Hello,

I've asked several questions before, and have never been lucky (or
interesting) enough to have them answered. However, this question is one
that I would be fascinated to know the answer to.
Back in the day I practically wore the grooves off of my copy of 'So Red the Rose'. One of the things I particularly loved about it were the eclectic guest contributions.So here's the question - can Simon, Nick or Roger remember if they asked anyone to appear that could not, or did not want to - and if so, who? Jon.

“Hi Jon, the initial core of Arcadia consisted of Simon, Roger and I along with Mark Egan on bass and Masami Tsuchiya on guitar. Most of the other guests were chosen as we wrote the songs, for example, we decided that Grace Jones would be perfect to deliver the monologue in the middle of “Election Day.” Fortunately we already knew her, and Alex Sadkin had produced several of her albums, so she accepted our invitation. Herbie Hancock happened to be in Paris at the time, as did Sting, and both came in to the Studio to make their contributions. We decided on Dave Gilmour because we wanted atmospheric guitar, in a mood which only he could possibly have captured. Once we knew we wanted to use a saxophone, Andy MacKay was an obvious choice because of his extraordinary work with Roxy Music. We didn’t actually ask any one other than the people who appeared on the album, but felt extremely lucky and privileged to work with all the musicians who appeared on “So Red the Rose. NR