Roxy Music almost ended up with a Belgian EBM pioneer on keyboards
Belgian keyboard player, producer and EBM pioneer Jean-Marc Lederman has revealed an interesting story earlier today on his Facebook page from the time he was living in London back in the early 80s.
Here’s what happened: “It’s a funny little story… which i share 1% for ego massage and 99% because it’s a fun story. Back in the days, I passed an audition to get in Roxy Music. It was around the time they had recorded Avalon. I went down to Phil Manzanera’s studio where I had a rendez-vous with the engineer in charge of scrutinising the candidates. After a few minutes talking with him, his reply still has me laughing decades later: ‘The last thing Bryan Ferry wants is another Eno in the band.'”
After that the young Lederman (on the left a picture from that era) went on to play with The The and Gene Loves Jezebel. During his entire career he would work with numerous bands, including Fad Gadget, The Weathermen, Belgian rock band Streets, and Front 242 to name just a few. Roxy Music from its side was dissolved in 1983 by Bryan Ferry and the band members devoted themselves full-time to solo careers.
But who knows how the band could have sounded if that EBM guy from Brussels had been part of it…
Support Side-Line
More people read Side-Line than ever, and there is still no paywall and no advertising. Readers pay for it instead - from $5 a month.
Why we ask
Advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news organisations we have not put up a paywall, and we refuse to add annoying advertising, so we need to ask for your help. Side-Line’s independent journalism takes time, money and hard work to produce, and we do it to push the artists we like, who are equally fighting to survive.
Handled by PayPal.
Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!
