Phil Manzanera has said of the title track, "Avalon", "When we were recording the third or fourth album in London we'd often be working in the same studio as Bob Marley, who'd be downstairs doing all of those famous albums. It's the ultimate romantic fantasy place.” Avalon is part of the King Arthur legend and is a very romantic thing, when King Arthur dies, the Queens ferry him off to Avalon, which is sort of an enchanted island. So instead, I have these 10 poems, or short stories, that could, with a bit more work, be fashioned into a novel. It created a lot of paranoia and a lot of spaced-out stuff." Bryan Ferry said "I've often thought I should do an album where the songs are all bound together in the style of West Side Story, but it's always seemed like too much bother to work that way. That album was a product of completely changing our working methods," adding "for the last three albums, quite frankly, there were a lot more drugs around as well, which was good and bad. Phil Manzanera has said about the making of the record "By the time you get to Avalon, 90 per cent of it was being written in the studio. The album cover artwork featured the same lough (lake) that can be seen from the lodge. Ferry was there with his girlfriend, Lucy Helmore, who would become his wife in 1983. 53 in the US, Avalon endured as a sleeper hit and became Roxy Music's only million-selling US record, ultimately receiving platinum certification.īryan Ferry started working on the material for Avalon while staying at Crumlin Lodge on the west coast of Ireland.
It stayed at number one on the UK Albums Chart for three weeks, and stayed on the chart for over a year. In the United States, "More Than This" and "Take a Chance With Me" reached 103 and 104.Īvalon is Roxy Music's most successful studio album. " Avalon", the second single, reached the top 20 "Take a Chance With Me" reached the top 30.
The first single, " More Than This", preceded the album and was a top-10 hit in Britain, Australia, and several European countries. It was recorded between 19 at Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas, and is regarded as the culmination of the smoother, more adult-oriented sound of the band's later work. Avalon is the eighth and final studio album by the English rock band Roxy Music, released in May 1982.