In 1976, while Roxy Music had temporarily disbanded, 801 (also referred to as The 801) got together as a temporary project,[1] and began rehearsing at Island Studios, Hammersmith, about three weeks before their first gig. The name of the band was taken from the Eno song "The True Wheel", which appears on his 1974 solo album Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy).[1] The refrain of the song — "We are the 801, we are the central shaft"[1] — reportedly came to him in a dream (although it has also been noted that "Eight Nought One" acrostically spells his name).
Released at the height of the punk rock revolution in the UK, the LP was not a major commercial success, but it sold well throughout the world, particularly because it gained rave reviews from critics both for the superb performances by the musicians and for its groundbreaking sound quality.[citation needed]
Although live albums were by then becoming increasingly sophisticated in their production, thanks to the advent of portable multi-track recorders and mobile studios, most were hampered by relatively poor sound quality. Up until this time, the standard procedure for both front-of-house mixing and live recording was to capture the sound of amplified instruments, such as guitars, by placing microphones in front of the amplifiers. Although many superb performances were captured, the results were still markedly inferior to studio recordings, and live recordings often suffered from a range of problems such as distortion, noise, sound "leakage" between instruments, poor separation and intrusive audience sounds.[citation needed]
801 Live set new standards for live recordings because it was one of the first live LPs in which all outputs from the vocal microphones, guitar amps and other instruments (except the drums) were fed directly to the mobile studio mixing desk, rather than being recorded via microphones and/or signals fed out the front-of-house PA mixer.[citation needed] This so-called "Direct Injection" (DI) method had been used for years in the studio, but this was one of the first instances of the method being successfully used to record a live album.[citation needed]
801 Live became a significant cult success in many countries, notably in Australia, where it was heavily promoted by the ABC's new 24-hour rock station Double Jay (2JJ), which had opened in January 1975. Although based in Sydney, the station could be heard widely around New South Wales and was relayed nationally after midnight via the ABC's national AM network. It is notable that 801 Live received virtually no commercial radio airplay, it had no music video to promote it, and it was originally not even locally released in Australia. Despite this, the album became the highest-selling import album of the year in Australia in 1976, and demand for it as an import item eventually forced the Australian distributors to release it locally.[citation needed]
In 1977, hoping to capitalise on the success of 801 Live, a revised line-up of the band (now officially billed as "Phil Manzanera/801") recorded and released Listen Now.[1] This was a studio album with additional collaborating musicians including Tim Finn of Split Enz, but without Lloyd Watson.[1]
In late 1977, 801 reformed as another live group around Manzanera and MacCormick for a promotion tour for the album, Listen Now. Their concert at Manchester University was finally released as the album 801 Manchester in 1997.
Roxy Music are an English rock band formed in 1970 by lead vocalist and principal songwriter Bryan Ferry and bassist Graham Simpson. By the time the band recorded their first album in 1972, Ferry and Simpson were joined by saxophonist and oboist Andy Mackay, guitarist Phil Manzanera, drummer Paul Thompson and synthesizer player Brian Eno. Other members over the years include keyboardist and violinist Eddie Jobson and bassist John Gustafson. The band split in 1976, reformed in 1978 and split again in 1983. In 2001, Ferry, Mackay, Manzanera and Thompson reunited for a concert tour and have toured together intermittently ever since, most recently in 2022 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their first album. Ferry has also frequently enlisted band members as backing musicians during his solo career.
Phillip Geoffrey Targett-Adams, known professionally as Phil Manzanera, is an English musician, songwriter and record producer. He is the lead guitarist with Roxy Music, and was the lead guitarist with 801 and Quiet Sun. In 2006, Manzanera co-produced David Gilmour's album On an Island, and played in Gilmour's band for tours in Europe and North America. He wrote and presented a series of 14 one-hour radio programmes for station Planet Rock entitled The A-Z of Great Guitarists.
For Your Pleasure is the second studio album by the English rock band Roxy Music, released on 23 March 1973 by Island Records. It was their last to feature synthesiser and sound specialist Brian Eno.
Andrew Mackay is an English musician, best known as a founding member of the art rock group Roxy Music.
William MacCormick is an English bassist and vocalist. He is also a politician and author.
Quiet Sun were an English progressive rock/jazz fusion band from the Canterbury scene consisting of Phil Manzanera (guitars), Bill MacCormick (bass), Dave Jarrett (keyboards) and Charles Hayward (drums).
Mainstream is the only album of the UK band Quiet Sun.
"Re-Make/Re-Model" is a song written by Bryan Ferry that appears as the opening track on Roxy Music's debut album.
801 Live is the first live album by 801. It was originally released by Island Records in the UK in November 1976. It was subsequently released by Polydor Records in North America in March 1978.
"In Every Dream Home a Heartache" is a song written by Bryan Ferry, originally appearing on his band Roxy Music's second studio album, For Your Pleasure (1973).
"Street Life" is the opening track of English rock band Roxy Music's third album Stranded. Written by lead singer Bryan Ferry, the song is an ode to modern life that features sound effects of street noise alongside dissonant synth noises courtesy of newly recruited member Eddie Jobson. Producer Chris Thomas provides bass on the song.
Random Hold were a British rock band, originally active between 1977 and 1980, with a reformed band under the same name active between 1981 and 1982.
Rhett Davies is an English record producer and engineer.
Diamond Head is the first studio album by English rock musician Phil Manzanera. It was released in 1975, originally on Island Records in the UK and in the US on Atco Records. The sound quality on the US album was deemed to be worse than the UK album, so the UK import became a popular seller in the speciality record shops who sold Roxy Music and other UK bands. The diesel locomotive featured on the cover art is an EMD E9.
Live is a double live album by English art rock band Roxy Music, released in 2003. Their fourth official live album, it contains performances from a variety of venues on their 2001 reunion world tour, and represents the entire set list from those concerts. Live was packaged in a Digipak case.
Listen Now is the only studio album by 801, whose live debut was released in November 1976. For this release, the group was officially billed as "Phil Manzanera/801".
K-Scope is the second studio album by Phil Manzanera, released in 1978.
Wetton/Manzanera is a 1987 album by English musicians John Wetton and Phil Manzanera. The two had previously performed together on tours with Roxy Music and on Manzanera's solo albums Diamond Head and K-Scope. The album features members of two art rock/progressive rock bands, 10cc and Yes.
"Third Uncle" is a 1974 song by the English musician Brian Eno, released on his second solo album Taking Tiger Mountain . The song was recorded at Basing Street Studios in Notting Hill, London, in September 1974, and produced by Eno. It has been highly influential and covered by many artists, most notably by Bauhaus in 1982.
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