Bryan Ferry, The London Palladium 01.05.18

View: Centre stalls, three rows from the front

Bryan Ferry provided a succinct summary of his career for a sold-out Palladium crowd, covering both solo material and a judicious selection of Roxy Music classics. The elegant theatre provided a perfect setting for his classy crooning and his well-drilled nine-piece band. The sequence of Ladytron followed by Out Of The Blue highlighted the contributions of violinist Marina Moore and slinky saxophonist Jorja Chalmers. Mid-set suffered from too many medium-paced songs of similar melodic construction, distinguished by an acoustic Bittersweet where bass-player Jerry Meehan switched to bassoon to great effect. Remake/Remodel and Do The Strand featured Luke Bullen’s energetic drumming and got the crowd on their feet as did Love Is The Drug and Virginia Plain. Let’s Stick Together allowed guitarist Chris Spedding to cut loose with a rocking Chuck Berry coda, Jealous Guy saw backing vocalists Bobbie Gordon and Hannah Khemoh demonstrate their impressive range and a final Editions Of You proved that “Stay Cool Is Still The Main Rule” .

Photocredit: Richard Gray/EMPICS ( richard@rugfoot.com )

Written for Record Collector Magazine.