Metamatic Forums John Foxx John Foxx and Louis Gordon CARGO - October 16th

A review will follow in due course.
It's 3a.m and we got lost in Richmond.
Nearly.

Here in the meantime is the amazing set list from tonight's gig.
The show lasted just under two hours and was in more or less two halves. I am reluctant to use the word 'encore'.
There was a break too early in the set and an absence of break before the penultimate track.
I'll come back to that....

WALK THIS WAY
A MILLION CARS
DISLOCATION
THE MAN WHO DIES EVERY DAY
CAMERA
UPTOWN/DOWNTOWN
UNDERPASS
NO-ONE DRIVING
BURNING CAR
SHADOW MAN
>pause<
THE GARDEN
I TRAVEL
BROKEN FURNITURE
YOUNG SAVAGE
MY SEX 1/
MY SEX 2
ENDLESSLY
SHIFTING CITY

Various super 8 film clips expertly mixed and looped by John Leigh, on stage with the 'band' throughout the show.

Thanks Martin, thanks a lot for posting in the early hours for us outside your timezone. Really appreciated! Just a few changes to the Japan list, so I'm sure you guys had a good time. "I Travel"??

Looking forward to more info and notes from all!

ooh? I'm intrigued by that

Hmm, I see that Endlessly... makes it onto a gig set list yet again... :rolleyes:

only joking all fan's of endlessly
(the version at the end of TGS remaster CD2 has really grown on me as being 'the one' I love)

...thats another "cover"

Thanks for briefing Martin!
Now, I hope more comes up during the day!
Photos, Clips, bring it on everybody

Another spellbinding night with John, personally I don't think there is anyone else in the field who comes close to what this man is doing.

A shame there was no second encore, there were a lot of people holding out for one...can't have everything.

I don't want to confuse anyone.
This is of course just "Travel" from The Pleasures of Electricity.
Sorry about that...

What a fantastic night. I was blown away. It was great to see every one. Looking forward to your review Martin.

Peter

I had images of a cover of Simple Minds. That really would have been quite interesting - something I would never have thought of!

Me too!

I'm looking forward to the review because I was still in work at 10.30 last night!

You have no idea how angry I am today.

Hope everyone had a great evening

Now that's a bummer!!

Spot the back of your head time . . . .

Cargo Photos

Nice photos you got there.

Cheers

Thanks for sharing your photo's of last nights gig

Gary
Gary Hunter Myspace Music Page

Woo! You know, I've been to see John pretty much annually now since whenever that Mean Fiddler 'Pleasures of Electricty' gig was (I think I saw him THREE times last year, lol!) and last night's gig was the best one yet!

Why? Mostly cos there were 4 people on stage, all doing stuff, including Steve D'Agostino on some REAL analogue synths (a Roland System 100M modular, fact fans, and what looked like a Roland SH1 or SH2...) - this just all added an extra layer of spit, blast and sizzle to the proceedings - live music is at its best when it's live, not when a couple of blokes mime to a laptop
So who was that lad at the back? He looked like John Foxx Jnr! He had a laptop and a MIDI keyboard, I dunno if he was just on visuals or was playing music too, I couldn't really see.

Louis has grown his hair into a Kevin Kegan footballer perm!

Frankly I think we were all getting a bit BORED before the gig finally started ... most of us had been hanging around Cargo since not long after 7, and we were let into the stage area a little after 8... but we were left to bob our heads to the DJ and watch the same 20 minute video loop in there until a quarter past 9!
But when the lads did finally come on, they kicked ass!

BURNING CAR, for instance, was bloody sh*t hot, if you'll pardon my French - compare it to what it sounded like when they first began all this again in 1998 - no more d*cking around with "modernizing" it, just stick to the original searing arrangement and crank it up to 11! With footage from the original video flaming on the screen behind them. Excellent.

If there was one criticism of the proceedings, I might say that sometimes the arrangements were actually *too* "turned up to 11" - they'd start the songs with Louis & Steve making the nastiest ear-shredding bowel-troubling sounds they could, and that doesn't leave much room to build for the next 4 minutes! lol They were making a very full-on racket at times But that's all part of the fun.

The "encore" was a bit odd - John said "goodnight"... then about 30 seconds later they came back and played for another hour! /laughs/ Most amusing.
Then when they really DID end, the audience were well up for an *actual* encore, and we had a full on slow hand clap going for a good 3 minutes, before someone obviously told the DJ to send us shuffling out.

The new song they opened with was pretty decent;
THE GARDEN was lovely (although I couldn't help giggle at a stray raspy note on the wrong sound at the beginning: "We've been waiting in the Garden - THWWWARRRP!" lol )
"YOUNG SAVAGE" was very welcome although be honest I felt it didn't quite come off - probably cos the main bit is the 'blistering' guitar riff, and that just seemed to be sequenced rather than anyone play it, which made it a bit less exciting - whilst John was a bit out-of-breath on the vocals (not that there's space to breath in all those lines, but that's the way he wrote it!) - still, cool to hear them do it.


Basically a smashing gig.

nice pics--wonder if we'll get a screen thing in Marghera..

Just got back.Shattered by going to bed late then the roar of the London traffic on Old street waking me up at 5.

What a brilliant night.Nice to meet old friends & meet some new ones.

Gary sorry you couldn't make it you must be gutted.

I have pictures & maybe some video to post later.
I took along a new HD camcorder but I think the sound being cranked up to 11 may be too much pressure on my camcorders mic.I had a quick listen before my battery gave out & the sound was distorted as hell.

A friend of mine told me that last nights show was being recorded for possible future release.Thats what the Apple G4 server was doing on the righthand side of the stage with one of the Chris's working on it.

Looking forward to this.

Listened to the new CD Impossible before I went to bed last night.I think its brilliant.

Cheers for posting the set list Martin so early,nice to meet you & share a sandwich run to Tesco express

Brian

Can't argue with feline's review of events last night. Thanks for drawing attention to D-Agostino's role. Tucked away at the back it was hard to see what he was up to. It looked like a mixing desk to me, which explains my hesitation. I know little of these things.

Great to meet everyone last night (Craig, Peter, Mark, Matt, Brian, Mike, you, erm, Andres, Sarah, him, thingy - one of the best pre-gig Foxxgates I can remember. I had a great day - spend the two hours between Waterloo and Shoreditch visiting ten or so of London's beautiful historic churches, including the crypt at St Bride's and listening to a woman play a charming broken piano in the Romanian Orthodox on the Strand.

It was indeed a good gig.
But not a GREAT gig, if my 19p ASDA notepad is anything to go by.
Here's my take on it.

Short Circuits and Golden Glows

By 8.30, crowds were gathering and the venue was pretty near full. 300-350 people?
A loop of film on a large screen backdrop. Fragmented super8. Grainy and broken. Shaky and blurred. Big colour movies.

Worked well as a VJ piece with the Dubterror remixes early on, but less so when backing the Chemical Brothers, Ladytron or Siouxsie (aptly Cities in Dust) and when Kate Bush started Running Up That Hill(??) the images seemed entirely superfluous. Perhaps because some of us had watched it through four times by then...

Steve D'Agostino appeared first, closely followed by the tall, big-haired figure of John Leigh Karborn taking up a discreet position back left behind a laptop-on-a-stool. While we are all going "oooh?" and "who's that" etc, Louis Gordon bounces up stage right, unpacking the intro to "Walk This Way" for the main man to walk on waving and take up the new track's vocal.
A Million Cars kicks in straight after, bringing James Stewart and Kim Novak to the screen. They keep cropping up in scenes from Vertigo throughout, juxtaposed with clips of The Swimmer and Some Like It Hot. Lancaster and Monroe. By now the air is filled with electricity and bass - all that's missing is the rising cigarette smoke in the filmbeams.
Seamlessly we slide back in time, through scenes of Dislocation. Behind the guys on stage, the Man Who Dies Every Day walks through verdant avenues and bustling city streets.
The mood change induced by Camera (oh camera...) would have been enhanced better by some stills. Angles and frames. But instead we're taken back to where we've been before. It's becoming a little unclear where this is going, and John's new vocalisation on this track doesn't help. Careful with those 'lalalaas' Eugene... Did I cringe just then. Can't read what I wrote down at this point. Probably a good thing. The whole tone of this piece has changed from how I remember it...
Cargo is bathed in white light, bursting with incredible booming rumbles, squeaks and shivers delivered from all angles. Its a wonderful venue - the sound here tonight is better than I've heard at one of these shows for a long time. But John is oddly uncomfortable. His vocal isn't quite there. Is that a technical thing, or is he tired? Uptown/Downtown would suggest the latter. There's an awkward pause before the track starts proper, an ill-timed 'thank you' and a wave to fill the space. Reassuring nod from D'Agostino and some gesturing from Louis when Foxx comes in at the wrong time with the lyric. And I'm talking over it. Questioning the pleasure of electricity in this kind of situation.
I'm not alone. Lost and bewildered - no-one is moving?
Bring the confidence back and return to more familiar territory. Good plan. The Big Three chart singles are the perfect vehicle for this, and there is audible relief in the crowd. Now there are stills, and Mike Barker movies. Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable and Bogart smiling and waving, as cars of all ages blaze away behind them. Louis jumps, as if his keyboard too is on fire, launching in the powerhouse of Shadow Man - a full on eight minutes of ryhthm and intense activity all over the stage.
Goodnight.

Wha...?
We all know this is a 'special' extended remix of a show. Where are you going?
Oh, you're back. Already?
Perhaps there was a queue for the toilets...

Roars of approval fill The Garden. Moments of splendour cast me back to the Dominion in '83, when guitars still roamed the earth. Now there's an idea. Retro-evolution. Some have said that John and Louis need to do something else now. They have a point. Video effects stunning, but what does Karborn's presence on stage really add? Should we have automobiles and crowded streets to accompany this hymn to natural wonders? Is there a there Fender in the house?
We're eager again now though, feeling secure and confident. Walking in the places we know. But for me, this is not the time to travel for the first time. Foxx moves obliquely and effortlessly through the years, celebrating the Broken Furniture that seems to support most of the kit. Now his timing is spot on, and the setlist suits the moment. Hungry and expectant, the opening bars of Young Savage are met with almost universal pogo-ing and leaps of youthful vigour.
The words are clearly a challenge and The Man does well, but now the sound system lets him down and its a mumble rather than a scream. Its a crowd pleaser, generates a buzz and a laugh, and yet.. what... Ah well, maybe, though. I guess..." Is that so? I see... Perhaps its the people around me continually drifting to the door like dust particles. Maybe the bar is magnetic?
Shame, because they missed they highlight of the set - the fragile acrobat that is My Sex.
It came as little surprise that this shimmering icon fused into the psychedelic, technicolour light show of Endlessly. There are flowers on the ceiling. Good touch.
Now would be a great time to leave the stage. We've all being 'laaing' along (again...) and whooping wildly during the warmest and most interactive of songs in the set. We want more and more - and we need to ask for it, beg you for it. Clap our hands in rhythm with each other, stamp our feet and shout "Foxxy" with varying degrees of sincerity. Wave our hats in the air - you know the kind of thing.
Call me old-fashoned, but isn't that what encores are for?
But this is the beginning of the end. Louis plugs in the electrodes and the robotic, lumbering monster we all know and love as Shifting City fizzes and splutters onto the set. The beast emerges from its quasi-retirement, and clangs and creaks its way into the enraptured consciousness. Lights wail and images blur. John screams and D-Agostino glows in earnest - everything seems fit to burst for the last ten glorious minutes.

I have posted this review without a conclusion on purpose. Somehow, I'm not sure how I feel about it after sleep. Would I Travel so far to see the same thing again..? Those that were they have made up their own minds, and those that weren't are encouraged to catch up with Foxx as soon as they can.
Easier said than done of course. Time maybe moving towards him, but there's a wonderful feeling that it will never quite arrive

Aye, what was that mix of Kate Bush? Is that a modern thing or did she put that mix of it out at the time? I quite enjoyed it anyways
They also played Add N to X.

The thing that makes me laugh a bit at all this "Super 8" footage stuff is that we're told it's all about the 'grain' and the charming limitations of the original media, but the reality is that we also get a TON of digital pixellation, slow frame rate and MPEG compression codec effects!

Yeah - and Camera did get a bit silly at times, didn't it? (in a *bad* way) lol

I suspect what went wrong was that John's vocals were meant to be 100% "wet" (i.e. all vocoder, or Digitech Vocalist, or whatever gadget he uses), but they were actually at least 50% dry...
this meant that instead of hearing a cool electronic pitch-shifed "camera!" or "la-la-la" thing, we could hear John's untreated voice trying to drive the machine, and it just sounded a bit daft! Bless.
But hey, this is live electronic music for you - one wrong knob twiddle and you're knackered (Quite possibly John couldn't hear himself clearly enough in the monitors to twig that the setting was wrong..... on the other hand, maybe I'm being too charitable and he *wanted* it all to sound like that lol )

Another wee point I'll make -
and I'm sure it's something most of us have noticed in the last 10 years -
John & Louis do have a bit of a tendency to run a song round in a loop and keep on and on vamping round on it for 2 or 3 or 4 or ... extra minutes at the end.
Sometimes I think it's clear that a little judicious editing (or just ending would be a better idea
This can be particularly heightened when they start cranked up to 11 and then just stay at 11 for the 3 minute werk-out ending - they've already let off all the fireworks by then and there's only so much soaring fuzzed vibrato & portamento Louis can splurge out before it begins to lose its impact because he's doing it the whole way through

Plus, if they didn't extend each song to 7 minutes long, they could play twice as many tunes


I will also just say this, in tribute to a certain grumpy keyboard player from Huddersfield:
whilst John's set exploded with sonic pyrotechnics throughout the evening,
I have a bootleg of Ultravox doing Man Who Dies Everyday in the Marquee '78, and I have to insist: Billy Currie letting rip on a real ARP Odyssey 30 years ago indisputeably sounded better than what Steve & Louis played last night! I'm not saying their version was rubbish, in fact it pretty much kicked ass, but I still didn't hear anything to top the brain-splattering Odyssey! And in fact Warren's syn-drums weren't really bettered either

Thanks for another great review Martin.

It was nice to meet up with so many of you guys last night. Such a pity you could not make it Garry.

Interesting to compare last nights excellent set-list with that on the Neuro Video CD. Only 4 tracks common to both shows! And the shows less than a year apart. I'm glad we got 8 Louis-era tracks. I think that was a fair balance against John's earlier work.

Some tracks seem to work better live than others. I think Shifting City, Endlessly, No One Driving and Burning Car fared the best. Camera probably the worst.

Overall a fantastic night

Glad to hear that the good old fashioned Warp power factor was engaged, just hope they had the ‘inertial dampeners on’

(Off topic for a moment, but I got the impression that the low power sound of Metamatic07 at Glasgow Barfly was due to over reliance on a ‘Memorex’ style laptop performance)

Sweet image

Birdsong, your review is both painful and rewarding, it’s agony because I wasn’t there for the experience firsthand, but I’m glad to read your great account of the evening, it’s like a letter welcoming those that were absent into the memory of a happy event.

Oh boy, I sure do hope so…

Aye it was definately recorded -
there were some pairs of posh condensor mics down the front to even record the audience!

Thanks. Do you know what - i think that was the plan.

Cheers for the excelent review Martin.

I think that's a very fair review.

There were a few other slip ups.

The start of the vocals for the Garden for example sounded like he was having problems with.

Brian

to me quite honest, I would *rather* hear human beings make a few slip-ups here and there, than hear a laptop play the whole thing back perfectly!

True,so glad we dont have a robot John Foxx yet.

There is already some good quality footage of The Man Who Dies Every Day on YouTube: -

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Fr725xqTTfM

Great photos. Thanks for sharing.

Thank goodness for that!

And many thanks for the reviews, especially feline1 and Martin. Very enjoyable! Even if the show had its flaws (and John Foxx does indeed look a bit tired or frazzled in the pics, too -- thanks for sharing those, no-one driving), it still had to be a great evening for you all. I'm trying not to be too jealous.

Maybe next year when I finally (?) get the chance to see John Foxx perform live all the bugs will be worked out of the equipment and the arrangements, and the vocal chords will be perfect and the words will be accurate, and the videos won't be silly, and the set list won't be same-y, but even if not, I'm sure it will still be fantastic! Now, about that North American tour . . .

Many thanks for the reviews guys

And I really hope it was recorded too!

Here are a few of my pics.

There are also a few of the pre-concert meet at the Owl & the Pussycat.Amongst the many members in the pictures you can see Boris the Robot(Phil),Birdsong(Martin),MikeG,Mark(Church Puddle),Metalbeat(Peter),Shadowman (Andreas & partner),Chris Curran & Craig & me.

Louis & Chris popped around for a quick pint before the show.

http://s293.photobucket.com/albums/mm79/mateybloke/john%20foxx%20cargo%202008/?albumview=slideshow

Enjoy.

Brian

Just arrived back,

Enjoyed last night's gig - interesting set list,
I thought "The Garden" was fantastic, great to hear this live for the first time.

Nice to meet some more Forum folks.

I can forgive John & Louis almost any mistake, great atmosphere - and they always look as though they are having a good time.

It's great to see a few more faces on stage too,

Phil B.

wow, on page one there's a row of 5 pic's (end one is in the pub), the first 4 are of John on stage, two of which are B/W, these are all really fantastic

(edit): thanks also for these pic's 'no-one driving'

Cheers,I've just edited the link to point to a slideshow,gets rid of all the ads

Thanks a lot for all the reviews, pictures & movieclip so far!
Next best thing to going myself

Ah, so that what the back of my head looks like!!

I managed to work out the back of my head . I'm going a bit thin on top

Thank you Brian and No one Driving for sharing your pic's.

I enjoyed your review Martin. It was a nice summary of the evening.

I enjoyed the whole day. I must admit I got a bit bored watching the films before John came on stage where they kept looping. It seemed a long time waiting from being allowed to enter the hall and for John to appear but when John came on stage the time flew and it was a great set list. During the encore John looked as though he was really enjoying himself.

These are my opinions only, Camera and Young Savage didn't work on the night live, and the other extreme The Garden, Travel, Burning Car and Broken Furniture outstanding.

Of the VJ set I loved the way the original video footage of Underpass was used when John did Underpass. Comparing his looks then to now. It also worked very well with Burning car. At the beginning of Endlessly burning buidings didn't work on the video.

It was nice to catch up with other Metamatic members in the Owl and Pussycat. It's nice to know that we are "real" people and not hiding behind a keyboard writing posts all the time.

Thanks to everyone involved in organising Cargo.

You were missed Garry.

Peter

Saw the Show , Went home ,Went to bed ,Dreamt of GUITARS !

Shame, an interesting song for them to tackle, but I can see the potential for it to go astray at a live performance. It’s a track that’s got to be ‘correct’ to be believable, maybe here there’s a good argument for a bit of 'laptop liberty taking' in the ‘is it live, or isn’t it’ presentation.

I’ve certainly felt it in the past, there really is a moment when stylistically or emotionally something should end, as it had to also 'end' on the studio version. I know it’s a live convention to achieve an acceptable ending in real time, but a couple of times I’ve felt that John and Louis have gone just a bit beyond the climax without acknowledging that they maybe took some of the audience past it already, it works for some tracks, but not necessarily all.

Was John in that dream? If so then you should post the whole thing here:
http://www.metamatic.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=7;t=000427

No Thanks.

Can't have been that bad surely, can it...?

Another great gig: was that the premiere of Travel? Perhaps not. I love Travel (and indeed travel, and every gig involves a journey both literal and metaphorical). It is oddly reassuring to know that you can only plan your time to a certain extent. Some points in time are fixed: the times of trains, the time of the gig, the time of the pub pre-meet, and check-out time at the hotel. Fixed, but flexible. The rest of the time is free. Finding the places (the venue, pub, hotel, Northern line) is the requirement, but it is equally important to drift, to dwell, to look up, to find things, to get lost. The A-Z will always get you back where you need to go. Be prepared, and prepare to be unprepared.

I can’t do this like our friend Birdsong (great to see the master at work, although he should be reminded to carry a spare pen next time! Craig’s not made of pens you know, but he did have two in case he lost one. Very wise is Craig). Great to catch up with Birdsong, Craig, Peter, Andreas, Michaela, and to meet Phil, Brian and MikeG for the first time. There were a number of other people whom I know by face and by name but perhaps the combination went in and out of my short term memory from whenever our paths last crossed, for which I apologise. It was great to be with you all. Was that you, Gem, in the pub? Quite possibly. I am assured our Rob was there too – will catch up at Leeds hopefully. Was also lovely to see Sarah this morning in Shoreditch High Street.

I can’t write too much about the music, except that I enjoyed it all tremendously, even the Dubterror/Karborn mix of Burning Car which I have to admit worked well in this environment. It has earned itself another listen.

And the films were beautiful, nice big screen, with presumably the original Quiet Man film (stills of which are on the Quiet Men sleeve) or else a careful remake? It matters not. I could have watched these loops over and over again, and did. Thanks to earlier contributors to this thread for picking out some of the other references.

Back at the hotel, eventually, this morning, had a chance to look through the sumptuous booklets for Impossible and Neuro Video – brilliant stuff. And I played “Soul Mining” (see the “What Music Aren’t You Listening To?” thread) for the first time. Ever since I first heard the references on “Dusk”, The The and London are intertwined, so it was the obvious place to start a relationship. Or to restart a relationship.

Cheers for the pics Brian.

Cheers for the photos. It looks like it was a fantastic night. Nice choice of venue.

Chris

Behave! We just write differently. :rolleyes:
I love your sense of humour, and it was great to spend at least a few minutes with you Mark. The pen is somewhere in St Paul's...

Great review too - context is so important. I chose a different approach this time

Mx

Yup, I was there - apologies for not making it across to the pub...

Great reviews and photos - I'll try and post some of the ones I grabbed a little later on...

Rob

Really sweet review

So we are back in Hamburg after we "enjoyed" the flight of Ryanair...( no comment)
It was great to met you all again guys: Peter, Mark, Martin,Craig, Phil and Brian and Mike for the first time. Everytime it is a pleasure to come to these meetings. It was nice to say hello to Sarah,Jeff and Rob ( Thank you for not killing me by your car... )

Shame you wasn't there Garry. It was a good decision for the pub - not too loud for discussions and good beer!

As all the Others said - the gig was great; I can only second that! The only thing I haven't enjoyed was the , for my opinion; too long DJ session with very loud music (which wasn't my taste).

But this all was forgiven in the moment the gig began. I also enjoyed the visuals on the screen during the show. A nice idea!

So, what could John and Louis doing better?
Nothing, for my opinion - only I would prefer a real support band the next time ( Or Louis with a solo support gig???? )

I can assure you it was worth to came over from Hamburg for this show - and I'm curios of the next one...

So, now I have to start listening to my 9 piece set of CD's I took over to Hamburg...

Cheers, Andreas


Ah, forgot to mention: I think everyone will be happy to know that SISTER RAY is GOING ON and will not being closed!

I was there for buying some CD's and the seller in the shop told me someone bought it and they making some future plans . I 'm really glad about that!!!

So if you come to London - don't miss to go to:
www.sisterray.co.uk
34-35 Berwick St. London W1V 3RF

This is what I call a REAL record shop!!

Good to see you again as well, Andreas.

Glad you managed to get your CD haul back to Hamburg with you safely. How much did that cost???

Yeah, its good news about Sister Ray staying open. Managed to get there on the Thursday too. Its moved from the original location, but the shop is now much bigger.

It's been at it's current location for quite a while now, it used to be the Selectadisc record shop.

I will have dry toast with water only the next 4 weeks....

Great gig, great venue!
He just seems to get better every time- Burning Car sounded the best I've ever heard it.
I've put about 8 clips up on my youtube page (start of Burning Car got missed due to camera focus going wonky )

The new track sounded great which is a good sign for the next new album... (as did the new ones on the Impossible CD)

www.youtube.com/tokyohunter

New clips added are A Million Cars, Dislocation, Underpass, Burning Car, The Garden, Broken Furniture, My Sex 1+2.Not a great camera angle but gives an idea of what it was like on the night.

Thanks for posting the video link

I see that Blurred Girl still has the 'Bossa Nova Lounge interpretation' (something I was going to mention in Birdsong's 'Some of them thread')

Thanks Core Memory!
The Blurred Girl clip is from last year's gig.I haven't shuffled all the new clips to the front page yet.Sorry for the confusion.

I'm really glad they appeared to have recorded this gig.It's great to have alternate versions of favourite tracks to play.

I hope they keep using the idea of video backdrops.Vertigo works so well, as does using the old promo vids cut up.

:rolleyes: duh, of course I should have realised, and seeing as how the cargo set is on the front page of this thread! and I even commented on it

aaah, 'A Bossanova Girl' metamatic07, I remember her well

Thanks for sharing these on youtube. Your using the same camera i believe, as the sound and picture quality is again, some of the best homemade live vids on there.

Unless anyone can testify differently, I reckon 'Travel' was played live here for the first time.

Young Savage hasn't been aired in the UK for 30 years?*

The Garden live for the first time in 25 years?*

John Leigh Karborn on stage?

Steve D playing analogue synths...

We were indeed promised a few surprises

*is there really only five short years between those tracks?

Thanks Newvox.
I'm quite surprised at how well the camera does video as it's a stills camera with the added video option.The sound though not great isn't too bad, I have the audio record setting turned down to help reduce distortion.
Youtube does reduce the quality though from the actual quicktime file the camera creates.
The only annoying bit is the focus doesn't lock in sometimes which meant I missed the start of Burning Car and once recording the zoom is disabled.I plan to upgrade for the next gigs though

Birdsong: I might be wrong but I'm sure he's played Travel before live.Great track.

Cheers for posting Tokyhunter.

Nice vids.

I recently bought a HD camcorder which I took along.

I recorded all of the rare stuff.Video looks fantastic but the sound is so distorted it sounds terrible.

I may post one of the least distorted ones later.

Brian

Thank you everyone for all your great reviews of the show, including all the links to photos & videos - especially thank you to Tokyohunter.

I love the film footage that John has on the screen during his songs.

Glad everyone enjoyed the show, would have loved to have been there.

So sorry if I'm being thick here -
but is Mr "Karborn" (John Leigh) actually John Foxx's (i.e. Dennis Leigh's) son?

Cos he *looks* like John Foxx Jnr!

And "Karborn" appears to be just his "stage name" (although maybe his mum *didn't* get to the hospital in time!

Yes.

http://www.youtube.com/user/vs303
Enjoy
More to follow!

Ah I see. Cool
(Also placates my "how did that young whippersnapper get to be in John Foxx's band!?" jealousy lol

Not wishing to go wildly off topic here folks, please excuse, but round the release of IMW in '85, John popped up on a local radio station in the Fylde area, and during the interview I'm sure I can remember him saying he had become a father with a little daughter, or maybe my brain just needs washing out

'Karborn' is the name John Leigh uses to produce his amazing digital art and VJ pieces.

http://www.karborn.com

He's a REALLY talented artist, and his stuff really hits a spot with me.

My understanding is that he wasn't playing anything at Cargo in the way of music, but instead mixing, live, two or three film pieces via an Apple ibook.

I couldn't really see what John Lee was doing with his hands during the gig,
but when I took a look at his "rig" afterwards, he did have a MIDI keyboard, so surely he was playing something? You wouldn't need that for video...?
From his gestures during some songs, he also seemed to be doing stuff in-time-to-the-music more often than would be required for the video...
Dunno though!

VJs use MIDI keyboards to control video clips, with clips mapped to keys in order to make composition on-the-fly simpler. Rather than having to select clips using a mouse which is too time-consuming for live shows, VJs can pull up clips in an instant when they are linked like this to a MIDI keyboard.

John Leigh's visuals were nice, but could perhaps have been more imaginative and varied.

Amazing gig. Fantastic.

mongrel

Now, steady on, don't keel over, yes - I'm here again after a long absence!!!!

The gig was FANTASTIC!!!! It was so lovely to see all of you again. Peter, Andreas and Michaela spotted Mark and I as we were just about to have a nosey in the Yamaha bike shop on Shoreditch High Street a few hours before the gig! And it was nice to bump into Mr Church Puddle the morning after, as we were all making our way back to stations!

Had a nice little chat with John, Louis and John Leigh after the gig too.

For those who were there, it was a real treat, and for those who couldn't make it, it was a great shame for you

Next stop Leeds...I'm sure we'll all be entertained by Mr Foxx yet again, and I'm looking forward to seeing you there.

Take care all...

Sarah x

A warm ilektrik welcome back, Miss 74.

Welcome back Sarah ,

Nice to see you in the pub before the gig.

See you at Leeds.

Brian

It's nice to see you back Sarah and it was nice to see you on Thursday.

Just booked my train tickets for the Leeds concert. A good Metamatic member has let me stay at his house. I hope I don't wear his yellow kettle out . It will be a good chance to meet up again.

Peter

Vs303: Fantastic footage!!!!
Picture quality is stunning and audio is very clear.Good camera work too, you have a steady hand there.
Which camera/camcorder are you using?
(I need to upgrade!!!)
I recommend everyone check out VS303's clips from Cargo-The Garden and Burning Car.
Which other ones did you record?

Hi Sarah! Welcome back! xxx

Yes sadly I couldn't make this years Metamatic Dusty Springfield Appreciation Society AGM hope you made notes!

Cheers! I'm glad you like them.
The camcorder I'm using is a Sony DCR-HC94 with the ECM-HST1 microphone.(HD upgrade next year - I hope)
I did record the whole gig but I got caught out by the short break in the middle and I didn't get chance to change tapes ( I ended up doing that between My Sex parts 1 & 2 )
I'll be posting more very soon, so watch this space

Excellent stuff. Thanks much for sharing.

yes, thanks for this. Not sure how i missed it.

Here's one from me.Walk this way.Sorry about the sound.Taken from a different angle than the others with the full intro.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=vD1lPVZrcqA

Brian

Thanks Brian, great as always.

Yes, Brian, thanks much.

It would be interesting to know if anyones tried these new memory flash / card camcorders at Johns gigs, and what type of quality they produce under concert conditions.

Mine was a 16Gb memory card HD camcorder.
Picture was fine.Camera mike was unable to cope with bass.There is a wind muffle mode which may have made it better but i had no way of monitoring.

Thanks to everyone for the videos and photos. Those of us who couldn't be there truly do appreciate it!

Thanks brian. I don't recall having that noisy intro at Marghera ...

I suspect the difference is due to the absence of Steve D and his analogue gear in Venice. At Cargo, Steve (and Karborn) were on stage first, so I imagine he played these sounds.

Sorry if this is badly put from a technical point of view. But (as felinedescribed far more competently than I can) the analogue gear gave the set a rawness and extra layer of sound which - I imagine - would not have been present with 'just' John and Louis playing? So you got 'different' versions than we did - which I look forward to hearing!

Fair enough ..thanks for the explanation. I 'm no techie but I suppose it makes sense.

Thanks Brian. Only they do say about visual noise due to some cards unable to compress the data. I have one ready for the Nash gig, maybe gigs soon.

I do see compression artefacts when viewed on an HDon TV so I may look into another model later.

maybe all the tapers can get together and cut a fanmade video?

Have any recordings of Travel surfaced?

I'm hopefully there comes a Live CD one day - I saw some audience microphones in front of the stage...

As I never got to enjoy the event myself (Dear Workplace; I have your names, and when the revolution comes you will be the first against the wall. Love and kisses Gazza xxx) - did you all get to the Owl & Pussycat? Was it a good meeting place and worth meeting again if Foxx does another gig there?

I really hope a recording of the night is released, I really want to hear Young Savage (among others) and the analogue that Steve D'Agostino added.

Hi Gary,

We did enjoy the Owl & pussycat.The beer was good.

The only thing wrong was all of the seats had been ripped up.Looks like someone had knifed them.

Apart from that we found a table where we could seat 10 people so it was good from that point of view.

I have Young Savage on video but the sound is a bit too distorted.

Brian

I would propose the 'Owl' as an official JF 'site' ...judging by the style...

Cheers Brian,

Ripped seats? I think Member D is right! All that's needed is ha!-ha!-ha! and Young Savage on the jukebox and it's the perfect venue!

The Owl and Pussycat was a great meeting place. It was nice to able to chat with fellow JF fans without the distraction of loud music in the background. OK it's not the sort of place I'd take a girlfriend to, with the ripped seats. Mr Happy behind the bar was a bundle of joy ( you remember him Brian ) .

Not being a drinker, but the beer did look good, Yes I would certainly go in there again for another JF re-union. Thank you Garry for finding the pub.

Peter

And of course, its just a few hundred metres from The Garden...

http://www.miloco.co.uk/studios/garden.php

Perfect

I was sceptical when i first walked past the pub about 4pm, but serves me right for judging by appearances. Good choice, and I'd vote for using it again