working at the record store and we had a store copy of Bryan Ferry's solo album "Boys and Girls". It got a lot of play from all of us regardless of our individual interests because it transcended genre and appealed to all of our tastes. "Boys and Girls" is a solid album that continues in the same vein that Roxy Music were headed with "Avalon", building on ideas and perfecting a style that would define Bryan Ferry's work in the years to come. It's a pretty solid album and I've always enjoyed it.
It was also around the release of "Boys and Girls" when I started to become aware of the influence that Bryan Ferry had on other musicians. You'll remember that this was the mid-80's and there wasn't nearly as much information available about bands as there is today on the internet. But by this point we were in the early years of MuchMusic here in Canada, and that meant there was suddenly a 24/7 venue that offered regular music-based programming with videos, interviews, retrospectives, live concert archives and more. Nothing on demand, that wouldn't come for a long time, but all of a sudden there was access to all sorts of information that wasn't previously accessible. And along with all that information came the discovery (to me at least) of musical history. I found out that the music I liked had a past filled with significant events and influential people. And one of those influential people was Bryan Ferry.
It's true that he wasn't as culturally important as David Bowie, he didn't change the musical landscape like the Beatles had, and he wasn't anywhere as revolutionary as Jimi Hendrix had been, but Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music had still left a mark on a lot of people that I admired. Being an early star in the Glam scene, his work had made an impact on a large portion of the New Wave artists, and his name was regularly dropped in interviews by artists that I admired. I was particularly impressed that Siouxsie Sioux and Steven Severin had met at a Roxy Music show, that seemed tremendously significant to me, and that fact gave Bryan Ferry an added coolness quotient in my mind.
Admittedly, I wouldn't have called myself a huge fan of Bryan Ferry, there were tons of other bands and artists that were more important to me at the time, but I liked his work and I had a certain respect for him. And when he released "Bete Noire" in 1988 and announced a tour to support it, I thought I'd go check him out. I already had aspirations of becoming a musician myself by that point, and I think in the back of my mind I had some vague romantic notion of making some sort of musical connection like Sioux and Severin did, but I also wanted to check out Bryan Ferry. And even though I didn't end up meeting my musical soul mate there, I ended up totally enjoying the show.
It was another concert at the Grandstand (in retrospect it seems like every show was there, doesn't it?), and it was scheduled during the CNE, so the midway was in full swing. I got there just as the lights were going down for Ferry's set, finding my seat as the lead in music started to play, a long drawn out version of the opening to Limbo building anticipation. There was a curtain across the stage so the audience couldn't see the band, but after a few minutes of intro as the song built up to a nice drum fill that broke into the song as it was played on the album, the curtain was pulled to the side revealing a tiered stage lit by blue and purple lights with palm trees and lit braziers at each end. The band looked great, all very stylish and well dressed in suits, and I was most impressed by the back up singers who were in sequin dresses and feathered head dresses. I know that seems a little much, but I had come to expect that from Bryan Ferry, and there's no question in my mind that they looked awesome.
The band played on their own for a few more minutes, drawing out the song until Ferry slid out from stage left wearing this fabulously tailored black suit with slim paisley lapels. Like, this was a seriously great suit. He looked amazing! And his hair? Damn. Much has been written over the years by far better writers than me about Bryan Ferry's awesome hair, and I can assure you, it totally lived up to and surpassed all expectations at that show.
So yeah, he opened with Limbo off of "Bete Noire", and it was a pretty amazing introduction. I'll be honest, I'd never really been a fan of the song before the show, but hearing it live gave me a whole new appreciation of it. After that was The Chosen One from "Boys and Girls" and Slave to Love which by that time was already kind of a Ferry classic.
Shortly after that he started digging into the Roxy Music catalog with a really nice version of The Bogus Man from "For Your Pleasure". That's always been my favorite Roxy Music album and I've always had a soft spot for The Bogus Man. There's a certain eerie quality to the song that really does it for me, a haunting and hypnotic orchestration that I really like, and the live version was particularly great that evening. Awesome stuff.
Ladytron followed, and really, what can one say about Ladytron that hasn't already been said? Arguably one of the best tracks from Roxy Music's Brian Eno period, Ladytron is the kind of song that was meant to be played live, spun out and extended, giving individual band members a chance to solo and stretch out. The version played that evening had some awesome guitar work and the band just totally went to town on it. A fantastic live moment.
After that the set moved through a mixture of solo work and songs from the Roxy Music days, I remember him playing Don't Stop the Dance, Windswept, Dance Away, others. There was a spirited take through Kiss and Tell that I particularly enjoyed, and the touring guitarist did a nice job on the solos. He was no Johnny Marr, who had played on the original recording, but he did a pretty good job just the same.
Shortly after that came the highlight of the show for me. In Every Dream Home a Heartache is my favorite Roxy Music song, and in one of those fabulous moments of live music synchronicity there was a magical quality to it that has always stood out in my mind as one of my very favorite concert moments ever. The stage was mostly dark while the sparse synth lines that play through the first half of the song rang throughout the Grandstand, and there was a spiral of white light that slowly spun on the backdrop behind the band. As Ferry sang about floating in pools and his inflatable lover, videoscreens on either side of the stage showed an unfocused view of a Ferris Wheel spinning lazily on the midway outside the venue, slowly moving to it's own rhythm but strangely connected in time with the hypnotic drone of the song. It was hypnotizing, mesmerizing, absolutely enthralling. As the music swelled and the band launched into a manic frenzy the videoscreens kept showing the Ferris Wheel, spinning in it's own time to the song. It was a truly beautiful moment, and I've never seen anything quite like it. I'm kind of breathless just thinking about it...
That Ferris Wheel paired with Dream Home was an absolutely amazing thing to see, and while the rest of the set was really good, including impressive runs through The Main Thing, Love is the Drug, and Avalon, nothing else that night could live up to that particular moment in my mind. I'm pretty sure that Ferry closed the show with a cover of John Lennon's Jealous Guy, which is a good song, but not one that I'm particularly interested in. I have recollections of a single spotlight outlining him as he reached to the sky with one hand, the other holding a cigarette and his microphone. I may be wrong on that one, it may actually have been one of the other times I saw Bryan Ferry in later years, but I'm pretty sure that's how the Bete Noire show ended. And I think that's a good place for it to end.
As stated earlier, I didn't meet my musical soul mate at that Bryan Ferry show like Sioux and Severin did so many years before, but it was a really great show and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Seeing Bryan Ferry was a chance for me to see an artist that had made a significant impact on a lot of the musicians that I admired and enjoyed, and as I watched him perform I could see why he was such an inspiration to so many. Very talented, very charismatic, very much a performer and a showman, elegant and cool. He wasn't David Bowie, but he had something special that night. I saw him again last year at Massey Hall and he still has that something. I wish I could tell you exactly what that something he has is, but its exact nature eludes me except to say that it's some combination of Times Square, great songs, paisley lapels, and Ferris Wheels. The exact measurements of each ingredient aren't quite clear to me, but if you mix them all together they all add up to Bryan Ferry in my mind and that's pretty cool.
Times Square, great songs, paisley lapels, and Ferris Wheels...