GLAM ROCK Going Solo

BRYAN FERRY launched his solo career less than a year after ROXY MUSIC first entered the charts, and managed to continue both careers successfully until Roxy’s final dissolution. Ferry’s solo career consisted almost entirely of cover versions, and as it progressed it slowly pushed his ‘lounge lizard’ persona beyond the realm of glam and into camp caricature. Unfortunately Roxy’s career as a band eventually followed Ferry’s solo career into M.O.R. coffee table land by the early eighties, prompting huge sales in America and the band’s dissolution.

BRIAN ENO (more often known simply as ENO), left ROXY MUSIC following their second album, and many consider that the band’s musical downfall began at this point. Eno, struggling to escape from the tag of being Roxy’s keyboard playing equivalent of ‘camp guitarist’, initially stuck with glam for his first couple of solo albums, but eventually found more success in the new age and film score fields. Pre-Roxy Eno had been in a band called MAXWELL DEMON, after which Ewan McGregor's character in Velvet Goldmine was named.

Roxy’s backbone, guitarist PHIL MANZANERA and saxophonist ANDY MACKAY, produced several solo albums apiece during Roxy’s career, with limited commercial success, although Mackay hit the jackpot as musical producer of ‘Rock Follies‘. Another one time Roxy alumni, RIK KENTON, achieved little solo commercial success, although ‘Bungalow Love’ did pick up a fair deal of airplay.

Following Bowie’s dissolution of his backing band THE SPIDERS FROM MARS, and following a brief spell in MOTT THE HOOPLE, guitarist MICK RONSON went on to minor success as a solo artist and producer, and frequently crossed paths with former Mott frontman IAN HUNTER, whose solo career followed a similar trajectory.

Also emerging from the shadow of MOTT THE HOOPLE were all-girl backing trio THUNDER THIGHS, responsible for the famous ‘sha-la-la-la-push-push’ routine from ‘Roll Away The Stone’, and even more memorably the "coloured girls" backing on LOU REED's 'Walk On The Wild Side', who briefly found chart fame in their own right with their minor hit single ‘Central Park Arrest’.

NOOSHA FOX scored a solo hit with ‘Georgina Bailey’, one of the first songs to chart which openly dealt with a gay topic. Her solo career stalled when her version of ‘The Heat Is On’ had to compete with a too-similar version by Abba’s Agnetha Faltskog.

STEVE HARLEY AND COCKNEY REBEL, who hit the top spot with ‘Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me)’ were a completely different band from that of the first two COCKNEY REBEL albums. From this point onwards the band were of little importance, effectively just providing backing for Harley’s solo act.

All four members of KISS, GENE SIMMONS, PAUL STANLEY, ACE FREHLEY and PETER CRISS took time out in the late seventies to record solo albums, none of them achieving great commercial success, but all with good glam credentials.

New York Dolls singer DAVID JOHANSEN went on to a moderately successful solo singing and acting career following the group's demise, changing his name for a number of years to BUSTER POINDEXTER. Guitarist JOHNNY THUNDERS also went on to some solo success with his band THE HEARTBREAKERS during the punk era.

...and let us not forget Freddie Mercury’s early bid at solo success in the guise of LARRY LUREX. He did, of course, score several later solo hits in the 80’s.