Metamatic Forums Socialising The Green Room Rubbing shoulders with musical giants (non gig related)

Morning Martin Glad to be of service ! I was going to reply on the other thread Sorry we won't be meeting in Genoa More importantly I hope Mrs Birdsong has/is recovering
Can't help you on the Wayne Hussey front I'm afraid

Lucky you re JF I went 28 years without seing John after the Erics gig Then twice in 9 months I flew home specially to see him play at Korova july 2006 then I was gobsmacked to see he'ìd be playing Milan (60 miles from where I now live) in April 2007 All being well i?ll se in in Genoa 3 weks today reading not performing this time then in Venice in October
Great shout re Mick Lyons MR Everton Loved the guy gave 110 pere cent to use one of the clichés
I had a "Seaso " for the Gwladys Street from 71 to 82 (Started in the Boys' Pen horrible cage lie construction)
Radiobeach on her is Spurs and we often talk about footy Whilst on the Everton site there's a John Foxx clique !!! And we talk about him
Still in my blood I went to the F c Nuremberg and Fiorentina games this season
Here's a couple of my articles which might interest you
David
(I'll check your site out I can't play a note , so any eventual opinion won't count for anything !)

Sorry this no longer avasilable as a file So cut and paste

I'll dig the fiorentina article out later


foxx review: john foxx, transilvania, milan

By davyitalianblue
Date: 17/4/2007

The omens were good as we came into Milan on Saturday afternoon. Given the concert was in the San Siro district, on a glorious day we passed the stadium that the Blues had graced 44 years previously.

It's certainly more impressive from the outside than some of the turgid shite served up inside.
Anyway, I 'd come to pay homage to my musical hero, the electric futurist ex-leader of Ultravox!
Fortified by a pizza four formaggi , three or four Peronis and a coffee laced with grappa, I wended my way to Transilvania, a club owned by Dario Argento, the Italian master of horror films.
Inside it was a Bauhaus fan's delight, but I didn't let this deter me.
As we waited for the first act to come on, some ace sounds were played, such as 'Mexican Radio' and 'Hong Kong Garden'.
The first band on were Act Noir, a Brit vocalist backed by Italians. The singer looked like what would have happened if they'd put Marilyn Mansun and David Sylvain in that machine instead of Jeff Goldblum and a fly. Basically, Marilyn came out with Sylvain's voice. He tried hard to make us feel his faux-angst, but didn't quite pull it off. The rest of the group looked liked they'd been dressed after a visit to a Tony Wilson Jumble Sale in which he'd flogged New Order's old clobber in a vain attempt to retrieve his losses at The Hacienda. All black shirts and skinny red ties.
Next up were the Rubicks, a strange duo: a female vocalist who modelled her look somewhere between Tranvision Vamp and Courtney Love, whilst trying to be P J Harvey in her 'dress' period - all frantic screaming and guitar assaults . The bloke, the bassist, looked like a greebo, with long greasy hair in a centre-part - a slimmed down Lemmy. Soundwise, he was like Peter Hook on speed, giving his instrument some unmerciful stick. All in all, a creditable effort.
A sequencer and a Yahama organ were wheeled onto the stage, the dry ice rose and then the moment we'd all been waiting for, Juan Zorro had returned to make his mark, aided and abetted by Louis Gordon on the Yamaha . If ever a duo were so different. Their next album should be called 'Gravitas and Goonery'. Mr Foxx has the first in shedloads; his partner comes across as the electronic Bez, bouncing and gurning all over the place.
True retro futurists, they started off with 'Twentieth Century', seven years or so too late. Crafty fox that he is, John had foreseen this though, and by dint of a cunning phoneme change, it morphed into 'Twenty-first Century' halfway through. I wonder if Prince still does 1999?
Nearly two hours of magic were to follow. Loads of stuff from 'Metamatic' and some Ultravox classics from when they were decent and hadn't been severed from their exclamation mark. Before Midge Ure, in other words.
Towards the end there was the spoken word set to music phase, the highlight being 'My Sex' and 'Just for a Moment'. The pace never slackened and the crowd bayed for more. We were rewarded with 'Endlessly', during which there were amazing vocal gymnastics between Foxx and Gordon . Loathe as I am to concede it, I have to admit it was Sergeant Pepper-esque in its construct.
It was suggested that the gig could take place in a telephone box. It did, the Tardis! Us Foxxistas could easily have seen off the East Fife and Stenhousemuir crews combined, in the unlikely event they had been looking for trouble in Lombardy on that particular evening!
The night came to an end much to quickly. I managed to sneak backstage and get him to sign the cover to the vinyl 'Ha Ha Ha!' possibly the greatest album ever made. He seemed a shy and reserved man.
If my hero has any shortcomings, it is the fact that from a distance he now bears a semblance to snidey ex-Barcodes' striker Alan Shearer. He seemed genuinely pleased when I mentioned having seen him at Eric's in 1978.
"A great place for gigs," is what he said. It brought back my youth for me too - Saturday afternoons at Goodison, seeing the likes of Dobbo, Andy King and Duncan McKenzie gracing the hallowed turf, followed by Saturday night gigs. I made my way, misty-eyed, to the hotel.
It was a great weekend; life couldn't get any better. A mere fifteen hours later though, Joao Cesar McFadden was to prove me wrong.

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Some gigs can really make an impact on you. I've seen many many memorable gigs down the years including Fad Gadget in 1981 (Liverpool), Krafterk 1981 (Liverpool) plus various Numan, Depeche Mode, Bill Nelson, OMD, Human League etc and of course John Foxx gigs. Meeting many of the artists along the way. As the years pass these gigs become treasures.

I'm involved these days with a live electronic night in Birmingham called Connect Four. The format is 4 electro bands/artists, DJ and videos. Very small venue and hopefully this monthly event will grow. I do what I can to help promote the night. There have been 4 shows so far and these are all unknown artists. A new electro scene is hopefully on the horizon. I also do an electronic podcast show called Robo Cast Radio and I'm using that vechicle to help promote these shows and lots of fantastic undiscover electronic talent.

Cheers,

Ian

My only contact with musical greats (including John, of course) has been in a 'gig' situation. However, I have a 'not-quite-rubbing-shoulders' story that's appropriate to this forum.

One Friday evening, stuck in the usual near-stationary traffic on the M40 out of London (on my way to my home in High Wycombe), I saw an American looking car up ahead of me, looked like maybe a Pontiac or a Trans Am, something like that. It was black and had the registration plate UVX 40 (if memory serves correctly). When I finally managed to pull alongside it for a brief moment I saw none other than Warren Cann behind the wheel.

That's it, I'm afraid! Not very exciting, but as I said, appropriate to a John Foxx forum.

Ô¿Ô

Well, at least you have seen Herr X

Was this during the Ultravox years ?
And did he look angry?

Au contraire Monsieur Song !!
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=pXq8rELhUkw

Will we be sharing a bottle of Chianti/ a few Peronis in Genoa btw or are you off to Durham ? [/QB][/QUOTE]


I used to bump into Windsor Davies and Don Estelle around the Guisborough area occasionally.
At least they are (arguably) musical. Although Don's possibly not a giant.

(Whispering Grass (not, not that kind), don't tell the trees, 'cos the trees don't need to know..)

I used to bump into Windsor Davies and Don Estelle around the Guisborough area occasionally.
At least they are (arguably) musical. Although Don's possibly not a giant.

(Whispering Grass (not, not that kind), don't tell the trees, 'cos the trees don't need to know..) [/QB][/QUOTE]
IAs a hip 16 year old soon to be punk I found "It ain't half hot Mum" an irritating pile of poo But listening again EStelle had a great voice on him (Not a physical giant)IMHO better than the Inkspot's original version and Sandy Denny's ( a great voice)version

This prompts me to ask, given all the car themes in his songs, what sort of car does John Foxx drive? And what would his plates say?

I probably should ask this in the John Foxx forum.

A burning car.

...sorry...