Roxy Music’s Phil Manzanera announces new memoir, ‘Revolución To Roxy’

Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera has announced details of a memoir, Revolución To Roxy.

• READ MORE: Roxy Music live in London: a Glastonbury Legends-slot worthy lesson in class

The new book, which features over 100 colour and black and white photographs, will hit shelves on March 22. It will chronicle Manzanera’s life and times with Roxy Music and David Gilmour. It will also discuss his colourful family history, dating back to the expulsion of the Sephardic Jews from Spain in 1492, via the 1959 revolution in Cuba and Manzanera’s discovery of his Neapolitan Opera musician grandfather.

“I’ve written this memoir for my English and Colombian family, dear friends and music fans, who’ve followed my musical twists and turns for over half a century,” Manzanera said in an Instagram post. “It’s a memoir that spans my ‘50’s childhood in Cuba, Hawaii and Venezuela, when everything seemed in the brightest technicolor, to monochrome but very cool ‘60’s London and the start of a music career that continues to enrich my life.

“Roxy Music is an important part of the story but I hope the reader will find my family history every bit as fascinating as my music adventures: I’m proud to be related to the most famous 17th century Sephardic Jewish pirate of the Caribbean, a British spy and an Italian opera musician.”

Manzanera commented on the likelihood of Roxy Music ever making new music in an interview with NME last year.

“Oh, recording is a totally different ballgame. People always ask: ‘What about new stuff?’ You think: ‘Yeah, let’s do it!’” he said. “But once you’ve done it, you listen and go: ‘Oh, but that’s awful. Why did we do that?’ Fans can be unforgiving, and if they heard something sub-par, we’d know about it. If we came up with something brilliant, I’m sure we’d release it. But the standards of Roxy Music’s recorded music is quite high, and there’s no immediate rush to do any new music.”