Metamatic Forums John Foxx John Foxx Short Circuit SETLIST

(not to witter on, but...) the Maths really shoulda listened to the version of MAN WHO DIES EVERYDAY from that Ultravox @ the Marquee Dec 1978! (Cerise sold me a copy in the late 1980s, IIRC).

It is BLOODY AMAZING and the guitarist there (dunno if it was Robin or Mr Shears?) does and extra wee chord inversion thing on the rhythm part, which made it more exciting, plus Warren hit big synth drums for extra punctuation and general dalliance Since Benge was getting well into his synth drums at other points in the set, this woulda been another good place to Boing them!

Good points, Feline1. I agree with what you say. My other gripe is - why or why - didn't JF have an analogue synth to play himself. How cool - how we'd have cheered - if he'd knocked out a few notes on a Korg or Arp or whatever - rather than doing very little (the word miming comes to mind) with 'that' keyboard (I can't work out what he's playing - I know another thread has discussed this). He CAN play and I'd have been thrilled to see him really join in; to have heard one of the Metamatic instrumentals with all those keyboardist would have been immense. IMMENSE. But let me finish with a few things I did like (although I can't demonstrate Feline1's technical expertise or musicological elegance):

1. That opening movie with the re-purposed Film One. Wow. It would have been even better for the 'band' to have played that live...Whoops, I'm off again.
2. The Metamatic set. Besides a disappointing 'Underpass' (sorry, Birdsong), brilliant. Raw, dirty, messy and edgy.
3. 'Catwalk'. Loved it. Shame the crowd could barely tap a collective foot. I'd never seen JF so animated.
4. The Ultravox set. Ok, I'd rather have heard a few other tracks, but there was PS and a BAND accompanying John, and it was glorious (for all its faults).
5. The look of the band. Benge is cool, no doubt about it and he was clearly loving the occasion. The other guy (Paul Daley from Leftfield, wasn't it?) and 'synth lady' also added a certain visual chic to the proceedings reminding me of 'Ladytron' (who, obviously, helped write one of the tracks - which I liked).
6. Karborn and his girlfriend bopping along at the back as he mixed the visuals. Lovely to see JF Jnr so engaged and tuned in with his dad's work - and, as Birdsong states, really adding a great deal to the gig.
7. The DJ sets at the start (yes, slightly contradicting myself, but trying to create some positives here). Jori's set was actually very interesting in terms of its soundscape and at times sounding like a soundtrack mash-up of Goblin and Tangerine Dream from 1985. Mark Jones is actually a really interesting electro-pop buff and he played some fantastic tracks, many which I hadn't heard before.

Finally, did anyone attend the Short circuit festival at the Roundhouse last year? I saw the Radiophonic Workshop, but nothing else. Just wondering about comparisons between this year and last year's acts (and I bet they didn't have bl**dy DJs as support).

I was at the Radiophonic Workshop gig last year, yeah. Thoroughly enjoyed it, got a real kick out of seeing Dick Mills giving it loads with a VCS3
Obviously, a lot of their music is "concrete" and never designed to be played live, and so they just played bits back off computer inbetween numerous live things....
Obviously it was a one-off gig and plenty of things went wrong which would've gone right if it was a tour where they did it every night, but hey. "The Panel Beaters" was a bit disappointing (not enough synths) but other tunes were awesome.

It was also better cos I had a seat and was comfortable and could see!

Re: "what is John playing" - I can't be certain, but I'm pretty sure that little MIDI keyboard he has just tells his Digitech harmonizer what to do when he's singing (e.g. you play a chord and sing a single note and it pitch-shifts it all into being that chord).

The rest of the time I think he just uses it as a prop to busk with. Which does look a bit silly when you twig what he's doing I agree it would've been cool to see him play the odd solo on a real synth during the instrumental breaks.

The band did look cool and I liked the way Karborn & co were visible in the wings having fun with the visuals. I always like having loads of people on stage all looking busy with stuff - without wanting to sounds like the guys from 'Ghostbox' it reminds me of The Muppet Show, Richard Scarry books and times when Roy Wood was on Top of the Pops - hordes of slightly loony crews all busy making some crazy art for us...very breadcrumbs and butterbeans

Yeah, it was a great gig although not synthy enough for me either in places (e.g. 'Swirly'). Yes, and tall people in front of you is never ideal. Last night I had some late 40-something with a mass of hair exactly like Bob Dylan, 1965 (the only other difference being that Dylan is a genius and this guy was a drunk tw*t - interesting how so many of us have had encounters with intoxicated individuals during the evening).

Ahhh, that makes sense in terms of what he might (or might not) be doing with that keyboard. By the way, what's the 'box of tricks' to his right (again, I know this has been dealt with elsewhere)?

Yeah, the band looked cool, even if the sound often wasn't...I must stop bitching about JF because, as a fan, it feels horrible. Mind you, Feline1 caught my feelings exactly when she said the gig was 'good' - not a compliment from a fan (because really, taking that out of a fan context, that probably doesn't even register as 'good'). :rolleyes:

I imagine the digitech harmonizer gadget (and whatever other FX he puts on his voice) are all in that 3U rack he has on his right.

To be honest, sometimes I could do with hearing John just sing on his own without the harmonizer! It's brilliant on some songs but he does over use it a tad...

Yes, I agree. Thanks for the explanation.

So many happy memories. A full day of sunlight – new and old.

Wandering around east London with Mark (Mr.Ilektrik) and then hooking up at a decent pub with Martin for a small, but wonderfully put together Burroughs exhibition – thank you both; it was the perfect start to the day.

Later I met up with so many off the forum; Gem, Mark, Martin, Chris, Tappio, Brian, Sarah, Peter, Tessa, Andreas, Fons, Paul, Scott, Rob etc.

And then the ‘discussion’ – hmmmm – I’ve scribbled/ranted about that elsewhere.

And so to The Roundhouse. Great venue! I was really looking forward to going to the Roundhouse as I’d not wandered through it for twenty years. I really hope there’s other events there as it was a great place.

And the gig itself; so many highlights that others have mentioned so I won’t bore you with mine. I really did enjoy the unheard stuff, especially Watching A Building On Fire and the unknown encore track about ‘being(?) your shadow / everyday’ (something like that).

The only downside of the gig for me was the f**king Numanoids. This is the second time in my life when I have had to socialise with these genetic-progress surrender monkeys and next time I will be armed. The w**kers; all men, clearly of an age that should know better, were chanting for their Shamanic Badger during Foxx’s set. I had one or two words that I can only describe as ‘east-end’ with these w**kers but frankly I was outnumbered. But they didn't spoil my day no matter how hard they tried.

Thanks to all I met for making it a great day out!

Garry

lol yeah there were certainly plenty of unsalvagable numanoids on display, bless.

mind you, I've seen worse audiences. Like, I went to see Magazine not so long ago, and was exasperated by a certain element there who basically waited to whole gig until 'Shot By Both Sides' was played, so they could pogo and pounce in a ludicrous "PUNK'S NOT DEAD!!!" display. I looked between them and Howard Devoto's immaculate pink suit and thought "god, some people really just don't GET it, do they?!?!"