Poor Bryan, another wife has furrowed an unauthorized hoe:
- Rock star Bryan Ferry and his wife, Lucy, were divorced Friday after 21 years of marriage.
The High Court Family Division granted Ferry, 56, and the former Lucy Helmore, 42, an uncontested divorce. The couple, who married in June 1982 and have four sons, did not attend the brief hearing.
In papers filed with the court, the former Roxy Music front man said his wife had admitted adultery, but he did not identify the other person involved. The papers said he had first suspected she was having an affair in May 2000 and that the adultery was continuing when they separated. [AP]
Doomed romanticism has been the underlying theme of his extraordinary career as leader of Roxy Music and as a solo artist: slave to love, indeed.
The last time this happened to Ferry it caused a bigger stink, when his supermodel (Yves Saint Laurent Opium perfume and Revlon cosmetics) wife Jerry Hall, who had posed for the sleeve of classic Roxy album Sirens in '75, dumped him for Mick Jagger in '79: love is the drug in life as in art.
Roxy Music is one of my top five favorite bands and Ferry one of my favorite performers and songwriters. I talked with the great producer John Porter about his stint with the band.
"I went to Newcastle University in '65 because it seemed like there was a great music scene: it had the first all-niter club in England, and a university band called the Gasboard. I joined that band and we did Bobby Bland, Freddie King, B.B. King, and stuff like that. We had a horn section - which was pretty rare - and Bryan Ferry was in the band, although at the time we didn't think he could sing. We gigged around and were pretty popular in northern England," says Porter.
For a brief time in the early-'70s Porter played guitar on sessions in L.A., but he had to sell his guitar and return to England when he couldn't get a green card or join the musician's union. Porter had worked with Ferry in various configurations since college, and he accepted an invitation to join Roxy Music in '73.
Article comments
1 - Bill Sherman
Great piece: one of my personal fave Roxy discs has to be Stranded. It was the first of theirs that I heard, and I can still recall the chill of opening cut "Street Life," as Ferry cries out to be left alone. Later, the Brit punks would sneer at Roxy Music, but I've long felt that song had as much urgency and emotion in it as anything to come out of the punk movement. . .
2 - Eric Olsen
Thanks Bill, I think the first song I heard was "Do the Strand" from For Your Pleasure, but I immediately went back to the first album, which i think came out the same year, and was with them in real time from then on.
Cleveland was THE hotbed of Roxymania in the US. They were amazing, timeless, magical - I get bored very easily typically, but I can sit and listen to their entire catalog and just groove.
Another great sing: I think every one of their albums was my favorite at some point in time other than Manifesto, which I never really got into.
Much of the Ferry solo stuff is great also, but it's Roxy that encapsulates popular music for me, perhaps even better than the Beatles or Stones.
3 - Merv Black
Who is ever free from the pangs of deceit and love. I agree with Eric Olsen. For Your Pleasure started Roxy internationally and Bryan Ferry ended Roxy with Avalon.
Strange how Jerry Hall graced an album cover but nothing like that with Lucy
4 - Eric Olsen
Certainly no one is free from such things - thanks Merv.
5 - Mark Solomon
Merv:
Actually, the model on the cover of Avalon is Lucy Ferry who at the time was pregnant.
I think the cover photo was shot in the west of Ireland!
6 - Amanda
I saw Bryan live in Cardiff last year, he was amazing. I was right at the front,by the stage, and he looked the same as ever - like his music, he just doesnt age.The Roxy song I'm playing most at the moment is "If there is something", which is beautifully constructed - a mix of tongue in cheek upbeat humour, haunting romanticism and dark edginess.
7 - Eric Olsen
Amanda, sounds great! I haven't seen him in about ten years, glad to hear all is well. I love almost all Roxy, but "If There Is Something" is one of the greats. Thanks.
8 - Sarah
the comment in the piece about jerry hall having been bryan's wife is incorrect. they were engaged but never married.
9 - JOB
Bryan gets a bit of respect back after Jerry Hall's latest divorce. While vacationing in Mexico the press ask her who gave her the ruby ring she was wearing; she replies Ferry, a real gentleman. Now will Bryan get the energy to get rid of the 22 year old model girlfiends and give Jerry a call for a date?
10 - Eric Olsen
hmm, interesting info, thanks!