He's cultivated this slightly fogeyish, almost aristocratic image, so I think it's quite interesting to find out how he relates to such modern phenomenons as 'eye-phones' and mp3s.

said against the journalistic perfection that is Eammon Forde. Someone should turn his twitter feed into a book.

I thought it was a good piece and interesting to hear Ferry's views on I-Phones etc. I'm kind of with Ferry in the old school brigade, no desire at all to own an iphone, perfectly happy with my Nokia for texting and sometimes ringing and taking pictures. I don't think I could deal with the stress of an I-Phone and how to operate one. Each to their own though, but there's more to this world than Apple.

...the article yet, but don't you think that if a little 'tache was drawn on the front cover portrait, Mr. Ferry would have the look of a certain German?

in asking that type of question. I came away feeling I knew more about Ferry than I had before, and I think that was because he gave more of himself away than he might have done if the interview had been of a more 'personal' nature.

...to suggest that a magazine has "jumped the shark" just because one of the interviews in it contained a couple of questions you didn't like? Or indeed an entire interview you didn't like? Or indeed a review you didn't like? "Jumping the shark", surely, means the point after which it stopped being worth bothering? Are you suggesting that because Eamonn Forde (who for my money, with Jude Rogers, produces the most consistently interesting and least egotistical writing in the magazine) wrote a piece you don't like that Word is now Officially Shit™?

Personally, I couldn't give a flaming-sambucca-drenched toss about Mr Ferry or his works, and if I ran a music magazine he wouldn't get within crooning distance of a cover story, ever. But I still enjoyed this month's mag, a lot. As usual, it was varied and interesting and I read pretty much every printed word. Can't think of any other magazine I do that with.

I'm reading too much into the interview but I thought the technology theme provided Eammon with a unique angle to get Ferry to open up to him. Ferry is a master of affectation and mannerism and is understandably guarded in this age of intrusive journalism.

We learned, thanks to Eammon's incisive writing, that Ferry is currently a busy man; again an impression that one doesn't normally associate with the slightly louche and detached lead singer renowned for taking his time between albums.

I think that through gadgets that Eammon found a route into Ferry's world by giving something to Ferry (i.e. explanations and demonstrations of his iphone, of mp3 as a format) to the extent that Ferry - ever the English gentleman - felt obliged to give something of himself back. A bit of quid pro quo.

Modern technology and having someone to explain it piqued Ferry's interest and I suspect put him slightly on the back foot. In other words he was just a little bit more unguarded, a little bit more willing to share information as Eammon had shared with him. Those moments where Eammon mentored would have forced Ferry to adjust his mode of response, to view his interviewer as more than just another questioning mouth-piece trying to trip him up.

In a limited time-frame and on the interviewee's home turf Eammon would have to adjust to his surroundings and I thought that discussing modern technology in the setting of a state of the art studio gave him a wealth of thematic possibilities for his face-to-face and a back-drop to coax out from Ferry just how he had adapted his methodology to his art over time when modern technology potentially provides so many easier options. Maybe Ferry realised he couldn't hide behind his own studio when giving answers because he perceived that Eammon was a man who knew his kit from his caboodle.

What we ended up with was an interesting journey through Ferry's approach to making and recording music which I strongly doubt would not have been quite so enlightening if Eammon hadn't enlightened Ferry on the whys and wherefores of iphones etc.

In my view this apparently innocuous and irrelevant sidebar of a discussion on new gizmos was anything but, it was the lynchpin to the insightful and revealing interview that followed.

for sounding dim, but what does 'jumping the shark mean'?

very good but has now lost it usually regarding a tv series.

All here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumping_the_shark

Edit:badartdog beat me to it and I don't know how to delete.

I've never listened to Bryan Ferry or Roxy Music, but reading Forde's interview made me want to go away and investigate. Normally a sign of a good piece, that.

As for the bits about his technophobia, I thought it was interesting. We take it as read that people use iPods, iPads, iPhones, Twitter, Spotify...etc nowadays, so it's refreshing to hear from somone who doesn't.

The kind of magazine you would wish your wife or servants to read?

There's me wondering why Jonathan Ross was on the cover...

Not sure I can put my finger on why...

Some of Bowie's music is glacial, colder and more detatched than anything Ferry has produced yet Bowie the individual just seems warmer and more convivial.

of the interview for me, as others have pointed out previously, is Mr Forde's bizarre preoccupation with how Bryan pronounces the word 'i-phone' as two words...And the point is? How the hell else is it meant to be pronounced? The inference was that poor Luddite Bryan was, y'know, a bit backward with all this new-fangled technology to the extent that even the names were a mystery - which I thought came across as a tad patronising, and in the context, inexplicable.
Yes, he called it an 'i phone'; newsflash - so do I and indeed any other person I've ever heard say the name.

I too thought the Bryan Ferry interview was full of crass sniggering. Impertinent just about covers it. The idea that if you aren't across modern technology you are a semi-senile curio worthy of a send-up sees Word wearing a backwards baseball cap and break dancing wiv da kidz. Might as well have written: Yeah this fossil still goes to art galleries - don't he know you can dowload 'em to your iPad. What a grandad we got here!

I wanted Ferry to turn round and say, "Hang on kiddo - I wrote Pyjamarama. Whats your fucking contribution to the planet?"

Never been remotely interested in Ferry, but that was a good interview. I particularly liked his reaction to Spotify - 'that would be great for a party!' Ferry has never struck me as very human before.

...I really like the interview and, like others, thought it made Ferry much more human than other interviews.

On the other hand, I could happily see fewer mentions of Apple products in the Word, I have to say.

I'm also bemused by the i-phone pronunciation. What is it meant to be?

isn't it?

Eamonn Forde on Twitter I got the impression that he was a mahoosive Roxy/Ferry fan - any suggestion of sniping or mocking is, I would imagine, purely unintentional.

Can I be the first to say that the cover artwork on the latest issue is astonishingly good?

I'm not a fan of Ferry (far from it), nor have I read the interview yet, but that illustration showing him as a 60-something crooner, jowls and all, is spookily accurate and a fine piece of work.

I felt a tiny clunk when Mr Forde mentioned his iPhone 4 rather than an iPhone. It reminded me of the joke "How do you know when someone has an iPhone? They will tell you."

But the rest was great and showed Mr Ferry to be more interesting than I thought he was going to be.

I thought it was an illuminating interview, especially given that Ferry is usually so careful in interviews.

I though the Ferry interview was fine - my main complaint with The Word recently is that there are too many two-page interviews with stand-up comedians, all of whom seem to be forty-something blokes with exactly the same opinions.

If I wanted to read that, I'd come here.