Metamatic Forums News and Announcements John Foxx news Australian Tour...

Thanks. They are all in the order I took them too. I tried to take at least one photo during each song.
It was well after midnight by the time he came out. Louis was out fairly quickly and working the merchandise desk. Plugging his own music, of course.
I planned to take some of the crowd waiting outside before the concert too but it slipped my mind at the time. Next time I won't drink as much before hand.

I must admit his appearance on TV surprised me too. I had no idea he came out. I only wish he'd toured then.

Katja mentioned that she knew about it and met him. I'd like to know more if she's willing to tell us about it.

That's true. I hope it's given him some incentive to come out again. Only next time, a bit more promo work might help.
That's sounds a little too Simple Minds-ish to me! But I'm sure John will come up with something deceptively obvious.

And a journey to Sydney for Tiny Colour Movies, dear sir, was my intention. Melbourne first preference but timing was problematic.

...Grand plan subverted by severe cruelty on the part of the plague which decided after using me as a host to force me to lose my voice. I was still very tempted to fly up -- but thought doing so might not be prudent considering I couldn't communicate beyond a pained rasp. Not being able to breathe wasn't so good, either. Believe me - it was bad. Not much could have kept me away!



The audience: Total number: in the mid 30's or thereabouts; a few flying solo; approximately four humans of the female typology excluding staff which curiously tallies with your observations of the Sydney set; majority in the 40's age range from the glances I cast about when I turned up sometime after 9pm.

Impression: Personally: initial resentment that Adelaide was making such a poor showing of itself (a common gripe of mine and one of my primary grievances with the people in this city); further resentment that there was nothing I wanted to drink at the bar so I reverted to cheap gin. Resentment quickly dissipating as...

Holistically: Absolute enthusiasm on the part of pretty much everyone there - infectious, intense, quite incredible - it felt like the crowd was bigger than it was by far - some kind of strange amplification, shadows coming out of the wings.

I haven't been to a live show in years (no comparison is springing to mind even on that time scale) that had this sort of feeling to it - I've spoken to others who have expressed the same general sentiment.

Stunning, haunting, beautiful and powerful vocalisation - I've known so many artists to cut evenings short and put on a desultory performance when the turnout is poor, but the show was blinding: I expected good things of Foxx/Gordon but this went far, far beyond that. Even to the point of redeeming my faith in contemporary live electronic music: which to those who know me is almost like confessing to a religious conversion.

Thanks for the photos! I had a tiny little digicam with me - which I couldn't push beyond 400 ISO so a debacle for the most part.


As an aside - your photos have shown up an anomaly: what is the alternative tour poster behind John's head in the 8th and 11th shots? I didn't see that displayed over here at all. Venue specific?

There are some great ones here - not sure who took them, but they're very good.

And what's all that stuff on Louis' head?!

There were venue specific posters - and they'll all be appearing in the Archive soon - but the image you can see behind John is the tour T-Shirt pinned to the wall.

Rob

Oh, dear - I really am going blind (that and incapable of zooming in on images before posting irrelevant questions.) Thanks, Rob.

My Fuji only goes to 800 so it wasn't much better.

I had a good think about this afterwards and what's needed is 1,600 or 3,200 - especially if the lighting's dim. You also need manual focus that's easy to select - or turn off auto-focus before the lights go out. Dim light or fog really affect it.

Next time, though, I'll get a proper HD video cam.
That was the tour t-shirt. At $40 a pop they weren't selling too well. The posters, at $10, we're going off like hot cakes. Didn't they have a merchandise booth or desk at your venue?

It seems to be a mop! Which also explains why I didn't recognise him at first.

Believe it or not, I've had a cold the past 3 weeks. That Saturday, I woke up with a frog in my throat. Hence all the alcohol I was drinking prior to the concert. I wasn't prepared to let it keep me away.

If it wasn't for that I would have spoken to John for a lot longer - as well as the other fans.
I've been mulling over the lack of younger people and have come to the conclusion that John needs to put out some videos.

With his current interest in Super-8 film and videos, it might help him keep costs down too.
I have to admit I haven't gone to a live show in ages. All I've been interested in listening to for the past 20 odd years has been John's music.

However, reaching back, I can recall going to see Simple Minds twice. Both times the venue was too crowded and sound was rather poor. Others, I'd rather prefer to forget.

I really enjoyed this concert. It was intimate and personal. I do feel sorry that it didn't attract the crowds that John's music deserves. That's why I've been wondering and asking questions about the crowd composition etc.