When Bryan Ferry and Dave Stewart played a game of tennis with Tony Blair and Rory Bremner
If you happened to be sauntering through the picturesque French Riviera in the summer of 1996, you may have missed a sight that would have demanded a double take. While scaling the interweb, you might come across photographs of mingling celebrities whom you wouldn’t usually associate with one another and mutter in your best American accent, “Go figure!” However, I fear I may have you at a loss for words when I reveal that Bryan Ferry of Roxy Music, Dave Stewart of Eurythmics, Tony Blair of the Labour Party and political satirist Rory Bremner once shared a tennis court.
As you recover your slackened jaw from the floor, you may be asking your screen, “Was it a doubles match? If so, what was the outcome?” Fear not; all will be revealed shortly. But first, how on Earth did this intriguing assortment of British talent wind up on a tennis court somewhere between Cannes and Juan-les-Pins?
As one might expect, this convergence was a result of pure happenstance. Bremner, at the time famed for impersonating various politicians on the Channel 4 show Rory Bremner, Who Else?, happened to be on holiday for a couple of weeks in Parc de l’Estérel, near the town of St Raphäel. One evening, he struck up a friendly conversation with a man in a restaurant who informed him that Tony Blair would be in the area the following week.
Intrigued but somewhat sceptical, Bremner reached out to his office back home to see whether Blair would, in fact, be visiting. Soon after, Bremner received an unexpected call at his villa from none other than Cherie Blair, Tony’s wife, who allegedly asked, “Would you like to play tennis with Tony?” As a political satirist, Bremner’s reply was something along the lines of, “Is the Pope Catholic?”
As planned, Blair, who was staying a little north of Bremner in Les Adrets-de-l’Estérel, met the comedian at a local tennis court. As the pair exchanged pleasantries, it occurred to them that a group of children already occupied the courts. Thinking on his feet – then encased in a smart pair of white trainers – Blair hatched a cunning plan to instead head to a private court belonging to his friend Dave Stewart.
After a brisk half-hour drive, Stewart and Bremner arrived at Stewart’s residence in Juan-les-Pins. Although Stewart wasn’t home at the time, they had a friendly knockabout before parting ways, Blair leaving that evening to visit Toulouse for a couple of days. However, when Blair returned to the Riviera, he arranged to meet with Bremner at Stewart’s place again. This time, Stewart was home, and he’d brought a rather famous friend along.
In the 1990s, Stewart and Ferry collaborated on several song ideas, including ‘Cruel’, ‘Goddess of Love’ and ‘San Simeon’, which appeared on Ferry’s 2002 solo album, Frantic. During their downtime, the pair played a few games of tennis and thought they could take Blair and Bremner in a doubles match.
“It was a beautiful hard court, overlooking the Bay of Cannes in the distance,” Bremner once recalled, speaking to the author Tony Barrell.
The political team had youth on its side, with a 43-year-old Blair and a 35-year-old Bremner facing Stewart at 44 and Ferry at 51. Further to his age handicap, Ferry sported a bandage over his right arm for a mild case of tennis elbow.
As one might expect, Bremner remembers his political team being rather more competitive and even recalled Cherie Blair rebuking him several times for foul language. “There are children watching,” she reminded him.
Ferry, who was departing that evening for a party in Monaco, discussed the match in another interview. He explained that Blair was “all right, but quite determined to win”.
He continued: “Mind You, I pulled a muscle in my leg, and I was hobbling around, so it wasn’t a fair contest.”
With the wind in his sails, Tony Blair bid his showbiz friends adieu. Nine months later, he enjoyed a victory of similar proportions – this time without Bremner effing and jeffing at his side. Perhaps the Labour Party has Ferry’s pulled muscle and the morale of a triumphant amateur tennis match to thank for their landslide victory at the general election in May 1997 as Blair usurped John Major’s title as Prime Minister.
Watch Rory Bremner’s impression of Tony Blair below.
