A Siren Song
After their summer holidays and the release of sundry solo albums, the band girded their loins for a new tour and album. The album, eventually to be called Siren was again recorded at Air Studios with Chris Thomas producing. The scheduled release date was October 11th. If they believed that then they'd have believed anything. In the meantime, a UK tour was put in place with this season's guest bass player being one Johnny Gustafson, a man of vast experience and interesting tendencies. Support act would be the Dr Puxley managed Sadistic Mika Band from Japan. First vinyl to hit the streets would be a snappy little number called 'Love is the Drug' (b/w Sultanesque). As a preliminary to the tour/album release, full page ads started to appear in the music press in the week of 27th September 1975. Melody Maker's Alan Jones was given an exclusive preview of 'Siren' for their 4th October edition. Meanwhile, to keep the other papers happy, Jonh Ingham of Sounds had been given extensive access to the band. The result was a lengthy, slightly contrived piece of over 4 pages. So, never mind the quality, feel the width! Along with these pieces came the reviews of the the single 'Love is the Drug' which was the Single of the Week in Record Mirror. In the NME it was the 'Other Single of the Week' with a grudgingly good review from Charlie Gillett. The next week it entered the charts. It was destined to be big, with a capital B. OK, then, it was Big.   Record Mirror Melody Maker NME 11th Oct 37     18th Oct 27     25th Oct 16     1st Nov Love/Drug Siren 5 - 7 19   8th Nov Love/Drug Siren 2 3 2 13 3 10 15th Nov Love/Drug Siren ? 2 1 2 2 In the spirit of media equality (or, how to keep four music papers happy by giving away four 'exclusives' to the same event) Melody Maker were granted the first live review opportunity with one Barbara Drillsma getting somewhat ecstatic about the boy's performance at Liverpool's Empire. And finally, Nick Logan of the NME accompanied the band to the same city and was given some interesting insights into Merseyside nightlife, the culinary delights of mid-70s Liverpool and other facets of NW England culture. The following week, articles started to appear in all directions as more tour reviews started to come in. Sounds caught up with the band in Glasgow, always one of the band's favourite audeinces. Record Mirror were at Newcastle for the return home of the band's Geordie contingent. On the 25th October, just after the tour came to close in Birmingham, a stylish, relaxed Mr Ferry featured in a colour Record Mirror cover. Inside, Ray Fox-Cumming recounted their experiences on Tyneside. Over the next few days, the reviews of Siren came in as 'Love is the Drug' trundled up the singles charts. 'Love/Drug' as we like to call it eventually stalled just short of the summit. A few years were to pass before that much sought after No. 1 single was to materialise. Angus MacKinnon wrote a perplexing little number in the newly arrived fortnightly mag 'Street Life'. Pretentious? Moi? But no matter, the rest of the rock critic crew seemed to like it.	UK Tour dates: Oct 3rd - Liverpool Empire Oct 4/5th - Leeds University Oct 6th - Stoke Trentham Gardens Oct 8/9/10th - Glasgow Apollo Oct 12/13th - Newcastle City Hall Oct 14/15th - Manchester Belle Vue Oct 17/18th - Wembley Empire Pool Oct 20/21st - Cardiff Capital Theatre Oct 22/23rd - Birmingham Bingley Hall Roxy: Untypical but irresistable Love is the Drug Review Ray Fox-Cumming, Record Mirror 4th October 1975 The lyrics could make it a cruisers' anthem, the beat makes it an irresistible disco record. It is not at all a typical Roxy single, since it it doesn't feature the kind of heavy layered arrangement one expects from them, but long time Roxy fans should adore it and new converts will be made by the thousand. Proclaimed record of the week without any hesitation. Charlie Gillett, NME 4th October 1975 Bryan Ferry has mangled more of my favourite songs than I care to think about, and some of his Roxy singles have left me stone cold, but this has the kind of depraved charm that worked so well on Lou Reed's "Walk On The Wild Side." The backing is (presumably deliberately) a sort of clumsy funk, and Bryan chants the words with more thought for the meaning of the words than for how his voice sounds. It's the first Roxy music which doesn't make you think the band was looking in a mirror when they made it.