Ray Fox-Cumming
Ray Fox-Cumming had his first taste of show business when he was made Pinewood correspondent of the local paper on which he trained. This involved spending every Thursday afternoon at the studio’s lots, finding out about new films being made there and gleaning movie gossip.
After that he spent a miserable year in fashion journalism, before finding his true home at Disc & Music Echo. He arrived in 1972, a fantastically exciting time when several enduring world stars were making their breakthrough. David Bowie, after soldiering away in the wilderness for ten years after his hit single 'Space Oddity', suddenly struck gold with Ziggy Stardust; Lou Reed, legendary leader of the Velvet Underground, gained his first commercial success with his second solo album Transformer; Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music burst on to the scene with their zany first single 'Virginia Plain' and never looked back; and Freddie Mercury and Queen were soon to breach the top ten for the first of many, many times with 'Seven Seas of Rhye'.
With most of Disc’s journalists claiming more established artists as their territory, Ray set his sights at these new rising stars. He interviewed them frequently, socialised with them and became personal friends with most. He was in the studio to watch Bowie’s Diamond Dogs being recorded, and David once sent him an orchid "to keep you outrageous over Christmas". Another year, Bryan Ferry sent a case of fine wines as a festive thank you for a glowing review of his underrated single 'You Go To My Head'.
The heady days at Disc came to an end when Ray left shortly before the paper closed. Later he went to work for Disc’s erstwhile rival, Record Mirror, but it was never the same. Times had moved on and the music had changed. He didn’t pretend to understand Northern Soul and punk left him cold.
He then went to work as a music publicist for RCA and then BASF, but was far too indiscreet to be any good at it. At around this time in the late '70s he wrote his two music-related books – Stevie Wonder and the best-selling Disco Fever, and freelanced for Tatler and other glossy magazines.
Ray's career in journalism ended at The Observer in 1995 where he had been working on the paper’s Arts Review. After a short bout of ill-health he reinvented himself as a hotelier and restauranteur, which remains his metier today. Writing has become a sideline, but the music goes on. Left on a desert island he would be as happy as a pig in the proverbial... just as long as he was allowed to take his Lou Reed and Marianne Faithfull CDs with him.
38 articles
List of articles in the library
David Bowie, Mott The Hoople: Mott The Hoople: Civic Hall, Guildford
Live Review by Ray Fox-Cumming, Disc, 19 August 1972
"WE'VE LAID a lot of new stuff on you tonight and you've been really good," an obviously delighted Ian Hunter told his audience at Guildford ...
Mott The Hoople: All The Young Dudes (CBS 65184, £2.29)
Review by Ray Fox-Cumming, Disc, 16 September 1972
At last Mott get it all on wax! ...
Home, Mott The Hoople: Mott The Hoople, Home: Top Rank, Brighton
Live Review by Ray Fox-Cumming, Disc, 14 October 1972
THERE WAS a great sense or occasion when I saw Mott at Guildford just a few weeks back. They were laying all their new stuff ...
Lou Reed: The Black Sheep of New York
Interview by Ray Fox-Cumming, Disc, 21 October 1972
THE INTERVIEW is to take place in a pub just off London's Curzon Street at around lunch-time. Lou Reed arrives late, looking papery. He's not ...
Review by Ray Fox-Cumming, Disc, 2 December 1972
THOSE OF you kind enough to read the idiocies I write to introduce the live gigs will know that, as far as I'm concerned, Lou ...
Mott The Hoople: The Mott Mystique — Does it Mean Death or Glory?
Report and Interview by Ray Fox-Cumming, Disc, 9 December 1972
THE STORY of how David Bowie's hastily written 'All The Young Dudes' snatched Mott The Hoople from an untimely grave and provided the band with ...
Report and Interview by Ray Fox-Cumming, Disc, 3 February 1973
Sweet's Andy Scott Talks To Ray Fox-Cumming ...
Olivia Newton-John: Olivia Newton John: Nights in White Satin
Interview by Ray Fox-Cumming, Disc, 10 February 1973
SOME INTERVIEWEES need only to be given their head with a single question before sounding off about their whole life history and psyche, while the ...
David Cassidy: Empire Pool, Wembley, London
Live Review by Ray Fox-Cumming, Disc, 24 March 1973
Nice one David! ...
Geordie, Sweet: Sweet, Geordie: Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by Ray Fox-Cumming, Disc, 7 April 1973
Bitter Sweet ...
Report and Interview by Ray Fox-Cumming, Disc, 26 May 1973
RAY FOX-CUMMING WATCHES THAT MAN STUN THE SCOTS IN ABERDEEN ...
David Bowie: Music Hall, Aberdeen
Live Review by Ray Fox-Cumming, Disc, 26 May 1973
OUTSIDE ABERDEEN Music Hall last Wednesday a whole crowd of dour little Scottish guys stood touting programmes and posters, looking acutely self-conscious with Aladdin Sane ...
David Bowie: Aladdin Scotland (part 2)
Interview by Ray Fox-Cumming, Disc, 2 June 1973
Part two of Ray Fox-Cumining's report on David Bowie in the North ...
Iggy Pop, The Stooges: Iggy and the Stooges: Raw Power (CBS 65586, £2.17) ****
Review by Ray Fox-Cumming, Disc, 9 June 1973
Iggy gives power to the people... ...
Cat Stevens: Summer in the city
Interview by Ray Fox-Cumming, Disc, 16 June 1973
CAT STEVENS in his Fulham retreat talks to Ray Fox-Cumming ...
Bryan Ferry, Roxy Music: Solo Ferry Sets Sail
Interview by Ray Fox-Cumming, Disc, 23 June 1973
BRYAN FERRY has obviously not yet found it necessary to adopt strict security measures to avoid his Earls Court flat being invaded by hoards of ...
Mud, Sweet: The Sweet smell of success turns to Mud in the eye
Report and Interview by Ray Fox-Cumming, Disc, 9 February 1974
NOTHING WOULD please Nicky Chinn more this week than to see Sweet topple Mud from the top of the singles chart. One would think that ...
Interview by Ray Fox-Cumming, Disc, 16 February 1974
TELLING BOWIE he'd won five Disc Music Poll Awards didn't seem much of a big deal. In the past few months he must have collected ...
Can: Future Days (United Artists UAS 29505, £2.25)
Review by Ray Fox-Cumming, Disc, 16 February 1974
DESPITE THE title, which invites trouble, there's nothing futuristic about this album. It attempts nothing that hasn't already been done, often to death, before. Future ...
Brian Eno: Eno: Here Come The Warm Jets (Island ILPS 9268, £2.30) ****
Review by Ray Fox-Cumming, Disc, 23 February 1974
I WAS BEGINNING to wonder if the Mad Mekon Of The Moog would ever justify the acres of coverage he's had since he left Roxy ...
Brian Eno, The Winkies: Eno & the Winkies: Civic Hall, Guildford
Live Review by Ray Fox-Cumming, Disc, 2 March 1974
BEFORE HIS Guildford concert with the Winkies last Wednesday, Eno told me: "I've tried rearranging the running order of the songs in all sorts of ...
Brian Eno, The Winkies: Eno: "I'm a Born Thief"
Interview by Ray Fox-Cumming, Disc, 2 March 1974
... or "Eno helps digest other people's music". Fox-Cumming gets on earful of warm jets. ...
Glen Campbell: The Campbell's are coming... to London, or Houston, or...
Interview by Ray Fox-Cumming, Disc, 23 March 1974
Glen Campbell changes the song title depending on where he's playing ...
David Bowie, T. Rex: Tony Visconti: Behind Bolan And Bowie
Interview by Ray Fox-Cumming, Disc, 28 September 1974
THIS IS a story of Marc Bolan and David Bowie – compared and contrasted. Bolan, the complete professional, who lost out through believing himself above ...
Ann Peebles: Gulliver's, London
Live Review by Ray Fox-Cumming, Disc, 19 October 1974
CONCERTS at the ultra-trendy Biba's Rainbow Room almost invariably, for some reason or other, turn out to be disappointing and, from the reviews I've read ...
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band: Alex Harvey: The Dream Comes True
Interview by Ray Fox-Cumming, Disc, 26 October 1974
THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM is coming true. At last, after 20 years in and around the business, Alex Harvey has got himself a hit. Don't worry ...
David Essex: The Busy Mr Essex
Interview by Ray Fox-Cumming, Disc, 2 November 1974
MR ESSEX, I Presume? One could be forgiven for asking the question because, caught unawares in his dressing room for the 45 show, he looks ...
Cockney Rebel: The Mellowing Of Mr Harley
Interview by Ray Fox-Cumming, Disc, 9 November 1974
STEVE HARLEY just sits there a-glowering, looking, if one can, defiantly mellow. The suggestion that the arrogant ol' sour puss has softened up a bit ...
Interview by Ray Fox-Cumming, Disc, 9 November 1974
THESE WERE THE MYSTERIOUS INSTRUCTIONS GIVEN TO FOX-CUMMING WHEN HE SOUGHT AN INTERVIEW WITH THIS CHAP ...
Mott The Hoople, Mick Ronson: Mick Ronson: Taking Care Of Business
Interview by Ray Fox-Cumming, Disc, 16 November 1974
YORKSHIREMEN are renowned for their good business sense and Hull-born Mick Ronson sure ain't going to be the one to let the side down. Already ...
The Rubettes: Rubettes Bring Back Jive
Interview by Ray Fox-Cumming, Disc, 30 November 1974
IN DANCE-craze circles 'The Bump' is supposed to be all the rage...but is it? ...
David Bowie: Young Americans (RCA RS 1006)
Review by Ray Fox-Cumming, Record Mirror, 15 March 1975
IT CONTAINS eight tracks and 40 minutes 6 seconds of music, which is all that should be said until you've given it a lot of ...
Interview by Ray Fox-Cumming, Record Mirror, 24 May 1975
A FEW MONTHS ago Queen were the band everyone was talking about and the only reason why their name hasn't been on everyone's lips just ...
Interview by Ray Fox-Cumming, Record Mirror, 26 July 1975
SWEET ARE busy — or, as Brian Connolly puts it: "For the past nine months we've been going like the clappers." ...
Roxy Music, Sadistic Mika Band: City Hall, Newcastle
Live Review by Ray Fox-Cumming, Record Mirror, 18 October 1975
THE EARLY part of Roxy's British tour has been a succession of 'welcome homes' for members of the band. ...
Bryan Ferry, Roxy Music: Bryan Ferry: So Ferry Stylish
Report and Interview by Ray Fox-Cumming, Record Mirror, 25 October 1975
POST-CONCERT meals with Roxy Music are relaxed and refined affairs. The group change for dinner, sip pre-prandial drinks in their hotel bar, then dine with ...
Smokie: Smokie Rising — 11 Years to Take Off!
Profile and Interview by Ray Fox-Cumming, Record Mirror, 3 January 1976
MOST BRIGHTEST hope contenders in any year tend to be fairly new bands, but Smokie, although the name is newish, had their beginnings over 11 ...
Mary Hopkin: Mary Had A Little Jam...And Now She's Got A Single!
Interview by Ray Fox-Cumming, Record Mirror, 21 February 1976
MARY HOPKIN has at least one good reason for being glad to be back at work "It gives me an excuse to get a maid. ...
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