The freak meeting which led to Brian Eno joining Roxy Music
Before he joined Roxy Music, Brian Eno had almost given up on music altogether. Seemingly driving away from a world within the arts, it would be the fortune of a chance encounter that ultimately allowed him to carve out his unique career path.
Eno’s first musical endeavour was a local band in Melton called The Black Aces, which he joined in 1964. However, the group failed to get off the ground, and it was nothing more than a teenage hobby. As time passed by, Eno discovered his true musical identity as he grew older and experimented with avant-garde ideas. However, despite his best attempts, nothing seemed to work, and Eno started to believe his destiny lay elsewhere.
His life was at a strange juncture. Despite being so young, Eno had responsibilities and couldn’t waste years chasing the dream of becoming a successful musician. As a teenager in 1967, Eno married his first wife and became a father, which meant he needed to become a provider for his loved ones. For a while, it seemed as if Eno would become another lost talent. However, when his first marriage collapsed, Eno decided to give music one last shot and relocated to London. Although he gained work on a series of professional recordings, it wasn’t frequent enough to pay his bills, and for three months, he worked as a paste-up assistant for a local paper’s advertising section.
Then, one day, an opportunity unexpectedly arose for him to join Roxy Music in 1971. The band had formed the year before after Bryan Ferry had advertised for recruits, which led to Andy Mackay joining the fold. Before he entered Roxy Music, Mackay studied at the University of Reading, and it was here that he became friendly with Eno, who was an art student in Winchester.
The duo bonded over their shared love of electronic music but fell out of contact as their lives went in separate directions. However, that all changed after a chance encounter at an underground station with Mackay, which was the catalyst for Eno joining Roxy Music. In Mark J, Prendergast’s book, The Ambient Century, Eno said: “As a result of going onto a subway station and meeting Andy, I joined Roxy Music, and as a result of that, I have a career in music that I wouldn’t have had otherwise. If I’d walked ten yards further on the platform, or missed that train, or been in the next carriage, I probably would have been an art teacher now”.
Initially, Eno began as a technical advisor to the band, but his role soon developed, and he became a crucial cog in the Roxy Music machine. Although Eno only crafted two albums with the band before moving on to new adventures, he’d never have had the opportunity to do so without establishing himself as Roxy Music’s magician. Who knows what he’d have become if it wasn’t for Mackay randomly meeting Eno at a station? Thankfully, that wasn’t the case.
