In The News

Roxy Reunite!

Ferry and company reveal surprise 50th-anniversary comeback shows. And all albums are being reissued.

ROXY MUSIC are to celebrate their 50th anniversary (albeit a tad overdue) with the group’s first live shows in more than a decade. Vocalist Bryan Ferry, guitarist Phil Manzanera, saxophonist/keyboard player Andy Mackay and drummer Paul Thompson are to reunite for the first time since the band’s sold-out and critically acclaimed “For Your Pleasure” tour in 2011. They will play 10 arena dates across the US and Canada before playing UK shows in October

Each of Roxy Music’s eight studio albums are to be reissued as special anniversary vinyl editions, with a new half-speed cut, revised artwork and a deluxe gloss laminated finish. The band’s first releases, Roxy Music,  For Your Pleasure and Stranded Country Life are out now. The remaining albums will arrive in paired releases throughout this year.

Christine McVie is releasing a new solo album featuring re-imagined versions of her biggest hits with Fleetwood Mac. To be titled “Songbird”, the same as one of her songs on the band’s seminal album Rumours, is due in June.

BBC2 celebrates the 60th anniversary of The Rolling Stones with a new four-part film series to be broadcast this summer. My Life As A Rolling Stone comprises new conversations with all three surviving band members, plus archive interviews with Charlie Watts. Other participants include Chrissie Hynde, Slash, Rod Stewart and Steven Tyler.

Hall & Oates singer Daryl Hall claims he was approached by Edward Van Halen to join Van Halen after David Lee Roth quit the group in 1985, before they brought in Sammy Hagar. “He was half joking, but I think he was serious,” Hall said. “I really do believe he was serious. And I took it seriously. I went: ‘Meh, I think not. I think I’ve got my own shit going on.’”

Patti Smith intends to release a final album. The 75-year-old is working on a followup to Banga which came out a decade ago. “I do have plans [for one more record] and I’ve written a lot of songs,” she tells The Guardian.