Metamatic Forums John Foxx John Foxx and Louis Gordon T-shirt gig announced

I think it's important to get the balance right between the old and new. I guess in John's case so much of his back catalogue hasn't been played live and it's good to be able to push Underpass and Plaza etc aside, in order to give some of the others an airing.

Mornin' all

Glad to hear (most of) those who went had a really good time! Really annoyed that I missed it, as 'Europe After The Rain' 'Miles Away' and 'Camera' are all-time faves - maybe at a future gig eh?

Looking forward to meeting up with a few of you next week!

There was sampled guitar on the backing for Europe After the Rain, y'all, just the same stuff that's on the original...

I would like to put in my view on the shows. I had a great night (possibly somewhat down to the fact that I can't remember some of it, and Richard quite literally became 'Lord Lost' at about half one in a pub on Cricklewood Broadway! - Nice to see you mate, hope you got back OK). I do appreciate that it must have been difficult to put on such gigs and sympathise with all those involved when they read angry postings etc.
However, I would quietly like to say that I was a little bit disappointed the sets were the same (an extra 8 minutes or not). The reasoning is that I had extra expense of staying in london overnight cos of train cancellations, when I could have seen the matinee gig (which was AWESOME!!!), had a few beers with the usual suspects, and still caught my last train home. I made the decision to buy a ticket for gig two because we were told there would be set changes - and I did not want to miss out. Also, I may have decided just to go to the evening gig and make a night of it, to allow others to go to the first gig. I wonder if some people would have come to the first gig if they'd have known?
Quite simply, why say the gigs would be different if they weren't going to be? Why not be honest and say they'll be the same? In Britain we have to put up with enough PR spin elsewhere, I don't expect it from JF.
This all said, I'm not throwing away my T-Shirt, and will be attending other gigs in the future, but I feel sorry for those folks who may have made more of an effort if it had just been one large T-Shirt gig in the early evening.
Here's a thought - we've made 500 official T-Shirts, let's find a venue that could hold that amount. Or, just ticket it as someone else has said.
Anyhoo - nuff said - great night, great gig(s). But no more spin, please.
Cheers

Well, Robin's already given us the set list so you all know what treats we got to hear!

I made the matinée show. The Lumiere is a nice venue, takes it's music seriously ("The is a music venue, not a pub! If you talk during the bands, we will tell you to shut up!" say the notices )

I do think tickets would've been simpler than all this T-shirt caper, but never mind - I got in anyways

As usual, John had his full stadium light show and massive PA, and tried to let that provide the atmosphere for the show rather than engaging in any between-song on-stage banter.... given that the audience was only a hundred or so hard core fans, I'm not sure this was quite the best way to vibe up the occasion and get us excited, but never mind Frequently the lights were so bright and the stobes flashing so much that I quite literally couldn't see John or Louis despite them being only a few yards in front of me, and I just had to shut my eyes!

I really enjoyed the choice of songs - when you have ALL of someone's albums, and know all the tunes well, it's a delight to hear a broad selection rather than just the same old "hits" setlist. CAMERA and UPTOWN/DOWNTOWN are particular faves of mine.
I could tell that this was the first outing for most of these, and things were a little rough round the edges at time (some of the vocoding went a little haywire, and John always manages to come in singing in the wrong place in at least one song ;-) but I actuallY LIKE this as it is what live music is all about Moreover considering the amount of never-b4-played stuff in this setlist, the arrangements were actually remarkably polished and detailed. "Swimmer 2" was pretty much unchanged; Dancing Like a Gun and Europe After the Rain had just the right degree of pimping up to make them fit in the set without spoiling the feel of the originals... shame no Ultravox or Cathedral Oceans material, but that's democracy for you ;-)
John was in fine voice (all those high notes on Europe, for instance) and seemed well game for extra silly vocoding
My main eyebrow raising with these gigs is still the old "what's played and what's on the backing?" chestnut? ... cos, right, look: in MILES AWAY, you know the snaggerty snappy bass riff (or clavinet riff it was, on the original, perhaps)... for example when it goes "...i'm looking back from miiiiiles awaaaayyyy..." and there's that's snappy bass line under the soaring vocals and Odyssey? Well I watched Louis' fingers on his bottom Yamaha, and he was "playing" that with great panache... and then he moved his fingers off the keyboard to do something else for the last bit of the riff, but it kept playing without him!! :-) I couldn't work out if he was just miming playing it, or was he playing along with it on a much quieter lead sound that I couldn't hear, or.... ? Me and my Miss Pain friends at the Metamatic show were beginning to cheekily suspect that John and Louis tend to just mime playing certain exciting-looking riffs and lines in places, when they're actually on the backing, cos it'll look cool... cos we'd keep seeing those parts continue on after in the next bit when their fingers were no longer on the keyboard ... but maybe Louis' just programmed sthg really elaborate so that the parts punch in and out all the time between live and backing (bloody seamless submixing of levels if so!)
Yours in all good humoured skepticism in Brighton
Feline1

PS John "giving it loads" on his "odyssey" sound in Swimmer2 was a joy to behold...

The idea behind the T-Shirt gig was quite simply that we wanted there to be a 'special' show. There were a number of ways we could've done this, and by making it such that you could get in for nothing if you were wearing a From Trash T-Shirt seemed to be the most fun.

We were all amazed that a few people reacted against this - and so an extra gig was added to alay everyone's fears that they might not be able to get in if the venue was full by the time they arrived. In all fairness, this was highly unlikely as there was no way that everyone who'd purchased a From Trash T-Shirt would've been able to come along because of a variety of reasons - travel costs, prior commitments, etc.

So the second show was ticketed and the price was kept deliberately low - only £8.00 - so that people could come along to both shows if they wanted.

I totally agree - but it just didn't get as many votes as Camera, Europe After the Rain, Miles Away, Dancing Like a Gun and Shadowman. It was certainly a popular choice though (I'm fairly sure that it made it into the "Top Ten") but with two other tracks from The Garden (three if you include Swimmer II) then perhaps it was felt that material from other albums should be performed instead.

As it was, of the thirteen tracks that were played on Saturday only two had been previously performed.

It would be nice to think so - you never know...

Rob

Oh come on Rob - Foxx HQ was 'amazed' that some people were worrying they might travel across the country (or even from overseas) to attend a gig, and might not be able to get in to it...?

Great pictures, thank you Rob
I like John's double face!

I'll certainly be interested in seeing a top 20.

(Having said that, I can't remember now what my choices were, but I think they included The Garden, When It Rains and The Falling Room.)

No, we understood that some people would be concerned (hence the decision to add the second show), it was just that some reactions were so extreme. We always said that getting into the T-Shirt show was going to be on a 'first-come, first-served' basis, and so it would make sense for anyone who was going to be travelling any distance to have arrived in plenty of time. As it turned out there was absolutely no need for anyone to have worried, as everyone who travelled to London got to see the matinee show.

As I said before, it was highly unlikely that everyone who'd purchased a From Trash T-Shirt would've actually been able to come along because of a variety of reasons - travel costs, prior commitments, etc.

Rob

For personal reasons I chose not to attend the T-shirt gig.
React to that as you will (and thanks to email, several people have ) It wasn't a case of not making the effort, it was an exercising of personal choice in hectic circumstances.

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading everyone's feedback, photos etc and sense that the whole event was an triumph. This forum is THE PLACE to get a real buzz of Foxx, and I'd like to thank everyone for their contributions to that.
Fears over getting in etc etc proved entirely unfounded and the organising seems to have gone very well.

More people need to show more faith in those that put these shows on instead of just knocking because it doesn't work out for them.
Compliments to Steve, Chris, John, Louis, Rob, Steve, Mike and everyone else etc - in no particular order.

It's easy to criticise - how few of us could have actually made a better job?

For the record, 'Dave' was offered a free ticket courtesy of myself to the show, but it was at too short notice and he couldn't take advantage.. Show ticket obviously, not rail ...