Metamatic Forums John Foxx John Foxx and Louis Gordon Italy gigs

Hello Gloria, Luca , Roger and all the other members from Italy:

You looking forward to a great show!

I WISH YOU MUCH PLEASURE AND BIG FUN !!!!!!


Please let us know what was happen...

I think of you over the weekend.


All the best, Andreas

Here's the setlist, courtesy of Mr Chris Curran.
As you can see, "Crash and Burn" was a last minute (and very welcome) addition.
I had a long chat with Chris - he's a very charming man and he's been touring everywhere with everyone, including Gary Numan and a famous Scottish songwriter whose name has slipped my mind (again) ;-)
As Andreas predicted, we were in for a real treat.
Pics and review to follow shortly.
Luca

The venue before the beginning of the gig - notice the Cathedral Oceans projection

A lethal mechanical boy playing his lethal electronic toy

"I remember YOUR face...and YOUR face...and YOUR face..."

No wonder the place is called Transilvania - there's a giant bat over the stage!

"Feel the static fill your head"

"Just for a moment"

The crowd going wild through Endlessly

Roger and the guy who plays with Louis Gordon

Gloria, Roger and an ugly guy with a nice T-shirt

Thanks, Luca!

I'm glad you all enjoyed yourselves.

Great to see some photo's, thanks for sharing them!

Best wishes

Sarah B

Thanks for the photos. Looked like a storming gig.

Thanks Luca for the pics. Looks like you guys in Italy had a great night.
Peter

Great pics Luca! Thanks for posting them.

Hi guys,

I let 24 hours pass by just to chill out a little bit and try not to be over-enthusiastic but... that show was awesome! Here the story goes:

I had just picked up Gloria at the nearest tube station and we were approaching the venue when a black van pulled over just in front of my car and Louis stormed out! He was fascinated by the tree-shaded tramway rails in the setting sun (I know this sounds like a JF line) and had the urge to photograph them – maybe he also wanted to take a good look at the San Siro stadium in the distance... John and some other people I didn’t (yet) know came out of the van too. I approached them, introduced myself to John and immediately spilled my beans confessing that I was the one who caused the cancellation of the shows scheduled for last December by putting the infamous poster photo online. I was so relieved when John told me I didn’t need to apologize and actually thanked me as I had done a great favour to all of them!

Louis came back and we all reached the venue where John was to be interviewed at length by a very knowledgeable local journalist – I exchanged contacts with him and I will let you know when it will be published.

Funnily enough, probably because I arrived together with the crew, I was admitted inside the venue well before the official opening time while the Rubicks were soundchecking and I was generally regarded by the venue managers as part of John and Louis’ entourage. Several Italian people actually addressed me in English! Inside the venue I found Louis desperately seeking a couple of batteries for his camera; luckily I had a spare set of Duracells and I was happy to lend them to him – he was overjoyed, kissed me(!) and also managed to pull a little prank on Roger by answering to his call on my mobile. Very funny guy, full of energy – we talked a lot about music and synthesizers and he’s really passionate.

Later, after buying the obligatory T-shirt, I met the great Chris Curran – I could have stayed hours listening to his anecdotes about John, Midge and Gary Numan and he really made me laugh with a funny line about Bob Geldof (sorry I can’t write it here because we will probably both get sued to death). He also let me take a photo of the set list – I tried to shoot it without looking at it because I didn’t want to be spoilt, but I couldn’t help but notice that “Endlessly” would be the closing track and my heart skipped several beats.

After the interview John and Louis went off to change into their stage outfits and came back escorted by Steve Malins. John introduced me to him and I was delighted to have the opportunity to chat a little with him about his books – I tried as hard as I could to convince him to write a JF biography...

Time for music! The first support band, Act Noir, played something resembling the darker side of Depeche Mode – not bad at all, though maybe they could have spared us a bit of over-detached attitude. Intriguing atmospheres, though.

I’m sorry I didn’t get much of the Rubicks show – I was too busy chatting with Chris and mingling with other JF fans.

John and Louis did a wonderful work. Overall volume was a little too weak during the intro and “A million cars” was not received as it should have been, probably because most of the Italian fans haven’t had yet the chance to listen to it. The Metamatic tracks had the crowd hooraying and standing in awe and admiration. During “Underpass” some people started to dance but the real breaker was “Crash and Burn” – everyone was dancing at that point, while Louis shouted his “lethal mechanical” backing vocals.
John looked very excited and he sang wonderful and passionate versions of his quietest songs – “Hiroshima mon amour” and “Just for a Moment”. Another burst of energy with “No one driving” and then the marvellous “My Sex” reworking we all know and love. “Endlessly” was a very welcome encore. John and Louis parted with the audience in Italian with “Grazie” and “Ciao”.

We were treated to a carefully chosen set list, consisting most of classics, tailored for an audience who has limited access to John’s latest work – BTW I had the impression that “From Trash” and “Sideways” CDs were selling like peanuts: good!

After the concert and a much needed break, John came out evidently satisfied and tirelessly signed everything his loyal Italian fans wished to have autographed, answered every single possible question, agreed to have pictures taken with him and in general he was calm, majestic and polite as usual.

In summary, a great time and a very warm welcome for John and Louis. For those of you who endured to read my broken English prose so far, I’ll add a little rumour I picked up: someone is working to have “Cathedral Oceans” performed during the summer in Italy. Will it happen? I can only hope.

Sorry for the long post, hope some of you will enjoy it.

Ciao,
Luca

Luca

This is awesome!
Sounds like you had a wonderful time - and the anecdote at the beginning about meeting John and Louis, and Steve, is so cool!.

Thanks for sharing with us all.
A great contribution to this brilliant site

Well written Luca, and nice to see Gloria and yourself against a nicer backdrop than a belly dancing pub in London.
Cheers

Hi Luca
You have wrote about your night brilliantly. Makes me wish I'd gone to the Italian show.
Thank you for writing about it and I enjoyed reading it.
Peter

Brilliant!!!

What a wonderful report! I had so much pleasure to read your words and watching your Photo - story.

It makes me feel I was there... (wish I would)!

And a special thank you for the shot of you three - it is nice to see you again, though it is on a photo.
In fact you bought the T-shirt I assume you come to the T-shirt gig too?

It would be great if we could meet us all in person again!

Had Gloria and Roger bought a shirt too?


Wow! absolut great comment!
Many thanks!

Andreas

Hello hello - good to be back. I am also still 'chilling out' after the first Italian gig in Cento on Friday 13th (the luckiest day of the year so far for me)..!
I am a long standing fan of John Foxx (since 1980, Underpass, Metamatic etc.) and I shall never forget the day I got the real autographed photo when I joined the fan club back then..! But I digress...

FRIDAY'S SHOW WAS FANTASTIC!
..you could say in a way that I'd been waiting a long time for this show (especially after the let down of last winter's cancellations..), and I didn't really know what to expect, but I just couldn't believe it when all the Metamatic and Ultravox! stuff just kept on coming!
The setlist was the same as Luca showed - the opening 20th Century was just so LOUD !!! and then it all sort of cooled down towards the end with Hiroshima ..to My Sex (with the genius inclusion of No-One Driving in the final stages). hearing all of side oneof Metamatic live and updated was as fresh as it was in 1980!..and then the encore with that fantastic upgraded version of Endlessly .
The crowd was fairly subdued but appreciative (as befits our "provincial" character!) and it was all seated so no-one jumping around, which seemed a bit strange, but still...

But it wasn't quite over yet ... thanks to a friend of a friend I managed to get backstage to meet the guys. They kept us waiting a bit but I was just so happy I didn't care ..
First to appear was Louis, bottle of vino and plastic cup in hand(s) but he was just such a friendly guy and we had a short chat and i got some autographs..cheers Louis;
then we waited a bit more and eventually HE appeared down the stairs. And what a calm and friendly chap our John is...again he was very patient in autographing everything I put before him. I regretted not having my camera with me, but another patient fan was on hand avec camera so I did one of him and John (luckily the pic was decent despite my nervous shaking in front of the man himself!) and then he did one of me with a very tall John Foxx! But John is such a nice chap (I'd read that he is not always so patient and keen to meet the public, but nothing could be further from the truth) and I regretted having to say goodbye...even though when we got back to the front hall I was amazed to see he was there again tirelessly signing stuff for more fans, with a word and a smile (I noticed how he looked every single person in the face when handing over the autograph..). I managed to sneak in another one on the Sideways sleeve!
Needless to say I've been buzzin since then although only just round to listening to (my autographed) Sideways on my way into work this morning.
Sorry for all the blurb, but I had to share it with someone!!!!
Thanks again for coming to Cento guys (perhaps it was Red Ronnie's influence???? I know you went to his house before the gig!)

PS forgot to mention ACT NOIR - someone likened them to Depeche Mode but I think they were closer to Japan (my wife had quite rightly said they were between the two), and again very nice chaps who took the time to chat with John and just with me and my wife after the show. Grazie ragazzi...Vi cercherò su e-mule come suggerito!!!

A great comment too Member D!
It all sounds that the two gigs in Italy were brilliant!
Now, you both made me hungry of the next gig!!!!!!!

thanx a lot for the pix & the great gig review , luca ... & member d too ! :-)

as it seems , the italian ( & also a few other ;-) fans got their "foxx ( live ) fixx" by now - so to say ! ;-)

cheers ! :-)

Superb accounts of the gig Luca & Mark. I feel like I WAS there & I really wish I had been.

Haven't got any live pics but I will scan my autographed ticket / CD / booklet / plastic cup so you wil be greeeeen with envy!

Molte Grazie Luca!

Questo e veramente una grossa gioia!

C´e una magnifica foto di John, nostro eroe, e Roger, una gran persona e amico.

Ciao!

Chris C

While I appreciate not all of you out there may have even a basic knowledge of Italian , I must suggest this page if only for the pictures and the amount of effort which went into it and other related pages!
http://www.kondoria.it/content/view/174/34/

Grazie mille HUGO !

And for the non Italian speakers amongst you , here is another version

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foxx review: john foxx, transilvania, milan

By davyitalianblue
Date: 17/4/2007

The omens were goods 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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Wooo

The "longest post in the history of metamatic" goes to…

Excelllent stuff!!

Any chance of an english translation??

Ha Ha Ha! I could do that for you...at a price!
I'll see if I get the time in my lunch break....

Very good report, written by someone who shares our love for John's music.
I didn't know the setlist for the Cento concert included "I can't stay long" - an absolute favourite of mine.

Another interview, dated march 31st, can be found here : I tried feeding it to an on-line translator and the result is quite understandable.

Another (printed) interview should be appearing in Ascension Magazine - I'll try to obtain a copy (it ain't that easy, because it's a sort of fanzine with limited circulation) and I'll let you know.

Ciao,
Luca

Luca: I've e-mailed you.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Luca:
Another (printed) interview should be appearing in Ascension Magazine - I'll try to obtain a copy (it ain't that easy, because it's a sort of fanzine with limited circulation) and I'll let you know.


Any luck with this Luca?
I see the myspace site has the cover image online?

I haven't been able to find it myself. Pretty specialist stuff I think. Can't find out where they're based either. Very goth.

John Foxx has quite a presence in the goth genre.
Check his interview with Kaliedoscope a few years ago.

This is why the Mr No single got re-issued.

Mr No re-issued? when? where? how?

Hi Mark, have a look here , for example.
I didn't forget about you, BTW. Your shipment is almost ready....

Cheers,
Luca

Details of this release are also in the Discography ...

Rob

Ok thanks both : I was unaware of this record although I think I have an mp3 with the Joakim remix somewhere and I thought it was a bootleg.

Luca: cheers mate - I've mailed you

Rob: you still have to tell me if you really are in Ledbury and how long do I have to wait for my avatar pic?

Yes I really am in Ledbury, and your avatar pic is being worked on even as I type...

Rob

Goody.